Archive for October, 2011

Occupy Tokyo? Tiny Protest Held in Tokyo

It seems that there have been a couple self-styled “Occupy Tokyo” protests, based on the larger left-wing “Occupy New York” / “Occupy Wall Street” / “Occupy Washington” / “Occupy London” protests. Here are a couple videos from YouTube:

If the videos are any indication, the turnout was incredibly small. In one video, it almost looks like there are more journalists than protesters. Prior to the actual demonstration, there seemed to be a lot of excitement about it on Twitter, mostly from left-leaning English-speakers. They’re probably disappointed, but maybe they’ll find a way to put a positive spin on this.

According to videos and the Wall Street Journal, it was a ragtag group of people who support various different causes. Some of the people are chanting against Zaibatsu (large corporations), others are carrying anti-nuclear signs, and there were even some Free Tibet people:

The biggest signs railed against nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Several people, one wearing a giant panda costume, protested Japan’s monetary assistance to China.

“We’re here to try to spread awareness of how Japanese taxpayers’ money is being used through overseas aid to support a Chinese government that suppresses the rights of Tibetans, Uighurs and others,” said 29-year-old Hirose Tomoyuki, who described himself as a “normal salaryman” who works on the side for the nonprofit Japan Uygur Association.

Several older Japanese men held signs supporting Democratic Party of Japan heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa, who recently went on trial for alleged falsification of political funds reports.

“The problems Japan faces are essentially political, and Ozawa has stood strong for changing Japan’s political structure,” said Tomiyoshi Yamamoto, an aerospace engineer in his 60s. Mr. Yamamoto said he sees growing inequality in Japan and worries the country follows the U.S. too closely in defense and other areas.

He said he liked the nominal link between Saturday’s protests and those in the U.S. because “these issues can’t be solved by one country alone.”

Here’s an estimate on the size:

One of the organizers, Chie Matsumoto, accepted messages of solidarity via Skype and other web-based communication links from demonstrators in New York, California and South Korea. Speaking to fellow demonstrators in the United States, she said there were 100 people participating in the park demonstration.

A Ustream feed of the demonstration had been viewed by 39 people as of 1330 local time.

That’s pretty sad. Anti-China and Anti-Fuji TV demonstrations have drawn more than ten times as many participants.

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Will Japan Give Free Airfare to 10,000 Foreign Tourists? Maybe Not.

For the last few days, the internet has been abuzz after news stories appeared with headlines like:

• “Japan to Give 10,000 Airplane Tickets to International Tourists” – Fox News
• “Japan offers 10,000 free trips to foreigners” – Vancouver Sun/AFP
• “Japan to offer 10,000 free visits in desperate bid to boost tourism” – news.au.com/AFP
• “10000 Free Round-Trip Tickets to Japan” – ABC News

And so on. Many people assumed that the headlines were accurate and they wanted to know more. The Japan Tourism Organization’s website was bombarded with hits. Those who tried to access the site over the last few days, and the site was either not loading or loading at an extremely slowly.

But the Japan Tourism Organization had no information on their homepage about the offer. That’s because there is no offer. It was just an idea that was under consideration. It had not been approved. Many of the English language articles had reported it as such, but this crucial information was usually left out of the headlines and first paragraphs of the articles.

On October 14th, the JTO posted the following news update:

Thank you for your interest in visiting Japan.

Recently a number of media outlets have publicized reports about ”Japan offering 10,000 free flights to foreigners”. 　However, this initiative to be carried out from April 2012 onwards is still under examination for government budgetary approval and is at this moment undecided.

If the initiative is confirmed and put into operation, Japan Tourism Agency will officially announce details on this website.

Warning: There have been reports in some countries about acts of fraud related to this media report. The Japanese government has not committed to provide free flight tickets to Japan to anybody. Please be careful not to get caught up in this kind of fraud.

Although the idea caused a lot of excitement outside of Japan, it does not necessarily have support within Japan. One should not assume that it will automatically pass the budget approval panels.

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iPhone 4S Network Speed Test: Softbank vs. AU

Softbank’s monopoly on the iPhone is finally over. The iPhone 4s is now available for both Softbank and AU mobile networks.

For years, Japanese iPhone users have complained about how Softbank’s network coverage and speed sucks. Now that another carrier offers the exact same phone, one can conduct a proper side-by-side test to see if the complaints about speed were justified.

Here is a video uploaded by Gizmoto Japan. It shows a real-time speed test of two AU iPhones vs. two Softbank iPhones:

The test was conducted in Shibuya, an area of downtown Tokyo that should theoretically have better mobile coverage than almost anywhere.

The AU phones measured speeds of 1.68Mbps and 1.26Mbps. The Softbank phones scored 82.13kbps and 88.3kbps. Softbank’s speeds were laughably terrible.

Bonus video: Here’s a guy who is desperately trying to make Siri understand his grammatically incorrect English.

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Setagaya Radiation “Hot Spot” – Not From Fukushima

Yesterday morning, there was great excitement on the internet about the discovery of a radioactive “hot spot” in Tokyo. The discovery was made by a citizens’ group that had been using their own geiger counters to search for radiation in Tokyo. The particular spot was only a couple square meters in size, located along the side of an old building:

Setagaya Ward detected radiation of 2.707 microsieverts per hour at the fence, which is in the Tsurumaki district, on Oct. 6, and measured the radiation again twice Thursday. The day’s preliminary reading was reportedly 3.35 microsieverts per hour.

A level of 2.707 microsieverts per hour would be equivalent to 14.2 millisieverts per year, while 3.35 microsieverts per hour would be equivalent to 17.6 millisieverts per year, lower than the 20 millisieverts per year at which the government is supposed to order an evacuation.

It is widely believed that a one-time exposure to 100 millisieverts of radiation may increase the risk of dying from cancer by 0.5 percent.

The contamination appears to be limited to one site, as no other hot spots were found in Setagaya.

The ward measured radiation levels at 64 local elementary schools in the summer, and the highest reading was only 0.1 microsievert an hour.

It seemed like a dream come true for anti-nuclear bloggers and conspiracy theorists. Look! The Japanese government has been lying to its citizens: Tokyo is in danger! There’s a hot spot in Tokyo that is more radioactive than some of the evacuated parts of Fukushima! The government is murdering its own people!

But, the truth came to light, and it was bad news for fear-mongers. Authorities checked the building next to the spot, and found its source. It was radium-226, an isotope not used in the Fukushima reactors:

Mayor Nobuto Hosaka said Thursday the hotspot was most likely caused by a radioactive material in several old bottles in the house. He said radioactivity from the bottles exceeded the measurable limit on a low-dose radiation counter.

Science and education ministry inspectors believe the bottles contain radium, a radioactive material used in the past as self-luminous paint for watches, Kyodo News agency reported. It said the inspectors concluded that the radiation was not related to the Fukushima disaster because no cesium was detected in the bottles. Cesium is one of the main isotopes that leaked from the tsunami-damaged nuclear plant.

Meanwhile, in Funabashi, a group of Chiba citizens discovered their own hot spot. When authorities came to check it, they found it was a false alarm:

The group reported readings of 5.82, 2.1 and 1.79 microsieverts per hour at three locations in Anderson Park, but the city measured 0.91, 1.40 and 0.79 microsierverts per hour at the same spots Thursday.

However, one should not dismiss all of the efforts that private citizens have been making. They have made real discoveries. For example, a higher than normal amount of strontium-90 was found in Yokohama:

City officials announced private tests done by an agency hired by a resident had found a concentration of 195 becquerels per kilogram of strontium in sediment on top of the apartment building. Both the Yokohama government and the Japanese government are conducting their own tests to verify the findings.

Levels of the isotope, which can lodge in bones and bone marrow and cause cancer, detected in various places in Japan prior to the Fukushima accident have been 10-20 becquerels per kilogram and are a legacy of Cold War-era nuclear weapons tests that dispersed strontium 90 throughout the globe.

It is higher than the usual 10-20 becquerels per kilogram, but it is not at a dangerous level. 195 bq/kg is very close to the 160 bq/kg safety limit for food imports to the United States. If someone were to use that dirt to grow vegetables, the vegetables would probably pass safety standards. If dirt was a food, one could even dilute it a small bit and sell it as “safe” food. Strontium is pretty scary when it’s found in large amounts. Ten or twenty times regular background levels is “high” but it is not a serious threat to health.

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Did Obama Want to Apologize For Hiroshima?

The American media has discovered a Wikileaked American State Department cable describing the preparations for President Barack Obama’s 2009 visit to Japan. It includes a passage that states that the Japanese government requested that Obama not make an apology visit to Hiroshima:

On the President’s upcoming visit to Japan in November, he recommended keeping the program relatively simple and centered around the Tokyo metropolitan area, adding that it would be premature to include a visit to Hiroshima.

[...]

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POTUS VISIT TO JAPAN: TOO EARLY FOR HIROSHIMA VISIT

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¶5. (C) VFM Yabunaka pointed out that the Japanese public will have high expectations toward President Obama’s visit to Japan in November, as the President enjoys an historic level of popularity among the Japanese people. Anti-nuclear groups, in particular, will speculate whether the President would visit Hiroshima in light of his April 5 Prague speech on non-proliferation. He underscored, however, that both governments must temper the public’s expectations on such issues, as the idea of President Obama visiting Hiroshima to apologize for the atomic bombing during World War II is a “non-starter.” While a simple visit to Hiroshima without fanfare is sufficiently symbolic to convey the right message, it is premature to include such program in the November visit. Yabunaka recommended that the visit in November center mostly in Tokyo, with calls on the Emperor and Prime Minister, as well as some form of public program, such as speeches, an engagement at a university, or a town hall-like meeting with local residents. Highlighting the busy political calendar in the coming weeks, including the election of the new Prime Minister, launching of the new Cabinet, and the Prime Minister’s participation in the UN General Assembly and the Pittsburgh G-20 Summit, Yabunaka noted that both sides should begin working quickly on the President’s November visit. The Ambassador conveyed an

TOKYO 00002033 003.2 OF 003

informal invitation for the new Prime Minister to attend the Pittsburgh Summit, adding that an official invitation will follow once the Prime Minister is elected.

It isn’t clear if Obama or the United States government actually proposed such a Hiroshima visit. However, as this clip from Rush Limbaugh shows, America’s right-wingers are assuming that this is yet another example of how Obama is disgracing America:

When Obama did visit, he did not go to Hiroshima. But he did bow when he met the Emperor in Tokyo, which is apparently something worth complaining about.

The American ambassador to Japan did attend the Hiroshima anniversary ceremony in 2010, which was seen by some American nationalists as an “unsaid apology” to Japan.

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Arakawa River Seal Sighting Ignites Media Frenzy

The seal I blogged about yesterday is still hanging out in Saitama, and it seems to have ignited a major media frenzy:

The animal has been seen in the Arakawa river near the Akigase water diversion weir, around 35 kilometers upstream from Tokyo Bay. According to locals and other sources, the seal began appearing in the area a few days ago.

On Oct. 11, around 100 spectators including parents with their children had gathered on both banks of the river. When the seal poked its head out from the water about every 10 to 20 minutes, people would call out to it.

Could it be Tama-chan, the seal that became a national celebrity back in 2003?

Although both seals were spotted in Saitama prefecture, a side-by-side comparison of photos shows that this seal looks very different. An expert says that they are two entirely different types of seals.

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