Japan's rivals look to lure away yen-harried firms

As the economy staggers under the weight of the strong yen, businesses in Japan are receiving much-needed offers of help, with a chance to reduce rent, pay fewer taxes and cut utility costs.

Simple math: Employees monitor currency rates at a foreign-exchange office in Tokyo on Aug. 4. Strained by the rising yen, businesses are relocating to overseas markets out of necessity. AP PHOTO

The problem is that these offers are coming from Japan's neighbors, particularly China. Delegations from across Asia have spent recent months hosting seminars in Tokyo's upscale hotels and conference rooms, hoping to pluck away Japanese business by offering incentives that companies find increasingly difficult to resist.

Since June, recruiters from at least seven Chinese provinces have hosted events in Japan. Vietnam came with a 20-member mission. Myanmar sent more than 300 representatives. One official from Zheziang Province in China described it as a "rare opportunity" to lure Japanese businesses that are strained by the rising yen, high corporate taxes and a shrinking domestic market.

The prospect that companies big and small will relocate amplifies concerns about the world's third-largest economy as it tries to break a two-decade run of stagnation and rebuild its disaster-hit northeastern coastline.

Politicians and business leaders fear a scenario in which major manufacturers, though maintaining a baseline presence in Japan, will build factories overseas and depend increasingly on local suppliers in their new countries; then, the smaller Japanese companies that once depended on those manufacturers will cut costs to compete or move overseas themselves.

In his first major speech, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said last month that the soaring yen and the rise of emerging economies had created "an unprecedented industrial hollowing-out crisis" that could lead to lost jobs and weakened Japanese competitiveness.

"Japan is on the verge of suffering a major loss of national credibility due to the hollowing-out of its industries," Noda said.

Many companies say they have been approached with offers to begin operations overseas. The invitations, according to government data, come mainly from China and several Southeast Asian countries — especially Thailand and Singapore.

Firms have also received offers from provinces in South Korea, even though Seoul tried this summer to curb the recruitment of Japanese companies, thinking it inconsiderate in the aftermath of the March 11 disaster.

Attempts to poach Japanese companies is hardly new. Neither is Japanese interest in Asia's developing markets, with many export-reliant giants — Toyota, Panasonic and Sony — building regional networks. What was once a business opportunity, though, has turned into a business necessity; firms now relocate to China and Southeast Asia not merely to reach new markets but to offset the pain in Japan.

That pain comes largely from the yen, which has soared in value this year amid concern about the U.S. and European economies. Investors see the yen as a safe bet, and they have managed in a short time to transform its worth.

In April, the yen was valued at about 85 against the dollar. On Sept. 19, it was 75.94 against the dollar, a post-World War II high, and Japanese policymakers have been helpless to stem the rise. The strong yen makes Japanese exports more expensive overseas, and it pinches foreign-made profits when they are repatriated.

In a recent government poll of major manufacturers, one-third said they would face "serious profit decline" if the exchange rate held steady for the next six months.

The poll, conducted by the industry ministry, suggested Japanese companies will flee — quickly — if the Noda administration can't soon provide help. Of the 61 manufacturers surveyed, 28 said they would transfer production plants and research centers overseas if the yen held its value. One in five smaller businesses reported that they were already seeing a decline in demand because trading partners had moved overseas.

"The worst case is, a greater percentage of business will be done overseas," said Koichiro Otake, deputy director of the macroeconomic affairs division at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. "And that will lead to big, big problems for small and medium-size companies. They have two options. Either they follow suit and move overseas, or they go out of business."

Many economists in Tokyo say the hollowing-out process is already under way — and gaining momentum. They say a growing number of companies are finalizing plans not just to outsource their production, but to open new factories in foreign countries.

This summer, some of the biggest Japanese companies signaled their intention to bulk up beyond Japan, with Panasonic announcing a new procurement center in Singapore and telecommunications giant Softbank launching a data center in South Korea, citing the country's lower electricity costs.

But the woes go beyond the yen. Japan's corporate tax far exceeds levels in China and South Korea. So do its energy costs.

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Japan's hula girls reopen resort near Fukushima

Japan's hula girls reopen resort near Fukushima Japanese hula girls, who helped revive a former coal mining town as a Hawaii-themed spa, have returned to the resort as it reopened nearly seven months after it was damaged by the March 11 earthquake. They danced to 21 songs, often in tears, in a "Polynesian Show" as some 700 guests cheered at the Spa Resort Hawaiians, 180 kilometres north of Tokyo, as it reopened for business on Saturday, according to local media. The resort has attracted an annual 1.5 million visitors in recent years, including many from China and South Korea. But it is expected to struggle for survival due to fears over radiation from the tsunami-crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant 50 kilometres away. (Sydney Morning Herald, Oct 03)
4 Oct It's a familiar nighttime routine: You are out in Shimbashi, drunk, and the last train has passed. What to do? While pondering the predicament a young Chinese gal materializes on a nearby corner. "Excuse me, sir?" Thus begins a survey of quickie sex services from weekly tabloid Shukan Asahi Geino (Sept. 15), which finds that prices are plummeting in the current deflationary environment. "We can get you a room for 5,000 yen," she continues. "Ah, but I've only got 3,000 yen," the crafty writer counters. In Tokyo's entertainment areas, below-the-belt services for 5,000 yen are in abundance, but many lucky lads are getting away with much less. (Tokyo Reporter)
4 Oct The Asahi beer is ice-cold. Naoki Doi takes sips from it between bites of curry. The bespectacled tour guide has asked me and my family to eat fast: he's taking us around some of Kyoto's outstanding shrines and temples, and there's a lot of them to see. He is, he says, relieved to have some business again. In March this year, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the coast of East Japan, sending a devastating tsunami towards the shore. The tsunami wiped out entire towns across the country's Pacific coast, and caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant. But while Japan has rebuilt large parts of the damaged areas, tourism in the country took a huge hit. Kyoto may be 500 miles south of Fukushima Prefecture, but it still felt the impact. (guardian.co.uk)
4 Oct More and more riders of fixed-gear bikes--racing bicycles without brakes--are being ticketed by police for riding on public roads. Riding a bicycle without brakes on a public road is a violation of the Road Traffic Law. The number of cases in which police have taken action against such bicycles--known as "fixies" in the West and "piste bikes" in Japan--has also increased. "Piste" is a French word meaning race track. Piste bikes have fixed gears directly linking the rotation of pedals to the rear wheel and are primarily used for track racing. (Yomiuri)
3 Oct Increasing numbers of Japanese are falling victim to scams in Shanghai, being lured into paying exorbitant charges for minimal services, according to Japanese consular officials. This year alone there have been 70 Japanese who have fallen to Shanghai scams, costing them close on 10 million yen (around $130,000). Most of the victims have been men, but some women have also fallen into the trap. Japanese consulate officials said the majority of scams are being pulled off in restaurants, clubs and bars in popular tourist areas along the Bund. (majirox news)
3 Oct The town of Futaba is either a place without people or a group of people without a place. Japan's nuclear disaster contaminated the town's 20 square miles, leaving the land uninhabitable, perhaps for decades. The disaster also forced the evacuation of 7,000 people from the town, with many of them still living at an abandoned high school more than 100 miles from home. For months, those people waited to hear about their chances of returning home. But now that a return to Futaba - on the doorstep of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant - seems almost inconceivable, town officials have recently composed a new plan: They'd like to rebuild Futaba somewhere else. "What we are trying to do is unprecedented," said Oosumi Muneshige, a chief assistant to the mayor. "We're looking for a place where everybody can live together, basically a reconstruction of what we had before." (Seattle Times)

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Renewing Japan's air force

On most days for the past several years, pilots from the Japan Air Self-Defence Force have scrambled to stop military aircraft from China and Russia buzzing Japan's air space. It is a reminder of how prickly Japan's ties with its neighbours have become, not least because of contested sovereignty over a few remote islands. Intercepts of Chinese planes almost tripled last year, to 96 (see chart). Russia, meanwhile, recently sent two bombers skirting provocatively around the Japanese archipelago. Amid such taunts, on September 26th Japan received three bids to supply an order of more than 40 fighter jets to replace the oldest part of its fleet. For years Japan had been hoping to buy America's snazzy but expensive F-22 Raptor, a stealth fighter made by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, which has since been partially imitated by China and Russia.
1 Oct The language is unmistakably Japanese, the lyrics delivered in familiar high-pitched tones over a backdrop of electronica. But the wave of pop music sweeping Japan is not the sugar-coated homegrown variety that has long clogged the airwaves. Japanese teens and twentysomethings who once had ears only for J-pop are now transfixed by K-pop, a phenomenon from South Korea that is taking the world's second-biggest music market by storm. Korean pop culture's first foray into Japan was led almost a decade ago by Bae Yong-joon, a TV and film actor whose legions of mainly middle-aged, female devotees nicknamed him Yon-sama, or the Honourable Yon. (guardian.co.uk)
1 Oct With schoolchildren playing in front of her house every day, a tsunami survivor who identifies herself only as "Mrs. Sugawara," says she often thinks about suicide. Her daughter and two sons survived the March 11 disaster, but her husband and three grandchildren did not. "They were my future, and now they are gone and not coming back," says Mrs. Sugawara, 69. "The tsunami took my sense of hope away with them." Her lonely struggle mirrors that of thousands of tsunami survivors, especially seniors now isolated in temporary houses after spending months in crowded but more sociable gymnasiums. Since her children have gone to work elsewhere, Mrs. Sugawara lives alone, in a prefab unit in the parking lot of a junior high school overlooking the obliterated northeastern city of Rikuzen-Takata. (Washington Times)
1 Oct Local ordinances prohibiting companies from trading with organized crime syndicates will be put into force Saturday in Tokyo and Okinawa with the expectation of stopping their cash flow funds and eventually putting the mob out of business. Some legal experts welcome the moves by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Okinawa Prefectural Government, but they also urge local police to properly disclose to the general public detailed information about gangs so they can avoid trading with them and provide concrete examples of cases being banned by the new ordinances. (Japan Times)
30 Sep Tokyo Metropolitan Police earlier this week arrested the principals involved in the sale and copying of large quantities of uncensored adult video DVDs in Ikebukuro, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Sept. 30). Yoshitaka Iwaki, 45, verbally touted the sale of uncensored discs copied electromagnetically from a store he operated in Ikebukuro, located in Tokyo's Toshima Ward. A signboard with photos allowed customers to select discs they wished to purchase. Eiji Imai, 40, presided over an apartment, also in Toshima Ward, where the discs were stored. During a search of the premises on Wednesday, officers seized approximately 50,000 discs and copying equipment. (Tokyo Reporter)
30 Sep Investigators continue to search for a man who held up a suburban Tokyo bookstore by threatening the manager with a lit firework, the Metropolitan Police Department said Sept. 29. The man described as being about 160 centimeters tall and wearing a gray hoodie and white surgical mask made off with 5,000 yen (around $65) in cash after threatening the bookstore manager in Nishitokyo on Thursday night. (majirox news)

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Japan's ANA: Crew error sent jet into nose-dive (AP)

TOKYO – A Japanese airline says one of its jets nose-dived and rolled almost upside down earlier this month because the co-pilot hit the wrong controls while trying to open the cockpit door so the captain could return from a restroom break.

Two flight attendants were slightly hurt and four passengers got airsick when the All Nippon Airways Boeing 737-700 with 117 people aboard descended sharply, veered off course and went belly up over the Pacific on its way from southern Japan to Tokyo on Sept 6.

ANA said Thursday that the co-pilot is believed to have mistakenly hit the rudder controls instead of the door lock to allow the pilot back in the cockpit. It said the crew managed to stabilize the plane after the co-pilot's error and land it safely.

Japan's Transport Safety Board is investigating.

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Can Japan's Anti-Nuclear Protesters Keep the Reactors Shut Down? (Time.com)

For months after a devastating earthquake and tsunami crippled Japan's Fukushima power plant, sparking fears of a possible nuclear meltdown, the country's anti-nuclear groups struggled to be heard. A few small rallies were held, but they failed to generate much media coverage. As debates raged from Germany to China about the safety of nuclear reactors, commentary in Japan, of all places, was strangely absent. Protests are just that unusual in this conservative country.

But this is starting to change. As Fukushima continues to spew more radioactivity into the air and trust in the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. plunges, the mood in Japan is slowly shifting away from nuclear power. On Sept. 19, the mounting anger and fear culminated in a rally of some 60,000 anti-nuclear protesters in Tokyo - the largest such gathering since the March 11 quake and tsunami. The protesters included the elderly, families with children and a large contingent from the towns near the reactor. A surprising number were local government officials and members of RENGO, the 6.8-million-strong federation of labor unions. "Normally RENGO never goes against nuclear power because many members are nuclear industry employees," says Satoshi Kamata, a journalist and atomic energy opponent who organized the rally. "I'm guessing about 10,000 to 15,000 RENGO members were at the rally."(See photos of the tsunami hitting the Fukushima plant.)

Kamata also made sure there was a celebrity factor, inviting Nobel Prize-winning author Kenzaburo Oe, composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and other high-profile figures to participate to try to attract more media attention. The outpouring of support shows just how angry and frustrated people are, he says. "They don't want to feel powerless anymore. They want to make a change," he says. "This rally was a totally new phenomenon. It's not just an anti-nuclear energy movement, but the beginning of a large-scale protest by ordinary people, a historic people's movement."

Fueling the fear was former Prime Minster Naoto Kan's Sept. 6 revelation of a worst-case scenario government report he received just after the Fukushima crisis began stating that a massive evacuation of Tokyo's 30 million residents could have been necessary. The plant sits just 130 miles northeast of Tokyo. "It was a crucial moment when I wasn't sure whether Japan could continue to function as a state," he said in an interview with the Tokyo Shimbun, a daily newspaper. "When I think of safety not being outweighed by risk, the answer is not to rely on nuclear."

At the beginning of the year, Japan had 54 nuclear reactors providing about 29% of the country's energy needs. An additional 14 plants were in the pipeline, with the hopes that nuclear power would meet over half of the country's energy demands by 2030. After the Fukushima crisis, however, Kan began pushing hydroelectric, wind and solar power, endorsing a plan to increase alternative energy production from the current 9% to 20% by 2020. His last mandate before resigning in August was to push through Parliament a new law promoting renewable energy. (Read about how to stop a nuclear reactor meltdown.)

But just as the anti-nuclear movement is gaining traction and support for renewable energy is on the rise, the new prime minister is signaling his intention to get Japan's reactors up and running again. At a high-level meeting on nuclear safety and security during last week's U.N. General Assembly, Yoshihiko Noda spoke of the country's continuing need for nuclear energy. "We will raise the safety of nuclear plants to the highest level," he said. Then, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Sept. 21, he talked about restarting the country's idle reactors in the spring. "If we have a power shortage, it will drag down Japan's overall economy," he said. Nuclear energy critics argue, however, that Japan would be just fine next year because the country managed with fewer than a third of its reactors operating this summer. When asked about this by The Wall Street Journal, Noda replied: "That's absolutely impossible."

A showdown between politicians and concerned citizens may be in the making. On Monday, the city of Makinohara in Shizuoka Prefecture drew widespread attention after it passed a resolution to permanently shut down the nearby Hamaoka nuclear power plant. A similar resolution had already been adopted by the three other municipalities in the prefecture and six major companies, including Suzuki, have said they may leave the area because of concerns over the plant. Hamaoka's three reactors went offline as part of a government safety mandate following the Fukushima accident. But despite the fact seismologists have described the ageing plant as among the most dangerous in the world because of its position on top of two major fault lines, operator Chubu Electric Power Co. has announced plans to restart it. It's now building a 60-foot-tall levee to protect the plant from a possible tsunami.

Some activists are now pushing for a national referendum on nuclear power. In a Sept. 21 poll conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun, a major newspaper, nearly two-thirds of respondents indicated they wanted a vote on whether the country should continue to rely so heavily on nuclear power. In his speech at the anti-nuclear rally earlier this month, Kenzaburo Oe pointed to a referendum Italy held in June in which the country voted down the prospect of building new reactors. The Japanese people, too, should be given the right to vote, he said. "What is now clear is this: in Italy, human life will not be threatened by nuclear energy anymore. We Japanese, however, must continue to live under the fear of nuclear disaster."

Read why Japan's nuclear crisis has Germany worried.

Read about whether the Fukushima crisis is bringing China and Japan together.

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Pressure builds in Japan's nuclear divide

Pressure builds in Japan's nuclear divide
By Daniel Leussink

TOKYO - Following the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant six months ago, nine prominent Japanese intellectuals have launched a popular movement that seeks to abolish nuclear power and the closure of all nuclear power plants in Japan.

The group, which includes Nobel literature prize laureate Kenzaburo Oe and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, plans to collect 10 million signatures in support of their proposal for a nuclear-free Japan. On Monday, the group organized a colorful demonstration followed by three vocal protest marches through Tokyo, attracting about 60,000 people.

The theme of the demonstration was "Sayonara genpatsu," "Goodbye nuclear power plants."

Satoshi Kamata is one of the intellectuals behind the movement. The 73-year-old author and freelance journalist covered Japan's

 
nuclear industry for over four decades, also publishing articles and books on Toyota and the citizens' movement against the construction of Narita airport, Japan's primary international airport. He was a speaker at the event on Monday.

Kamata spoke with Asia Times Online about the historical significance of the demonstration in a coffee shop near Kiyose station, a 25-minute train ride from central Tokyo, on Sunday. That was a day before the demonstration took place.

Asia Times Online: What are your expectations of tomorrow's demonstration?

Satoshi Kamata: Demonstrations in Japan are a little bit different from demonstrations in the United States or Europe, where hundreds of thousands protesters might protest against nuclear energy. In Japan, nationwide demonstrations attracted 10,000 or 20,000 protesters in total so far. This time, we hope 50,000 protesters will come.

We are collecting 10 million signatures against nuclear energy and have invited many well-known writers and thinkers to take part in this protest. There are around 100 supporting figures including Yoji Yamada [a famous filmmaker) and Masazumi Harada [a doctor known for his treatment of sufferers from the industrial Minamata disease] who back our movement in addition to the nine of us who called out publicly.

On March 24 next year, we will hold a follow-up rally in Hibiya Park. That rally will be held to present the 10-million signature petition against nuclear energy to the national government. We'll also hold other demonstrations and cultural events, such as concerts, before then.

ATol: What are the main issues against which the demonstration is directed?

SK: Japan should stop the nuclear power plants it already has, refrain from building new plants and shift to renewable energy. Earlier this year, [then prime minister Naoto] Kan decided that the Hamaoka nuclear power plant [in Shizuoka prefecture] would be stopped. But all nuclear plants should be stopped.

And if this happens, the order through which it happens is very important because there are many types of nuclear power plants and some plants are older than others. The Monju fast breeder reactor [a temporarily-suspended MOX fuel plant in Fukui prefecture] and the Rokkasho reprocessing plant [in Aomori prefecture, undergoing test operations] should be disabled.

The government should make a schedule to decide the month and year by which nuclear power plants will be stopped.

ATol: Could you indicate some of the crucial issues that nuclear energy in Japan faces at this stage, half a year after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the coast of Tohoku?

SK: The new government of [Prime Minister Yoshihiko] Noda said that the nuclear power plants will be restarted after conducting safety checks on them.

But in August, only 12 out of 54 reactors were running normally. All of them will go offline for regular maintenance checks before May next year. If the current situation continues, all nuclear reactors in Japan may be offline before then. [Before the Fukushima accident, Japan depended on nuclear for about a third of its power supply, but the government has now abandoned plans to increase that to 50%.]

Eighty percent of the Japanese public opposes nuclear energy. The people will have to raise their voice in order to stop the operation of these nuclear power plants.

ATol: Some critics say that Japan would face a severe energy shortage if every reactor in each nuclear power plant will be stopped. What are your thoughts on this?

SK: Only 12 out of 54 reactors are operating normally at the moment, 42 reactors are not running. But Japan has avoided an energy shortage so far.

In addition to that, Japan has a reserve of thermal power plants and other types of plants such as natural gas plants and coal plants. These could provide a solution for the time being, as long as the move to renewable energy will go faster, even if it is only a little bit. But the government and power companies have not invested enough in renewable energy so far.

A crucial point will be to find out if [outside] experts could become more involved in enlarging the role of renewable energy.

ATol: Shifting away from nuclear power completely might also lead to higher electricity rates?

SK: If electricity becomes a little bit more expensive there is nothing we can do about it. But if nuclear power plants continue to be operated like they are operated now, radioactive nuclear waste will be created and the problem of what to do with that will be thrown on future generations. The moral problem is whether that is good or not.

If you only think about cheap energy, radioactive waste will gradually build up. The question is whether or not that should be allowed.

ATol: How did Japan historically come to rely on nuclear energy as the only nation on earth to suffer atomic bomb attacks?

SK: The nuclear energy policy started under the influence of [then minister of Science] Yasuhiro Nakasone after he returned from the United States in around 1960. [Nakasone served as prime minister from 1982-1987.] After the introduction of technology, the government came to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and made it look very different from the atomic bomb. It was viewed as a clean energy. A bright image of prosperity was promoted with it.

The atomic bomb victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki never came together with those who opposed nuclear energy. But that changed as a result of the disaster in Fukushima. The suffering from the atomic bombs and the development of nuclear power were two things that were opposed until now.

ATol: What is your view of the nuclear energy industry?

SK: The government promoted nuclear energy as a favorable thing and local communities received financial benefits for accepting nuclear power plants.

The nuclear industry is like the big bad wolf from the fairy tale. [Little Red Riding Hood] Grandma won't open the door to let him in the house. But when she looks under it, she thinks it is not the wolf but her granddaughter. So she opens the door and the wolf eats her. The house is Japan and grandma the local communities.
It might be hard for foreigners to understand, but there is not a single organization in Japan that judges nuclear power objectively.
Eisaku Sato [former governor of Fukushima prefecture] said that police and the thieves are the same people. He was made into a scapegoat over illegal financial dealings of his brother's company. He gave up his post. I say that the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry [responsible for developing nuclear energy] and the Nuclear Safety Commission work together like the pitcher and umpire in baseball.

ATol: What is the long-term relevance of the demonstration of September 19?

SK: There won't be the same number of protesters as at demonstrations opposing nuclear energy in Germany or France, but it is a start. For Japanese citizens, it is very uncommon to express their private views in public. Many citizens are hesitant to comment on politics openly. And we don't have a history of demonstrations, so we have to build a new history of joining them. Tomorrow is a start.

When South Korea was ruled by a military dictatorship, many citizens resisted it. Some of them were given the death penalty as a result of their resistance and of course that was not good. But eventually the actions of these protesters changed the government.

Daniel Leussink is a Dutch journalist in Tokyo. His website is www.danielleussink.com.

(Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online [Holdings] Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

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Japan's tsunami tragedy: already fading from sight? (The Christian Science Monitor)

Tokyo and MinamiSanriku, Japan – In the immediate aftermath of March 11, when Japan was struck by the most powerful earthquake and tsunami in its history, there was a feeling that the country had changed irrevocably. As images of entire communities being swept away were burned into the national consciousness, many believed this represented a "year zero" for Japan, a chance to break from decades of economic stagnation and political malaise.

Six months later, few still hold such high hopes and there is little sign of the promised rebuilding of homes and lives for those in the disaster zones. Some feel that the rest of the country, including the Tokyo political class, is already forgetting.

RELATED GALLERY: The long road to recovery in Japan

The scale of the disaster remains hard to comprehend. At 2:46 p.m. on that Friday in March, a 250-mile-long and 100-mile-wide section of the Pacific tectonic plate suddenly crashed under the plate on which Japan sits. This violent shifting of the Earth's crust moved Japan's main island eight feet in the direction of the US, knocked the Earth off its axis by four to six inches, and shortened the length of a day by 1.8 microseconds. It also set off the tsunami that was to batter more than 500 miles of Japan's northeast coast, reach heights of up to 130 feet, and penetrate as far as six miles inland.

The tsunami claimed nearly 20,000 lives (including the 4,057 people who remain missing half a year later), and set off the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which operators are still struggling to get into a cold shutdown.

The total bill for reconstruction is estimated to be as much as 23 trillion yen ($300 billion) or 6 percent of Japan's gross domestic product, though this will be spread out over five years, at least. With tax revenues down following the disaster, a rise in the already huge national debt – currently around 200 percent of GDP – is inevitable.

While the central government has been criticized for not distributing funds quickly enough, of the 31 municipalities that suffered the most damage, only four have final reconstruction plans.

"Nobody outside the Ministry of Finance knows exactly how much money has been distributed, or of the money that has gone out to local authorities, how much has actually been spent," says Jun Okumura, senior adviser at the Eurasia Group. "It's very frustrating."

There is money being issued, though: 1.2 trillion yen ($15.7 billion) in insurance money has already been paid out, plus the compensation money from Tokyo Electric Power company, the operator of Fukushima, and aid from local and central government, says Mr. Okumura.

Still, the recovery from the vast triple disaster is proving to be painfully slow in many places.

Some of the worst-hit towns still resemble a wasteland. The quake and tsunami left an estimated 22.6 million tons of rubble in the coastal towns. Out of that, nearly half has been moved to temporary storage. Much of the power has been restored to towns and cities, but power outages remain common. Out of the nearly half a million people displaced, more than 80,000 people remain in temporary accommodations. And the debate over whether to rebuild towns in the same locations continues.

"They should think about building the towns again on higher ground, not in the places that could get hit by another tsunami," says Toshifumi Takada, a professor at Tohoku University.

Though that may seem like a good idea to outsiders, it has been difficult to accomplish given that even in towns such as Minami-Sanriku – where 95 percent of the buildings were swept away – many residents, still very much healing their emotional wounds, are conflicted.

Minami-Sanriku: largely uninhabitableOn the morning of Sept. 11, more than 2,200 people traveled to attend a memorial service in the town's Bayside Arena. "We pray for the lost lives and for the missing to be found as early as possible. We hope that people can return to this town and we can hear cheerful voices again," said Jin Sato, the mayor of Minami-Sanriku, at the service. His voice faltered as he spoke about the many friends and colleagues who were lost.

Mr. Sato had been in the town hall along with 130 staff when the tsunami struck. He was one of only 10 survivors when the 50-foot waves came across the roof of the building and washed away 20 of the 30 people who had made it that far.

Most of the residents of the town returned for the memorial service from other areas, as Minami-Sanriku remains largely uninhabitable. Thousands of tons of debris has been piled into mountains of wood, earth, metal, and concrete along the waterfront. But there is no sign of rebuilding.

Red steel girders are all that is left of the town's disaster-response center, where a young local government worker, Miki Endo, famously stayed at her post sounding an alarm and urging residents to evacuate, until the tsunami engulfed the building and she went missing.

People came from as far as Tokyo to pay their respects at the small makeshift shrine that has appeared in the shell of the building, dedicated to Ms. Endo's sacrifice. Some residents want the remains of the building to be turned into a permanent monument to her heroism.

A cluster of 20 prefab housing units behind the Bayside Arena, where the service was held, is now home to a fraction of the townspeople who lost their homes.

Kaeko Gyoba and her husband were in a club for Minami-Sanriku's elderly residents when the earthquake struck. They made it up to the fourth floor as the waves swept through the stories below. It was one of the few buildings spared in the town.

"We spent two nights up there until a Self-Defense Force helicopter was able to land at the elementary school nearby and get us out," says Ms. Gyoba.

She stayed with relatives near Tokyo after the disaster, but she returned last month to be with the rest of her family, who now occupy five of the small, flimsy-looking temporary houses.

"It's very tough living here. I just can't get used to it. There's nowhere in the town to shop, you need a car to go anywhere, and I worry how cold it will be in the winter," says Gyoba. "And none of the family have jobs now. They all worked on the ocean, farming seaweed and oysters. Everything was swept away."

Fading from public consciousness?Despite the nationwide attention that the six-month memorials received, some of those still struggling to rebuild their lives say their frustrations are compounded by the feeling that they are gradually fading from public consciousness.

"What the people want more than anything at all is the sense that other people – the rest of Japan – are keeping a careful watch over them and are ready to help," says Yuka Kusano, leader of the Miyagi Jonet aid group for victims. "Instead, they fear that the rest of Japan is watching the baseball and comedies on TV and have forgotten about them."

There is also anger at politicians in Tokyo who they see as more concerned with partisan fighting than focusing on helping the region's recovery.

Even the leadership contest to replace former Prime Minister Naoto Kan – who resigned in part because of heavy criticism for his handling of the crisis – was seen as a self-indulgent distraction by many in the region.

His replacement, Yoshihiko Noda, has already lost his trade and industry minister, who resigned only eight days after being sworn in when the media accused him of insensitive behavior on his first trip to the disaster zone.

"The politicians in Tokyo are fools; their behavior is simply unbelievable. We don't expect much from them. We have to do this ourselves," says Tohoku University's Professor Takada.

It is not only outsiders whose memories of the disasters appear to be fading; some residents of the northeast are starting to worry that the tight bonds that bound survivors are fraying.

"At the time of the disaster," says Ms. Kusano, "acts of goodness gave people a new perspective. The next stage was people helping each other because they didn't have anything," she says.

"There was a sense of community. But now as some semblance of normality is returning," she says, "there are signs that all that has been forgotten."

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Rugby: Japan's 20-year winless run carries on at 2011 RWC

WHANGAREI, New Zealand (AP)—Having only won once in 20 matches in 20 years coming into the World Cup, Japan’s aim to win twice at the 2011 tournament was ambitious in a pool containing New Zealand and France.

Two losses into the event extended that undesirable run further but coach John Kirwan had always targeted Tonga as a winnable match to end Japan’s other dubious World Cup record, failing to win a game in 16 attempts.

Tonga extended that mark by another match Wednesday, dominating at the scrum and breakdown to run out 31-18 victors at Northland Events Centre and keep alive its bid to reach the quarterfinals despite also having lost its opening two games.

“The Tongans, especially in the first half, lived off our mistakes and punished us for those,” Kirwan said. “In the second half, we had an opportunity to get back into the game and we missed that opportunity with the maul down near the left-hand side.

“We probably had more possession and played more rugby, but rugby at this level is about the ruck. That was the critical thing tonight: rucks.”

Tonga won nine turnovers at the breakdown compared to zero for Japan, allowing Viliami Ma’afu, Tukulua Lokotui and Fetu’u Vainikolo to score tries and for flyhalf Kurt Morath to land six kicks from seven attempts and total of 16 points.

Japan captain Takashi Kikutani said his team’s plan to fan out in defense around the breakdown proved costly.

“We tried to have good ball presentation and leg drive and to hit low to win the ruck; we tried to not send many players into rucks,” he said. “But Tonga had many strengths in the ruck and a mismatch happened.”

Japan also scored three tries, through Kensuke Hatakeyama, Michael Leitch and Alisi Tupuailai, but a dismal all-around performance from flyhalf James Arlidge in failing to land one conversion and also spending time in the sinbin wrecked the team’s chances.

But Tonga could only win half its lineout ball and were forced to make 50 more tackles, giving Japan ample opportunity to build pressure.

“I thought when we held onto the ball and put some multi-phases together, we created try-scoring opportunities,” Kirwan said. “For us, it’s important to hold onto the ball so we can run the bigger packs around. Too many errors and not protecting the ball at the ruck cost us dearly. We need to fix that for Canada, otherwise the same thing will happen.”

Even Tonga coach Isitolo Maka was surprised by Japan’s lack of aggression at the ruck.

“I was expecting a lot more confrontation at the breakdown by the Japanese,” he said. “They were so quick to the breakdown, but I didn’t see that tonight.”

Japan meets Canada in Napier next Tuesday but has only an outside chance of finishing third in the pool and earning an automatic spot at the 2015 World Cup, the last edition before it hosts the tournament four years later.

“Japan hasn’t won a game for 20 years,” Kirwan said, referring to the 52-8 victory over Zimbabwe in 1991. “So we wanted to win two games to automatically qualify, and it makes the last game very, very important to win a game.”

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Japan's defense industry hit by its first cyber attack

Japan's defense industry hit by its first cyber attack Japan's biggest defense contractor, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, said on Monday hackers had gained access to its computers, with one newspaper saying its submarine, missile and nuclear power plant component factories had been the target. The company said in a statement that some information could have been stolen in the first known cyber attack on Japan's defense industry. "We've found out that some system information such as IP addresses have been leaked and that's creepy enough," said a Mitsubishi Heavy spokesman. A Japanese defense white paper released last month urged vigilance against cyber attacks after a spate of high-profile online assaults this year that included Lockheed Martin and other U.S. defense contractors.
23 Sep A man found 10 million yen ($131,000) in cash Sept. 22 in a bag thrown away in a garbage dump at the city of Kasai in Hyogo prefecture, police said. The 56-year-old employee of a Kasai Municipal Government-run waste disposal center found the bag while separating garbage for the disposal. Center officials handed the bag into the police and will be entitled to claim the cash if its rightful owner does not emerge within three months. (majirox news)
22 Sep Following the request that the name Tokyo Electric Power Co. appear on a receipt for a sex club in Sapporo's Susukino red-light district earlier this month, the establishment has decided to ban patronage from that firm, reports daily tabloid Yukan Fuji (Sept. 17). On September 14, the fuzoku shop Olive Garden announced on its blog that it would not honor patrons hailing from TEPCO - in fact, it joked that the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima had sapped some of their virility in any case. (Tokyo Reporter)
22 Sep Mika Sato has found that two dolls resembling her 6-year-old daughter, who died in the March 11 tsunami, have helped soothe her emotional scars. "It was like my daughter came back to me," said Sato, 36, recalling the day earlier this month when she received the two dolls from the nonprofit organization Tamezo Club. Omokage bina are dolls that resemble people who have passed on. They are made by craftsmen who work from photographs of the deceased person. Since early August, Tamezo Club, a welfare services NPO based in Iwatsuki Ward, Saitama, has been donating them to people who lost loved ones in the March 11 disaster. (Yomiuri)
22 Sep A 71-year-old Japanese man died in Honolulu after falling off a trolley during a tour. The man, who name was not released, was taken to a hospital after falling Monday afternoon, where he was listed in critical condition and died later that day, police said. The man was standing next to an exit on the trolley and fell onto the road when the vehicle made a left turn out of a shopping center. A police spokeswoman said the accident is under investigation but that drugs and alcohol are not considered to be factors. The trolley was not speeding and traffic was moderate at the time, she said. (Japan Times)
21 Sep To promote forthcoming anti-gang legislation, the superintendent general of Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, Tateshi Higuchi, threw out the first pitch before the Yakult Swallows faced the Yomiuri Giants at Tokyo Dome last night, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Sept. 21). Beginning on October 1, business transactions between citizens and members of organized crime, such as the paying mikajimeryo (protection money), will be prohibited. The law will be enforced nationwide. (Tokyo Reporter)

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Inside Japan's nuclear ghost zone

13 September 2011 Last updated at 12:03 GMT By David Shukman Environment & science correspondent, BBC News As David Shukman enters the exclusion zone, he finds cattle that have starved to death

Nothing stirs in the empty heart of Tomioka, a community of 16,000 now reduced to the eerie status of a ghost town after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima.

The shops of the main street are deserted, motorbikes and cars are abandoned, weeds push through gaps in the concrete.

Vending machines selling drinks and snacks - always popular in Japan - stand unlit and silent.

Tomioka lies just inside the 20km exclusion zone that was hurriedly enforced last March when a radioactive cloud escaped from the stricken power plant.

In the rush to flee, doors were left wide open. Windows and roofs shattered by the earthquake and tsunami are still not repaired. A bicycle leans against a lamp-post.

Mr Matsumura is eager for the world to see how his community has suffered

We are making the visit after reassurances from scientists and other journalists that radiation levels had fallen in this particular area.

The worst of the contamination was blown northwest of Fukushima while Tomioka lies to the south.

Nevertheless we equip ourselves with overalls, boots, gloves and face-masks, all designed to minimise contact with the dust that is likely to be the main source of radioactivity.

The public and media are banned from entering the zone but as we approach a police checkpoint we are not stopped.

Radiation checks

We continually operate a Geiger counter - and though the radiation level rises slightly once we cross into the zone, it is even lower than we had expected.

For the record, during the course of a three-hour visit - which we kept deliberately short to minimise the risks - the rate averages about three microsieverts per hour.

We estimate our total dose to be roughly half that of a typical chest X-ray.

Our guide is a local farmer, Naoto Matsumura, eager for the world to see how his community has suffered.

Although he was part of the initial exodus after the accident, he could not bear life in a refugee centre and soon moved back to his farm, refusing orders to leave.

He's the last citizen to remain but he believes that it's his duty to do whatever he can to keep Tomoika going as a community.

Some animals have only known life within the exclusion zone

"We want this place to be safe again," he tells me, as we drive through quiet streets and past overgrown paddy-fields.

"We need gas, electricity and water. But the old people still want to come back, even my mother and father. Their wish is to die here.

"Now it's just me taking care of the animals."

The fate of the livestock is one immediate challenge. Dozens of cattle broke free after the evacuation and now roam wild.

Pigs and farmed boar also escaped and are living a feral existence - I see one litter of very young animals who have only known life inside the nuclear zone.

But others remained trapped - their owners fled in too much of a hurry to release them - and they have since starved to death.

Mr Mastumura leads us to a large cattle farm. Beef from this area used to be highly prized for its taste and quality.

'Failing' residents

Wrecked by the quake and over-run by massive spiders' webs, the sheds now make for a very grim scene.

At one end of a row of pens, I see the decomposed bodies of a cow and her calf. In all, 60 cattle perished here.

Mr Matsumura believes the authorities have failed the people of the area - which is why he's taken the risk of bringing us in.

As we keep watch on the Geiger counter, the radiation level, as expected, is generally higher down on the ground, very occasionally peaking at around 30 microsieverts an hour.

On a very rapid visit like ours, these rates are by no means threatening. But I ask our guide if he worries about living in this environment.

"I refuse to think about it," he says, joking that his chain-smoking may be more dangerous.

Inside the exclusion zone, dust is considered the main source of radioactivity

There may be others willing to join him but the exclusion order is unlikely to be lifted - even in this area - for a while yet.

Of wider concern is the impact of contamination beyond the zone.

The main plume of radioactivity reached far further than the 20km border with fears for agriculture and human health, and scientists are now in a race to gather reliable data to help shape public policy.

Japan's Institute for Livestock and Grassland Science has invited in a leading British expert, Dr Brenda Howard from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Lancaster, to provide advice following her years of research at Chernobyl.

Her initial assessment is that the effects will not be nearly as serious as with that accident, partly because in Japan most cattle are kept indoors and so avoided the fallout.

'No Chernobyl'

"The animal production system here is very different to Chernobyl," she says.

"There the cows graze outside on pasture. Whereas cows and beef cattle here are housed and therefore there's less potential for being contaminated by the radioactivity."

Readings have confirmed contamination of the soil, often at high levels - which raises the question of how much radioactivity may pass into the plants growing on it.

Professor Tomoko Nakanishi of the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Sciences believes the contamination is mostly superficial.

Some structures have been over-run by spiders' webs

Her early studies have shown that vast majority of radioactivity is held within the top 5cm of the soil.

As a result, she believes that relatively small quantities of radioactive Caesium 134 and 137 will be absorbed into the stalks of rice, and even fewer into their grains.

"Only the surface is contaminated," she told me, "only the first 5cm is highly contaminated."

Professor Takanishi concedes that consumers might not be convinced by these reassurances.

"If you don't want to eat it," she says, "just discard this year's product but next year I'm really optimistic. It will be safe to eat."

But if that conclusion is proved right, there still remains the challenge of clearing up large areas of poisoned soil.

Removing the top soil is one technique but it needs to be disposed of and the work is very expensive. Ploughing it deeper into the ground can dilute it but that too is a costly option.

Six months on, much of the science is still uncertain and it may be years before farmland can be convincingly declared safe.

Meanwhile, Naoto Matsumura ekes out a pre-industrial existence in the shadow of Fukushima.

Ten miles from the crippled power station, he lives by candlelight, mostly eating from tins, all the while he hoping the community he grew up in will come back to life.

It may be a long wait.

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Six months after Japan's tsunami, residents worry their plight is fading from view (video) (The Christian Science Monitor)

Minami-Sanriku, Japan – As memorial services were held across the northeast coastal regions to mark six months since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, recovery from the vast disaster is proving to be painfully slow in many places.

Some of the worst-hit towns still resemble wasteland. More than 80,000 people remain in temporary accommodation. The nuclear crisis at Fukushima triggered by the tsunami is ongoing, and the new industry minister resigned over the weekend after making disparaging comments about the city.

“We pray for the lost lives and for the missing to be found as early as possible. We hope that people can return to this town and we can hear cheerful voices again,â€

RELATED: IN PICTURES: Japan's nuclear fallout

Mr. Sato had been in the town hall along with 130 staff when the tsunami struck. He was one of only 10 survivors when the 50-ft. waves came across the roof of the building and washed away 20 of the 30 people who had made it that far.

Most of the residents of the town returned for the service from other areas, as Minami-Sanriku remains largely uninhabitable. Thousands of tons of debris were piled into mountains of wood, earth, metal, and concrete along the waterfront.

A boat rests on the second floor of the former city hospital, facing away from the sea, where the tsunami deposited it as the huge wave pulled back to where it came from after obliterating 95 percent of the town.

Related video:

newslook

Recognizing sacrifices Red steel girders are all that is left of the town’s disaster response center where a young local government worker, Miki Endo, famously stayed at her post sounding an alarm and urging residents to evacuate, until the tsunami engulfed the building and she went missing.

People came from as far as Tokyo to pay their respects at the small makeshift shrine that has appeared in the shell of the building, dedicated to Ms. Endo’s sacrifice. Some residents of Minami-Sanriku want the remains of the building to be turned into a permanent monument to her heroism.

A cluster of 20 prefab housing units behind the Bayside Arena, where Sunday morning’s service was held, is now home to a fraction of the town’s people who lost their homes on March 11.

Kaeko Gyoba was in a club for Minami-Sanriku’s elderly residents with her husband when the earthquake struck. They made it up to the fourth floor and were spared as the waves swept through the three stories below, but left the building standing when the waves receded. It was one of the few buildings spared in the entire town.

“We spent two nights up there until a Self-Defense Force helicopter was able to land at the elementary school nearby and get us out,” says Ms. Gyoba.She stayed with relatives near Tokyo after the disaster, but she returned last month to be with the rest of her family, who now occupy five of the small, flimsy-looking temporary houses.

“It’s very tough living here, I just can’t get used to it. There’s nowhere in the town to shop, you need a car to go anywhere, and I worry how cold it will be in the winter,” says Gyoba. “And none of the family have jobs now. They all worked on the ocean, farming seaweed and oysters. Everything was swept away.”

Fading from public consciousness? Despite the nationwide attention that the six-month memorials have been receiving, some of those still struggling to put their lives back together feel they are gradually fading from people’s consciousness in the rest of the country. There is also anger at politicians in Tokyo who they see as more concerned with partisan fighting than focusing on helping the region’s recovery.

Even the leadership contest to replace former Prime Minister Naoto Kan – heavily criticized for his handling of the crisis – was seen as a self-indulgent distraction by many in the region. His replacement, Yoshihiko Noda, has already lost his trade and industry minister, only eight days after being sworn in.

On his first visit to the disaster zone last week, Trade Minister Yoshio Hachiro joked with a reporter accompanying him on the trip about infecting him with radiation by wiping his jacket on the journalist after coming out of the no-go zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant. The minister went on to describe the area around the stricken facility as, “really like a town of death.”

Hachiro’s behavior provoked outrage not just among residents of Fukushima, but across Japan’s north-east coast. For many, the minister’s attitude betrayed a lack of real empathy from Tokyo politicians with the victims of the triple disasters, and his tearful apology afterward convinced few.

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Japan's Edano to replace gaffe-prone minister (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda chose on Monday former top government spokesman Yukio Edano as the new trade minister, acting to limit the damage to his new cabinet after the previous minister quit over gaffes.

Edano will be heading the trade ministry that also oversees energy policy, a key role as Japan works to bring under control the world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami set off meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Edano, former chief cabinet secretary under the previous premier, Naoto Kan, is considered to have a good understanding of the nuclear issues and became the government's face as the radiation crisis unfolded with the frequent broadcasting of his briefings on the plant's status.

"Public support for Noda's cabinet is unlikely to rise with Edano taking over, but the amount of damage has likely been minimized," said Tetsuro Kato, a political science professor at Waseda University, adding Edano was a safe choice for Noda.

Previous trade minister Yoshio Hachiro quit on Saturday, only after eight days in his job, following reports that he joked with reporters about radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant during his trip to the affected area.

Noda, who took over as Japan's sixth premier in five years at the start of this month, needed to act quickly because the blunders gave the opposition that controls the parliament's upper house ammunition to attack the new cabinet.

The 54-year-old former finance minister, who has emphasized the importance of uniting the fractious ruling party, is set to address parliament in a policy speech on Tuesday, which will be followed by questions from opposition leaders.

UNDER PRESSURE

Noda must end the radiation crisis while tackling many challenges, including rebuilding after the March disaster and curbing huge public debt, and will need opposition cooperation to achieve that.

One of the near-term tests will come next month when the cabinet is expected to prepare and submit to parliament an extra budget of about 10 trillion yen ($128.6 billion) needed to start full-fledged reconstruction in the disaster-struck areas.

The public will be keen to see progress in bringing damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima plant to a safe shutdown by January, the process which Edano will oversee.

Edano, 47, has said that Japan will need to review its nuclear power policy from scratch after the Fukushima accident tattered public trust in atomic energy.

"Mr. Edano has been deeply involved not only in reconstruction issues after the March 11 disaster but also in the issue of Fukushima, so that record must have been valued," Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told a news conference.

Edano will be charged with overseeing power utilities' stress tests to see how well prepared their nuclear reactors are to withstand the impact of extreme events. Japan's nuclear safety watchdog will be under the trade ministry until April.

Currently, only 11 out of 54 nuclear reactors are operating after others have been unable to restart following maintenance checks due to heightened public worries.

Noda's government started out with public support ratings of more than 60 percent in a sign the Japanese public was willing to give the new leader the benefit of the doubt despite bitter disappointment with his predecessor Kan.

Kan's ratings plunged from similar highs to less than 20 percent at the end of his 15-month tenure after he drew fire for his cabinet's handling of the March disaster and the resulting nuclear crisis. ($1 = 77.750 Japanese Yen)

(Additional reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Yoko Nishikawa)

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Edano named Japan's new trade minister (AP)

TOKYO – Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano was named Japan's new trade minister Monday, replacing a politician who resigned over comments considered insensitive to evacuees in the country's nuclear crisis.

Yoshio Hachiro resigned over the weekend, after just eight days in the post, after he called the area around a crippled nuclear power plant a "town of death." The resignation was an embarrassment for the government Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda as it tries to tackle the massive task of rebuilding the tsunami-battered northeast coast.

Edano's appointment was announced by Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura.

Edano, 47, became a familiar figure on television as the government's chief spokesman during the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

Some 100,000 people who used to live around the plant have been evacuated and it remains unclear when they will be able to return to their homes.

Hachiro, Noda and other government ministers were visiting the Fukushima plant Thursday when Hachiro made his comments. He later told reporters he just meant to convey the seriousness of the situation and his commitment to decontaminate it so residents can return.

Announcing his resignation on Saturday, Hachiro said the remarks "rubbed the feelings of Fukushima people the wrong way" but that he did not intend to be hurtful.

Hachiro, 63, was less forthcoming about a second comment that also was criticized. According to local news reports, he joked with journalists that radiation he acquired on his clothing during his visit to Fukushima might be contagious.

Support for Noda's new government has started out strong, with an approval rating of 62.8 percent in a Kyodo poll released last Saturday. But that rating could take a hit over Hachiro's gaffe.

Past leaders have had honeymoon periods of relatively high approval ratings that declined steadily as the public grew impatient.

Noda's predecessor, Naoto Kan, had early approval ratings topping 60 percent that crashed to below 20 percent near the end of his 15-month tenure due to perceptions his government mishandled the tsunami disaster and nuclear crisis.

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Repairing Japan's image, one teacher at a time

Japan is employing an unusual method in its attempt to rejuvenate its faltering international image after a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated the country exactly six months ago on March 11.

It comes in the form of a petite, brunette teacher from Canada: Tanya Gardecky, 25, of Aurora, Ont.

Or rather in the form of 20 foreigners from around the world who once taught English in the devastated regions and now have gone back, on Japan's dime, to view the progress for themselves.

Each was once a teacher with the government-funded JET Programme and taught in the public school system.

Months after the March 11 disaster, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs put out a call to alumni, offering to send a limited number back to hard-hit areas where they'd worked to see the progress for themselves.Tanya Gardecky poses for a photo with her students. Courtesy of Tanya Gardecky

The selected alumni were required to spend no more than a week visiting the schools and reconstruction sites. Then, the Japanese government hopes, they will bring a message back to friends, family and, of course, the media.

"They want me to let everybody know that it's safe," says Gardecky. And she stresses that it is.

"It’s still safe. If you're afraid of the radiation, just don't go to that area. But still go to Japan."

Gardecky, one of two Canadians selected for the program, returned to the coastal city of Shiogama in Miyagi prefecture, where she taught at numerous elementary and junior high schools for a year ending in July, 2010.

The music teacher arrived on August 22 and began a whirlwind tour of her schools and surrounding areas.

What she saw was mostly promising when considering only six months have passed. "They've obviously made a lot of progress but they still have a lot to go," she says.

At one mall in Shiogama, for example, pictures snapped days after the tsunami show the first floor windows blown out, the concrete ground ripped apart and a car embedded inside a store. Today, the exterior is fixed and flawless.

But it was on a small island of Nonoshima, population 100, where she also taught, that the devastation was still evident.

"Where houses used to be, there was a pond," she said.

Many on the island lost their homes. All of her students survived, though not all their family members did. And yet, despite the devastation, Gardecky says students appeared to be their energetic selves.

On the island, Gardecky was able to hand deliver a portion of money she'd fundraised back in Canada for Japan disaster relief, directly giving it to the principal of the Urato Junior High School to help them repair earthquake damage.

And she hopes that her presence delivered a message of its own to her students and the Japanese at large: to "let them know the rest of the world hasn't forgotten them."

It's unclear whether Gardecky's visit will help Japan recover its tourism or change the way people view the country as nuclear radiation troubles continue to plague the northeast. But at the very least it has one person vowing a return: Gardecky herself.

"The plan now is to get a job in Japan as soon as possible," says Gardecky, adding she hopes to live there for five to 10 years.

"Going back I realized how much I should be there – and not in Canada."

Scroll on the images below to see how Japan has changed in 6 months since the earthquake:

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Edano named Japan's new trade minister

Edano named Japan's new trade minister Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano was named Japan's new trade minister Monday, replacing a politician who resigned over comments considered insensitive to evacuees in the country's nuclear crisis. Yoshio Hachiro resigned over the weekend, after just eight days in the post, after he called the area around a crippled nuclear power plant a "town of death." The resignation was an embarrassment for the government Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda as it tries to tackle the massive task of rebuilding the tsunami-battered northeast coast. Edano's appointment was announced by Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura.
12 Sep Across from a noodle shop in a Yokohama suburb, Hisayoshi Teramura's inn looks much like any other small lodging that dots the port city. Occasionally, it's even mistaken for a love hotel by couples hankering for some time beneath the sheets. But Teramura's place is neither a love nest nor a pit stop for tired travelers. The white and grey tiled building is a corpse hotel, its 18 deceased guests tucked up in refrigerated coffins. "We tell them we only have cold rooms," Teramura quips when asked how his staff respond to unwary lovers looking for a room. The daily rate at Lastel, as it is known, is 12,000 yen ($157). For that fee, bereaved families can check in their dead while they wait their turn in the queue for one of the city's overworked crematoriums. (Reuters)
12 Sep Two Japanese teenagers, Shota Sometani and Fumi Nikaido, won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for best young actor and actress at the 68th Venice International Film Festival on Saturday for their performance in the Japanese film "Himizu" directed by Sion Sono. Sometani, 19, and Nikaido, 16, became the first Japanese actor and actress to take home the prize, which was created in 1998. At press conference in Tokyo on Sunday, the actors expressed their joy at receiving the award. (Japan Times)
12 Sep Former Morning Musume member Ai Kago was found in her Tokyo apartment yesterday after an apparent suicide attempt, reports daily tabloid Sports Hochi (Sept. 12). Tokyo Metropolitan Police reported that medical personnel were alerted to Kago's apartment, located in the Roppongi area of Minato Ward, just before noon on Monday after members of the 23-year-old's management agency discovered her on the floor with her wrists cut. She was transferred to a local hospital, where she is now recovering. The one-time member of the popular idol group also seemed to be suffering from an overdose of tranquilizers, police said. (Tokyo Reporter)
12 Sep Even before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami struck knocking out the Fukushima nuclear plant, Aya's life was a struggle. She had divorced her abusive husband and was left on her own to care and provide for her two daughters. Now, six months after she fled her home just 9 km (6 miles) away from the radiation-spewing plant, the 26-year old single mother is barely surviving. She has no job, languishes in hiding from her violent ex-husband in temporary housing and will probably never see her home again. (Reuters)
12 Sep Former actress and stripper Minako Komukai will make her debut next month in the adult video business, reports Zakzak (Sept. 10). Minako KomukaiAV producer Alice Japan will release the "AV Actress Minako Komukai" DVD - described as containing "super hardcore" content - on October 14. Komukai will have two sex scenes in the 120-minute film (3,990 yen). Zakzak reports that Alice Japan already employs top talents like Minami Kojima and Aoi Tsukasa and likens the debut to that of former AKB48 member Rina Nakanishi (performing under the name Riko Yamaguchi), who entered the AV biz in August of last year. Mukai was arrested for the second time earlier this year for stimulant drug violations. (Tokyo Reporter)

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Japan's new PM suffers early blow as minister quits (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's new government suffered a blow on Saturday after just eight days in office when the trade minister resigned over gaffes on the sensitive topic of radiation from the tsunami-hit Fukushima plant.

The resignation of Trade Minister Yoshio Hachiro, who handles the energy portfolio, will give opposition parties ammunition for attack as Noda strives to end the radiation crisis at the Fukushima plant while tackling a plethora of challenges from rebuilding after the March earthquake and tsunami to curbing huge public debt.

Hachiro submitted his resignation to Noda after reports that he joked with a reporter about radiation from the tsunami-crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, Jiji news agency and other domestic media reported. It was his second remark seen as offensive to victims of the worst nuclear accident in 25 years.

Japanese media said Hachiro had attempted to rub up against a reporter saying "I'll give you radiation" after visiting the Fukushima plant on Thursday.

Opposition party leaders criticized the remark and said that they would press Noda himself over his responsibility for appointing Hachiro, NHK public TV reported.

Hachiro had already been rebuked by Noda and apologized on Friday for calling the deserted area near the plant a "town of death," a comment seen as offensive to disaster victims.

Noda, who took over as Japan's sixth prime minister in five years after predecessor Naoto Kan resigned, will face harsh questioning over his appointment of Hachiro and other novice ministers in a session of parliament expected to begin next week. Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa has already come under attack for calling himself an "amateur" in security matters.

Noda, who won a bruising battle to become head of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, has emphasized the need to restore fractured party unity in his appointments, raising concerns that he had done so at the expense of expertise.

"There was already great mistrust of his personnel appointments," said independent commentator Atsuo Ito.

Noda's quick decision to sacrifice Hachiro would probably help dampen public criticism, but a drop in his voter support could make it harder to obtain help from opposition parties to pass bills in the divided parliament, where they control the upper house and can block legislation, Ito added.

(Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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Living with the aftermath of Japan's tsunami nightmare

Kyoko Ogawa became depressed after losing her hotel in March tsunamiShe contemplated suicide after being afraid to talk to anyone about her troublesShe says a volunteer psychiatrist at an evacuation center saved herMental health specialists are worried about the impact of the disaster months later

Otsuchi, Japan (CNN) -- Kyoko Ogawa wore the brave face the world associated with Japan's tsunami survivors.

The March 11 catastrophe washed away all her earthly possessions. She watched as her hotel burned to the ground in a gas explosion triggered by the tsunami; a hotel that had been in her family for generations.

She was determined not to let the disaster break her.

But after the elation of finding her son alive, the reality of losing her livelihood started to erode the calm facade. She was in turmoil. She was afraid to talk to other people about it because she knew everyone was suffering as much as her, if not more.

They were "ganbaru," she recalls -- enduring, holding on, withstanding, and living with the pain. She couldn't be the only one to lose control.

"I was in shock because I realized that all that was precious to me was gone," she says, six months on from that terrible day. "I didn't know what to do from then on. I became tormented."

That was the start of a slippery slope down a dark trail of despair.

It's a familiar story in Otsuchi, northeastern Japan, where the devastating earthquake and tsunami turned much of the town in Iwate Prefecture into rubble. Today, much of that physical debris has been cleared away. But the emotional wreckage of the survivors is proving much more difficult to remove, as the mental scars from that day linger months later.

In Ogawa's case, depression could have had tragic consequences for her had she not met Suimei Morikawa, a volunteer psychiatrist who listened patiently to her troubles one day at an evacuation center.

Morikawa became the difference between life and death. She says she probably would have ended her life if the doctor hadn't been there for her.

"I was so moved by her approach to life," recalls Morikawa. "She may have been suffering and wanting to end her life because she had lost so much, but she also desperately wanted to get over that. I was moved by her willingness to get out of her own situation. I just helped her a little."

Concerns about suicide and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are growing among mental health specialists working in the region. PTSD in particular, a condition which can push people over the edge if not addressed, can show up months after the initial shock.

Suicide is also a major concern in Japan.

The sense of loss and deep grief can overcome you quickly and if you are alone when that happens, you lose all hope for the future.
Mariko Ukiyo, psychologist

According to the World Health Organization, Japan has the fifth highest suicide rate in the world. More than 30,000 suicides are reported each year, according to the country's national police agency, with Iwate Prefecture -- one of the regions hit hardest by the tsunami -- having one of the biggest problems.

Mariko Ukiyo, a psychologist and volunteer counselor, is part of a therapy group called "Team Japan 300." She and a number of other team members visit temporary villages in the devastated region hoping to treat symptoms of PTSD and ultimately prevent suicides.

According to Ukiyo, loneliness and despair take hold when the survivors move from their evacuation center to temporary housing.

"It is only then that people see how their life has changed from their pre-disaster life," she says. "The sense of loss and deep grief can overcome you quickly and if you are alone when that happens, you lose all hope for the future. I think this period is when they need help the most."

But getting help to the victims is proving to be a challenge in Japan, a country with limited experience in mental health care historically. Ukiyo says the amount of psychological support received by tsunami victims now is a tenth of what the victims of 9/11 in the United States experienced.

According to Ukiyo, the devastating 1995 earthquake in the city of Kobe started to raise awareness about the effects of post-traumatic stress -- particularly among the younger generation -- but many Japanese continue to find it difficult to talk about sorrow and loss because of the shame of appearing weak.

Ukiyo's strategy is to gather the residents in temporary housing for a regular get-together in a relaxed atmosphere. This gives her the opportunity to keep an eye on each of the participants, observing anyone that shows signs of severe distress. The hope is that what starts out as small talk will gradually evolve into people talking about themselves and their problems.

But despite her efforts Ukiyo is not optimistic about the region's future with trauma.

"We are only now starting to hear about sick or depressed people six months after the tsunami," she says. She believes suicide rates will only increase.

Meanwhile, Kyoko Ogawa vows not to be another victim. She says Dr. Morikawa pulled her back from the brink and she is now making plans for the future. She wants to rebuild her hotel and give back to those who helped her.

While Ogawa is a success story for Morikawa, he worries about those he will never reach in this devastated region.

"Now that I have met these people, I have grown attached to them," he says.

"It saddens me that there are still so many people suffering here. I can't stand the thought that there may be people who died because they had no-one to talk to."

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Ex-PM feared for Japan's survival in nuke crisis (AP)

TOKYO – Japan's former prime minister says he feared early in the March nuclear crisis that it might become many times worse than the Chernobyl disaster and threaten the nation's survival.

Naoto Kan says he imagined "deserted scenes of Tokyo without a single man" and the need to evacuate tens of millions of people.

"It was truly a spine-chilling thought," Kan said in an interview with the Tokyo Shimbun daily published Tuesday.

Kan said those images flashed in his mind during the first week of the crisis, when information coming from the radiation-leaking Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was sketchy and he was told that its operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., was considering pulling out its staff. TEPCO has since said that it never planned to withdraw from the plant.

Kan, who resigned last week amid criticism over his administration's handling of the disaster, said when he heard that cooling systems had failed at the nuclear plant soon after it was damaged by a March 11 tsunami, he understood the gravity of the situation.

"The power was totally lost and there was no cooling capacity. I knew what that meant. So I thought, 'This is going to be a disaster.'"

Kan said crisis management at the plant failed because the emergency plans included no scenario for a total power failure.

Authorities have since said that the cores of three of the six reactors melted down — much worse than they said initially — spewing about one-sixth the radiation emitted by the accident at Chernobyl.

After a series of hydrogen explosions, Kan said he heard from then-Trade Minister Banri Kaieda that TEPCO was considering pulling out staff from the nuclear plant.

Without staff to cool the overheated reactors, Kan said he knew the reactors and spent nuclear fuel stored in pools would "rapidly melt down and release massive amounts of radiation."

He said he summoned then-TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu for an explanation, but he "never told me anything clearly."

"Withdrawing from the plant was out of the question. If that had happened, Tokyo would have been deserted by now. It was a critical moment for Japan's survival. It could have been a disaster leaking dozens of times more radiation than Chernobyl," he said.

"Japan was facing the possibility of a collapse" at that time, he said in a separate interview published Wednesday by the Mainichi newspaper. "I was under an enormous sense of crisis."

The Fukushima complex is about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo. The greater Tokyo area has more than 30 million people.

Some 100,000 people from around the plant have been evacuated. While the amount of radiation leaking from the plant has dropped significantly, authorities say accumulated radiation in the soil and vegetation may make it difficult for residents to return to their homes for some time, perhaps years.

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Why Japan's Typhoon Talas was so deadly

Why Japan's Typhoon Talas was so deadly Typhoon Talas, a storm that swept across Japan over the weekend, has taken a terrible toll. So how did the storm, as some news outlets have reported, become the deadliest in seven years for the country? Several factors, some on the ground, and some in the sky, conspired to lend the deadly force to the typhoon - the term for hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean, according to meteorologists. Much of the devastation in Japan is the result of record-breaking rains, which caused deadly floods and landslides. Talas was a massive storm, and took its time moving across the island, said Rob Gutro, a meteorologist and manager of NASA's hurricane page, two of the reasons parts of Japan were lashed with so much rain.
7 Sep With television entertainer Shinsuke Shimada revealing last month that he had ties to organized crime, Zakzak (Sep. 6) speculates that gravure idols (pin-up models often appearing in magazines and on variety shows) will soon find difficulties as police work to eradicate the underworld from the entertainment industry. Starting in October, new anti-gang legislation will prohibit ordinary citizens from doing business transactions with gangsters. Years ago, it was not unusual for organized crime groups, or boryokudan, to associate in public with enka and kabuki performers, but today that is no longer allowable. Nowadays the relations exist through offices that employ models. (Tokyo Reporter)
7 Sep An 81-year-old man who sexually abused two pre-teen girls visiting his home to take part in an English conversation group was sentenced on Sept.6 by the Tokyo District Court to 18 years imprisonment, a year longer than prosecutors had sought. Yasutomo Obana was found guilty of a number of charges, including rape resulting in injury. "You used your position to take advantage of the lack of sexual awareness and immature judgment ability on the part of the girls to carry out what was a foul crime," Presiding Judge Ikuo Toishi told Obana. Toishi praised the girls for their testimony in court and slammed Obana for his behavior. (majirox news)
7 Sep Kyoko Ogawa wore the brave face the world associated with Japan's tsunami survivors. The March 11 catastrophe washed away all her earthly possessions. She watched as her hotel burned to the ground in a gas explosion triggered by the tsunami; a hotel that had been in her family for generations. She was determined not to let the disaster break her. But after the elation of finding her son alive, the reality of losing her livelihood started to erode the calm facade. She was in turmoil. She was afraid to talk to other people about it because she knew everyone was suffering as much as her, if not more. (CNN)
6 Sep In mid-August, Tsuneko Iwakura was finally moved into temporary housing, after five moves in as many months since evacuating her home near a damaged nuclear plant. 'We hear we can stay here for at least two years, so we are now relieved,' said Iwakura, 78. She and her husband left their home in north-eastern Japan when the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Station started leaking radioactive material, only 5 kilometres away. When the magnitude-9 earthquake struck the area on March 11, Iwakura watched as the walls of her house cracked and tiles fell from the roof. (monstersandcritics.com)
6 Sep More than 30,000 fashionistas flocked to Japan's largest fashion event, the Tokyo Girl's Collection -- or TGC this weekend -- a bi-annual show that combines the country's top fashion brands with popular music acts. Now in its sixth year, the six hour show has established itself as the epicenter of Japan's "kawaii," or cute culture, a culture that has gained a global following in recent years. On Saturday, the Saitama Super Arena, just outside of Tokyo, looked more like a cross between a concert and circus than a fashion show. Popular models strutted their looks down the runway, as adoring fans screamed their names, while other show-goers crowded booths featuring everything from makeup to a foot massage. In between, the TGC stage featured a mini ballet performance, and an appearance by Cirque de Soleil. (ABC News)

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Japan's debt a good reason for economic revolution

If you’d told me 10 years ago, when I moved to Tokyo, that today I’d be writing about an eighth leader, I never would’ve believed it. Yet here we are, analysing and philosophising about whether Yoshihiko Noda will last longer than the last five.

In April 2001, Junichiro Koizumi grabbed the job from the hapless Yoshiro Mori. Koizumi stuck around for an unthinkably long five years. He talked big about economic reforms, promised even bigger and managed to get a few things done. Then Koizumi turned the keys over to the forgettable Shinzo Abe, who then passed them to Yasuo Fukuda and Taro Aso.

Political lightning struck in August 2009. Voters tossed out the Liberal Democratic Party that had been in power for roughly 54 years. The Democratic Party of Japan might have fared better if it picked someone other than political lightweight Yukio Hatoyama as prime minister. Next came Naoto Kan, who last week resigned to make room for yet another leader.

Analysts and pundits are busy criticising politicians in Tokyo for going with the safe choice – Noda – when Japan is navigating a world economy that is anything but. Yet let’s put blame where it belongs: Japan’s 127 million people.

There’s some truth in the old saw that people generally get the leaders they deserve. In Japan’s case, voters need to begin demanding more of leaders and speaking out forcefully for change. Instead, they offer nothing more than numbing silence.

I just spent several days in India observing tens of thousands of aggrieved voters rallying behind a 74-year-old anti-corruption activist. Anna Hazare isn’t an extraordinarily charismatic man. Just as a young Tunisian man setting himself on fire precipitated protests that changed his nation forever, Hazare’s hunger strike was the perfect gesture at the right time.

Watching the crowds grow, I kept wondering why fed-up Japanese aren’t taking to the streets en masse. I’m not advocating violence or aggression of any kind; just a giant march or two to let politicians know that the status quo just won’t do. Change will only come when politicians feel pressured.

There are a couple of obvious reasons that the protests seen recently in India, Malaysia, Thailand and elsewhere aren’t occurring in Japan. One is affluence. For all Japan’s challenges – recession, deflation, negligible wage growth – households have trillions of dollars of savings. And Japan’s jobless rate is just 4.6 percent compared with 9.1 percent in the US.

Another is cultural. In a nation where decorum and etiquette are obsessively observed, carrying banners and chanting in streets holds little appeal.

Yet the world is speeding up as Japan stands immobile, thanks to timid and ineffectual leaders. China leapfrogged over Japan to become the second-largest economy and its 9.5 percent growth is a sharp contrast to most developed nations. As deflation eats away at iconic Japanese companies such as Sony, upstarts like Samsung of South Korea are booming.

Even before the record earthquake and tsunami in March and the ensuing radiation crisis, Tokyo was dragging its feet. There was little willingness to reduce Japan’s huge public debt – the world’s largest – or figure out how to live without the stimulus of zero interest rates.

There was no serious discussion about making the economy more competitive, preparing for an ageing population, increasing the national birthrate or loosening immigration rules.

In the days after the earthquake, it seemed Japan would be forced to disengage from autopilot and steer the economy in another direction. If the past five-plus months proved anything, it’s the durability of Japan’s inertia. Politicians have been preoccupied with getting rid of Kan. Mission accomplished. Now what?

In the devastated northeast, tens of thousands of people remain in crowded shelters and temporary homes. They are fearful of the fallout from radiation leaks in Fukushima and job prospects in the long run.

All they are getting from Tokyo is petty politics as usual and economic policies that can only be described as tired. Bureaucrats continue to build on their little fiefdoms with little regard for the masses.

Noda isn’t known for bold ideas. Remember, he was the safe choice.

Only this is no time for safe, and the Japanese people are growing antsy. It’s time for change. It’s time the Japanese revolution began.

William Pesek is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

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