'Medical vacuum' in disaster areas / Struck by March 11 tsunami, coastal hospitals struggle to resume operations (by Yomiuri Shimbun)

A patient from Shizugawa Public Hospital in Minami-Sanrikucho, Miyagi Prefecture, is now at a hospital of the same name operated inside a medical institution in neighboring Tome.

Three months after the Great East Japan Earthquake, coastal areas in Fukushima, Iwate and Miyagi prefectures are suffering from a severe "medical vacuum."

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110613004202.htm

Local officials saying no to restarting nuclear reactors (by Asahi Shimbun)

By the time summer temperatures peak in August across Japan, only 14 of the nation's 54 nuclear reactors will be churning out electricity to cope with the demand, due to the effects of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201106130040.html

Disposal of nuclear waste should be made a top priority (by Mainichi Shimbun)

In this June 9, 2011 photo released Saturday, June 11, 2011 by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), equipment inside the cesium absorption tower, part of the newly-built radioactive water processing facilities at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, is shown. (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co.)

In the June issue of the monthly journal Sekai (The World), life scientist Keiko Yanagisawa argues that nuclear power plants must not be operated as long as we do not know how to dispose of highly radioactive nuclear waste -- which can wreak havoc on human DNA .

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/perspectives/news/20110613p2a00m0na001000c.html

Over half of quake survivors still living in shelters: Mainichi poll (by Mainichi Shimbun)

More than half those affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake are still living in shelters, with many having no prospects of earning a living, a Mainichi Shimbun poll has shown.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110613p2a00m0na020000c.html