Japan

[Typhoon]

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Fukushima Updates

.

1. Hillary Clinton signed a "don't ask, don't tell" policy with Japan's government agreeing that Japan was not required to test radiation levels of exports to the US, and the US was not required to test imports from Japan. Signed in 2011.

2. Billions - trillions of bequerels (1 bequerel = 1000 millisieverts. Extreme danger level) entering the air currents each day.

3. The ground water has been found to be so contaminated that a plan to build a dam blocking the ground water from continuing to enter the ocean is underway.

4. The ocean sediment and sea life are showing high levels of Cesium radiation as far as a 200 miles radius out from Fukushima. The higher up the food chain - the higher the contamination will continue to get over time.

5. The water used to cool the reactors is now being filtered and reused. (They've stopped using sea water). However, the reactor houses are like leaky sieves and they are realizing the coolant water is leaking terribly, going into ground water, surrounding buildings and ultimately the ocean. The filters used over the past 9 months have nearly filled up a football field. Wonder how many football fields 2 years...the amount of time it will take for the core to cool down enough for cementing shut (like Chernobyl).

6. The US fed gov is not doing any testing on air, water, soil or food - in fact, it is being discouraged. TEPCO still hasn't done anything to strengthen the 4 crippled plants to withstand another earthquake. They are just hoping it doesn't happen. It would be disastrous not only for Japan but for North America as well.

7. By drawing attention to Japan's nuclear faults, we will draw even more attention to America's nuclear plants - which would be in no better shape than Japan's, should a natural disaster hit any of them. So, the US just covers its eyes and plugs its ears

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sent by a Chinese friend

Hmmmm

Colonel, if true , would be a disaster

.

Wishful fantasizing on the part of your Chinese friend.

Please don't clutter this thread with content-free scientifically-illiterate rumours.

[Typhoon]

Nature | WHO weighs in on the Fukushima incident

Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a preliminary estimate of the dose received by the public as a result of last March’s meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan. Nature has seen a draft of the final report, and it is mostly good news—the doses are very low, and very few cancers would be expected as a result.

Most residents of Fukushima prefecture received between 1-10 millisieverts (mSv) in the first year after the accident, according to the estimate. Those in neighbouring prefectures received between 0.1-10 mSv and the rest of Japan received between 0.1-1 mSv. These levels are well below the government’s maximum recommended dose of 20 mSv, and will cause a minimal increase in cancer risk.

The obvious question is how minimal. According to David Brenner, a radiation biophysicist at Columbia University in New York City, a dose of 5 mSv would be estimated to lead to one excess cancer per 5,000 people exposed. Given that roughly 2,000 of those 5,000 people are going to develop cancer anyway, this is a tiny increase in risk, and Brenner emphasizes that the uncertainties in his calculations are high.

There were two areas that were above the 10mSv range. In Namie town and Itate village, to the north-west of the plant, residents received between 10-50 mSv in the first year. This is because both towns were beneath a plume of fallout from the plant, but still outside the evacuation zone set up immediately after the accident. Residents in these areas remained until a few months later, when they voluntarily left at the government’s request. As a consequence, they received a higher dose of radiation.

Even the worse case scenario, 50 mSv, poses a pretty minimal risk. However, the models showed that infants living in Namie town could have gotten a higher dose to their thyroid, of between 100-200 mSv. That higher dose would be mainly due to radioactive iodine-131 blowing from the plant immediately following the accident. Brenner says a dose of 200 mSv to a female infant under a year old might mean a 1% risk of developing thyroid cancer over her lifetime (by comparison, the lifetime risk in the US is 0.02%).

It’s important to remember that the WHO numbers are based on models, and real doses would vary quite a bit. A survey of 1,080 infants and children in the area has shown no thyroid doses above 50 mSv thus far. Similarly, radiation surveys of Fukushima residents show very low doses. All of these measurements are consistent with the WHO model.

We’re going to have a much more detailed story on the doses received by civilians and the workers at the plant later today.

[AzariLoveIran]

.

Fukushima Updates

.

1. Hillary Clinton signed a "don't ask, don't tell" policy with Japan's government agreeing that Japan was not required to test radiation levels of exports to the US, and the US was not required to test imports from Japan. Signed in 2011.

2. Billions - trillions of bequerels (1 bequerel = 1000 millisieverts. Extreme danger level) entering the air currents each day.

3. The ground water has been found to be so contaminated that a plan to build a dam blocking the ground water from continuing to enter the ocean is underway.

4. The ocean sediment and sea life are showing high levels of Cesium radiation as far as a 200 miles radius out from Fukushima. The higher up the food chain - the higher the contamination will continue to get over time.

5. The water used to cool the reactors is now being filtered and reused. (They've stopped using sea water). However, the reactor houses are like leaky sieves and they are realizing the coolant water is leaking terribly, going into ground water, surrounding buildings and ultimately the ocean. The filters used over the past 9 months have nearly filled up a football field. Wonder how many football fields 2 years...the amount of time it will take for the core to cool down enough for cementing shut (like Chernobyl).

6. The US fed gov is not doing any testing on air, water, soil or food - in fact, it is being discouraged. TEPCO still hasn't done anything to strengthen the 4 crippled plants to withstand another earthquake. They are just hoping it doesn't happen. It would be disastrous not only for Japan but for North America as well.

7. By drawing attention to Japan's nuclear faults, we will draw even more attention to America's nuclear plants - which would be in no better shape than Japan's, should a natural disaster hit any of them. So, the US just covers its eyes and plugs its ears

.

sent by a Chinese friend

Hmmmm

Colonel, if true , would be a disaster

.

Wishful fantasizing on the part of your Chinese friend.

Please don't clutter this thread with content-free scientifically-illiterate rumours.

.

NYT

.

The newly released information is likely to add to concerns among many Japanese that they were never told the extent of the accident or the risks it posed.

A terabecquerel is a trillion becquerels, a commonly used measure of the radiation emitted by a radioactive material.

.

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[Typhoon]

.

Fukushima Updates

.

1. Hillary Clinton signed a "don't ask, don't tell" policy with Japan's government agreeing that Japan was not required to test radiation levels of exports to the US, and the US was not required to test imports from Japan. Signed in 2011.

2. Billions - trillions of bequerels (1 bequerel = 1000 millisieverts. Extreme danger level) entering the air currents each day.

3. The ground water has been found to be so contaminated that a plan to build a dam blocking the ground water from continuing to enter the ocean is underway.

4. The ocean sediment and sea life are showing high levels of Cesium radiation as far as a 200 miles radius out from Fukushima. The higher up the food chain - the higher the contamination will continue to get over time.

5. The water used to cool the reactors is now being filtered and reused. (They've stopped using sea water). However, the reactor houses are like leaky sieves and they are realizing the coolant water is leaking terribly, going into ground water, surrounding buildings and ultimately the ocean. The filters used over the past 9 months have nearly filled up a football field. Wonder how many football fields 2 years...the amount of time it will take for the core to cool down enough for cementing shut (like Chernobyl).

6. The US fed gov is not doing any testing on air, water, soil or food - in fact, it is being discouraged. TEPCO still hasn't done anything to strengthen the 4 crippled plants to withstand another earthquake. They are just hoping it doesn't happen. It would be disastrous not only for Japan but for North America as well.

7. By drawing attention to Japan's nuclear faults, we will draw even more attention to America's nuclear plants - which would be in no better shape than Japan's, should a natural disaster hit any of them. So, the US just covers its eyes and plugs its ears

.

sent by a Chinese friend

Hmmmm

Colonel, if true , would be a disaster

.

Wishful fantasizing on the part of your Chinese friend.

Please don't clutter this thread with content-free scientifically-illiterate rumours.

.

NYT

.

The newly released information is likely to add to concerns among many Japanese that they were never told the extent of the accident or the risks it posed.

A terabecquerel is a trillion becquerels, a commonly used measure of the radiation emitted by a radioactive material.

.

.

A pity that a paper like the NYT no longer staffs qualified science reporters.

[Typhoon]

Oh dear. Oh dear Oh dear.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/nyreg ... cials.html

Two delegations of Japanese officials visited Palisades Park, N.J., this month with a request that took local administrators by surprise: The Japanese wanted a small monument removed from a public park.
The monument, a brass plaque on a block of stone, was dedicated in 2010 to the memory of so-called comfort women, tens of thousands of women and girls, many Korean, who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers during World War II.
But the Japanese lobbying to remove the monument seems to have backfired — and deepened animosity between Japan and South Korea over the issue of comfort women, a longstanding irritant in their relations.

. . .

“So,” he said, pausing as if to choose his words carefully, “things are quite complicated.”

Well Mr. Iwai, considering your embassy's actions in this matter, it is actually not that complicated at all. It is complex only as far as the denials, obfuscations, equivocations, and headless tit for tat responses your head in arsehole factions allow it to be.

Well, these insular Japanese bureaucrats are about to be properly schooled in the Streisand Effect.

However,

Front line 3rd party [US military] report on comfort women

What to do about the situation today?

[Zack Morris]

Young and Global Need Not Apply in Japan

Discouraged by their career prospects if they study abroad, even at elite universities, a shrinking portion of Japanese college students is seeking higher education in the West. At the same time, Japan’s regional rivals, including China, South Korea and India, are sending increasing numbers of students overseas — many of whom, upon graduation, are snapped up by companies back home for their skills, contacts and global outlooks.

“Japanese companies here are missing out on the best foreign talent, and it’s all their fault,” said Toshihiko Irisumi, a graduate of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and former Goldman Sachs banker. He runs Alpha Leaders, a Tokyo-based consulting firm that helps match young talent with employers based in Japan. “They really need to change their mind-set.”

A United States-born graduate of Brown University who has a dual citizenship in Japan, one of about 12 foreign-educated Japanese nationals interviewed for this article, said she was told she “laughed too much” in interviews for a technology job in Tokyo.

Others with Western educations recall being treated with suspicion by Japanese recruiters, who referred to them openly as “over spec” — too elite to fit in, too eager to get ahead and too likely to be poached or to switch employers before long.

What is more, Japanese students who study overseas often find that by the time they enter the job hunt back home, they are far behind compatriots who have already contacted as many as 100 companies and received help from extensive alumni networks. And those who spend too long overseas find they are shut out by rigid age preferences for graduates no older than their mid-20s.

In a survey of 1,000 Japanese companies taken last June on their recruitment plans for the March 2012 fiscal year by the Tokyo-based recruitment company Disco, fewer than a quarter said they planned to hire Japanese applicants who had studied abroad. Even among top companies with more than a thousand employees, less than 40 percent said they wanted to hire Japanese with overseas education.

That attitude might help explain why, even as the number of Japanese enrolled in college has held steady at around three million in recent years, the number studying abroad has declined from a peak of nearly 83,000 in 2004 to fewer than 60,000 in 2009 — the most recent year for which the figures are available from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

In some ways, the Japanese snubbing of Western graduates is a testament to the perceived strength of their own universities, seen by many here as more prestigious than even the best American and European schools — despite mediocre showings in various global college rankings.

I knew Japan was insular but I didn't think it was this bad. The big conglomerates are struggling. Just look at Sony vs. Samsung. Of course, the Koreans will likely end up facing a similar problem. I've not heard that their corporate culture is any more welcoming to foreigners. A few years ago, Samsung was on campus here recruiting heavily for positions based in Korea, even for non-Korean speakers. When asked about management style, the recruiters had to admit that the management style was still very 'Asian'. What possible long-term career prospects could an outsider have in a human ant colony like Samsung?

[Azrael]

Were there any recruiters for positions based in Japan?

I understand that Japan has been recruiting people from Latin American countries with a large Japanese population (especially Brazil) and especially recruiting ethnic Japanese. I don't know much on this subject, though, so perhaps it isn't a large factor.

[Typhoon]

Were there any recruiters for positions based in Japan?

I understand that Japan has been recruiting people from Latin American countries with a large Japanese population (especially Brazil) and especially recruiting ethnic Japanese. I don't know much on this subject, though, so perhaps it isn't a large factor.

In Nagoya and it's environs, you will find all the official signage to be in Japanese, [Korean, Chinese, English] and Portuguese which reflects the large number of Brazilians of Japanese descent who work [or worked] at companies such as Toyota.

This emphasis on bloodlines, so-called, as a recruitment criteria is, in my view, a mistake. One has a group of people that appear Japanese and may have Japanese surnames but culturally are very Brazilian: outgoing, gregarious, informal, physical, expressive to the point of loud. This has lead to misunderstandings and sometimes to conflict.

On the other hand, I don't mind as I think that Japanese - Brazilians girls combine the best of both cultures

____

Forward looking companies such as Rakuten and Uniqlo are making English their working language.

[Hoosiernorm]

Typhoon what is going on with all of the Japanese auto manufacturers. I think every major US manufacturing plant is adding a production line this year. The Subaru plant in Lafayette is getting a production line moved there from Japan. I read over the weekend that the Yaris is moving it's production to France which seems like an odd strategy (Don't know why they didn't consider Canada or Brazil). The cars a very popular with American consumers and they continue to become the American car more and more each year, is manufacturing capacity that low still due to last years earthquake?

[Typhoon]

Typhoon what is going on with all of the Japanese auto manufacturers. I think every major US manufacturing plant is adding a production line this year. The Subaru plant in Lafayette is getting a production line moved there from Japan. I read over the weekend that the Yaris is moving it's production to France which seems like an odd strategy (Don't know why they didn't consider Canada or Brazil). The cars a very popular with American consumers and they continue to become the American car more and more each year, is manufacturing capacity that low still due to last years earthquake?

A plot is worth a thousands words:



Recall reading that breakeven for exporters is ~ 110 JPY to the USD.

Yaris production in France? No idea. Inexpensive electric power from nuclear?

[AzariLoveIran]

.

A plot is worth a thousands words:



.

If a country has foreign trade surplus, like Japan had for so many year, the currency should strengthen

But, am not sure, whether, right now, there's any reason for the above chart

Sony hasn't turned a profit since 2008. Many worry Sony represents a bigger problem with rigidity in Japan.


question is, why Yen still strengthening ?

could be repatriation of carry trade




.

[Typhoon]

SONY is not Japan.

[Typhoon]

This really whips the llama's ass.
_____

Jail For File-Sharing Not Enough, Labels Want ISP-Level Spying Regime

From October, knowingly uploading or simply downloading copyrighted material from the Internet will be a criminal offense subject to jail sentences in Japan. But despite now having the ultimate deterrent, it’s still not enough for the Recording Industry Association of Japan. The group is now pressing for ISPs to install spying technologies that will automatically block unauthorized uploads.

The Tokugawa tendency towards inward looking isolationism reasserts itself in an unfortunate contemporary context.

It's instructive to contrast Japanese TV dramas vs Korea TV dramas on the internet.

Japanese dramas can only be found uploaded presumably illegally.

Take down notices for anything Japanese are common on Youtube.

Korea dramas are featured on sites which have apparently licensed them.

Viki.com appears to have a great business model, wherein they license the content and then armies of volunteers do the translations into other languages.

The result. Korea and it's culture has boomed in popularity in Asia and elsewhere - at the expense of Japan which is instead trying to preserve an ever shrinking pie.

Too short-sighted for words.

[AzariLoveIran]

.


Japan's lower house of parliament voted today to double the sales tax.


good idea


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[Typhoon]

This really whips the llama's ass.
_____

Jail For File-Sharing Not Enough, Labels Want ISP-Level Spying Regime

From October, knowingly uploading or simply downloading copyrighted material from the Internet will be a criminal offense subject to jail sentences in Japan. But despite now having the ultimate deterrent, it’s still not enough for the Recording Industry Association of Japan. The group is now pressing for ISPs to install spying technologies that will automatically block unauthorized uploads.

The Tokugawa tendency towards inward looking isolationism reasserts itself in an unfortunate contemporary context.

It's instructive to contrast Japanese TV dramas vs Korea TV dramas on the internet.

Japanese dramas can only be found uploaded presumably illegally.

Take down notices for anything Japanese are common on Youtube.

Korea dramas are featured on sites which have apparently licensed them.

Viki.com appears to have a great business model, wherein they license the content and then armies of volunteers do the translations into other languages.

The result. Korea and it's culture has boomed in popularity in Asia and elsewhere - at the expense of Japan which is instead trying to preserve an ever shrinking pie.

Too short-sighted for words.

Anonymous | Expect us

AsianOne | Japan probes website attacks amid Anonymous claims

[AzariLoveIran]

.

SONY is not Japan.

.

Agree, Japan not SONY


Japan’s Industrial Output Falls Most Since 2011 Quake


Look, Colonel

Japan has a fundamental problem, on top of structural problems

for political reason, cold war, red Russia & China, west had an open door for Japanese goods, no matter what

Zenit TV, RCA all fucked

now Japanese goods must compete with Chinese, Korean, German and and and

Japan has many handicaps for competing with those guys

and that issue must be addressed .. Japan must refocus, from west, to east

Japans market will not be anymore America and Europe .. but China and Middle East and and and

in that sense, expanding that American Okinawa base counterproductive if not outright stupid

Does Japan want to antagonize China ? ? be @ receiving end of Chinese missiles ? ?

America preparing for a fight with China .. on Japans turf

Americ 10,000 miles away, but Japan just next door to Mr. Chen

really silly, Colonel, really silly


on the other side, thank you for continuing buying Oil from Iran and thank you for passing a law providing insurance for those tankers .. thanks



.

[AzariLoveIran]

.


SAMSUNG is not what SONY used 2B

Japan must look why so ? ?

why is Japan fallin back introducing leading edge popular products market wants ? ?

A Galaxy III S is a pricy gadget .. despite of price, selling like crazy .. and .. will be replaced, again, with the new version, in 12 months

Japan must look into why SONY missed the boat pretty much everywhere


.

[Typhoon]

This really whips the llama's ass.
_____

Jail For File-Sharing Not Enough, Labels Want ISP-Level Spying Regime

From October, knowingly uploading or simply downloading copyrighted material from the Internet will be a criminal offense subject to jail sentences in Japan. But despite now having the ultimate deterrent, it’s still not enough for the Recording Industry Association of Japan. The group is now pressing for ISPs to install spying technologies that will automatically block unauthorized uploads.

The Tokugawa tendency towards inward looking isolationism reasserts itself in an unfortunate contemporary context.

It's instructive to contrast Japanese TV dramas vs Korea TV dramas on the internet.

Japanese dramas can only be found uploaded presumably illegally.

Take down notices for anything Japanese are common on Youtube.

Korea dramas are featured on sites which have apparently licensed them.

Viki.com appears to have a great business model, wherein they license the content and then armies of volunteers do the translations into other languages.

The result. Korea and it's culture has boomed in popularity in Asia and elsewhere - at the expense of Japan which is instead trying to preserve an ever shrinking pie.

Too short-sighted for words.

Anonymous | Expect us

AsianOne | Japan probes website attacks amid Anonymous claims

'Anonymous' protest against download laws by picking up litter

[Azrael]

Deflation AND per capita income growth higher in Japan than previously estimated (relative to U.S.).

[Azrael]

This really whips the llama's ass.
_____

Jail For File-Sharing Not Enough, Labels Want ISP-Level Spying Regime

From October, knowingly uploading or simply downloading copyrighted material from the Internet will be a criminal offense subject to jail sentences in Japan. But despite now having the ultimate deterrent, it’s still not enough for the Recording Industry Association of Japan. The group is now pressing for ISPs to install spying technologies that will automatically block unauthorized uploads.

The Tokugawa tendency towards inward looking isolationism reasserts itself in an unfortunate contemporary context.

It's instructive to contrast Japanese TV dramas vs Korea TV dramas on the internet.

Japanese dramas can only be found uploaded presumably illegally.

Take down notices for anything Japanese are common on Youtube.

Korea dramas are featured on sites which have apparently licensed them.

Viki.com appears to have a great business model, wherein they license the content and then armies of volunteers do the translations into other languages.

The result. Korea and it's culture has boomed in popularity in Asia and elsewhere - at the expense of Japan which is instead trying to preserve an ever shrinking pie.

Too short-sighted for words.

Anonymous | Expect us

AsianOne | Japan probes website attacks amid Anonymous claims

'Anonymous' protest against download laws by picking up litter

Very clever. People complain about protesters for getting in their way, being loud, annoying, etc. (generally the complainers are against the protesters aims to begin with); but who can complain about picking up litter? Other groups should follow their example. They'd get good results.

[Alexis]

Deflation AND per capita income growth higher in Japan than previously estimated (relative to U.S.).

Yes, the methodology for evaluation of US CPI was changed in the 1990s in order to (under)estimate CPI and (over)estimate growth.

See John Williams's Shadowstats for (strong) criticisms of these shenanigans and attempts (also questionable in turn) to reconstruct relevant CPI and growth figures for the US.

[AzariLoveIran]

.

Look, Colonel


as said , fact on the ground have shifted .. Japan and others @ that space, must and will decouple from West


Tokyo and Seoul will have to re-think the post-World War II trans-Pacific relationship

.

South Korea and Japan clearly recognize Iranian oil as indispensable to their economies, creating an awkward conflict of interests. Despite their relationship and alignment with the United States, Seoul and Tokyo have respectively taken different steps to bypass the sanctions and orestall punitive chastisement from Washington. As noted in an earlier article (see East Asian energy dilemma over Iran, Asia Times Online, January 24, 2012), the sanctions on Iran not only force two of Washington's closest allies to re-evaluate their relationship with the US, but also weaken attempts to denuclearize Iran.

[..]

Furthermore, considering how the dispute between Iran and the United States is destabilizing the international oil market, the sanctions come as an unwelcome obstacle to South Korea and Japan's (and many others') drive towards economic recovery and growth. At the same time, Seoul and Tokyo's willingness to find ways to continue purchasing oil and transacting goods with Iran undermines Washington's sanctions-based approach towards denuclearizing the Middle East country.

To top it off, it is not clear whether Iran would actually surrender its nuclear program because it faces increasing economic pressure. As the New York Times has noted, this may be the most comprehensive economic sanctions regime that the US initiated since imposing sanctions on raw materials going to Imperial Japan in the 1930s and '40s, which of course hastened the start of the Pacific War.

[..]

More prevalently, while the tensions are not immediately obvious, South Korea and Japan's forced self-harm to their own economic interests may have deep consequences for the future of the trans-Pacific relationship.

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Interesting article

confirms what I was arguing re Japan's future

Japan moving away from America .. same will happen with others .. even Australia might move
away from west



.

[Typhoon]

Economist | The Hashimoto bandwagon rolls on

TO THE surprise of everybody but Toru Hashimoto, a local political insurrection centred on the industrial powerhouse of Osaka has now set all Japan on fire. On September 12th Mr Hashimoto, the 43-year-old can-do mayor of Osaka, formally launched his national party. Its name, Nihon Ishin no Kai (the Japan Restoration Party, or JRP), reflects Mr Hashimoto’s promise to sweep away the existing political order. A general election will soon be called. Polling gives his insurrection more support than the ruling party.

Almost any development that would remove the DPJ - LDP stagnation would be welcome:

Mr Hashimoto’s arrival on a dismal political scene is welcome. Japan’s political establishment is incapable of leadership. The ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is consumed by infighting and defections. The conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which the DPJ ousted in 2009, is grey and cynical. It controls the upper house, from where it practises brutish obstructionism. The resulting gridlock and drift ill serves Japan.

He rose to prominence in Osaka by promising to cut through the bureaucracy. He empowered parents by giving them vouchers for their children’s education. Nationally he combines these ideas with proposals for radical decentralisation, through the creation of German-style Länder. He wants to halve the number sitting in the lower house of the Diet, while abolishing an excessively powerful upper house. He wants the prime minister to be directly elected and endowed with strong powers. And he wants to rewrite Japan’s pacifist constitution to allow for the right to collective self-defence.

Power in Japan is absurdly centralized in Tokyo. Decentralization would be welcome.

Anyways, politics in Japan may become uncharacteristically interesting.

[noddy]

woot, id enjoy fresh interesting times

its about time for japan, they have been uncharacteristically uninteresting for too long now

[monster_gardener]

woot, id enjoy fresh interesting times

its about time for japan, they have been uncharacteristically uninteresting for too long now

Thank you Very Much for your posts, Noddy & Typhoon.

IMVHO boring is often better.........

Got to give the Chinese a Han for knowing that........

That Dragon curse: May you live in interesting times.......

How wonderful it might be if space flight to interplanetary/interstellar colonies were routine and boring..........