Energy-saving 'setsuden' campaign sweeps Japan after Fukushima - The Guardian

Workers using LED lamps instead of main lights, in an office in Tokyo. Such energy-saving measures, or 'setsuden' are sweeping Japan after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Photograph: Bloomberg/Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images

After decades of not bothering to switch off the lights in unoccupied rooms in their Tokyo home, Masayoshi Sakurai and his children now meticulously make sure they do.

"My wife used to badger us to switch off the lights because she was worried about high electricity bills. Now all of us have begun saving energy, by reducing the use of air-conditioners, turning off the computer and so on," explained the corporate employee.

Sakurai is part of a growing movement in Japan, led by a media campaign called 'setsuden' (power saving in Japanese), that has begun to spread support for limiting electricity consumption.

"Public support is strong for setsuden mostly because they fear power blackouts of the type caused by the disastrous Fukushima nuclear accident," says Kazuko Sato, of Soft Energy Project, a non- government organisation that lobbies for renewable energy expansion.

Sato told IPS that the energy saving mood sweeping the country is a new trend in Japan that gives an opportunity to push for clean energy over national policy that favours nuclear power.

She explained that the challenge facing green activists is to link the setsuden mood to banning nuclear energy.

"To push renewable and safe energy to the national forefront and reduce Japan's reliance on nuclear energy, it is important to sustain the current public setsuden mood. I am worried that the public support could be temporary," she said.

Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind provide for less than two percent of Japan's total power consumption.

Tokyo, a bustling capital famous for its neon lights, has now turned into a city of darkened buildings and slower running trains. Billboards at major crossings flash daily rates of power consumption that tell whether the city has conserved sufficient energy to avoid a blackout.

Hisayo Takada, energy expert at Greenpeace Japan, a leading environment organisation, says such developments are important but do not necessarily translate into public anger against nuclear power.

"The public setsuden sentiment is merely symbolic. Everybody is joining the bandwagon as an expression of solidarity at a time of distress. What is more important is to create a deeper front against dangerous nuclear power," she told IPS.

A massive earthquake and tsunami on Mar. 11 destroyed Japan's largest nuclear power plant at Fukushima, forcing the government to review the national policy on nuclear energy that currently meets 30 percent of the national demand.

Japan has 54 nuclear reactors of which only 15 are in operation currently, with some of them set to undergo stress tests as a precaution after the Fukushima disaster.

As a result, the total electricity supplied by the ten major utilities in July dropped by almost nine percent, or 83 billion kilowatt hours, in comparison to supply in 2010, according to the Federation of Electric Power Companies.

Well-known Japanese author Kazutoshi Hanto, in an interview on Japanese television, likened the current power-saving efforts to 1945 post-war Japan when people worked hard to rebuild their country.

"National unity in the form of setsuden mirrors the early post-war diligence of the Japanese who worked single-mindedly to rebuild the country.

"There are new ideas and efforts rising from the worst nuclear disaster in Japan," Hanto said.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan is pushing a national goal to generate 20 percent of electricity from alternative energy sources such as solar and wind. Japan will legislate to mandate utilities to buy electricity generated from these sources at prices set by the government.

Such steps are long overdue, environmentalists say. There is also increasing interest among equipment manufacturers to develop energy saving products.

Major companies such as Toshiba Corp and Mitsubishi Electric Corp announced collaboration last month to promote next generation energy-saving housing that will use solar panels and home appliances linked to a computer network to save power.

The fear that the Fukushima accident is threatening massive radiation contamination has led to rising opposition in Japan to nuclear power. Its operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, is struggling with huge compensation payments.

"The difficult times we face today present an opportunity which we must not miss. Post-disaster Japan has to change and we can only do this through a long-term approach to develop a safer Japan," Sato said.

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Veteran umpire Hirako remembered fondly after passing

Japanese sports papers and various Web sites on Aug. 17 reported the death of former Central League umpire Kiyoshi Hirako.

Longtime arbiter: Kiyoshi Hirako, a Central League umpire for 25 seasons, died on Aug. 9 at the age of 73. KYODO PHOTO

The news was released a week after Hirako's death from complications of lung cancer in a Tokyo hospital on Aug. 9. The native of Gifu Prefecture was 73.

After serving as the baseball club manager while a student at Tokyo's Keio University, Hirako began his CL career in 1965. He worked a total of 3,061 regular season games and called plays in five Japan Series and seven All-Star series. He was a supervisor of umpires from 1990 to 1992, working on the transformation from the six-umpire crews to the four-umpire system before retiring.

In recent years, Hirako, a man with a deep resonant voice, worked as a guest commentator on major league games televised in Japan, and he could be seen at pro games at several Japanese ballparks in his capacity as a columnist for a local newspaper based in
Nagoya.

He spoke English well and, when he showed up at Giants games at Tokyo Dome, he would often sit in the last row of the press box where
there are "club seats" (not assigned to any specific media organization) next to the assigned positions of The Japan Times and
other English-language publications.

Sometimes he would treat all of us to coffee, bringing in a polystyrene foam holder full of cups of java and passing them around with packets of sugar and cream.

He enjoyed chatting with the foreign writers about what's going on in the world of baseball, both in Japan and the major leagues.
"Wayne-san, I have a question ...," he would say, opening a conversation

His favorite topics of discussion centered around controversies involving umpires, such as the infamous questionable calls by arbiter
Bob Davidson in the 2006 World Baseball Classic.

I asked him one time if he ever got into arguments in English with American players in Japan, and his answer was similar to one used
by another former Central League umpire who spoke English fluently, Hiroya "Tommy" Tomizawa.

"No," he said, adding semi-jokingly. "They never argued my calls."

Hirako took pride in his profession and his nearly three decades calling balls and strikes, pointing out fair and foul balls and
deciding if runners were safe or out. He viewed the brotherhood of umpires as a fraternity and maintained friendships with his colleagues
in Japan as well as past and present major league umpires at whose homes Hirako was invited to stay as a guest during trips to the U.S.

Sadly, Hirako was not seen at the ballparks after the 2009 season, because the Nagoya paper folded in November of that year, and
he no longer had an ID card to enter the stadiums, despite his long association with the game.

He will be remembered as a good umpire, an all-around good guy and a good friend. Sayonara, Hirako-san, and thanks for the coffee and
conversation.

***

The Saitama Seibu Lions recently released a pair of American players after placing them on waivers. Long-time Japan relief pitcher
Brian Sikorski and outfielder Dee Brown are now on

jiyu keiyaku or "free contract" status.

Brown was in his second year with the Lions and, although he hit 21 home runs in 2010 for Seibu, he never established
himself as a regular and was used as a part-time outfielder and designated hitter. He was also a "yo-yo" player here, riding the
string up and down between the Seibu varsity and the Lions farm team.

The club asked waivers on the New York native Aug. 7.

Sikorski, meanwhile, spent the better part of a decade in Japan, playing for four teams and exciting fans with his hyperactivity and
hustle in getting to the mound from the bullpen. He was placed on waivers July 21.

He first played here in 2001, joining the Chiba Lotte Marines at the age of 26 after a stint in 2000 with the American League Texas
Rangers. After three years as a starter and reliever with Lotte, he transferred to the Central League and the Yomiuri Giants in 2004 where
he worked as a middle reliever and set-up man for two seasons.

In 2006, he decided to try the majors again and pitched for the San Diego Padres and Cleveland Indians and their Triple-A minor league
affiliates.

Sikorski found himself back in Tokyo midway through the 2007 campaign — this time with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, and in 2008 he was back
in Chiba with the Marines where he played through 2009. He crossed over to the Lions den last season, emerging as Seibu's closer and
leading the Pacific League with 33 saves.

This year he started his 10th season in Japan on a high note, but elbow problems caused him to return to the U.S. for examination
and subsequent season-ending — possibly career-ending — surgery which he underwent May 23.

Sikorski is one of the more colorful players ever to perform in the pro baseball wars in Japan. His crowd-pleasing trademarks are his "windmill" arm-cranking warmup after taking the mound and his habit of sprinting to and from the mound, "flying" over the foul line on his way.

He just turned 37 on July 27, so don't rule out a return to a bullpen in Japan in 2012 for battling Brian. Hopefully, this is not the end for the hard-throwing right-hander from Michigan. After all, there are still eight Central and Pacific League teams for which he has still not played.

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Police say Japanese have returned $78 million in missing cash after quake (The Lookout)

Cars floating away after March's quake (AP)

In the five months since a devastating earthquake struck, Japanese police say they've received $78 million in missing cash and valuables that citizens have found in the rubble and promptly turned in.

Thousands of missing wallets contained $48 million in cash, and nearly 6,000 more safes turned in by volunteers contained an extra $30 million, the Japanese Police Agency told ABC News' Akiko Fujita. Most of the found money has been returned to its owners, after police used identifying documents in the safes to track them down.

"The fact that these safes were washed away meant the homes were washed away too," Koetsu Saiki of the Miyagi Prefectural police force told ABC News. "We had to first determine if the owners were alive, then find where they had evacuated to."

Some wallets and safes were most likely pocketed, but the scale of honesty in the wake of disaster is still striking.

"The fact that a hefty 2.3 billion yen in cash has been returned to its owners shows the high level of ethical awareness in the Japanese people," Ryuji Ito, professor emeritus at Yokohama City University, told The Daily Mail.

Click image to see more photos of relief efforts. (REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon)

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Japan on cusp of recovery after Q2; yen clouds outlook (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan's economy shrank much less than expected in the second quarter as companies made strides in restoring output after the devastating earthquake in March, but a soaring yen and slowing global growth cloud the prospects for a sustained recovery.

Analysts expect the world's third-largest economy to rebound in July-September, probably expanding at the fastest rate among major industrialized nations as exports and factory output return to pre-disaster levels. But growing risks to this scenario could strain a depleted arsenal of policy tools.

Gross domestic product fell 0.3 percent in the second quarter, less than a median forecast for a 0.7 percent contraction and a 0.9 percent decline in January-March.

The better-than-expected reading helped push up the Nikkei benchmark by about 1 percent, which has also tracked gains in global markets last week supported by a short-selling ban on financial stocks in Europe.

However, worries that Europe's sovereign debt woes could escalate into another global crisis could rob Japan of much-needed export demand, increasing the chance of further yen-selling intervention and monetary easing to secure economic recovery.

Government officials highlighted risks posed by the strong yen and global slowdown to the export-reliant economy, saying that they stood ready to act against rapid yen rises while urging the central bank to keep supporting the economy.

"The economy will show a V-shaped rebound in July-September as supply chains are on the mend to help boost exports," said Yoshiki Shinke, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.

"But the momentum will weaken from October-December onwards, although it won't fall back into a slump, as the pace of recovery in external demand slows. In fact, the world economy may even start sputtering," he said.

Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano urged the Bank of Japan to keep helping the recovery with ample liquidity injections into the market and ultra-loose monetary policy stance.

"We will be closely watching the impact growing global economic uncertainty and yen rises would have on Japan's economy," Yosano told reporters.

Market intervention combined with a further increase of the central bank's asset buying operation and some form of financial support for most affected companies are the few remaining options Tokyo has to cope with the yen's strength.

The yen, driven by broad dollar weakness, has risen about 5 percent in just over a month to just below its all time highs of 76.25 to the dollar and above levels major Japanese companies have been using in their earnings estimates.

On an annualized basis, the economy contracted 1.3 percent against a median forecast of a 2.6 percent annualized decline. That contrasted with U.S. annualized growth of 1.3 percent in the same quarter.

Companies restocked inventories more than expected after drawing them out in the preceding quarter, while public investment rose for the first time in six quarter thanks to post-quake reconstruction.

Private consumption, which makes up around 60 percent of the economy, eased 0.1 percent in April-June, a much smaller drop than expected due to one-off factors such as the switch to digital broadcasting leading to strong television sales.

But some analysts took tepid growth in corporate capital spending as a sign of companies' wariness about boosting investment due to the yen's rise, stagnating global demand and uncertainty over Japan's policy outlook.

Corporate capital spending rose 0.2 percent, less than the market forecast of a 0.5 percent increase.

External demand, or net exports, pushed down GDP by 0.8 percentage point, as the disaster prevented some Japanese manufacturers from shipping goods abroad.

Japan intervened in the currency market and eased monetary policy on August 4, aiming to curb a yen rise that threatened to derail recovery from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which killed about 20,000 and ravaged Japan's northeastern coast.

Analysts expect the economy to emerge from recession in July-September, after three straight quarters of contraction, but there is a growing uncertainty about global demand and the scope and timing of reconstruction spending at home.

(Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko, writing by Leika Kihara and Tetsushi Kajimoto, editing by Tomasz Janowski)

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Stocks rise for third day after acquisition flurry (AP)

NEW YORK – The Dow Jones industrial average notched a three-day win streak Monday for the first time in six weeks. A $19 billion corporate buying spree and encouraging economic news from Japan sent the Dow up 213 points and erased its losses from last week.

The return of what's called "Merger Monday" on Wall Street made investors more optimistic about the future. So did a report that Japan's economy shrank less than feared after the earthquake and tsunami there on March 11. That helped ease worries that the U.S. economy may slide into another recession.

The Dow rose 213.88 points, or 1.9 percent to 11,482.90. It has gained 763 points since Thursday. That's the best three-day point gain since it rose 927 in November 2008, during the depths of the financial crisis. The Dow is also up 7.1 percent over the three days, the biggest percentage gain since it rose 9.5 percent the first three days of the bull market in March 2009.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 25.68, or 2.2 percent, to 1,204.49. The Nasdaq composite index rose 47.22, or 1.9 percent, to 2,555.20.

Markets may have stabilized the last three days, but financial analysts warned investors not to assume that stocks have fully settled down after last week's swings. The Dow rose or fell by at least 400 points in four straight days for the first time. The first downgrade of the U.S. credit rating triggered the volatility. It was worsened by concerns that Europe's debt problems are worsening and that the U.S. economy is weakening.

"You might have these moments of quiet, but the debt crisis in Europe did not go away," said John Hailer, chief executive for the U.S. and Asia of Natixis Global Asset Management. "Our issues with the debt, with what our tax policy is going to be going forward, our unemployment did not go away."

"We are probably going to have to look at some very different levels of volatility than what a lot of investors grew up with over the last 25 to 30 years," he said.

A period of relative stability has been common in past volatile markets. In 2008, stocks plunged between mid-September and mid-November. From mid-November until the beginning of January 2009, the Dow was in a lull of sorts. It ratcheted up and down, mostly in the high 8,000 range. But in early January 2009, it began to plunge again and finally hit bottom at 6,547 on March 9.

Despite its three-day gain, the Dow remains down 9.8 percent since its most recent high on July 21 and down 10.4 percent since its 2011 high set on April 29.

More swings could come this week. Leaders of France and Germany meet Tuesday to discuss Europe's debt problems. Spain and other countries have borrowed so much that they may need help to repay their bills. Investors on Tuesday will get an update on how Spain's economy did during the second quarter.

Corporate deals dominated the news, as companies followed a years-long practice of announcing acquisitions on a Monday. The biggest was Google Inc.'s $12.5 billion cash purchase of wireless phone maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. It is also the biggest acquisition in Google's history. No. 2 was its $3.2 billion purchase of DoubleClick in 2008. Motorola Mobility's stock jumped percent 55.8 percent. Google fell 1.2 percent.

Among other deals: Time Warner Cable Inc. said it will pay $3 billion in cash for Insight Communications Co., which has more than 750,000 cable customers in the Midwest. Agribusiness conglomerate Cargill said it will buy animal nutrition company Provimi of the Netherlands for $2.16 billion. And in the energy industry, offshore driller Transocean Ltd. said it will buy Aker Drilling of Norway for $1.43 billion in cash.

Companies across the United States have accumulated a record amount of cash since the recession ended. They have increased their cash reserves every quarter for more than two years. Those in the S&P 500 index had a total of $963.3 billion at the end of March, according to the most recent data from Standard & Poor's.

Investors have been waiting for companies to use some of that cash on acquisitions, dividend increases and stock buybacks. Many market strategists believe that companies are more confident about the future if they're willing to buy other businesses. So a series of acquisition announcements tends to send stocks higher.

The growing cash hoard has been the result of strong profits. Companies have kept costs low by being slow to hire. Revenue, meanwhile, is growing, particularly from overseas customers. For the 460 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported second-quarter results, earnings were up 12 percent from a year ago.

It was the busiest day for acquisitions since July 11, when Express Scripts said it would buy Medco Health Solutions for $29.1 billion in a combination of the country's largest pharmacy benefits managers. The total value of deals targeting U.S. companies has climbed to $771 billion this year, according to Dealogic. That's up 55 percent from $498 billion at the same point last year.

Some companies are looking to pare back. Bank of America Corp. said it will sell its Canadian credit-card business to TD Bank Group. The bank will also get out of the credit card business in Britain and Ireland. The deals follow others that Bank of America made to move out of foreign credit cards, and they should help the company improve its balance sheet

Bank of America rose 7.9 percent, part of a rally for the financial industry. Financial stocks in the S&P 500 rose 3.2 percent as a group.

Energy stocks in the index rose 3.4 percent after crude oil climbed $2.50 per barrel to settle at $87.88.

Asian and European markets rose earlier after Japan said its economy shrank at just a 1.3 percent annual rate from April through June. That was less than half the drop that economists expected following the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis that struck the country in March.

Still, investors have more reason to worry about the weak U.S. economy.

Manufacturers in New York told the Federal Reserve they're increasingly pessimistic about growth. Manufacturing has been one of the strongest parts of the economy since the recession ended in 2009, but growth began to slow in March. Manufacturing nationwide barely grew in July.

Cosmetics company Estee Lauder Cos. fell 6.5 percent after it forecast earnings for the upcoming year that were below Wall Street's expectations. It also said its net income rose 72 percent last quarter on strong sales growth to China, Russia and the Middle East.

Lowe's Cos., the second-largest home improvement retailer, rose 0.9 percent after it said its net income was roughly flat last quarter on a 1 percent rise in revenue.

More than 10 stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Trading volume at 4.5 billion shares was below the 9 billion it reached last Monday and Tuesday. Volume was close to its average over the last year of 4.3 billion shares.

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