Archive for May, 2011

“Fukushima Is Good for Whales”

Time.com’s Ecocentric blogger Krista Mahr has written a post explaining some “good news” that came about because the the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. It would seem that Iceland has postponed its fin whale hunt because the tsunami destroyed the town in Japan that had processed the meat:

Japan is the biggest consumer of Iceland’s fin whale meat, and three of the facilities that process Icelandic whale meat were destroyed in the March 11 disasters, according to the owner of Iceland’s primary whaling company, Hvalur. According to Iceland Review, Kristjan Loftsson recently went to Japan to assess the situation, and returned saying because of the destroyed facilities and the general mood of austerity in Japan, his company’s fin whale hunt would not begin in June as it normally does. He said it may start later in the summer. Hvalur employs up to 150 people in the summer during whaling season. Fin whales can grow to be nearly 90 feet long and are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

One reader left the following comment on her blog post:

What kind of horrid person celebrates people losing their jobs because of a massive natural disaster… You need to get out, and think about life on earth a little.

However, most of the other comments have generally agreed with Mahr’s anti-whaling slant.

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Video: Dog Catches Ball With Paws

In this viral video, a dog in Japan learns to catch a ball with her paws:

She’s Purin, a super beagle from Kanagawa prefecture.

Purin’s skills are numerous. For example, she can jump rope:

She can skateboard:

And she block ninja swords:

Purin has been featured on Japanese TV programs such as “Shimura Zoo” and has starred in a commercial for a Doggyman anti-mosquito product. She also has a twitter account.

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Okinawan Protesters Cover New American Fence With Anti-Base Banners

The U.S. military has placed a new fence around the area where it plans to build a new runway as part of the relocation plan for Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. This clip from ATV shows anti-base protesters hanging banners on the new fence:

Related links: Earlier this month, Asahi Shimbun published several articles about the Futenma issue, using classified information it had obtained from Wikileaks. The English version is in three parts, and there was also an editorial:

• THE TRUTH BEHIND JAPAN-U.S. TIES (1): DPJ government never committed to Futenma alternatives
• THE TRUTH BEHIND JAPAN-U.S. TIES (2): U.S. used ‘China card’ to thwart Futenma alternatives
• THE TRUTH BEHIND JAPAN-U.S. TIES (3): Numbers inflated in Marine relocation plan to increase political impact
• EDITORIAL: Leaked documents reveal shocking Japan-U.S. diplomacy

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Fukushima Meltdown Took Place on March 11th-12th

After confirming that a meltdown has taken place in reactor 1 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has released analysis on when and how the meltdown took place. They believe that the fuel began to melt only a few hours after the March 11th earthquake, and that it had almost completely melted down by the morning of the 12th:

Preliminary analysis shows that No. 1 had already entered a critical state by 6:50 a.m. on March 12, with most of its fuel having melted and fallen to the bottom of the pressure vessel, the plant operator said. Tepco released data Thursday showing some of the fuel rods had melted.

The reactor automatically halted operations immediately after the 2:46 p.m. quake, but the water level in the reactor dropped and the temperature began rising at around 6 p.m. The damage to the fuel rods had begun by 7:30 p.m., with most of them having melted by 6:50 a.m. the following day, the utility said.

Since March, TEPCO had made statements acknowledging the possibility that fuel had melted in reactor 1, initially estimating that 70% of the fuel had suffered damage. They based those estimates on data from a water level monitoring gauge. A few days ago, they discovered that the gauge was faulty, so they have re-assessed the situation, estimating that nearly all of the fuel has melted.

They have also said that it is very possible that similar meltdowns have occurred in reactors 2 and 3.

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Fukuoka Prefecture Faces Lawsuit After Tax Funds Used For North Korean School

The Sankei Shimbun reports that a citizens’ group has filed a lawsuit against the Fukuoka prefectural government over the use of public funds to support North Korean schools.

Last year, Fukuoka Prefecture gave 8 million yen ($99,000) of public funds to three private North Korean schools. The funds were budgeted as “educational promotion” money [教育振興費].

The lawsuit was filed by the Fukuoka chapter of the Association of the Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea (AFVKN), a group with little sympathy for supporters of Kim Jong-Il’s murderous regime.

The AFVKN believes that the payment was a violation of Japan’s Fundamental Law of Education. The North Korean schools have a DPRK-approved curriculum that teaches students loyalty to the Workers’ Party of Korea. The lawsuit argues that it would be illegal to use public funds to support schools that teach children to support a single political party. Because of this, the lawsuit demands that the government policy be revoked and the funds be returned.

For those who are not familiar with the existence of North Korean schools in Japan, here is a short excerpt from the Wikipedia entry about the Pro-DPRK resident’s association in Japan (Chongryon):

All lessons, and all conversations within the school are conducted in Korean. They teach a strong pro-North Korean ideology and allegiance to Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il. They are not classified as regular schools under Japanese law as they do not follow the national curriculum.

Their militant stance is increasingly coming under criticism from pupils, parents and the public alike. The number of pupils receiving ethnic education from Chongryon-affiliated schools has declined sharply in recent years, down to about 15,000 in 2004 from a high of 46,000 in the early 1970s, with many, if not most, Zainichi now opting to send their children to mainstream Japanese schools. As of March 2010, there were 12 Chosen high schools with an enrollment of about 2,000 students.

The schools were initially funded by North Korea, but this money has now dried up. Today funding comes partly from local Japanese authorities, but many schools are facing financial difficulties. The Japanese government has refused Chongryon’s requests that it fund Korean schools, citing Article 89 of the Japanese Constitution, according to which use of public funds for education by “schemes not under public control” is prohibited. Chongryon calls this an act of racial discrimination. Funding from local authorities usually takes place in the form of special benefits paid to the families of pupils, as opposed to paying the schools directly, in order to avoid a blatant breach of Article 89.

The Sankei article mentions that Fukuoka paid the money to the incorporated educational institution (学校法人) that manages the North Korean schools, so the policy may have been a departure from the indirect means mentioned in the Wikipedia article.

Regardless of whether payments are direct or indirect, it is abhorrent to see local governments using public funds to prop up pro-DPRK schools. Illegal or not, such payments should stop.

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New World Record: Largest Gathering of Clothed Dogs

Hundreds of dogs and their owners gathered at Roppongi Hills yesterday to break the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of clothed dogs:

The total number of clothed dogs was 603, setting a new world record. The previous record had been set at a 2010 event in America (208 dogs for “Most dogs in costumed attire”).

The gathering included a charity auction, which raised money for pets that had been displaced by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.

Several Japanese bloggers have written about the event and posted photos: one, two, three, four, five, and six.

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