Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi on Saturday prayed at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, seen by Japan’s Asian neighbors as a symbol of the country’s past militarism. Koizumi has often been at the controversial shrine.

Footage from Japan's public broadcaster NHK showed cars submerged in floodwaters

Almost no other country in the world is rocked by such frequent and damaging earthquakes as Japan, which sits on the boundary of four tectonic plates.

A major earthquake in Japan's southwest killed at least 13 people and left several injured or missing after a shopping center and a paper mill were heavily damaged.

Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo honors more than 2.4 million people who died serving Japan but remains one of the country’s most divisive memorial sites. Founded in the Meiji era, the Shinto shrine

The quake shook Japan's southern main island of Kyushu late Tuesday afternoon local time, causing damage and injuries.

After deadly tremors a decade ago, Kumamoto built earthquake-resistant buildings and even trained locals in search and rescue.

Empires have risen and fallen in their pursuit of precious resources such as oil, gold, tea or spices. But in the first half of the 20th century, an increasingly assertive Imperial Japan relied on a fishier form of wealth to build its military and industrial base: the sardine.