Archive for March, 2011

Japanese PSA Parodies

A viral video transforms the “Arigato-usagi” from those annoying AC PSAs into “Great Arigato-usagi”:

Here’s “Ohayo-unagi” transforming into “Hyper Ohayo-unagi”

There is also an Obama-themed AC commercial:

Another person has placed AC characters at the scene of the Fukushima nuclear accident (one character is named “hibakuma” = hibaku + bear):

[hat tip to Lost in Ube]

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Does Japan Need Daylight Saving Time?

It seems that the Japanese government is trying to come up with plans to recover from the huge energy shortage caused by the loss of several nuclear reactors, and one possible solution is daylight saving time:

To deal with such power shortage, currently addressed by rolling blackouts, industry minister Banri Kaieda said the government may consider options such as the introduction of daylight saving time, extension of employees’ summer vacations and an effective raise in household electricity charges as short-term measures.

As for medium-term steps, the government’s taskforce on the electricity problems touched on the idea of building new thermal power plants, apparently keeping in mind growing public concerns over the safety of nuclear power plants after the quake-induced nuclear crisis has caused radiation leaks.

Noting that power-rationing implemented in Tokyo Electric’s service areas has so far contributed to avoiding unpredictable massive blackouts, Kaieda said, ”The problem comes in the summer…when about 10 million kilowatt of supply-demand gap occurs.”

Some of the other ideas don’t sound too bad, but would daylight saving time actually help?

Maybe not. Here is a short MNBC clip of Rachel Maddow interviewing Michael Downing, author of “Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time“:

Downing says there is not much convincing proof that daylight saving time leads to less energy consumption. He says it is a particular popular idea because:

1. It has no direct cost to taxpayers.
2. It doesn’t ask people to conserve energy or change their habits.

Using the example of the United States, he also argues that by increasing the amount of daylight in the evening, it means people stay out later and go more places by automobile, leading to increased gasoline consumption. Downing loves bright summer evenings, but he doesn’t think daylight saving time is a realistic energy conservation policy.

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Whaling Ship Delivers Relief Supplies to Earthquake Victims

I suppose one could say that it is a bit lucky that Japan’s whaling fleet returned home a little bit early this year, since they can now use their largest ship to deliver supplies to earthquake victims:

The 8,044-ton Nisshin Maru, which returned to Japan Monday from an aborted whaling voyage to the Antarctic Ocean, is now loading tons of supplies, including kerosene, charcoal fuel and cup noodles, for a plan to arrive Sunday at a yet undecided port in the disaster area, captain Tomoyuki Ogawa said.

The vessel took aboard 5 tons of charcoal, 100,000 cup noodles, kerosene tanks and other supplies with cranes Thursday. It will also deliver heavy oil in its on-board fuel tank to quake-stricken areas, he said.

”We want to deliver the supplies to areas such as isolated remote islands,” the captain said.

An ATV video shows the whaling ship loading up supplies and sailing north:

Update: Sea Shepherd has put up a blog post introducing the story of the Nisshin Maru’s relief mission under the title, “Sea Shepherd’s Efforts Provide Assistance to Earthquake Victims in Japan.” Here’s an excerpt:

Due to the whalers’ early retreat, the Japanese Nisshin Maru factory ship arrived in Tokyo Bay a month earlier than normal on March 21, 2011. Japanese authorities immediately commandeered the ship to deliver aid supplies to northern Japan.

A nice story, but false. From all the accounts I’ve seen in the Japanese media, the ship was not “commandeered” by authorities. The whalers, many of whom come from the Tohoku area, volunteered to carry out the mission.

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New York Times Quietly Edits Article About Fukushima Evacuation

Shortly after the beginning of the Fukushima Daiichi crisis, the government recommended that residents living 20 to 30 kilometers from nuclear plant avoid going outside because of the possible threat of radiation leaks from the plant. A lot of people in that area decided to leave anyway, but some stayed behind. Those who remained are finding life difficult – not because of deadly radiation, but because it is extremely difficult for them to obtain basic necessities such as food and water.

With the crisis dragging on, it doesn’t seem very practical to expect these people to stay indoors forever without access to food. Yesterday, the government announced at a press conference that it was advising residents in the 20 to 30 kilometer zone to voluntarily evacuate.

Here’s N-H-K’s report about the announcement:

The government is advising residents to voluntarily evacuate areas within 20 to 30 kilometers of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, in view of the severe living conditions in the zone.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters on Friday that business and distribution in these areas has been harshly disrupted, as an increasing number of people have voluntarily evacuated.

Edano also said he cannot deny the possibility that the government will expand the evacuation zone to a 30-kilometer radius from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, depending on radiation levels.

The government has instructed people living within 20 kilometers of the plant to evacuate, while advising those who are 20 to 30 kilometers away to stay indoors.

Edano said the government has asked municipalities within the 20 to 30 kilometer radius to call on residents to voluntarily evacuate, and to make preparations to evacuate those who remain.

He said he wants the municipalities to closely cooperate with the government, and to be ready when evacuation orders are issued.

The main spokesman of the government makes an announcement before reporters from all the nation’s major news outlets. Pretty easy to understand, right?

Unfortunately, that’s not the story that was reported in one of America’s most-respected newspapers. The New York Times apparently needed to add some extra fear and distrust to its article about the announcement:

Japan Quietly Evacuating a Wider Radius From Reactors

By David Jolly, Hiroko Tabuchi & Keith Bradsher

TOKYO – Japanese officials began quietly encouraging people to evacuate a larger swath of territory around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Friday, a sign that they hold little hope that the crippled facility will soon be brought under control.

The authorities said they would now assist people who want to leave the area from 12 to 19 miles outside the crippled plant and said they were now encouraging “voluntary evacuation” from the area. Those people had been advised March 15 to remain indoors, while those within a 12-mile radius of the plant had been ordered to evacuate.

The United States has recommended that its citizens stay at least 50 miles away from the plant.

Speaking to a national audience at a news conference Friday night to mark the two weeks since the magnitude 9.0 quake and the devastating tsunami that followed it, Prime Minister Naoto Kan dodged a reporter’s question about whether the government was ordering a full evacuation, saying officials were simply following the recommendation of the Japan Nuclear Safety Commission.

Shortly after the article appeared online, it was submitted to Reddit, where several users ripped on it:

“quietly? minister announcing it on TV is quietly?” – sladegen

—
“We’re evacuating people at a larger distance from the reactor. Shhhh. Don’t tell anyone.”

“Sir, this is a press conference. You’re being broadcast live around the world.”

“Oh. So that’s how all this secret information keeps getting out!”

-IGotLaserCannons

—

“Stop the sensationalism. Go to news sources reporting this without the fear mongering, mistranslation, and misinformation.

http://english.kyodonews.jp/

The reason they’re asking people to voluntarily evacuate? Not because of radiation, but because they are worried that daily necessities might not be supplied to the region – ie, they’re worried grocery stores might not be getting stock. That sort of thing.” -cthalupa

Later, the headline and content of the article suddenly changed. It now reads as follows:

Japan Encourages a Wider Evacuation From Reactor Area

By HIROKO TABUCHI, KEITH BRADSHER and DAVID JOLLY
Published: March 25, 2011

TOKYO — New signs emerged Friday that parts of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were so damaged and contaminated that it would be even harder to bring the plant under control soon.

At the same time, Japanese officials began encouraging people to evacuate a larger band of territory around the complex.

Speaking to a national audience at a news conference on Friday night, two weeks after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and the devastating tsunami that followed it, Prime Minister Naoto Kan dodged a reporter’s question about whether the government was ordering a full evacuation, saying officials were simply following the recommendation of the Japan Nuclear Safety Commission.

No notice was posted on the article page explaining that it had been edited. How’s that for quietly?

Update: Eido Inoue asked Hiroko Tabuchi about the edit, and got the following response on Twitter.

The article page itself still contains no notices about edits or errors.

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Inside the Fukushima Exclusion Zone: Elderly Residents Refuse to Leave

A FTV cameraman accompanies members of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces on a patrol inside the exclusion zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant:

Although people living within 30 kilometers of the nuclear plant have been asked to evacuate, some people refuse to leave. The video shows one example – an elderly couple who live only about 5 kilometers from the reactors.

Their daughter has called up the authorities begging that they get her parents out of there, so a team of soldiers is dispatched to the house. The soldiers, wearing gear to protect themselves from radioactivity, speak to the elderly mother through an open window. The woman refuses to leave, believing that she and her immobile husband would be better off at home. She believes that a frail and elderly couple would just be a burden on others at an evacuation center. The soldiers decide to move on, looking for other people who have stayed behind, but they will be back later to try again.

Here’s an English language report from America’s ABC News, which also contains some footage from inside the exclusion zone:

The report is okay, but it is a bit sensationalized, playing up how “deadly” the radiation is in the “cursed” town of Minami Soma where people are “unable to escape.” They also fail to report that there are sections of Minami Soma that are not included in the 30 kilometer exclusion zone.

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TEPCO’s Radiation Suits: Sorry, No Boots

Two workers who were performing repairs at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were hospitalized with radiation burns on their feet after they walked into a pool of radioactive water:

Three workers were in the ankle-deep water Thursday and were carrying dosemeters. But they ignored the high-radiation warnings of the devices and continue repair work in the soaked basement of the No. 3 reactor’s turbine building, officials of Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator, said.

The water was about 15 centimeters deep, officials said.

“I thought (the dosemeter) was out of order,” one of the workers was quoted as saying. The radioactivity level had been low in the basement before.

TEPCO has come under fire for failing to properly ensure the safety of the workers trying to bring the nuclear crisis under control. The company has acknowledged that its safety measures were inadequate.

Two of the workers were rushed to a hospital in Fukushima city Thursday. They were taken Friday to the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba for examinations and treatment for possible beta ray radiation burns below their knees.

The third worker wearing long boots was unharmed.

It is unclear why the two workers weren’t equipped with footwear that could protect them from 15 centimeters of water. Judging from the photos from the power plant, it would seem that a lot of workers are just wearing normal shoes as part of their radiation suits. There also seems to be some folks with plastic bags duct-taped over their shoes:

When all of this is over and investigations take place, I’m sure we’ll find out some other examples of dangerous stupidity. Some may use evidence of TEPCO’s past misdeeds to claim that they’ll cover-up all their mistakes from this accident, but that just isn’t realistic. Whereas faked tests and mishandling of small accidents may go largely unnoticed by the public, this latest accident is bigger in scale and longer in duration. The attention and frustration of the entire country are focusing upon Japan’s leadership and TEPCO, and it would simply be unreasonable to expect that no serious inquiries and punishments will take place after this crisis is resolved.

Some of you may ask, “Where the injured workers members of the brave Fukushima 50?”

No, they weren’t, because the “Fukushima 50″ are an invention of misinformed foreign journalists.

As Wikipedia notes, there was only a brief period on March 15th when most workers were evacuated and “around 50″ workers were left behind. By the time foreign newspapers were printing stories about the “Fukushima 50,” the number of workers at the site had already climbed to over 150. By March 18th, it was up to 580. There are now perhaps a thousand workers at the plant, and yet the foreign media is still printing headlines today about the “Fukushima 50″ and their battle against the reactors.

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