Ishinomaki

People all over Japan bowed their heads in silence Monday as they remembered the almost 19,000 who died when a ferocious tsunami surged ashore two years earlier.

People all over Japan bowed their heads in silence Monday as they remembered the almost 19,000 who died when a ferocious tsunami surged ashore two years earlier.

The piles of rubble left behind by the receding tsunami have largely gone, but two years after nature visited its fury, some stretches of Japan's battered northeast remain little more than ravaged wastelands.

A Japanese city devastated by the 2011 tsunami disaster remains mystified more than two weeks after receiving anonymous gifts of gold bars worth over $300,000.

A Japanese city devastated by the 2011 tsunami has received anonymous gifts of gold worth more than $250,000 in a phenomenon dubbed a "goodwill gold rush" ahead of the second anniversary of the disaster.

A one-metre-high tsunami hit northeast Japan Friday after a powerful undersea quake struck off the coast, sending thousands fleeing to safety in a region that was devastated in last year's quake-tsunami disaster.

A one-metre-high tsunami hit Japan's northeast coast on Friday, the country's meteorological agency said.

Powerful Typhoon Jelawat hit the Japanese mainland Sunday, sparking the evacuation of thousands a day after it tore across southern Okinawa island, where local media said it left one dead and some 140 injured.

Fencer Kenta Chida has lost his best friend to a tsunami, cyclist Kazunari Watanabe's family has been split up by the Fukushima nuclear crisis and world shooting champion Tomoyuki Matsuda owes thanks to fellow disaster survivors.

Fencer Kenta Chida has lost his best friend to a tsunami, cyclist Kazunari Watanabe's family has been split up by the Fukushima nuclear crisis and world shooting champion Tomoyuki Matsuda owes thanks to fellow disaster survivors.

A powerful typhoon bringing heavy rain and strong winds slammed into Japan's Pacific Coast Tuesday, the weather agency said, as flights were cancelled and evacuations ordered.

A 35-metre (115-foot) tsunami could hit the Japanese coast in the wake of a massive earthquake, an expert panel has said after revising its worst case scenario projections following last year's disaster.

Candlelight ceremonies were held across Japan Sunday night, wrapping up a day of commemoration as the nation marked the first anniversary of its devastating earthquake and tsunami.

0717 GMT: Some more from that protest in Koriyama, where protesters included people who were forced to flee their homes as the Fukushima nuclear plant began venting toxic radiation over homes and farmland.

Japan fell silent on Sunday to honour the 19,000 people killed a year ago when a huge earthquake sent a tsunami barreling into the coast, sparking a nuclear crisis at Fukushima.

Japan fell silent Sunday for a minute to remember the 19,000 people who were killed when a huge tsunami smashed into the country's northeast coast one year ago.

Public life in Japan will pause Sunday as the nation marks a year since a huge earthquake and tsunami killed 19,000 people and changed the lives of hundreds of thousands more.

A year after whole neighbourhoods full of people were killed by the Japanese tsunami, rumours of ghosts swirl in Ishinomaki as the city struggles to come to terms with the awful tragedy.

YAMADA, Japan (Reuters) - Shigeo Osugi walks around concrete foundations where his coastal town restaurant "Migoto" stood before a towering tsunami washed it away last year.

A year ago, a desperate young mother stood amid the ruins of her devastated city wrapped in a blanket as she scoured tsunami wreckage for her missing son.