Kyushu Island

Torrential rain over Japan's southwestern island of Kyushu triggered floods and landslides that left up to six people dead and rescuers searching for three missing, officials said on Tuesday.

The plant on Kyushu island, which Japan's government is helping build as part of a strategy to avoid component shortages that could hurt economic growth, will also make chips for a nearby Sony image sensor factory.

Mount Aso, a volcano in the tourist destination on the main southern island of Kyushu in Japan, sent plumes of ash 3.5 km high when it erupted on Wednesday, prompting warnings of lava flows and falling rocks.

Withstanding heavy public opposition against restarting nuclear reactors, the project was given a green light by the Japanese court today.

Mount Aso, a volcano on Japan's main southern island of Kyushu, erupted early on Saturday, Japan's Meteorological Agency said, spewing volcanic ash 11,000 metres (7 miles) into the sky.

The deadly earthquakes that struck the southern Japanese island of Kyushu on Thursday and Saturday breached the walls of Kumamoto Castle which had previously withstood bombardment and fire in its four centuries of existence.

A strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit Japan's southwestern island of Kyushu today, but there was no danger of a tsunami, local authorities said.

Powerful typhoon Vongfong slammed into Japan on Monday morning, with at least one person missing and dozens injured while more than 300 flights were grounded, officials and local media said.

A powerful typhoon lashed southern Japan on Sunday, churning up high waves that washed three American airmen out to sea and killed at least one before taking aim at Tokyo.

Two Russian bombers briefly entered Japan's air space near its major southern island of Kyushu today, prompting Japan to scramble its fighter jets and lodge a protest, the Japanese government said, but Russia denied any intrusion.

A very strong typhoon was near Taiwan, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) south of the southern Japanese island of Ishigaki as of 2:00 pm (0500 GMT), packing winds of 180 kilometres (110 miles) per hour near its centre, the weather agency said.

At least 17 people died, 20 were missing and 50,000 were ordered to evacuate as the heaviest rainfall on record pounded the southwestern Japanese island of Kyushu, officials and reports said on Thursday.

Torrential rain over Japan's southwestern island of Kyushu triggered floods and landslides that left up to six people dead and rescuers searching for three missing, officials said on Tuesday.

The plant on Kyushu island, which Japan's government is helping build as part of a strategy to avoid component shortages that could hurt economic growth, will also make chips for a nearby Sony image sensor factory.

Mount Aso, a volcano in the tourist destination on the main southern island of Kyushu in Japan, sent plumes of ash 3.5 km high when it erupted on Wednesday, prompting warnings of lava flows and falling rocks.

Withstanding heavy public opposition against restarting nuclear reactors, the project was given a green light by the Japanese court today.

Mount Aso, a volcano on Japan's main southern island of Kyushu, erupted early on Saturday, Japan's Meteorological Agency said, spewing volcanic ash 11,000 metres (7 miles) into the sky.

The deadly earthquakes that struck the southern Japanese island of Kyushu on Thursday and Saturday breached the walls of Kumamoto Castle which had previously withstood bombardment and fire in its four centuries of existence.

A strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit Japan's southwestern island of Kyushu today, but there was no danger of a tsunami, local authorities said.

Powerful typhoon Vongfong slammed into Japan on Monday morning, with at least one person missing and dozens injured while more than 300 flights were grounded, officials and local media said.

A powerful typhoon lashed southern Japan on Sunday, churning up high waves that washed three American airmen out to sea and killed at least one before taking aim at Tokyo.

Two Russian bombers briefly entered Japan's air space near its major southern island of Kyushu today, prompting Japan to scramble its fighter jets and lodge a protest, the Japanese government said, but Russia denied any intrusion.

A very strong typhoon was near Taiwan, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) south of the southern Japanese island of Ishigaki as of 2:00 pm (0500 GMT), packing winds of 180 kilometres (110 miles) per hour near its centre, the weather agency said.

At least 17 people died, 20 were missing and 50,000 were ordered to evacuate as the heaviest rainfall on record pounded the southwestern Japanese island of Kyushu, officials and reports said on Thursday.