Noda visits disaster-hit Miyagi areas

SENDAI — Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda traveled to Miyagi Prefecture on Saturday to gauge conditions after the area was ravaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Damage control: Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda inspects a fishing port in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, on Saturday. KYODO PHOTO

Noda met with Deputy Gov. Shuichi Miura and Shigeru Sugawara, the mayor of Kesennuma, and pledged further support for the region's reconstruction.

"I would like to reflect your requests in the third supplementary budget for fiscal 2011," Noda said.

He visited a Kesennuma fish market that was devastated by the tsunami and was asked by local officials to rebuild seafood-processing facilities.

"There will be no reconstruction of the affected areas without job creation," Noda replied, adding he will try to finance the necessary steps through the third extra budget.

Later in the day, the prime minister was scheduled to visit Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, also hit hard by the tsunami, to inspect the damage and meet with senior officials.

Noda, in office since Sept. 2, has vowed to speed up reconstruction of the areas stricken by the catastrophe and the nuclear crisis.

On Thursday, he visited Fukushima Prefecture, home to the radiation-leaking Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

Noda also traveled Friday to the prefectures of Wakayama, Mie and Nara, which were devastated by heavy rain dumped by Typhoon Talas last weekend.

OSAKA — The typhoon that ravaged western Japan last weekend caused an estimated ¥2 billion worth of damage to the farming, forestry and fishery industries in Wakayama Prefecture, according to a tally the prefectural government released Saturday.

The survey did not include damage to the livestock industry, and the final total may turn out to be much larger.

Nara Prefecture, which was also hit hard, is conducting its own survey of the damage.

Typhoon Talas, the 12th typhoon of the season, left 57 people dead and 44 missing across the country.

It caused around ¥880 million in damage to farm production in Wakayama, including oranges and Japanese apricots.

Damage to the fishery industry is estimated at ¥160 million, while damage to the forestry industry is put at around ¥520 million.

The natural disaster also caused an estimated ¥490 million in damage to farmland, irrigation channels and other facilities, according to the prefecture.

MATSUE, Shimane Pref. — The city of Yasugi, Shimane Prefecture, which is known for it's comic dance based on scooping up loaches, is gearing up for an influx of visitors to its annual festival thanks to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's remark on the mud-loving fish.

Now that the city of 43,000 has found itself unexpectedly in the limelight, it is receiving a flood of inquiries about local loach cuisine and souvenirs.

The city and a local tourism association have printed tourist maps showing restaurants that serve loach.

"We want women, in particular, to try loach dishes rich in the kind of nutrition that is good for their beauty," said Hiromi Sakuno of the local tourism association. The fish is rich in calcium and iron.

Expecting a sharp increase in visitors to the Yasugi "Dojo" (Loach) Festival next Sunday, the city has opened a souvenir shop near the Yasugi railway station to sell processed loach food items and novelty goods related to the fish.

Noda compared himself to the humble fish in a speech during the Democratic Party of Japan's presidential election earlier this month.

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Unemployment rate skyrockets in disaster areas

TOKYO (majirox news) — Unemployment has almost doubled in the prefectures hit worst by the March 11 disasters, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on Sept. 6.

Newly jobless numbers in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures from March 12, the day after a massive earthquake and tsunami hammered Tohoku and triggered the Fukushima nuclear crisis, to Aug. 21 totaled 153,173, 70,000 more than the 82,763 who became unemployed in the three prefectures during the corresponding period in 2010.

Moreover, the unemployment figures do not include the self-employed. In May, the Japan Research Institute, Ltd. estimated that as many as 200,000 could have lost their jobs if the self-employed were included.

Payment of unemployment benefits will start ending for some of these jobless workers from late October, raising fears of increased economic difficulties in the disaster area.

Tags: Japan earthquake, Japan Ministry of Health, Japan Research Institute, Japan tsunami, Japan unemployment, Labor and Welfare, Tohoku, Tokyo

This entry was posted on 09/06/2011 at 9:17 am and is filed under NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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UPDATE 1-Japan aims to halve radiation in affected areas in 2 yrs - Reuters

* Japan aims to bring radiation levels below 20 millisieverts annually

* Thorough cleanup of areas frequented by children also a priority

* Group launched which will form core of new nuclear watchdog (Adds details on launch of new regulatory group)

By Shinichi Saoshiro

TOKYO, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Japan aims to halve radiation over two years in places contaminated by the Fukushima nuclear crisis, removing soil, plants and trees as well as cleaning roofs of buildings in an area spanning thousands of square kilometres.

The cleanup could cost tens of billions of dollars, and thousands of evacuees may not be able to return home for years, if ever.

Radiation in a contaminated area is estimated to fall naturally by about 40 percent over two years, and the government wants to speed up the process by another 10 percent through human efforts, according to guidelines for the cleanup unveiled on Friday.

"We aim to reduce radiation levels by half over the next two years in affected areas, and by 60 percent over the same period for places used by children," nuclear crisis minister Goshi Hosono told a news conference.

Another key government goal is to bring radiation below 20 millisieverts per year, the threshold level for evacuation, in areas where it is exceeded. Some places in the evacuation zone have levels that far surpass this, government data showed this week.

"Ultimately we want to achieve this goal in a shorter period. Technology is continuing to advance and with enough government funding and effort it can be done," Hosono said.

Japan has banned people from entering within a 20 km (12 mile) radius of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which had its reactor cooling systems knocked out by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, triggering meltdowns and a radiation crisis. Some 80,000 people have been evacuated from the area around the plant.

The guideline also calls for thorough cleanups in places frequented by children such as schools and parks, eventually pushing radiation levels in those places below 1 millisievert annually.

The total area in need of cleanup could be 1,000-4,000 square km (386-1,544 square miles), about 0.3 to 1 percent of Japan's total land area, and cost several trillion yen to more than 10 trillion yen ($130 billion), experts say.

One major problem the government faces is that removal of farmland topsoil could ruin fertile agricultural areas, and it plans to come up with guidelines to address this problem next month.

The government said it will take full responsibility for the soil and debris removed in the cleanup, but that as yet it does not have a permanent solution for storing the radioactive material and it would have to be kept within local communities for the time being.

"I reiterate that Fukushima prefecture will not become the final place of treatment for the debris," Hosono said.

NUCLEAR WATCHDOG

The disaster at Fukushima has prompted Japan to thoroughly rethink its energy policy including its enforcement of nuclear safety standards.

This month the government said it is setting up a new nuclear watchdog which will no longer be supervised by the trade ministry, which has traditionally promoted nuclear power.

Instead the organisation will be supervised by the environment ministry, seen as relatively untainted by the collusive ties with industry which plagued the existing agency.

"Crisis management, which had not been fully established before, will be embraced by the new organisation. The group gathered today includes personnel from law enforcement and national defence to achieve this purpose," said Hosono on Friday at an inauguration ceremony for a group that will form the core of the new regulatory body.

The group consists of members from various government ministries as well as the private sector and will form the basis of the new body to be launched in April. (Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Michael Watson)

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