Nuclear crisis spokesman suspended for kissing on the job

Nuclear crisis spokesman suspended for kissing on the job The former government spokesman in the immediate aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear crisis outbreak has been suspended one month for touching and kissing a woman during duty hours, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) said. After a scandal magazine revealed Hidehiko Nishiyama's extramarital affair with a fellow METI bureucrat in June, he was stood down from his role of spokesman for METI's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. He had repeatedly touched and kissed the woman in her 30s while they were on duty in the midst of reponding to the nuclear crisis. METI Minister Yukio Edano issued him a severe reprimand and Nishiyama was shunted to a post in the minister's secretariat on July 15.
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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Cooling Problem Shuts Nuclear Reactor in Japan - New York Times

Kyushu Electric, the operator of the reactor at the Genkai nuclear power plant, characterized the incident as minor and said there was no risk of a radiation leak. A problem with the condenser unit that turns steam back into cooling water appeared to have triggered the halt, but the reactor stopped safely and was undergoing checks, the utility said.

“At no point was the plant under any danger, and the reactor has been brought to a stable shutdown,” said Eiji Yamamoto, a spokesperson for Kyushu Electric. “There has been no effect on radiation levels outside the plant.”

Still, the shutdown came as the government was renewing a push to restart reactors that were idled following the nuclear accident at Fukushima in March. Kyushu Electric said that inspection work had been carried out on a valve of the condenser in question on Tuesday, raising the possibility that human error had triggered the shutdown.

“As we saw in Fukushima, cooling systems are central to the safety of nuclear reactors,” said Chihiro Kamisawa, a researcher at the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, an antinuclear organization. “We cannot take lightly the fact that there was also trouble with the cooling system at Genkai,” he said. “It underscores the fact that safety problems riddle Japan’s reactors.”

After Tuesday’s shutdown, only 10 of 54 reactors remain on the grid, threatening to deprive the nation of the source of almost a third of its electricity. At least four of six reactors at the Fukushima plant, which suffered multiple meltdowns earlier this year, are expected to be permanently decommissioned.

Many other reactors have passed maintenance checks, but have not received the go-ahead to restart. At Genkai, five of six reactors remain offline, and the last is due to halt in December for a scheduled maintenance check, legally required every 13 months.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda recently argued for a swift restart of reactors, albeit after extensive “stress tests” of their safety and ability to withstand earthquakes and tsunamis. Such a drastic loss of nuclear power would bring dire economic consequences, he has repeatedly argued, echoing warnings from Japan’s business lobby.

But he faces an uphill battle amid a collapse of public confidence in Japan’s nuclear program following the accident at Fukushima, where a tsunami knocked out the plant’s cooling systems, triggering meltdowns and a major radiation leak.

The government’s handling of the crisis and its aftermath, from the inadequate evacuation of local residents to scandals involving the restart of other reactors, have added to the public mistrust.

In fact, the governor of the southern prefecture of Saga had tentatively agreed to allow the restart of two idle reactors at Genkai in July. But he rescinded his permission when it was found that Kyushu Electric had tried to manipulate public opinion with fake e-mails to support a reopening of the reactors.

In an Associated Press-GfK poll of Japanese voters published last month, 6 out of 10 respondents said they had little or no confidence in the safety of the country’s nuclear plants. Only 5 percent were very confident.

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Japan lifts some nuclear evacuation advisories

Japan lifts some nuclear evacuation advisories Japan lifted some evacuation advisories around the tsunami-devastated Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant Friday to reassure tens of thousands of residents who fled the worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl that it is safe to return home. A 12-mile (20-kilometer) no-go zone remains in place around the plant, which was badly damaged by the March 11 tsunami that left nearly 20,000 people dead or missing across Japan's northeast coast. But officials said the advisories for five municipalities 12-19 miles (20-30 kilometers) away were lifted because the plant had been restored to a relatively stable condition and radiation levels were within safety standards.
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 Nuclear Agency Adds to Mistrust - Wall Street Journal

TOKYO—An independent panel advising Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry confirmed Friday that the ministry's nuclear watchdog was involved in attempts by utilities to manipulate public opinion in favor of nuclear power, a conclusion likely to reinforce public mistrust in the nuclear industry and to raise further hurdles for the restart of idled reactors.

The ministry also announced later in the day that it has suspended former Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama for one month after finding he engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with a female staffer during working hours at the height ...

TOKYO—An independent panel advising Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry confirmed Friday that the ministry's nuclear watchdog was involved in attempts by utilities to manipulate public opinion in favor of nuclear power, a conclusion likely to reinforce public mistrust in the nuclear industry and to raise further hurdles for the restart of idled reactors.

The ministry also announced later in the day that it has suspended former Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama for one month after finding he engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with a female staffer during working hours at the height ...

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Japan lifts some nuclear evacuation advisories (AP)

TOKYO – Japan lifted some evacuation advisories around the tsunami-devastated Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant Friday to reassure tens of thousands of residents who fled the worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl that it is safe to return home.

A 12-mile (20-kilometer) no-go zone remains in place around the plant, which was badly damaged by the March 11 tsunami that left nearly 20,000 people dead or missing across Japan's northeast coast.

But officials said the advisories for five municipalities 12-19 miles (20-30 kilometers) away were lifted because the plant had been restored to a relatively stable condition and radiation levels were within safety standards.

Environment Minister Goshi Hosono, the government's top nuclear crisis official, said the decision was a major step toward restoring normalcy to the region and boosting ongoing efforts to resettle the largely deserted towns.

Local officials, however, said they did not expect residents to come flooding back right away.

Motohoshi Yamada, the mayor of one of the affected towns, said in a statement Friday that further radiation monitoring and infrastructure repairs must be carried out before the town will be ready to function again.

"We are doing all we can to assure that our townspeople will be able to return as soon as possible," said Yamada, whose town, Hirono, is right on the edge of the no-go zone. "As soon as we believe residents can return safely and securely, we will let them know."

The advisories were issued April 22 and affected about 59,000 people.

The government did not order residents outside the 12-mile zone to leave. Instead, it cautioned them to be prepared to remain indoors or evacuate at any time in the event of a further crisis at the plant. Many — fearing radioactive contamination and cut off from public services — left anyway.

Tens of thousands remain in voluntary exile.

The five towns have begun efforts to decontaminate buildings and restart public services so that residents can return. A government panel is also compiling guidelines to address concerns from residents and support their resettlement process.

Experts say it could take decades for some of the areas nearest the plant to be safe for habitation. The disaster is the worst since Chernobyl in 1986.

Still, the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., announced this week that it was making significant progress toward controlling the temperatures in the reactors, a key to stabilizing them and eventually shutting them down altogether.

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Japan Lifts Evacuation Advisories Near Nuclear Plant - New York Times

The easing was a bid by the government to bring the country a step closer to normalcy after the March 11 quake and tsunami, which destroyed wide areas of Japan’s Pacific coast and set off the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. But with lingering fears over radiation levels — as well as slow progress in decontaminating towns and cities hit by radioactive plumes — a return to these areas is likely to be slow.

A 12-mile exclusion zone will remain in place around the nuclear power plant, Fukushima Daiichi, which the government is working to bring under control. The worst contaminated areas close to the plant are likely to remain uninhabitable for decades, government officials have acknowledged.

Still, the government decided Friday to lift evacuation advisories for five lesser-hit towns and cities just outside that radius. Radiation levels in those towns and cities were stable enough to warrant lifting the advisories, which affected about 59,000 people, officials said. About 30,000 of those people had already returned to the area as radiation fears eased.

But questions remain about whether radiation levels are low enough for all residents to return. On Friday morning, for example, the entrance to Minamisoma city’s main hospital measured 0.51 microsieverts per hour in radiation, according to numbers released daily by the city. A simple calculation would bring annual exposure at the level to almost 4,500 microsieverts, or 4.5 millisieverts a year, far above the annual limit of 1 millisievert for civilians that is recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection.

At an elementary school in the town of Naraha, also declared safe for residents to return, the measurement came to 0.77 microsieverts per hour, or 6.75 millisieverts a year at that level.

While experts say these levels are still low — the limit for radiation workers in the United States is 50 millisieverts per year, for example — little is known about the health effects of extended exposure to low-level radiation. Moreover, children and pregnant women are known to be especially sensitive to radiation. A sievert measures the effect of radiation on the human body.

Defending its decision, the government cited progress in bringing the Fukushima plant to a relatively stable condition. In one milestone on Thursday, the government said that temperatures in the plant’s three most damaged reactors had fallen below 100 degrees Celsius, an important step toward what experts call a stable “cold shutdown” of the facility.

Despite Friday’s easing, many shops, schools, hospitals and train lines in the affected area remain closed — either damaged in the tsunami or simply unable to open because of the lack of staff and supplies — hindering any quick return to normalcy.

“There are many challenges we must overcome so residents can safely return home,” said Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, promising to speed up a cleanup effort that is expected to cost tens of billions of dollars. “The government must unite and lead the way in decontamination and recovery efforts, so we can clear away any doubts evacuees may have about returning,” he said.

The central government’s slowness in aiding areas affected by the disaster has irked some residents, however. Katsunobu Sakurai, mayor of one of the cities cleared for rehabilitation, said that tireless efforts by city officials were behind any progress made in preparing for residents to return. Since early summer, the city, Minamisoma, has teamed up with researchers from Tokyo University to decontaminate kindergartens and elementary schools, digging up contaminated soil in school yards and scrubbing surfaces with brushes.

Many residents also worry that “hot spots” of high radiation still exist across the city, posing health risks. “We’re the ones who took the lead,” Mr. Sakurai told the public broadcaster, NHK. “Now we’d like more assistance from the country.”

There is also the question of where to dispose of the huge amounts of nuclear waste from the decontamination work. Lacking proper disposal or treatment facilities, cities and towns in the area are simply piling up radioactive soil and debris in fields and parking lots and even in corners of school playgrounds.

Goshi Hosono, the minister in charge of the nuclear disaster, said that the government would come up with new laws and measures to deal with radioactive waste by next month.

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Deadly typhoon leaves Japan; nuclear plant intact

The second major typhoon in a month made its way out of Japan on Thursday after triggering landslides and floods that left at least 16 people dead or missing but sparing a crippled nuclear plant from major damage. There had been concerns that Typhoon Roke could pose more problems for the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which was sent into meltdown by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, but officials said the plant weathered the storm without major incident. Hiroki Kawamata, spokesman for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., said several cameras set up to monitor the plant were damaged, but there had been no further leaks of radioactive water or material into the environment. Police and local media reported 16 people dead or missing because of the storm, most swept away by rivers swollen with rains in the southern and central regions. One person died in a landslide in northern Iwate prefecture and two people were swept away in Sendai in the northeast.

The typhoon made landfall Wednesday afternoon near the city of Hamamatsu, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) west of Tokyo, and then cut a path to the northeast and through the capital before bringing new misery to the tsunami zone. It dumped up to 17 inches (42 centimeters) of rain in some areas, triggering landslides and flooding.

By midafternoon Thursday, the system had weakened to a tropical storm and had moved out to sea past Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, which was not hit as hard as the main island of Honshu the day before.

On Wednesday, hundreds of tsunami survivors in government shelters in the Miyagi state town of Onagawa were forced to evacuate for fear of flooding. The storm set off landslides in parts of Miyagi that already were hit by the March disasters. The local government requested the help of defense troops, and dozens of schools canceled classes.

Strong winds snapped power lines in many areas, and officials said more than 200,000 households in central Japan were without electricity.

Overnight in Tokyo, where many rush hour trains were suspended for hours, thousands of commuters got stuck at stations across the sprawling city and stood in long lines for buses and cabs.

Fire department officials reported three people injured in Tokyo, but other than the inconvenience of transportation gridlock and winds that made it difficult to walk around the city, the storm passed through without incident.

Heavy rains prompted floods and caused road damage earlier in dozens of locations in Nagoya and several other cities, the Aichi prefectural government said. More than 200 domestic flights were canceled.

A typhoon that slammed Japan earlier this month left about 90 people dead or missing.

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Nuclear Power Fuels Japan Election - Wall Street Journal

A local election in southern Japan pits a pro-nuclear-energy incumbent against an anti-nuclear-energy candidate in the first big electoral test for how far the country will go in pulling the plug on nuclear power. WSJ's James Simms explains.

KAMINOSEKI, Japan—This small fishing village has become the next front in Japan's battle over nuclear power, with an anti-nuke protester threatening to oust the pro-nuke mayor in an election Sunday.

At stake: the fate of a long-planned reactor for which ground-breaking is supposed to take place next year.

More broadly, the defeat of a mayor whose economic development strategy has centered around a controversial power plant could fuel the country's increasingly influential anti-nuclear movement.

"What's often said is that we need nuclear-power money to run Kaminoseki," challenger Sadao Yamato, 61 years old, told a few dozen supporters as he formally kicked off his campaign Tuesday. Standing on a beer crate at his campaign office in front of the Murotsu port, he went on, "Should we sacrifice the precious livelihoods and lives of our villagers for money?"

Mr. Yamato's answer is clear. His election poster, which shows him posed in front of solar panels and wearing a white polo shirt, is captioned "Graduate from Nuclear Power!"

James Simms/The Wall Street Journal Pro-nuclear Mayor Shigemi Kashiwabara, wearing a tie, versus anti-nuclear challenger Sadao Yamato, in a polo shirt in front of solar panels

Activists have been fighting Chugoku Electric Power Co.'s plan for a Kaminoseki plant since it was first broached in 1982, and all eight mayoral elections since then have been fought mainly over the issue. But all eight times, the pro-nuclear camp won.

This weekend's contest is the third between incumbent Shigemi Kashiwabara and a Yamato family member. Mr. Kashiwabara first took office in 2003 by besting Mr. Yamato, 59% to 41%. Four years ago, he beat Mr. Yamato's son, Takashi Yamato, 67% to 33%.

But that was before the March 11 Fukushima Daiichi accident eroded support for nuclear power all over the country. Polls show large majorities of the public want to curb Japan's dependence on atomic energy—and, at a minimum, halt construction of new reactors like the one planned in Kaminoseki. On Monday, tens of thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Tokyo to demand an end to nuclear power in Japan.

With the national government feeble and divided, the future of nuclear power now is being shaped more in communities where reactors are located or planned. Of the reactors down for maintenance at the time of the accident or shut down since, just one, which was undergoing test operations in March, has restarted. The restart of the rest has been stymied by local opposition, amid community fears that without stricter safety controls, another Fukushima-style accident is possible.

Still, many long-struggling towns continue to see the atom as crucial for economic development. In the first local post-Fukushima election to center around nuclear energy, a governor who strongly backs building a reactor handily won re-election in June in impoverished northern Aomori prefecture.

Kaminoseki's mayoral election is the second such test. The community was once strongly pro-nuclear, but local newspapers say the race appears closer this time.

In Kaminoseki, as in Aomori, the financial incentives are great, because of declining and aging populations and shrinking local economies and tax bases—issues that much of rural Japan faces.

Since the nuclear project was first proposed some three decades ago, the population has halved, to just 3,534, and the proportion of those age 65 or more has jumped to nearly half from a fifth. Because of the planned reactors, nuclear-related funding sources provide almost one-fourth of the village's nearly $60 million budget now, and Chugoku Electric has donated $32 million to village coffers since 2007.

A billboard on the island where the reactor is planned shows a couple and their baby having a picnic, the proposed twin reactors in the background. Set up by promoters of the plant, it reads, "A Vibrant Village With Nuclear Electricity."

James Simms/The Wall Street Journal Pro-plant billboard reads 'A Vibrant Village With Nuclear Electricity.'

Tsutomu Asami heads the Kaminoseki commerce and industrial cooperative, and owns a fish wholesaler. He said the local economy has been hurt by a lack of work for younger people, fewer people to take over fishing jobs and a drop in the catches of prized fish like snapper and flounder. "Nuclear power is the only option," he said.

Chugoku Electric, after three decades of struggle to clear political and legal hurdles, finally appeared close to breaking ground for the plant before the Fukushima Daiichi accident. The utility began full-time work at the site on Feb. 21, when a Yamaguchi District Court issued an order preventing demonstrators from interfering with the project. But protesters continued working to block construction, converging on the site from land and sea.

Little progress had been made by March 11, when the tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Five days later, the governor of Yamaguchi prefecture asked the utility to suspend site-preparation work. But Chugoku Electric says it plans to go forward with construction, a resolve the utility's president repeated at a news conference just last Friday.

A supportive mayor is crucial for those plans.

Mayor Kashiwabara, 62, hasn't revoked his backing for the reactor. But he does appear to be playing it down in his campaign. His official poster, showing him in a dark suit, carries the slogan "Connecting to the Future"—but no mention of nuclear energy.

In one of his opening rallies, speaking to several dozen supporters, Mr. Kashiwabara didn't argue for or against the plant, saying the decision ultimately rests with the national government in Tokyo. He seemed to suggest that if the plug does get pulled, the community should get compensation.

"The main thing is that I want the government to acknowledge the 30 years of anguish" villagers have suffered over the nuclear issue, Mr. Kashiwabara said.

—Chester Dawson
contributed to this article.

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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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Typhoon Headed for Stricken Japanese Nuclear Plant - New York Times

TOKYO — A powerful typhoon struck Japan’s main island on Wednesday, stranding thousands of commuters in Tokyo and poured heavy rain on the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in the nation’s tsunami-ravaged northeast.

Typhoon-powered waves exploded against a breakwater in Kiho in central Japan on Wednesday.

Evacuation advisories went out to more than one million people across the main island of Honshu as torrential downpours caused flash floods in low-lying areas. As of Wednesday evening, six people had been found dead and seven others were missing, according to Japan’s national broadcaster, NHK.

The storm, called Typhoon Roke, directly hit greater Tokyo, briefly shutting down Japan’s commercial and political center. Strong winds and rains brought most subways and commuter trains to at least a temporary halt, stranding tens of thousands at stations. Bullet train and airline service was canceled.

Even so, most of Tokyo continued to have electric power even as the eye of the storm passed through the city on Wednesday evening, a testament to Japan’s generally robust basic infrastructure. According to Tokyo Electric Power, about 20,000 homes lost electricity in Tokyo, a city of almost 13 million residents.

Roke was the second powerful typhoon to strike Japan in the last month. Typhoon Talas, which made landfall in western Japan on Sept. 2, left 106 people dead or missing, the worst toll in decades.

Roke’s path was expected to take it over the Fukushima plant, which was crippled by the massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11. The storm’s approach raised concerns that heavy rains could increase the risk of a leak of contaminated water from the crippled reactor buildings into the nearby Pacific Ocean. But Takeo Iwamoto, a spokesman for Tokyo Electric, the plant’s operator, said before the storm hit that the plant could weather it without further damage or risk of a leak. Company spokesmen could not be reached on Thursday morning.

The storm also threatened to flood coastal areas damaged by the tsunami and earthquake, which lowered the level of the ground by as much as two or three feet in some areas, and to wash radioactivity from the evacuated area around the plant into the sea.

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Deadly typhoon leaves Japan; nuclear plant intact (AP)

TOKYO – The second major typhoon in a month made its way out of Japan on Thursday after triggering landslides and floods that left at least 16 people dead or missing but sparing a crippled nuclear plant from major damage.

There had been concerns that Typhoon Roke could pose more problems for the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which was sent into meltdown by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, but officials said the plant weathered the storm without major incident.

Hiroki Kawamata, spokesman for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., said several cameras set up to monitor the plant were damaged, but there had been no further leaks of radioactive water or material into the environment.

"We are seeing no problems so far," he said.

Police and local media reported 16 people dead or missing because of the storm, most swept away by rivers swollen with rains in the southern and central regions. One person died in a landslide in northern Iwate prefecture and two people were swept away in Sendai in the northeast.

The typhoon made landfall Wednesday afternoon near the city of Hamamatsu, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) west of Tokyo, and then cut a path to the northeast and through the capital before bringing new misery to the tsunami zone. It dumped up to 17 inches (42 centimeters) of rain in some areas, triggering landslides and flooding.

By midafternoon Thursday, the system had weakened to a tropical storm and had moved out to sea past Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, which was not hit as hard as the main island of Honshu the day before.

On Wednesday, hundreds of tsunami survivors in government shelters in the Miyagi state town of Onagawa were forced to evacuate for fear of flooding. The storm set off landslides in parts of Miyagi that already were hit by the March disasters. The local government requested the help of defense troops, and dozens of schools canceled classes.

Strong winds snapped power lines in many areas, and officials said more than 200,000 households in central Japan were without electricity.

Overnight in Tokyo, where many rush hour trains were suspended for hours, thousands of commuters got stuck at stations across the sprawling city and stood in long lines for buses and cabs.

Fire department officials reported three people injured in Tokyo, but other than the inconvenience of transportation gridlock and winds that made it difficult to walk around the city, the storm passed through without incident.

Heavy rains prompted floods and caused road damage earlier in dozens of locations in Nagoya and several other cities, the Aichi prefectural government said. More than 200 domestic flights were canceled.

A typhoon that slammed Japan earlier this month left about 90 people dead or missing.

___

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report.

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Typhoon kills 6 in Japan, Fukushima nuclear plant not affected (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) – A strong typhoon has left 6 people dead and 6 missing after pounding Japan with heavy rain and strong winds, public broadcaster NHK said, but it did not have a major impact on the tsunami-crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

Typhoon Roke prompted the city of Nagoya in central Japan to urge more than 1 million people to evacuate on Tuesday and it cut through Tokyo on Wednesday, halting commuter trains in and around the capital, affecting millions of passengers.

Tokyo Electric Power Co, operator of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, said some monitoring equipment had suffered glitches but it did not appear as if the typhoon had caused any radioactive water to overflow into the ocean, adding that final checks were still underway.

The site holds huge amounts of contaminated water used to cool reactors after cooling systems were knocked out by the March earthquake and tsunami.

Typhoon Roke, which has since been downgraded to a tropical storm, was off Japan's northern island of Hokkaido as of 8:00 a.m. (7 p.m. EDT), moving northeast at a speed of 70 km (44 miles) per hour.

It was the second big storm to hit Japan this month after Typhoon Talas hit western Japan and left about 100 people dead or missing. Around two to four typhoons make landfall each year in Japan.

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

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Japan to Boost LNG Imports From U.S. as Nuclear Power Declines - Bloomberg

Japan, the world’s largest importer of liquefied natural gas, plans to seek more U.S. cargoes to ensure adequate power supplies after its use of nuclear reactors fell to an all-time low.

Japan’s senior vice minister of trade and industry, Seishu Makino, asked U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu at a meeting yesterday in San Francisco to increase LNG exports, Akinobu Yoshikawa, deputy manager for the Petroleum and Natural Gas Division, told reporters today in Tokyo.

“I believe we gained the U.S.’s understanding to some extent,” said Yoshikawa. “We can’t buy LNG from the U.S. unless the Department of Energy approves LNG plant owners to export. There is one plant that recently won the approval and there are two others in progress.”

Cheniere Energy Inc. (LNG), the Blackstone Group LP-backed owner of Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana, got approval to ship LNG to Japan in May. The Freeport LNG terminal in Texas and the Lake Charles terminal in Louisiana are now seeking approval for exports, according to Yoshikawa. Japan imported 70,873 metric tons of LNG from the U.S. in the four-month period by July, down 60 percent from the same period last year, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Finance.

Annual LNG output at Sabine Pass is around 15 million tons, Yoshikawa said. “Not all of the 15 million tons will be exported to Japan, but I believe the impact for our imports will be big,” he said.

Tokyo Electric Corp. and Tokyo Gas Co., the first Asian buyers of LNG, had a joint contract to buy the fuel from a plant in Alaska owned by ConocoPhillips (COP) and Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO) The contract, initially signed in 1969, expired at the end of March this year, Tokyo Electric’s spokesman Ryo Shimizu and Tokyo Gas spokesman Takeshi Ujiie said by phone today. They declined to comment whether the two companies still buy spot cargoes of LNG from the project.

Japan’s 10 regional power utilities’ imports of liquefied natural gas rose to a record for a second month in August. Of the 54 reactors in the country, 41 units were idled because of the meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, maintenance and other disruptions at the end of August, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.

To contact the reporter on this story: Yuji Okada in Tokyo at yokada6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net

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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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New PM: Japan should aim to reduce nuclear power (AP)

TOKYO – Japan's new prime minister has promised to restart nuclear plants following safety checks ordered after the crisis at the tsunami-damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda also said Tuesday in his first policy speech since taking office two weeks ago that the country should reduce its reliance on atomic energy over the long term, but offered no specifics.

More than 30 of Japan's 54 reactors have been idled, causing electricity shortages amid sweltering summer temperatures.

Noda also said he would press ahead with the recovery of the tsunami-battered northeastern region, calling on his fellow citizens not to forget "the spirit of dignity of all Japanese" in the face of disaster.

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Japan puts ex-spokesman in charge of nuclear crisis (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda gave a former government spokesman the cabinet post responsible for the Fukushima nuclear crisis on Monday, acting to limit the damage to his new cabinet after the previous minister quit over gaffes.

Yukio Edano was named trade minister, a job that oversees energy policy, making it a key role in a country still coping with the affects of meltdowns at the Fukushima power plant. The plant was damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, causing the world's worst nuclear accident for 25 years.

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

At his inaugural news conference as trade minister, Edano said Japan should strive to create a society that does not depend on nuclear power, although he stopped short of calling for an eventual closure of all nuclear power plants.

"What we have to do is to create a society that can do without nuclear power, a situation where industry can exist without nuclear power," Edano said. "Then, we can discuss what we are going to do with nuclear plants."

Edano served as the public face of the government during the disaster, giving frequent televised briefings on the nuclear plant's status. A former chief cabinet secretary under previous premier Naoto Kan, he is considered to have a good understanding of nuclear issues.

"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.

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.

Support for Noda remained robust despite the abrupt departure of Hachiro, with 60 percent of those polled in favor of his government, a voter survey conducted for three days through Sunday by public broadcaster NHK showed.

That was largely in line with the results of similar newspaper polls a week ago, 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.

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 will now be overseen by Edano.

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.

Edano said reactors that have been proven safe ought to be restarted only after enough efforts are made to win understanding of local residents, but that it would be difficult to build new nuclear reactors in Japan.

(Additional reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Yoko Nishikawa and Peter Graff)

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New Japan PM Noda in nuclear restart call

New Japan PM Noda in nuclear restart call New Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has called for nuclear plants halted after the Fukushima crisis to be restarted. But in his first policy speech since taking office, he told parliament that Japan should aim to reduce its reliance on nuclear power in the long term. He said earthquake reconstruction and economic rebuilding would be his twin priorities. And he warned of possible tax rises to tackle Japan's public debt problem. Mr Noda, who is Japan's sixth prime minister in five years, took office less than two weeks ago after predecessor Naoto Kan stepped down.
13 Sep Tsuyoshi Kawana, former leader of a large bosozoku gang, was arrested yesterday in the Azabu Juban district of Tokyo's Minato Ward for an assault that took place four months ago, reports Sports Hochi (Sept. 13). Kawana was taken into custody by members of the Azabu division of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police for inflicting injuries requiring two to three weeks to heal to the head of an acquaintance inside a nightclub in the Roppongi entertainment district at around 3 a.m. on May 8. The 40-year-old Kawana was previously involved in the drunken rampage of Mongolian-born former sumo yokozuna Asashoryu that occurred in January of last year, just before the grand champion's retirement from the sport. (Tokyo Reporter)
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)

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Japan city on border of nuclear no-go zone fights for survival - Reuters

An aerial view of the earthquake and tsunami damage at the coastal town of Minami Soma March 12, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon

By Antoni Slodkowski

MINAMI SOMA, Japan | Sun Sep 11, 2011 9:35pm EDT

MINAMI SOMA, Japan (Reuters) - A line dividing the no-go zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant and the area deemed safe from radiation cuts right across this coastal city but the "good" part is starting to look very much like the ghost town on the other side.

Six months after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake unleashed a deadly tsunami that triggered meltdowns and radiation leaks at the Tokyo Electric Power's complex, Minami Soma, a city just a half an hour's drive away, struggles to stay alive.

In the part that was meant to carry on as normal, shuttered shops and eateries alongside a stretch of road that leads to a checkpoint at the entrance to the restricted 20-km (12 mile) area shows that it is not enough just to declare it safe.

"People want the government to show crystal clear directions and to come up with a road map, stating finally which areas are inhabitable, which are not and why," says Tomoyoshi Oikawa, 51, assistant director of Mimami-soma municipal hospital

Now nearly half of its 70,000 residents are gone, including doctors, nurses, teachers and officials needed to run the city's basic services, and corrosive mistrust of officialdom and sheer challenges of everyday life threaten to drive even more away.

Right after the meltdown of Fukushima reactors the authorities imposed the no-go zone, slicing off part of the city. Later, they advised the elderly and children from the 20-30 kms (12-18 miles) range to move away and the rest to be ready to leave.

Thousands still live in a limbo, gripped by fears of radiation contamination and uncertainty about their future.

"If we, as doctors, don't explain things properly to our patients, we can be sued. But the government, which has determined the lives of at least 200,000 by its post quake decisions, has failed to explain its steps to us so far," said Oikawa.

Oikawa was born in Fukushima prefecture, earned his degree there and is determined to "have his bones buried" there.

Not everyone is as committed. The exodus to other parts of the region and Japan is creating a vicious circle where those who stay find it increasingly hard to hang on.

"I have only 140 out of the former 240 staff," said Oikawa, at his desk in the corridor where an emergency response bureau created in March still operates, staff and patients passing by and a radiation map and helmets behind.

Even before the disaster, the area suffered from a shortage of doctors and now its main hospital operates at a third of capacity, struggling to cater to patients worried about the impact of radiation.

EXODUS

The long shadow of the Fukushima plant, where engineers still fight every day to stabilize the reactors and limit radioactive contamination has sparked an exodus of young people and families with children. Only around a half of the secondary and primary school students and as little as twenty percent of children of kindergarten age have returned after they were forced to evacuate in days after the explosions.

Official readings show radiation levels of around 0.3 microsieverts per hour are higher than before the accident or in Tokyo, 250 kms (150 miles) away, but are well within safety limits.

But few people trust official data.

"We haven't let them play outside for the last six months," said Yuka Nagakawa, 27, teacher at an after-school club in Minami Soma located in a building now crowded with students from four other schools from the evacuated areas.

"Many mothers are especially concerned about the internal radiation exposure and they bring their own water bottles to school," said Nagakawa.

It took the government in Tokyo nearly half a year to say that it planned to halve radiation over two years in contaminated areas, removing soil, plants and trees in an area spanning thousands of square kilometres.

Changes in official safety guidelines and the months it took the authorities to produce a plan for the nuclear clean-up has bred deep distrust toward the government.

Many children in the after-school club come from families that live in temporary housing or evacuation centres, grappling with the trauma of the disasters, nagging aftershocks and constant moves from one location to another.

"You can see it in how they play. Children shake their dolls, shouting 'dadadada' as if an earthquake struck, or they act like they drowned in the tsunami," says Nagakawa.

"Sometimes they even pretend the nuclear plant has exploded and talk to each other about things like microsieverts," she adds.

"We let them carry on, because that's how they're trying to deal with the situation."

One of the schools right on the border of the 20-km evacuation zone hosts around 40 evacuees who fled the vicinity of the Fukushima plant and are still waiting to be moved to temporary housing.

They also don't know if they'll ever return to their homes.

"If there is a possibility that people's health could be in danger, the government shouldn't encourage their comeback," said Iwao Hoshi, who runs the evacuation center.

"It should once and for all stop sitting on the fence and tell the people whether they can stay or if they should go."

(Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Jonathan Thatcher)

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Japan city on border of nuclear no-go zone fights for survival (Reuters)

MINAMI SOMA, Japan (Reuters) – A line dividing the no-go zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant and the area deemed safe from radiation cuts right across this coastal city but the "good" part is starting to look very much like the ghost town on the other side.

Six months after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake unleashed a deadly tsunami that triggered meltdowns and radiation leaks at the Tokyo Electric Power's complex, Minami Soma, a city just a half an hour's drive away, struggles to stay alive.

In the part that was meant to carry on as normal, shuttered shops and eateries alongside a stretch of road that leads to a checkpoint at the entrance to the restricted 20-km (12 mile) area shows that it is not enough just to declare it safe.

"People want the government to show crystal clear directions and to come up with a road map, stating finally which areas are inhabitable, which are not and why," says Tomoyoshi Oikawa, 51, assistant director of Mimami-soma municipal hospital

Now nearly half of its 70,000 residents are gone, including doctors, nurses, teachers and officials needed to run the city's basic services, and corrosive mistrust of officialdom and sheer challenges of everyday life threaten to drive even more away.

Right after the meltdown of Fukushima reactors the authorities imposed the no-go zone, slicing off part of the city. Later, they advised the elderly and children from the 20-30 kms (12-18 miles) range to move away and the rest to be ready to leave.

Thousands still live in a limbo, gripped by fears of radiation contamination and uncertainty about their future.

"If we, as doctors, don't explain things properly to our patients, we can be sued. But the government, which has determined the lives of at least 200,000 by its post quake decisions, has failed to explain its steps to us so far," said Oikawa.

Oikawa was born in Fukushima prefecture, earned his degree there and is determined to "have his bones buried" there.

Not everyone is as committed. The exodus to other parts of the region and Japan is creating a vicious circle where those who stay find it increasingly hard to hang on.

"I have only 140 out of the former 240 staff," said Oikawa, at his desk in the corridor where an emergency response bureau created in March still operates, staff and patients passing by and a radiation map and helmets behind.

Even before the disaster, the area suffered from a shortage of doctors and now its main hospital operates at a third of capacity, struggling to cater to patients worried about the impact of radiation.

EXODUS

The long shadow of the Fukushima plant, where engineers still fight every day to stabilize the reactors and limit radioactive contamination has sparked an exodus of young people and families with children. Only around a half of the secondary and primary school students and as little as twenty percent of children of kindergarten age have returned after they were forced to evacuate in days after the explosions.

Official readings show radiation levels of around 0.3 microsieverts per hour are higher than before the accident or in Tokyo, 250 kms (150 miles) away, but are well within safety limits.

But few people trust official data.

"We haven't let them play outside for the last six months," said Yuka Nagakawa, 27, teacher at an after-school club in Minami Soma located in a building now crowded with students from four other schools from the evacuated areas.

"Many mothers are especially concerned about the internal radiation exposure and they bring their own water bottles to school," said Nagakawa.

It took the government in Tokyo nearly half a year to say that it planned to halve radiation over two years in contaminated areas, removing soil, plants and trees in an area spanning thousands of square kilometres.

Changes in official safety guidelines and the months it took the authorities to produce a plan for the nuclear clean-up has bred deep distrust toward the government.

Many children in the after-school club come from families that live in temporary housing or evacuation centres, grappling with the trauma of the disasters, nagging aftershocks and constant moves from one location to another.

"You can see it in how they play. Children shake their dolls, shouting 'dadadada' as if an earthquake struck, or they act like they drowned in the tsunami," says Nagakawa.

"Sometimes they even pretend the nuclear plant has exploded and talk to each other about things like microsieverts," she adds.

"We let them carry on, because that's how they're trying to deal with the situation."

One of the schools right on the border of the 20-km evacuation zone hosts around 40 evacuees who fled the vicinity of the Fukushima plant and are still waiting to be moved to temporary housing.

They also don't know if they'll ever return to their homes.

"If there is a possibility that people's health could be in danger, the government shouldn't encourage their comeback," said Iwao Hoshi, who runs the evacuation center.

"It should once and for all stop sitting on the fence and tell the people whether they can stay or if they should go."

(Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Jonathan Thatcher)

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Switch from nuclear power would cost Japan $280 bln-Greenpeace - Reuters Africa

TOKYO, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Shifting away from nuclear power and replacing it with wind and solar energy would cost Japan around $280 billion in new investment by 2020, Greenpeace said on Monday, calling on Tokyo to ensure safety for future power generations.

The report comes as Japan debates the future of nuclear energy after the March quake and tsunami triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who took office early this month, has said the government wants to restart off-line nuclear reactors once safety checks were cleared, with the understanding of local communities.

Some 70 percent of people in Japan oppose nuclear energy and think it is necessary to pursue alternative sources of power despite its potential cost.

Currently, only 11 out of 54 reactors are operating in Japan following maintenance checks due to heightened public worries. That means only 20 percent of the nation's total nuclear power capacity is in use. Solar and wind power account for about one percent of the country's electricity.

In a green energy scenario that includes a small increase in gas-fired power generation, the environmental lobby proposed raising generating capacity from wind turbines to 56 gigawatts from 2.1 GW and that from solar panels to 57 GW from 3.6 GW.

Greenpeace also says the cost of electricity from solar power, which is now higher than that from fossil fuels, should fall to competitive levels as technology advances.

"The price (of solar energy) dropped more than 50 percent in the last year in Europe and will go down another 20 percent in the next 12 months," said Sven Teske, senior energy expert at Greenpeace International.

"There are a lot of Chinese companies that manufacture solar panels and competition is enormous," he added.

Greenpeace wants Japan to cut its capacity for coal-fired energy by 60 percent to 19.3 GW within 10 years. Japan should also cut its capacity from oil-fired power stations by 16 percent, while increasing slightly the capacity of power generated from natural gas, it added. (Reporting By Natalia Konstantinovskaya; Editing by Yoko Nishikawa)

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