China will send a team at an “appropriate time” to survey islands at the heart of an increasingly heated dispute with Japan, a Chinese official said Tuesday in Beijing's clearest statement yet that it intends to set foot on the Japanese-controlled territory.

Japan said Tuesday it was “disappointing” China did not send anyone to a ceremony marking the second anniversary of its tsunami, in the latest sign of deteriorating ties between the two countries.

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.

Hundreds of people affected by the Fukushima nuclear crisis in Japan filed a class action lawsuit Monday demanding greater efforts to clean up the contaminated region two years on from the disaster.

Two years after the triple calamities of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster ravaged Japan's northeastern Pacific coast, debris containing asbestos, lead, PCBs — and perhaps most worrying — radioactive waste due to the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant looms as a threat for the region.

Mikio Nihei's family is split by his need to work and their fear of radiation from a nuclear disaster that some warn could leave part of Japan a hollow shell for generations.

The colossal earthquake that sent a devastating tsunami barreling into Japan two years ago on Monday was so big it could be heard from space, a study has said.

Anti-nuclear rallies took place across Japan Sunday on the eve of the second anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster, urging Japan's new government to abandon nuclear power.

Thousands of people rallied in a Tokyo park Saturday, demanding an end to atomic power and vowing never to give up the fight, despite two years of little change after the nuclear disaster in northeastern Japan.

Japan's main international airport on Thursday hiked capacity to allow tens of thousands more flights annually as it faces rising competition and criticism over high landing fees.