A video shows a group of babies Tohoku receiving a gift of wooden chairs from a Hokkaido-based project:

All of the babies were born on March 11th 2011, the day of the great earthquake and tsunami. Each oak chair was engraved with the name of the child and a message wishing them strength in the future.

According to the news report, a total of 104 babies were born in Iwate, Fukushima, and Miyagi prefectures on that day.

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Former Tokyo-based freelance journalist Christopher Johnson has been sending Cease and Desist letters to JapanProbe. In these letters, he claimed that his journalism “been beyond reproach for 25 years,” and implies that my recent blog posts pointing out inconsistencies in his “gaijin gulag” article are tarnishing his reputation. This prompted me to look further into his past work.

Freelancer hired by JVA in 2010, but rejected in 2011

In late 2010 Japan hosted the Volleyball World Cup. The Japan Volleyball Association (JVA) paid Canadian freelance journalist Christopher Johnson to write articles about the event.

The 2011 Volleyball World Cup was also hosted in Japan. Although Johnson once again applied for a job with the JVA, he was rejected.

The exact reasons behind the JVA’s decision are unknown. However, we do know Johnson’s side of the story. In a blog post dated November 11 2011, Johnson viciously attacked Hiromi Suzuki of the JVA, claiming that she unfairly blocked his assignment after he received the endorsement of a press officer of the International Federation of Volleyball (FIVB):

“…she cancelled Johnson off the list. ((Last year, though he wrote lengthy, detailed semi-final and final reports, he insisted on also doing a story for a newspaper I never heard of (the New York Times.) That was weird. Even worse, he went home from Hamamatsu on his day off to take care of his dying dog. And when I made mistakes calculating his travel expenses of 14,800 yen, he asked me to do the math again. He’s a troublemaker.))

[...]

“Before Johnson could conclude a deal potentially worth about 1.2 million yen, however, Suzuki seized the chance to get revenge on Johnson for causing “meiwaku” (trouble) by going home on his day off to take care of his dying dog. Over the phone, she told Baker that Johnson threatened to take her to court, and he still owed the JVA 1820 yen (about $25) in transport costs from last year.”

Johnson, who is writing about himself in the third-person, was clearly unhappy about missing out on the deal. The article seems to characterize Suzuki as a lazy idiot who disliked foreigners (“sent by her parents to ESL programs in London, she learned to hate English and distrust foreigners”). Rick Martin, the freelancer who was hired for the position the Johnson had hoped to fill, is characterized as someone hired because he “didn’t ask ‘difficult’ journalistic questions at press conferences.” Other JVA employees are also characterized as anti-foreign, and Japanese journalists are described as showing up drunk to volleyball matches.

[Update(Feb. ]: Johnson has since deleted his original blog post and replaced it with a NYT article. Knowing Johnson’s history of such behavior, I set up a Version tracking page. The cached version of the article is also still up. ]

Rejected freelancer writes articles slamming the JVA (without disclosing past employment)

A few weeks later, Johnson found two media outlets that were willing to publish articles that were intensely critical of the JVA:

• Japan Tobacco accused of marketing to girls at World Cup volleyball (Washington Times / November 24, 2011)
• Is Japan’s 2020 Olympic bid going up in smoke? Rest of the world fuming over tobacco sponsorship of sports in Japan. (CNN GO / December 6, 2011)

Japan Tobacco(JT)’s sponsorship of the JVA had been mentioned in Johnson’s earlier anti-JVA blog post. These two articles take that complaint a step further, framing it as story about anti-smoking campaigners who disapprove of JT.

Both articles failed to disclose Johnson’s past relationship with the JVA/FIVB. It is unlikely that any readers knew that Johnson had once worked as a JVA writer, and had just recently blogged about his intense frustration over having not been re-hired for JVA’s 2011 writing gig. From an ethical standpoint, this seems like a pretty massive disclosure failure. Shouldn’t readers have a right to know that they’re reading something written by a person that could be characterized as a disgruntled former JVA writer?

It is not clear if Johnson had disclosed his past work for the JVA/FIVB when submitting the article to the editors of CNN Go and the Washington Times.

Were cigarettes really being marketed to children?

Near the end of the Washington Times article it is revealed that the products being advertised were beverages:

“JT is a multi-products company and they are our sponsor as the beverage category for this World Cup.”

Readers are informed that the company in question, Japan Tobacco, has a beverage division. They are not informed that JT sells many very popular beverages such as Roots Coffee, Tsujiri Tea, Hot Lemon, and bottled variations of Doutor coffee and hot chocolate.

The JT name and logo are often used in coffee commercials:

It is possible that the articles mentioned in this post may be altered or deleted in the future. For the sake of posterity, here are some cached copies:

• Cached copy of Johnson’s November 2010 blog post about writing for the JVA
• Cached Copy of Johnson’s November 2011 Blog Post Attacking JVA Employees
• Cached Copy of November 2011 Washington Times article about JT’s sponsorship of JVA
• Cached Copy of December 2011 CNN Go article about JT sponsorship of JVA

Megalodon.jp is an automated site that creates cached copies of web addresses. Keeping track of what Journalists write on public blogs is not abuse. I do not understand why Johnson has tried to remove all traces of his volleyball blog entry. Why does he not confidently stand behind his past work?

[A huge thanks goes out to several anonymous cyber sleuths, who were kind enough to inform me about these volleyball articles. And, most of all, thanks to Christopher Johnson. ]

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• Christopher Johnson Under Fire For “Gaijin Gulag” Article
• “Gaijin Gulag” Victim Christopher Johnson Discloses Visa Information ( Work Visa Application Paperwork, But No Approval? )

Johnson is now trying to intimidate me into deleting those blog posts. He wants my criticism of his article to disappear from the internet. I will not be threatened or bullied into silence.

Many people were skeptical about Johnson’s extraordinary story. When people asked legitimate questions about his visa status, he was evasive. When critics pointed to parts of the personal account that they thought were inconsistent or false, those parts would disappear from Johnson’s story. Johnson has edited his blog post numerous times.

In my blog posts, I tried to deliver reasonable analysis and commentary about Johnson’s article/blog post. The edits to the story, Johnson’s comments on Twitter and Debito.org, and Johnson’s refusal to disclose the full details of his visa status made me skeptical. I found it difficult to accept everything he wrote at face value. And I made my views about that rather clear.

I did not claim to know the full facts of Johnson’s case. So when I blogged about his article and his online comments, I did not try to present my commentary as the absolute truth about his situation. I commented on how the situation “appeared” and how things “seemed.”

Moreover, the two blog posts directed readers to Johnson’s own version of the story, as well as several outside sources, at which they could read various viewpoints on Johnson’s story.

I believe that the freedom of speech is a fundamental human right. And that human right extends to the internet. On this issue, I agree with the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s view of bloggers’ rights:

“Bloggers are entitled to free speech…..Internet bullies shouldn’t use copyright libel or other claims to chill your legitimate speech.”

Unfortunately, Christopher Johnson does not appear to share my belief of what constitutes free and legitimate speech.

Here is a copy of a threatening e-mail that Johnson sent to Japan Probe:

Tokyo-based freelance correspondent for the Washington Times, New York Times, Toronto Star, Globe and Mail Report on Business, CTV Canada, CBC Canada, DW-TV Berlin, France 24, Asia Times, Japan Times, CNNGO, CNN.com and others

Johnson’s threats are ridiculous. It is not cyber bullying or defamation when a blogger writes analysis and criticism of articles and public statements made by a public figure.

My response to the accusations Johnson makes in his threatening e-mail can be found below.

Claim 1: I took Twitter conversations “out of context” to slander Johnson

Answer: My observation was based on the entire Twitter conversation. I was not taking remarks out of context. Twitter conversations are not private. Both Johnson and Adelstein know this, as their profession quotes and republishes tweets all the time. Their conversation took place on a public forum and I was expressing my view of that conversation.

Johnson apparently does not want anybody else to get a look at the context of the conversation. He has deleted most of the tweets. (A couple survive as screencaps: Johnson compares himself to a rape victim / Johnson is more important than TokyoReporter )

Claim 2: There is “no evidence” to support my claim about “highly unlikely and possibly wrong parts of the article.”

Answer: It is not illegal to express a view about something being “unlikely” or “possibly wrong.” The content of my blog post corresponded with what other critics were already writing on other sites (Tepido.org, FG, Debito.org, and the Economist).

Claim 4: In fact, temperatures often reach minus 40 C in Alberta.

Answer: Pretty funny, coming from a person who accused me of taking information out of context. In Johnson’s original article, he complained about being expelled from Japan “onto a flight to Canada without much winter clothing for minus 40 temperatures in Alberta.” As I wrote in the post, temperatures that day in Alberta were not anywhere close to minus 40. And he had just arrived in Japan on a flight from Seoul, where it was actually colder than Alberta. (Johnson’s original statement sure sounds like an exaggeration to me, and I’ve visited Canada in winter too.)

Claim 5: The quotation about authorities having “acknowledged the receipt” of a work visa application was a fabrication.

Answer: The quotation is accurate. It is not a fabrication. I copy-pasted it directly from Johnson’s article. There is nothing wrong with commenting on what the passage seemed to say about his visa status.

The fact that he later edited the post and removed that passage does not mean that line never existed. The changes to Johnson’s blog post were well documented by several sources.

Perhaps Mr. Johnson has changed his story so many times that he has become unable to keep track of what he has and has not written. That’s Mr. Johnson’s problem.

Claim 6: To “support” my “malicious claims” I cited a defamatory comment by [personal info].

Answer: Johnson made some very strange comments on Debito.org about NHK and Serbian propaganda. The quote from FG Forums makes a humorous observation about public comments from a public figure.

Claim 7: Bringing up Johnson’s March 2011 report about having fled Tokyo “has no point or relevance, other than to tarnish my professional reputation.”

Answer: It is relevant because Johnson’s Narita article contained a passage emphasizing that he had not fled Japan after the disaster.

I believe the transcript is accurate. I am quoting Johnson’s own words. There is nothing unreasonable about remarking that news reports about people fleeing Tokyo encouraged other people to flee.

It is odd is that quoting him verbatim is “tarnishing” his professional reputation. Does he no longer stand behind his work?

Claim 8: The Japan Probe “articles make no attempt to balance your slanderous attacks against me with the facts of the case.”

Answer: I am under no obligation to include the information that Johnson insists I should have included in the posts. Johnson has a very odd idea of “the facts of the case,” since they mostly appear to be facts about entirely different incidents. And, as I have already mentioned, I directed readers to visit other sites to learn more about Johnson’s case.

Claim 9: Johnson is facing “slanderous attacks in the comments section of The Economist and other sites, including Japanprobe.”

Answer: Johnson doesn’t specify any comments. Generally, I support the idea of readers freely expressing their opinions about public figures, even if those opinions may be negative.

So, there you have it. The letter doesn’t appear to contain any other claims worth answering.

Should you be publishing this?

Johnson’s e-mail contained a header declaring that it was “confidential” and prohibiting “distribution, copying, disclosure or modification” of its contents. While such a header might be an effective scare tactic against some people, I know it to be invalid:

Question: Is a cease-and-desist letter confidential?

Answer: There is ordinarily no expectation of privacy or confidentiality in a letter sent to an adversary. Unless you have made a specific promise of confidentiality beforehand, such as in a protective agreement or NDA, a letter demanding confidentiality doesn’t bind you.

And so Johnson’s C & D letter has been published here and has been submitted to Chilling Effects’ database of C & D letters, where it will soon be archived.

Aside – Johnson thanks his critics?

Yesterday morning, Level3 wrote a comment on how Johnson’s critics had pointed out holes in the original Narita story. Johnson’s subsequent edits and deletions seemed to reflect this. It was almost as if Johnson had been altering his account to be more believable. Questionable sections suddenly disappeared and new details were miraculously discovered to fill holes in the story. Level3 wrote that “us evil stalkerz at tepido, and FG, and Japan Probe served as editors” for Johnson’s story.

Soon afterwards, Johnson wrote this on his Twitter account:

Note: This website is not located in Japan.

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The Tokyo Gate Bridge will open to traffic next week. To celebrate the opening of a new Tokyo landmark, a special running event was held there yesterday.

Here’s a video of about 5,500 runners crossing the bridge:

Some specs:

The bridge, which links Wakasu district in Koto Ward with the central breakwater, features a unique shape, which resembles two dinosaurs facing each other.

Located at a height of 87.8 meters, it is 2,618 meters long, of which 1,618 meters are above the sea. It is longer than the 798-meter Rainbow Bridge, also in Tokyo Bay, the 860-meter Yokohama Bay Bridge and the 1,020-meter Tsurumi Tsubasa Bridge, also in Yokohama.

And its purpose:

The road is expected to serve as a bypass for Tokyo Wangan Doro (Tokyo Bay coast road), a main transportation artery, which is often jammed with vehicles.

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The Chairman of the UNSCEAR has announced that the health effects from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster will be relatively small because radiation was leaked into the sea instead of the air, and because evacuations of residents were carried out promptly:

The fact that some radioactive releases spread over the ocean instead of populated areas also contributed to limiting the consequences, said Wolfgang Weiss of the U.N. Scientific Committee on the effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR).

“As far as the doses we have seen from the screening of the population … they are very low,” Weiss told Reuters. This was partly “due to the rapid evacuation and this worked very well.”

[...]

Asked whether he was optimistic that the overall health effects would be quite small, Weiss said: “If we find out that what we know now is representing the situation, then the answer would be yes … the health impact would be low.”

More information from the American Council on Science and Health:

(Weiss) remarked that the situation in Fukushima was not at all comparable to Chernobyl — the nuclear reactor whose specter has created unduly fearful expectations in many people.

ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan remarked on the U.N.’s sound approach to its assessment. “When you’re looking for effect,” she says, “you look first at the high exposure groups to see if you can determine any impact. Not even right there, in Japan, have they discovered any kind of health impact from the wrecked plant.”

ACSH’s Dr. Josh Bloom is not surprised by UNSCEAR’s initial findings. He recently addressed the wildly disproportionate health fears of the American public following the nuclear plant damage in Japan. Much of that concern stems from an uninformed, outdated reaction to the entire concept of nuclear radiation, he says.

A few weeks ago, Dr. Bloom wrote a great piece addressing some fear-mongering pseudoscience: “Garbage In, Anti-Nuclear Propaganda Out: The 14,000 Death Fukushima Lie“

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A man brings coffee and a gramophone to Tohoku (video by Mackenzie Sheppard):

A short vignette of Yoshi Masuda–a coffee enthusiast who is sharing his passion for coffee with victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

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Just stumbled upon Castle Tintagel, a business near Mejiro station in Tokyo that offers lessons in medieval European swordfighting. Here’s a YouTube video about it:

Ever wanted to be a medieval knight? To learn how to fight with sword and shield? To armor up and fight upon the field of honor? Or perhaps to learn how to dance, sew, and write like they did in medieval Europe? Then Castle Tintagel is the perfect place for you! We are Tokyo’s one and only medieval Western martial arts and cultural center. Here you can learn anything from 15th century German longsword to Renaissance dancing.

Event photos can be seen on their blog.

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As human beings, we need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids. Luckily, the Japanese Diet is moving to protect this nation’s water supply from potential threats:

The legislation to be sponsored by lawmakers of both parties aims to prevent the purchase and uncontrolled development of reservoir areas by foreign capital.

The move comes amid increased purchases by foreign funds of forest areas that serve as sources of fresh water.

[...]

The bill would stipulate that water is a precious, shared national resource, and the central and local governments have a responsibility to devise and implement water-related policies.

News articles mention foreign investors buying forest areas, but the exact country of origin of the investors and the purpose of such purchases is not entirely clear.

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The preliminary calculations conducted by a team from the university’s Earthquake Research Institute were based on intensified seismic activity in the area after the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11.

The findings are more dire than a similar estimate by the central government’s Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion, which states there is a 70 percent chance a quake of the same scale will hit the southern Kanto region, including the metropolitan area, within 30 years.

Sounds pretty scary. Should we believe the forecast? Not necessarily.

In April of 2011, Nature published “Shake-up time for Japanese seismology” by Professor Robert J. Geller of Tokyo University (Japanese version available here). Geller argues that earthquakes cannot be reliably predicted.

When one compares the Japanese government’s national seismic hazard map to the actual areas where large earthquakes have occurred in the last 30 years, one notices the problem:

“Although such maps may seem authoritative, a model is just a model until the methods used to produce it have been verified. The regions assessed as most dangerous are the zones of three hypothetical ‘scenario earthquakes’ (Tokai, Tonankai and Nankai; see map). However, since 1979, earthquakes that caused 10 or more fatalities in Japan actually occurred in places assigned a relatively low probability. This discrepancy — the latest in a string of negative results for the characteristic earthquake model and its cousin, the seismic-gap model — strongly suggests that the hazard map and the methods used to produce it are flawed and should be discarded.”

Very general predictions are possible:

“If global seismicity and the historical record in Tohoku had been used as the basis for estimating seismic hazards, the 11 March Tohoku earthquake could easily have been ‘foreseen’ in a general way, although not of course its particular time, epicentre or magnitude.”

But the Japanese government continues to rely on methods that attempt – and apparently fail – to predict earthquakes of specific magnitudes taking place in specific regions.

“All of Japan is at risk from earthquakes, and the present state of seismological science does not allow us to reliably differentiate the risk level in particular geographic areas. We should instead tell the public and the government to ‘prepare for the unexpected’ and do our best to communicate both what we know and what we do not. “

Much of Geller’s article focuses on the Japanese government’s official Tokai earthquake prediction. However, the general message is clear: there is no reliable method for forecasting earthquakes.

The latest forecast for Tokyo does not appear to represent a sudden new breakthrough in the field of earthquake predictions. What’s new about it is that heavy emphasis is placed on the increase in seismic activity that occurred in the 6 months following the March 11th disaster. [For a detailed analysis of the forecast - see this post. ]

Some of the articles about the new Tokyo prediction have presented it alongside the highly questionable Tokai earthquake prediction. Both predictions are based on methods that have not been verified as accurate.

Don’t trust the hype. Big earthquakes do happen in Japan, but experts do not know where and when the next big one will occur. If you live in Japan, be prepared for earthquakes, even if you’re outside of what have been deemed high risk areas.

[gigantic hat tip to Steve]

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Are you wondering how a group at the Tokyo University Earthquake Research Institute (ERI) calculated a 70% chance of a Magnitude 7 quake occurring in the Tokyo area within the next four years? If so, take a look at the above plot of historical Japanese earthquake data that compares the number of quakes per year to the total energy released by each quake.

First of all, ERI didn’t do this from scratch. They started with a potentially flawed government calculation and suggested a new value based on recent observations. This new value is 98% chance within 30 years, which translates to 70% in 4.

Now to the plot. let’s consider the filled symbols, which represent data spanning as much as the past 55 years, up to 2010. The frequency of earthquakes rapidly and predictably decreases with magnitude, meaning larger quakes happen much less often than smaller ones. The relationship between frequency and magnitude is shown by the dashed lines. One line doesn’t fit the entire dataset. Rather, the occurrence of quakes in excess of M4 decreases more rapidly with size (and therefore plot along a different line).

Next, let’s look at the open blue circles, which are about 6 months worth of data, from March 11 to August 1, 2011. As you can see, these data exhibit a similar slope but plot significantly higher than the pre-3/11 data. This indicates that higher-magnitude earthquakes have occurred more frequently since 3/11, a fact of which anyone living in eastern Japan is keenly aware. There appear to be too few occurrences of quakes larger than M4 to calculate a robust fit, (i.e., no corresponding dashed line) though it appears that the slope for the larger quakes is also similar to the pre-3/11 data.

Finally, we come to the new prediction. In the bottom right of the plot, the government’s official prediction of a M6.7 – 7.2 quake occurring in Tokyo is overlain as a yellow star and horizontal solid line. The folks at ERI simply recalculated this based on the  equation for the extrapolated fit between earthquake frequency and magnitude since 3/11.

There you have it. That’s how they did it. But is it correct?

I’d argue that this analysis, while interesting, contains several important flaws.

1. The new prediction is based on extrapolation from a perturbed state. That is, the frequency of earthquakes is currently elevated but likely to drop to normal over time.
2. It is based on very few observations.
3. It is based on extrapolation beyond the limits of the data.
4. It appears to be based on an inappropriate equation (the M4 and smaller frequency/magnitude relationship).
5. It does not account for uncertainty.

Most importantly, the correlation between frequency and magnitude breaks down for large quakes in the pre-Tohoku dataset, and if calculated, would be significantly lower for the M4 and greater quakes since 3/11. Could this increased uncertainty yield a result that is statistically indistinguishable from the government’s prediction? Maybe, but without the raw data, I can’t  say for sure.

—

Contributor Bio: Steve has been splitting time between the US and Japan for the past 10 years or so and is now a researcher at a Japanese university.

—

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Kentucky Fried Chicken has brought its famous Double Down sandwich to Japan. Who needs bread when you can have healthy pieces of fried chicken instead?

It’s currently available only at the KFC near Sunshine City in Ikebukuro. Double Downs will be available at stores across Japan starting on February 2nd.

[hat tip to J.L. Gatewood]

Here’s a TV news report about it, which also mentions that McDonald’s Japan is offering 100 yen chicken nuggets until January 26th:

As you can see from the video, the promo branch near Sunshine City has been totally redecorated to celebrate the Double Down. The sandwich will be sold under the name “Chicken Fillet Double.”

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The Korea Times has printed a very interesting article by Fyodor Tertitskiy, a student at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. Entitled “First Korean member in Japan’s Cabinet,” it examines the career of a prominent Korean-Japanese politician:

He was born on Dec. 10, 1882 in the small village of Naeshirogawa in the Kagoshima Prefecture. His name was Pak Mu-dok. Three years later, the Japanese government implemented census reforms requiring all subjects of the empire to take official surnames. Mu-dok’s father took the new surname Togo and his son’s name became Shigenori, according to the Japanese pronunciation of the characters Mudok. This is how Shigenori Togo acquired his new name name.

[...]

In 1910, Korea was officially annexed by Japan. Togo, however, became a resident of Japan proper and thus escaped discrimination, along with every Korean who acquired Japanese citizenship before the annexation.

Tertitskiy goes on to describe Togo’s career in a very positive light. Although he served as ambassador to Nazi Germany, Togo “had no love for national socialism.” Although he served in Japan’s war cabinet, Togo was one of the few “sane” politicians who opposed the plan to attack the United States.

At the end of the article, we are told about what happened to Togo after the war:

Despite his efforts to stop the war, Shigenori Togo was still a part of the Japanese Empire’s war machine. He was found guilty on charges of waging an aggressive war against the Allies ― including, ironically, the United States ― but innocent of any part in the inhumane treatment of prisoners’ of war.

Interestingly, the author does not use the word “war criminal” and does not specify that Togo was a Class A war criminal. Another very relevant piece of information is left out: Togo, who died while serving his prison sentence, is one of the 14 Class A war ciminals enshrined among the war dead at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine.

Because of South Korea’s bizarre official stance regarding the validity of post-WW2 war crimes trials, it was good that the author pointed out that Togo was not involved in the mistreatment of POWs. In 2006, the South Korean government officially cleared a large number of Class B and Class C war criminals who were convicted of torture, mistreatment, and murder of Allied prisoners. According to the South Korean government, those convicted war criminals were “victims,” while men like Togo were not.

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A news report about beautiful cloth Jizo figures that have been put on display at a Buddhist temple in Kesennuma:

They are on display at Jifuku-Ji, a temple that stands amid the rubble of a city that was devastated by the March 11th tsunami. A mark on one of the wooden beams of the building shows that it was almost entirely submerged when the tsunami hit. Most of the statues and graves that had been outside the temple building were washed away or destroyed.

There are over 120 handmade figures. The Jizo figures were made from fine cloth and kimonos donated by tsunami survivors. Some of the materials belonged to people who died in the tsunami.

The first of these Jizo figures was created by a woman who lost her brother-in-law in the tsunami. Like many of the people lost that day, his remains have not been found. There was no grave site at which his family could offer prayers. The woman created the figure as something to which prayers could be offered.

After she completed the first figure, she began to receive requests for others. It eventually became a neighborhood project. The figures now on display at the temple will eventually be placed in the homes of people who lost loved ones.

Here’s some background information on Jizou statues (from Wikipedia):

In Japan, Ksitigarbha, known as Jizō, or Ojizō-sama as he is respectfully known, is one of the most loved of all Japanese divinities. His statues are a common sight, especially by roadsides and in graveyards. Traditionally, he is seen as the guardian of children, particularly children who died before their parents. Since the 1980s, he has been worshiped as the guardian of the souls of mizuko, the souls of stillborn, miscarried or aborted fetuses, in the ritual of mizuko kuyō (水子供養, lit. offering to water children). In Japanese mythology, it is said that the souls of children who die before their parents are unable to cross the mythical Sanzu River on their way to the afterlife because they have not had the chance to accumulate enough good deeds and because they have made the parents suffer. It is believed that Jizō saves these souls from having to pile stones eternally on the bank of the river as penance, by hiding them from demons in his robe, and letting them hear mantras.

Jizō statues are sometimes accompanied by a little pile of stones and pebbles, put there by people in the hope that it would shorten the time children have to suffer in the underworld. (The act is derived from the tradition of building stupas as an act of merit-making.) The statues can sometimes be seen wearing tiny children’s clothing or bibs, or with toys, put there by grieving parents to help their lost ones and hoping that Jizō would specially protect them. Sometimes the offerings are put there by parents to thank Jizō for saving their children from a serious illness. Jizō’s features are commonly made more babylike to resemble the children he protects.

As he is seen as the saviour of souls who have to suffer in the underworld, his statues are common in cemeteries. He is also believed to be one of the protective deities of travelers, the dōsojin, and roadside statues of Jizō are a common sight in Japan. Firefighters are also believed to be under the protection of Jizō.

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Video of fossils found in Nagasaki prefecture that are believed to be about 18 million years old:

The remains were found on the coast of Matsuura’s Takashimacho district, and are thought to be among the oldest of their kind in Japan.

There are five species of rhino living in Asia, Africa and other regions, including the black rhinoceros and Sumatran rhinoceros. Their ancestors are thought to have first appeared some 23 million years ago, and the latest find is seen as important in understanding the evolution process of the animals.

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Last week, the Yomiuri reported that JR was planning to open a new station on Tokyo’s Yamanote loop line. It would be the first new station on the line in 40 years, and would be combined with a redevelopment planned aimed at attracting international businesses:

The planned station will be the 30th on the Yamanote Line. The last station to open on the line was Nishi-Nippori in Arakawa Ward in 1971.

Because the area to be developed is close to Haneda Airport, which is handling an increasing number of international flights, it was last month designated by the government as “a comprehensive special zone for international strategy.”

The central government plans to ease immigration regulations for foreigners who work at companies in the zone, and the Tokyo metropolitan government will try to attract foreign companies by reducing or eliminating the corporate enterprise tax imposed on firms establishing offices there.

A Japanese TV report takes a look at the plan:

The beginning of the video shows a large area where many trains are parked when not in use. This area will be redeveloped.

The land used was owned by JR and didn’t really contribute much to the economic well-being of the area. Local residents and restaurant owners are looking forward to the creation of a booming new business zone.

At least one business will have to make some very big changes if a new station is opened. The reporter visits a Yamanote-themed karaoke parlor at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel, where all the rooms are named after stations. There is no extra room between the Tamachi station room and the Shinagawa station counter. They’ll have to name their waiting sofa after the new station.

An expert from the Daiwa Institute of Research says that the zone will benefit from its proximity to both Haneda Airport and the Shinkansen stop at Shinagawa station. Real estate agents are also expecting that property values around the area are going to rise.

Construction of the station could begin in 2013, with the opening sometime in 2014.

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Japan may soon have a new definition of fatness:

The Japan Society for the Study of Obesity (JASSO) is considering including women with a body mass index (BMI)–a measure of weight relative to height–of below 25 but a waist circumference of above 80 centimeters as excessively fat.

People with a BMI of less than 25 are not considered overweight under current guidelines.

The government-set conditions for being obese include a BMI of 25 or more, health problems such as a lipid abnormality and high-blood pressure, and having an abdominal girth of 85 centimeters or more for men and 90 centimeters or more for women.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry uses these figures when deciding whether a person has metabolic syndrome in a special health check program for people aged from 40 to 74.

However, experts have pointed out that the risk of arteriosclerosis and other health problems increases for people with excessive visceral fat even if their BMI is below 25.

I am not sure what percentage of the Japanese population would be considered obese under the JASSO or Japanese government standards, but a recent English language news article states that Japan’s rate of obesity is 2.9 percent for men and 3.3 percent for women.

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World Bank economist Branko Milanovic, author of “The Haves and the Have-Nots,” concluded that, based on 2005 data, 48% of the world’s top earners are Americans — about 29 million of us.

That’s true because it takes just $34,000 in after-tax annual income per person to qualify for the world’s 1%, Annalyn Censky explained on CNNMoney. Thus, a family of four would need to earn $136,000 to make the cut.

The other world 1%-ers are in Germany (4 million); France, Italy and England (3 million each); Canada, Korea, Japan and Brazil (2 million each), and assorted other countries. Strangely enough, Milanovic’s book says, “There is nobody from Africa, China, India, or from East Europe or Russia (in statistically significant numbers, of course).”

Although the graphic shows Japan as having the same number of people icons as South Korea and Canada, the order of the countries, which is not alphabetical, suggests that Japan’s portion of the top 1% is slightly less than those two nations.

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The Asahi reports about a German citizen who made his family flee Tokyo after the Fukushima nuclear accident. It would seem that, despite the overwhelming evidence that a radioactive doomsday never occurred, some people who fled are still afraid of living in Tokyo:

While Sascha has since returned to Tokyo alone to continue his work as a radio disc jockey, his wife, Terumi, and their 4-year-old daughter, Leiya, remain in Germany.

Sascha, 35, who identifies himself only by his first name, was unconvinced that radiation levels in Japan would not have an adverse impact on the health of his family.

Nine months after leaving Japan, Terumi, 39, who can speak very little German, often struggles with basic day-to-day procedures. And she’s not the only one feeling the stress of living in a foreign land. Leiya, who attends kindergarten in Munich, showed apparent strains from a new environment, acting out on occasion, for some time.

After months of living in a country he believed to be too radioactive for his daughter, Sascha visited her in Germany. While there, he underwent some tests that confirmed what should have already been obvious:

In Japan, Sascha has been measuring radiation levels with a dosimeter. In October, he traveled to Germany to undergo an examination for radiation. Sascha said he wanted to confirm with his own body whether it was safe for his family to return to Japan.

When he reported on a blog that nothing abnormal was detected, many people who were also worried about the impact of radiation on their children’s health wrote that they felt reassured.

He apparently brushed the test results aside and continues to insist that Tokyo is still too dangerous for his wife and child. The article states that he spent the New Year’s holiday alone in Japan.

Instead of emphasizing the lack of a rational reason to be afraid of living in Tokyo, the author of the article repeats a line that has become popular among anti-nuclear activists. Many initially insisted that Fukushima would contaminate Tokyo with deadly amounts of radiation, but that never happened. So, lacking credible evidence of danger, they now insist that we must wait years to find out who was right:

Some frowned on the couple’s decision to flee, although they certainly weren’t the only ones to leave Japan after March 11. It will take time before they can tell whether it was the right or wrong decision. The couple said they will take responsibility for their decision either way.

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Somebody has vandalized the cenotaph in the center of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park:

Paint was sprayed over part of the cenotaph’s inscription, which reads, “Let all souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil,” according to the police, who are treating the incident as damage to property.

A security guard rushed to the cenotaph shortly before 1 a.m. after someone entered the monument site and set off an alarm, according to the police.

A man, possibly around 50-years-old, was spotted fleeing the scene of the crime.

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A Karate dojo practices in the cold water at a beach in Miyako, a city in Iwate prefecture that was heavily damaged by the March 11th tsunami:

All of the men were residents of the disaster zone. They hold this event every year, but this year they added something special: prayers for those who had died in the tsunami.

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Last week, the American and Japanese press reported that a non-Japanese father had been reunited with his daughter, who had been taken to Japan from the U.S. by his Japanese ex-wife in violation of custody agreements:

The girl’s return also freed her mother from jail in Milwaukee, where she had been held on contempt and interfering with custody charges since her April arrest on a Wisconsin warrant in Hawaii, where she had gone to renew her U.S. permanent resident status.

The exchange and release ended an expensive international legal, diplomatic and cultural struggle, and is believed to be the first time one of more than 300 children kidnapped to Japan has been returned to the U.S. via legal intervention.

“I didn’t think this day would ever come,” said James Sakar, an attorney for Moises Garcia.

Garcia, 39, met his daughter at O’Hare International Airport, where she arrived with her grandmother and Garcia’s Japanese lawyer. Along with Sakar, there were several law enforcement officials, staff of the Japanese Consulate in Chicago, a psychologist, representatives of the U.S. State Department and advocates for other American parents whose children are being held in Japan, where officials have refused to sign a world convention about international child abduction.

“They blinked, I guess,” said Patrick Braden, the founder of Global Future, an advocacy group for parents, and whose own child remains in Japan.

Someone has let me know about a very interesting discussion taking place over at the blog Hoofin to You. In response to a blog post about the news story, Dr. Garcia and Patrick Braden have left several comments. Commander Paul Toland of BACHome and the infamous Christopher Savoie have also become involved in the comment thread. Definitely worth a read, if you want to learn more about the questionable tactics and practices of certain groups that claim to be acting to resolve child abduction cases.

Of particular note is a comment by Dr. Garcia. It is quoted in full below (with some minor formatting changes to make it easier to read).

[-------Start Quotation-------]

As the father of the only abducted american children returned from Japan by legal means, I need to reply some of the statements here.

1)- I fully endorse Global Future and its member as a serious organization to help in the work of child abduction in Japan. I disagree with Mr. Toland when he said that both organizations (BACHOME and Bring Sean Home) never attack other parents. In fact, I was banned twice from participating in BSH forum after being publicly attacked by two parents from the BACHOME group. In addition, I had been hijacked in my Facebook account and website and I have to erase all the BACHOME member to protect my privacy. However, the date of my daughter arrival, my comments posted in Facebook where hijacked again. I traced the string as I left only one person on the BACHOME group with access to my account, and there I could find other BACHOME member invading my privacy.

Please also notice that several comments have been posted in different blogs disregarding my case a a “fluke”. There are only less than 20 people that know all the details in my case, therefore I totally disagree with the statement that I was lucky enough that my ex was stupid to travel to Hawaii. At the same token, can we say the same from Mr. Goldman?

Most recently, I have noticed activity from the Bachome group in their website by congratulating me about the case, and most recently an article at the Japan times. In both cases, they tried to attach my image to their group in spite of me sending letter requesting no to use my name or my daughter’s name as I don’t endorse the activity of the group and it is my opinion that this group make more damage than good.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111229f1.html

2)- As there are misunderstanding about the dimension of my case, let me give you a background.

I have been sole custodian in US since February 2008. My wife fully participated in the divorce action in Wisconsin who has fully jurisdiction. I was granted permanent custody on June 2009.

As many don’t know, I became sole legal custodian under Japanese law in Septemeber 2009. My US judgment was recognized in Japan by the Osaka High Court and Tokyo Supreme Court. The reason why Karina was not ordered to return was the “Lack of enforcement” (My opinion, this is the main problem in Japan, no the fact that they have a sole custody system). The case was dragged into appeal for nearly 2 years.

I went to fight custody in Japan 9 times. Finally, the Japanese Court agreed with me and issue its final opinion on October 2011. It is true, my wife was in Jail, but the appeal was in place since march 2011. People don’t know that the court could have given custody to the grandparents who could have tried to bargain more with the US Court. Instead the Japanese court reported:

• Sole custody should be kept to me (I never lost custody in Japan)
• For the first time, a Japanese court recognized the existence of Parental Alienation as a form of child abuse.
• For the first time, a Japanese court recognized that bicultural children need more than the Japanese culture as part of their heritage.

Unfortunately, Japanese media and the Japanese government are hidden this information. It seems that groups as Bachome and BSH also want to hide this information by disregarding all my victories in Japanese court and focusing only in the fact of my wife incarceration.

TBS (Tokyo broadcasting System) did an internal survey about the news, and Japanese opinion was in my side as well due to the facts mentioned about.

It is also unfortunate, that US national media were not interested in my news due to the fact that I did not allow them to show Videos of the reunification with my daughter. That is the same media that have covered stories for the BACHOME and BSH group.

Different than in such case, US local media (Wisconsin) was utilized in this case to minimize the exposure on the child.

3)- Role of congress:

I want to make public that I received a call from Congressman Smith the date of the arrival of my daughter to Wisconsin on 12/23. However, I decided no to answer as I knew that my name and my daughter’s name could be utilized for different purpose such as supporting the above groups. I went to Mr. Smith’s office several time during the time of my daughter abduction. the last one when my ex was incarcerated to request his support. Unfortunately, I was told by his chief staff that the office could not be involved in my case as their level of involvement in Japanese case was just to the level of raising awareness among all the congressional offices. When I urged them to act like they did with Mr. Goldman, they refused in spite of several arguments done by my attorney (who was present in the meeting) and other member of Global future. My question is why now that I was successful bringing my daughter from Japan with the help of Wisconsin Law Enforcement, his office is even mentioned in published articles and in the recent article published at Japan times?

If Mr. Smith would have intervened back in June 2011, Karina could have been returned quickly minimizing the severe parental alienation subjected at the end, and the issue could have become much bigger in terms of International Pressure over Japan. What a dream case, a strong case of kidnapping with US jurisdiction and strong legal case in Japan? what a wasted opportunity for all other left behind parents. I remember that Mr. Smith had a hearing on the parental abduction issue at around the time my ex was arrested, and when I called his office to participate in the hearing, I was told that I could not be included!!! But again Mr. Goldman was there together with other BACHOME people.

4)- I am a very fortunate person to have my daughter back at home. I wish the same for all the parents in the same situation independently of our differences. However, it is strategically wrong to assume that Japan will return all the children in block without reviewing the facts on each case, to be successful we have to recognized the following:

• Japan is a sovereign country.
• The US state department and US system is a complex system with integrated laws and regulations that need to be respected. Therefore, demanding the state department to do something outside their function is pointless. We need to work hard in congress to give tools to the US state department and US justice department to function properly in this situation.
• Cases with strong US jurisdiction should be first in the list.
• Cases with DV, lack of child support (dead beat parents, unfit parents (parents on disability) should be discussed individually.
• Lastly, cases with strong Japanese jurisdiction should be included under “Human rights” violation.

If we keep putting all cases in the same basket, it will be very easy for Japan to pick one of the weakest cases and make the strong cases look weaker. They tried this strategy in my case at the Japanese courts and it was quite difficult to eliminate.

I hope this explanation could suffice some of the question that have been formulated here. I agreed with the host that Wisconsin case is an important one, and I am willing to help other parents, but this has to be done with a strategy and no with emotion, otherwise Japan will keep dragging the process longer and we could have lost an important opportunity.

[-------End Quotation-------]

I completely agree with Hoofin, who wrote that, “All people with an interest in this issue, and other issues involving bilateral relations, could gain from thinking about these words.”

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In the past, I have blogged about the use of “color balls” as a crime-stopping tool in Japan. The balls, which contain paint that cannot be easily washed off, are throw or shot at suspects who are fleeing the scene of a crime, in the hope that they will be easily identifiable to pursuing police.

We can see its usefulness from this news report about a robbery in Saitama prefecture:

At around 2:15 AM this morning, a man with a knife rushed into a convenience store in the Nishi-Kawaguchi area, demanding money. The store employee handed over the cash, but wasn’t prepared to let the criminal have an easy escape. When the criminal ran out of the store and got on bicycle to flee the scene, the employee grabbed a crime prevention color ball and threw it at him. Most of the paint streaked onto the pavement, but some of it got on the bicycle. Police were later able to spot the paint-smeared bike and arrest the man.

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Back in October, a Japanese government plan to award 10,000 free plane tickets to foreign tourists was widely reported in the Western media. As I wrote at the time, it had yet not been approved by the government and it was by no means certain that the plan would go forward.

A few days ago, the JTO put an official announcement on its website: the plan will receive no funding, so it’s dead.

The project titled Fly to Japan! (to offer flight tickets to 10,000 foreigners with high potential to communicate Japan’s attractions), which had been covered in a number of media in autumn this year, was not approved as a governmental draft budget of FY 2012.

We express our hearty gratitude to a multitude of people for offering inquiries and messages to support Japan after its coverage.

As the recovery from the earthquake is an ongoing urgent task, Japan has been vigorously working towards its restoration with the support from the world. Almost all of Japan has been back to normal and ready to welcome visitors. We are sincerely looking forward to having you to see Japan with your own eyes.

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A Christmas Eve news report shows heavy snow bearing down on the the Sea of Japan side of Honshu:

In one area of Niigata prefecture, the snowfall is expected to reach 180 centimeters (70 inches) by Christmas.

It’s also snowing in parts of Hokkaido, Shikoku, and Kyushu. (But not Tokyo)

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Marcus Grandon has created this video that uses a class of Japanese students to educate us about their views of university education in Japan:

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Japan has officially picked the Lockheed F-35 Lightning (JSF) as the replacement for its aging fleet of fighter aircraft.

As Bloomberg reports, the jets are going to be very expensive:

Japan’s F-35s will replace Boeing F-4s, which were last assembled in the country in 1981. Japan had a total of 362 fighter jets as of March 31, according to the defense ministry’s website.
The initial contract with Lockheed is for four jets in the fiscal year beginning April 1, the Bethesda, Maryland-based contractor said today in a statement. The company will begin delivering jets to Japan in 2016, Steve O’Bryan, Lockheed’s vice president for business development, said on a conference call.

Japan will pay 8.9 billion yen ($114 million) for each of the first four jets, according to Masaki Fukasawa, director of aircraft division at the defense ministry. The nation’s total cost for the purchase, operation and maintenance of the 42 fighters is estimated at 1.6 trillion yen over 20 years, Fukasawa said.

The Pentagon has praised the decision, as it will apparently allow better coordination with United States and Australian forces.

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The Japanese coast guard have arrested the captain of a Chinese fishing boat that was caught illegally fishing well within Japan’s territorial waters:

Encounters between Chinese fishermen and the Japanese authorities have exacerbated tensions between Japan and China in the past over territorial boundaries in the East China Sea.
The Japanese coast guard said it had chased the Chinese boat for seven hours after finding it trying to collect corals near islands off the coast of Nagasaki. The coast guard arrested the boat’s captain, adding that nobody was harmed in the process.

A few more details:

In total, five coastguard vessels took turns chasing the Chinese vessel until around 5 am, when the boat was stopped for an onboard inspection, the coastguard said.

“We used a speed boat to bring the boat’s captain to (the coastguard’s office in) Nagasaki. The onsite investigation of the vessel is continuing before we move the ship and the rest of the crew,” a spokesman said.

“We are not experiencing any disobedient behaviour from the captain,” he said.
The arrest came after a 42-year-old Chinese fisherman was charged last week with murder in South Korea over the fatal stabbing of a coastguard officer and the wounding of another as they tried to detain him and his boat for illegally operating in the Yellow Sea.

Unlike the ramming incident that took place last year, this boat was within an area that even China does not claim, so there is unlikely to be any protests from the Chinese government.

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The Yomiuri has reported a very sad episode that occurred back in March. It seems that authorities overreacted to the potential danger of radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and ordered a rushed evacuation of elderly people housed at hospitals and nursing homes in the area. The physical condition of many of the patients was not properly considered, and the method of evacuation appears to have caused some deaths:

The prefectural government asked the Self-Defense Forces to transfer the patients to the Soso Public Health and Welfare Office, about 25 kilometers north of the power plant, because it was designated as a radiation screening site.

“We believed they had to undergo radiation screenings first to be accepted at evacuation centers,” a prefectural government public health official said.

However, Prof. Yoshio Hosoi of Hiroshima University–an emergency radiation medicine expert who was dispatched to the prefecture in response to the accident–could not help wondering if it was necessary for these patients to undergo the screenings. The professor believed they had probably not been exposed to excessive radiation because they remained indoors after the accident.

In fact, screenings for the 840 patients found none of them had been exposed to a level of radiation high enough for them to require decontamination treatment.

Among them were 132 patients and residents from Futaba Hospital and the Deauville Futaba home for the elderly, both of which were in Okumamachi. After arriving at the welfare office and undergoing radiation screening, they were then moved to Iwaki, in the southern part of the prefecture, via Fukushima city and Koriyama.

They traveled about 200 kilometers during the 12-hour journey before arriving at Iwaki-Koyo High School. Three patients died in transit, while an another 11 passed away hours after arriving at the school.

“The public had excessive radiation exposure fears,” Hosoi said as to why authorities put more focus on radiation screenings rather than the swift transfer of the patients.

At least 77 elderly people have died since undergoing evacuation after the March 11th disaster. Many of the deaths can be linked the stress of relocation.

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Police show off their ability to deal with knife-wielding bus hijackers:

The drill, which was held at Narita Airport, simulated a scenario in which a crazy dude with a knife hijacked an airport limo bus. Using non-lethal weapons, the police were able to quickly subdue the fake bad guy. They also practiced helping injured people get to ambulances.

The drill was based on a real incident. Last month, a man with a knife hijacked a bus at JR Chiba station and held two people hostage before police successfully stormed the bus and arrested him. No hostages were injured.

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In the months following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, there has been much speculation about the amount of radiation exposure received by people who lived near the plant. Many press reports left readers with the impression that the members of the general public had been exposed to extremely high amounts of radiation. One notable example, “Japan Held Nuclear Data, Leaving Evacuees in Peril” by Martin Fackler and Norimitsu Onishi of the New York Times, described bureaucrats’ delayed release of radiation forecasting information as an act that would kill people:

“From the 12th to the 15th we were in a location with one of the highest levels of radiation,” said Tamotsu Baba, the mayor of Namie, which is about five miles from the nuclear plant. He and thousands from Namie now live in temporary housing in another town, Nihonmatsu. “We are extremely worried about internal exposure to radiation.”

The withholding of information, he said, was akin to “murder.”

Were residents of the evacuation zone directly exposed to murderous levels of radiation?

Subsequent studies have found that the direct exposure higher than normal, but not at a dangerous level. As NHK reports:

On Tuesday, the prefecture released the results for 1,727 people in Namie Town, Iitate Village and a district in Kawamata Town. The municipalities are 10 to 50 kilometers from the plant.

Fukushima says 1,675, or 97 percent, of the people are thought to have been exposed to less than 5 millisieverts of radiation. 1,084 people are thought to have been exposed to less than one millisievert — the government’s safety limit for one year.

Nine people are thought to have been exposed to 10 millisieverts or more. Five of them are nuclear plant workers, among whom the highest level was 37 millisieverts. Of other 4, one who repeatedly visited an evacuation zone was exposed to 14 millisieverts.

Fukushima Medical University Vice President Shunichi Yamashita says the results show that exposure levels of most people were lower than a standard that would require evacuation, with extremely low health impact.

That means that none of the people are thought to have been exposed to anything close to the 100 millisieverts, which is the minimum level of radiation exposure which is found to cause a statistically higher chance of developing cancer.

In related news, Dokkyo Medical University has been conducting tests with WBC scanners to determine the internal radiation exposure of people in the town of Nihonmatsu. Of the 467 people examined, only 81 were confirmed to have detectable amounts of cesium in their bodies. However, the amounts detected were far below dangerous levels, and would apparently have resulted in a cumulative exposure of under 1 millisievert.

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[via 2chcopipe]

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The city of Yaizu in Shizuoka prefecture will have to trash thousands of copies of its official calendar because somebody realized that one of its festival photos contains a gangster:

The Yaizu Municipal Government announced Dec. 12 that it will retract and dispose of 55,500 copies of the 2012 calendar, which the city had already begun distributing to some 50,000 households through neighborhood associations on Dec. 1. The city will re-create a new version of calendar, which residents will receive only after the turn of the year.

The move, apparently prompted by a nationwide drive to oust yakuza groups, means the 5 million yen spent on calendar production has been wasted.

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A very important message from Tsunami victims in Japan to the world:

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According to the Sankei Shimbun, it is the first time in 11 years that all of Japan will be able to view such an eclipse.

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Pusuke, certified by Guiness World Records as the world’s oldest living dog last year, died Monday at his home, owner Yumiko Shinohara said. Pusuke is believed to have died of old age.

The dog was born at the home of one of Shinohara’s relatives in March 1985 and was registered as a pet on April 1 that year.

Pusuke lived for 26 years eight months, which is about 125 dog years.

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Several months ago, I blogged about a single pine tree that was left standing after the March 11th tsunami swept away an entire forest in the city of Rikuzentakata. People saw the tree’s miraculous survival as a symbol of hope, and were hoping to preserve it as a living monument.

Unfortunately, that won’t be possible. Experts have determined that salt water has killed the tree’s roots:

Although the group used iron sheeting to protect the tree and pumped seawater out of the surrounding soil, the Japan Greenery Research and Development Center discovered in October that salt water had rotted most of the tree’s roots and efforts to save it would be futile.

The civic group says it will leave the decaying tree alone.

Yoshihisa Suzuki, head of the group said: “The tree has encouraged us to live positively. I’m very sorry we can’t do anything more to save it.”

There are plans to take a graft from the tree and grow a new tree from it.

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Saw this on the JETAA USA blog today:

A Professor Emeritus of Chuo University has started a project called “Xmas Cards from Friends Around the World”. This is a campaign to gather Christmas cards from around the world to bring to the children in Tohoku. If you’d like to participate, please send your card(s) to the following address:

c/o Mrs. Mayumi Hoshi
Shichigahama-cho Saigai-Volunteer Center
Noyama 5-9, Yoshidahama
Shichigahama-cho, Miyagi
JAPAN 985-0802
ATTN: Boys and Girls

Sounds like a great way to cheer up children in Tohoku: Pass on this info to your friends!

A PDF with more information in Japanese can be found here.

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In the aftermath of the March 11th tsunami, Tohoku has been struggling with the issue of debris. It’s very hard to rebuild when thousands of tons of wreckage have yet to be dealt with. Tohoku’s surviving garbage incineration facilities lack the capacity to deal with the problem locally. They need help from other parts of Japan.

Here’s a news report from “Bankisha” about the issue. It focuses on how public fear of radiation has hindered efforts to support Tohoku:

In April, 572 local governments expressed a willingness to cooperate with efforts to dipose of debris from Tohoku. However, thanks to growing hysteria about radiation, the number of local governments quickly dropped to just 54. Reporters for the TV program contacted local governments for comments, and many responses expressing concern about safety. As we can see from a trip to the city of Miyako in Iwate prefecture, there is great frustration in Tohoku about what to do with debris that nobody is willing to accept

According to the report, the only local governments that have agreed to take debris from Miyako are Tokyo and part of Yamagata prefecture. There are plenty of bad things one can say about Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, but one has to at least give him credit for not giving in to the fearmongering about radiation. He says that the debris is tested for radiation and what’s being brought to Tokyo is not dangerously radioactive.

In the video, we see officials from Tokyo visiting a dump in Miyako to conduct radiation tests on each shipment of debris. If it exceeds government safety standards, it is not shipped. They also use geiger counters to scan the exterior of shipping containers, just in case they might find abnormalities. About 6 tons of debris are shipped to Tokyo every day. It takes over 19 hours for the debris to travel the 660 kilometer distance. It’s a highly inefficient way of dealing with the problem, but it’s the only option available because closer areas have refused to accept the debris.

It should be noted, however, that not all local governments that are rejecting debris are doing so because of fear. The reporters visited a place in Akita prefecture where garbage is melted and turned into pellets. This is not a widely-used method of disposal in Japan, and the national government’s safety standards only mention more common methods of incineration. They will not accept debris until the national government comes up with special rules for their type of facility. Local government officials in other parts of Japan, such as Osaka, are considering the creation of their own local safety standards, which would presumably be stricter than the national standards.

One of the major points made in the video is that the national government has set a very strict standard for radiation in debris. It’s even stricter than food safety standards. The debris being put in trucks must contain less than 100 becquerels of cesium-137 per kilogram.

Here is a translation of the chart they show in the video:

• Legal limit for food: 500 bq/kg
• Legal limit for drinks: 200 bq/kg
• Legal limit for transporting debris: 100 bq/kg
• Cesium found in debris from Miyako city: 68.6 bg/kg

And now a quick overview of the safety standard the government has set for burying ash:

• Legal limit for ash: 8,000 bq/kg
• Cesium found in ash from burned Miyako city debris: 133 bg/kg

The amount of cesium being dealt with is extremely low. When this debris is burned, it doesn’t spew cesium into the air. Incineration takes place inside facilities that filter the smoke and the leftover ashes are buried in landfills. Debris that contains less than 100 bq/kg of cesium is simply not dangerous. There is no proof the support the fearmongering claims of anti-nuclear activists. (Fun fact: even before the Fukushima accident, soil throughout Japan contained up to around 100 becquerels of cesium-137 per kilogram due to weapons tests in the Pacific and the 1986 Chernobyl accident.)

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: The news reports about debris being shipped to local governments for disposal are about debris from Miyagi and Iwate. It is NOT DEBRIS FROM FUKUSHIMA. The national government is taking charge of that project and will build disposal facilities in Fukushima prefecture. It will not involve the use of incinerators in places like Tokyo and Osaka.

Despite the existence of very helpful and informative news reports, there is still a great deal of public ignorance about the debris issue. A good example of this ignorance can be found on a Facebook group that calls on people to “rally against destroying Osaka.” Group administrators Gareth Whitby and Fabio Viola have completely fallen for scaremongering from “experts” such as Arnie Gundersen, and believe that accepting debris from Tohoku will put the lives of Osaka residents in danger.

[hat tip to Feitclub for the Facebook link]

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]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/12/01/radioactive-debris-from-tohoku-rally-against-destroying-osaka/feed/ 28 http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/28/tokyo-police-raid-popular-roppongi-nightclubs-gaspanic-bar-club-99/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/28/tokyo-police-raid-popular-roppongi-nightclubs-gaspanic-bar-club-99/#comments Mon, 28 Nov 2011 06:43:59 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=23115

Police have raided Club 99 and Gaspanic Bar, two popular and infamous establishments in the Roppongi area of Tokyo:

It seems that the owners were operating their nightclubs without a license to stay open late a night.

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]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/28/tokyo-police-raid-popular-roppongi-nightclubs-gaspanic-bar-club-99/feed/ 29 http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/27/japanese-imperial-family-tree-order-of-succession/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/27/japanese-imperial-family-tree-order-of-succession/#comments Sun, 27 Nov 2011 03:43:34 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=23100 A chart from the Daily Yomiuri shows Japan’s royal family and the candidates for Imperial succession:

The current rules say that only a male can succeed to the throne. However, that only applies to the male children of Imperial princes. When princesses get married and have children, their families are not considered branches of the Imperial family. The rules have resulted in a shrinking list of candidates who can become Emperor in the future, and most of the potential heirs are quite old. Only one, Prince Hisahito, is under the age of 45.

To solve this crisis, some are suggesting a change in the rules that would give Imperial status to the children of princesses:

The Imperial family currently comprises the Emperor and 22 other members, with four of the seven male members in their 60s or older.

There are eight unmarried females in the Imperial family, including three granddaughters of the Emperor: Princess Aiko, 9, the only child of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako; and Princesses Mako, 20, and Kako, 16, two of the three children of Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko.

The five other unmarried female members are all granddaughters of Prince Mikasa, brother of Emperor Showa. The eldest is 29-year-old Princess Akiko.

According to the sources, the Imperial Household Agency is concerned it will become more and more difficult for the Imperial family to perform its duties as the number of members decreases due to females marrying outside the family and losing their royal status.

Shingo Haketa, grand steward of the agency, visited Noda at the Prime Minister’s Office on Oct. 5, and told him it was a matter of urgency to enable female members of the Imperial family to create family branches, the sources said.

Other officials of the agency have delivered similar communications to senior government officials, the sources said.

According to the sources, agency officials said creating a system to maintain the stability of Imperial succession is a mid- to long-term concern, considering Prince Hisahito, 5–son of Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko–is at present the only grandson of the Emperor eligible to assume the throne.

Allowing females to create family branches would also pave the way for a female to assume the throne if there is no male heir.

The Yomiuri seems to have fully endorsed the plan.

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]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/27/japanese-imperial-family-tree-order-of-succession/feed/ 8 http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/24/christopher-busby-sells-useless-overpriced-anti-radiation-pills/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/24/christopher-busby-sells-useless-overpriced-anti-radiation-pills/#comments Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:25:38 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=23084

If you’ve been following some of the scariest stories on the internet about the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, chances are you’ve come across statements by anti-nuclear activist Christopher Busby. Busby is known for his championing of the (unproven) claim that very low doses of radiation are extremely harmful to human health. He’s been saying that Fukushima could kill over 1.4 million people. Busby has even claimed that the Japanese government is using trucks full of radioactive waste to intentionally contaminate the entire country, giving children cancer in areas of Japan that are far from Fukushima, and thus hiding any spike in cancer rates that will take place near Fukushima.

A recent article in the Guardian has revealed that Busby is profiting from his extremely scary statements about Fukushima. As he spreads fear of radiation, he’s promoting the sale of supplements that he claims will protect people from it:

Dr Christopher Busby, a visiting professor at the University of Ulster, is championing a series of expensive products and services which, he claims, will protect people in Japan from the effects of radiation. Among them are mineral supplements on sale for ￥5,800 (£48) a bottle, urine tests for radioactive contaminants for ￥98,000 (£808) and food tests for ￥108,000 (£891).

The tests are provided by Busby Laboratories and promoted through a body called the Christopher Busby Foundation for the Children of Fukushima (CBFCF). Both the pills and the tests are sold through a website in California called 4u-detox.com, run by a man called James Ryan.

Scientists who were asked to comment on the effectiveness of the supplements said that they were essentially “useless” as protection against radiation. And, to make matters worse, they’re being sold at a price that is ludicrously high:

Busby says that the calcium and magnesium pills will be supplied “at the cost of production”. But the prices being charged by 4u-detox.com are far greater than those of other mineral supplements on sale in Japan. Chemists in Tokyo sell bottles of 200 pills containing similar combinations of ingredients for ￥1,029 (£8.49). James Ryan’s website also charges a minimum shipping cost of ￥2,300 (£19).

George Monbiot asked Busby to comment on the supplements. Here’s what Busby had to say for himself:

When I phoned Busby to ask him some questions about these issues, his responses were less than enlightening. He began as follows: “You can fuck off frankly.”

When I asked him what his involvement was with the Christopher Busby Foundation for the Children of Fukushima, he told me: “I think you can fuck off. I’m not going to answer your questions.” When I asked whether the products being sold in his name are snakeoil, he responded: “Of course it’s not snakeoil you fuckwit”.

Busby answered some of my questions but put the phone down on me before I could ask what I considered to be the key points. These are:

- Are you receiving money from the sale of these products and services?

- Have the pills being sold in your name been subjected to a randomised controlled trial to test their efficacy?

- Are the tests being sold audited by external assessors?

- Do you draw money out of the Green Audit account for your own use?

When I emailed these questions and others to him he sent me, “as my response to your questions” a summary of the proceedings of a conference that took place in 2009. Given that this was held before the Fukushima disaster, and before he started promoting pills and tests to the people of Japan, it was hard to see the relevance of this answer. No other response from him has been forthcoming.

Monbiot also looked in to some of Busby’s research (almost all of which is self-published), finding that scientists who have read it think it’s about as useful as those anti-radiation supplements.

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]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/24/christopher-busby-sells-useless-overpriced-anti-radiation-pills/feed/ 16 http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/22/has-arudou-debito-left-japan/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/22/has-arudou-debito-left-japan/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2011 01:56:52 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=23064

In the past, I have blogged about the disputes over the Wikipedia entry for Arudou Debito, an American-born Japanese citizen, activist, and Japan Times columnist. Yesterday, I was informed about another very interesting development.

On November 1st, somebody updated the Arudou Debito Wikipedia entry to add a section about how he had quit his job in Hokkaido and moved to Canada:

Emigration from Japan

In late 2011, Debito Arudou resigned his position from Hokkaido Information University, suspended his activities with FRANCA (the Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association)[17], gave up his apartment in Sapporo[18], and moved to Calgary, Alberta to pursue an independent research project.[19]

The edits were soon removed by another user, who thought that the sources were not good enough to back up the claims being made.

Has Debito actually moved to Canada? For a few months now, users at Tepido.org have repeatedly claimed that he may have. Some say that they called his university in Hokkaido and received confirmation that Debito is no longer employed there. If their claims were nonsense, one would expect very strong denials from Debito, but that doesn’t seem to be happening.

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]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/22/has-arudou-debito-left-japan/feed/ 38 http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/21/death-sentence-finalized-for-aum-cultist/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/21/death-sentence-finalized-for-aum-cultist/#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 06:26:03 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=23055

Sixteen years have passed since Aum Shinrikyo cultists launched deadly nerve gas attacks in Nagano and Tokyo. Today Japan’s Supreme Court finalized the death sentence of Seiichi Endo, a cultist responsible for the production of sarin nerve gas. The Japanese media is reporting it as an official end of the Aum criminal trials. In the trials following the attacks, 189 cultists were tried and found guilty of involvement in criminal acts, and 13 were sentenced to death.

Here is a helpful timeline from the Mainichi:

February 1984 — Shoko Asahara forms AUM Shinsen no Kai, renamed AUM Shinrikyo in July 1987.

Nov. 4, 1989 — Lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, 33, his 29-year-old wife Satoko and 1-year-old son Tatsuhiko are killed at their home in Yokohama.

June 27, 1994 — AUM members release sarin nerve gas in Matsumoto, Nagano Pref., killing seven and seriously injuring four others.

March 20, 1995 — AUM members attack Tokyo subway system with sarin gas. A total of 13 people eventually died and around 6,300 were injured.

March 22 — Police launch massive raids on AUM headquarters in Yamanashi Pref. and other AUM facilities.

May 16 — Asahara is arrested.

June 6 — Asahara is indicted.

April 24, 1996 — Trial of Asahara begins.

May 26, 1998 — Tokyo District Court sentences former AUM member Ikuo Hayashi to life imprisonment for involvement in Tokyo subway sarin attacks. The ruling was the first to be finalized among AUM-related crimes as Hayashi, who had turned himself in to police, did not appeal.

Feb. 27, 2004 — Tokyo District Court sentences Asahara to death. Defense counsel appeals.

March 27, 2006 — Tokyo High Court rejects appeal.

Sept. 15 — Asahara’s death sentence is finalized.

June 11, 2008 — Law on benefits for victims of AUM crimes and bereaved families is enacted. It takes effect December 2008.

March 17, 2009 — Tokyo District Court rejects plea for retrial of Asahara filed by his second daughter. Tokyo High Court and Supreme Court subsequently reject the plea.

May 9, 2011 — Tokyo District Court rejects second plea for retrial of Asahara.

Nov. 18 — Supreme Court rejects appeal of senior AUM member Tomomasa Nakagawa who was sentenced to death by lower courts.

Nov. 21 — Supreme Court rejects appeal of senior AUM member Seiichi Endo, sentenced to death by lower courts, effectively putting an end to the series of trials of Asahara and 188 AUM members.

Although these trials are over, it should be noted that there are still several cultists who are suspected of involvement in crimes but have yet to be apprehended by police. Their faces can still be seen on wanted posters throughout Japan.

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]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/21/death-sentence-finalized-for-aum-cultist/feed/ 6 http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/20/tiger-mask-helps-elderly-tohoku-evacuees/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/20/tiger-mask-helps-elderly-tohoku-evacuees/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 04:26:07 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=23052

Here’s a somewhat strange news story. The president of a heat insulation sheet company visited some temporary housing in Fukushima for elderly evacuees from the town of Namie. To get extra attention from the media, he wore a Tiger Mask when applying free film to windows:

The homes have almost no insulation, and the film on the windows can supposedly increase the indoor temperature by about 5 degrees (Celsius).

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]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/20/tiger-mask-helps-elderly-tohoku-evacuees/feed/ 7 http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/09/google-honors-hideyo-noguchi/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/09/google-honors-hideyo-noguchi/#comments Wed, 09 Nov 2011 09:05:44 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=22999 Google.co.jp has a logo image on its front page today honoring the 135th birthday of Hideyo Noguchi, one of Japan’s first world-renowned scientists (and the dude on the 1000 yen note):

You can read more about Noguchi here and here.

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]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/09/google-honors-hideyo-noguchi/feed/ 5 http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/07/chinese-fishing-boat-captain-arrested-off-nagasaki/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/07/chinese-fishing-boat-captain-arrested-off-nagasaki/#comments Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:16:37 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=22981

A Chinese fishing boat captain has been arrested after violating Japanese territorial waters:

Zhang Tianxiong, 47, captain of the 135-ton Zhedaiyu 04188, was arrested just after 4 p.m. on Nov. 6 on suspicion of ignoring a Japan Coast Guard order to stop. The arrest was made about 60 kilometers west of Torishima Island in the East China Sea, according to the Nagasaki Coast Guard Office.

The order for Zhang to stop came around 10:30 a.m., when his vessel was about 5 km northwest of the uninhabited island, which lies about 60 km southwest of the Goto island chain.

A Coast Guard patrol boat spotted the Zhedaiyu 04188 moving toward Torishima from west. When the patrol boat approached it, the fishing vessel turned around and fled in a zigzagging manner for about four hours.

Unlike last year’s infamous ramming incident, this took place in an area that is not claimed by China. There has been no protest from the Chinese government.

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]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/07/chinese-fishing-boat-captain-arrested-off-nagasaki/feed/ 6 http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/06/japanese-soccer-fans-will-visit-north-korea/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/06/japanese-soccer-fans-will-visit-north-korea/#comments Sun, 06 Nov 2011 03:31:07 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=22974

Japan’s national soccer team will face the North Korean national team in a World Cup qualifier match on November 15th. The match will be held in Pyongyang. It normally would be unthinkable for Japanese people to travel to North Korea and cheer against North Korea, but the DPRK has made a special exception and will allow a special group tour to attend the match:

Nishitetsu Travel, which is organizing the Japan Football Association’s official tour, said it had 94 internet applications by Thursday evening’s deadline and has started contacting the 65 spectators, who were selected based in order of applications and other factors.

The tour, which has been given special government approval and costs around 290,000 yen, will arrive in Pyongyang on Nov. 14 via Beijing and return to Japan’s Haneda airport the day after the game.

Japanese Foreign Ministry staff will be on hand to help provide security. Because Japan does not have official relations with North Korea, it will be the first time Foreign Ministry bureaucrats have visited North Korea since the abductee issue exploded to the surface in 2004.

At least one guy doesn’t like this new development. Here he is, in a Youtube video of his one man protest outside of the offices of Nishitetsu Travel:

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]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/06/japanese-soccer-fans-will-visit-north-korea/feed/ 8 http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/03/more-radioactive-radium-found-in-tokyo-not-from-fukushima/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/03/more-radioactive-radium-found-in-tokyo-not-from-fukushima/#comments Thu, 03 Nov 2011 03:09:32 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=22938

A couple days ago, Japanese authorities fenced-off part of a parking lot in Tokyo’s Setagaya ward after a concerned citizen detected higher than normal levels of radiation (up to 170 microsieverts per hour). Like the other recent radioactive “hot spot” found in Setagaya, it was revealed to be unrelated to the Fukushima nuclear plant:

An investigation by the ministry detected a high radiation level of around 40 millisieverts per hour near a bottle found 40 centimeters deep in the ground near the supermarket in Setagaya Ward.

If a person were continually exposed to such a level of radiation for two and a half hours, the risk of dying from cancer would increase by 0.5 percent, the officials said.

Although the source of the radiation has not been determined, lead and bismuth, released when radium-226 decays, were detected after workers dug into the ground, they said.

Radium is not among the radioactive substances released by the Fukushima plant since it was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said earlier.

Radium-226 used to be commonly used for medical treatments and industrial

According to the Japan Times, radium was not heavily regulated in Japan until after 1957. There is a very real possibility that quite a lot of this material was thrown away or buried in parts of Tokyo before 1957, and there is even a chance of careless businesses that illegally disposed of it after the regulations were in place.

Today the media is reporting the government will be checking another 15 abnormal spots in Setagaya.

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]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/11/03/more-radioactive-radium-found-in-tokyo-not-from-fukushima/feed/ 1 http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/27/daughter-of-a-japanese-terrorist/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/27/daughter-of-a-japanese-terrorist/#comments Thu, 27 Oct 2011 07:57:06 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=22916

The BBC recently posted an article about May Shigenobu, the daughter of Fusako Shigenobu, founder of the infamous Japanese Red Army. May spend her childhood on the run, as her mother planned bloody terror attacks in the Middle East:

We spent time living in refugee camps but just for a short periods; while I was doing volunteer work in clinics or while we were looking for a new place to live.

I sometimes lived in Palestinian refugee camps to be more in contact with the reality of what my mother and her group were fighting for.

[...]

At any time I could have been kidnapped or even killed with my mother. There were Palestinian leaders who were assassinated with their children, so it was always a possibility.

Still, I have always thought that she was a good mother. I’m not sure that I could be as enduring and calm, and as reasonable and realistic under all the stress that she was carrying.

Read the rest of the article here.

May Shigenobu is also featured in the documentary “Children of the Revolution“:

She currently works as a journalist in Japan. She uses the Arabic that she learned as a child to file reports for the UAE’s MBC network.

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]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/27/daughter-of-a-japanese-terrorist/feed/ 25 http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/27/tohoku-raising-money-for-turkey-earthquake-relief/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/27/tohoku-raising-money-for-turkey-earthquake-relief/#comments Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:14:20 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=22909

When the March 11th earthquake and tsunami ravaged the Tohoku region, the nation of Turkey responded by sending tons of emergency food and a team of rescue workers to help out.

A major earthquake struck Turkey a few days ago, and the people of Tohoku are doing what they can to help a friend in need. Here’s a video showing donation boxes that have been set up in Miyagi prefecture:

People from the town that received help from the Turkey rescue team are contributing the charity effort. Residents who lost their homes in the tsunami and are now living in temporary housing have even put fundraising posters on their buildings.

The news crew interviews a few residents who say that they remember and appreciate the help that they received from Turkey.

Related link: Japan’s Association of Medical Doctors of Asia is sending medical staff to Turkey.

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]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/27/tohoku-raising-money-for-turkey-earthquake-relief/feed/ 1 http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/25/new-japanese-official-baseballs/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/25/new-japanese-official-baseballs/#comments Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:41:05 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=22904
The New York Times has a fascinating article about how the Nippon Professional Baseball league decided to adopt a Mizuno baseball as their official game ball. Up until recently, different teams used different balls, often from regional manufacturers.

The new standard may have to do with a desire to make Japanese players familiar with the type of ball used in the American Major Leagues and in the WBC:

Although Japan’s new ball is not meant to replicate the American major league ball, a conscious effort was made to make it much more similar than before. That is a crucial point in Japan, where performance in international competitions like the quadrennial World Baseball Classic, which uses the American ball, weighs on the national conscience. Kato, the commissioner, said as much at a news conference when he unveiled the new ball before the season.

“Certainly, an impetus for the uniform ball was seeing with my own eyes the difficulties Japanese pitchers had with the different ball at the W.B.C.,” he said of the 2009 tournament, which Japan won. “By unifying our approach to the domestic game, we can lessen such discomforts that arise for our players on the international stage.”

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]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/25/new-japanese-official-baseballs/feed/ 6 http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/16/superdry-popular-uk-fashion-brand-uses-gibberish-japanese/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/16/superdry-popular-uk-fashion-brand-uses-gibberish-japanese/#comments Sun, 16 Oct 2011 02:22:40 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=22858

A Japanese TV news program reports about Superdry, an extremely popular fashion brand in the UK:

The company’s logo and all of its shirts contain Japanese words and phrases that don’t make any sense. It’s gibberish. They are obviously not the work of somebody who knows how to speak Japanese.

The company is proud to show off the source of its embarrassingly terrible Japanese. They use machine translation:

Despite making boatloads of money, they just don’t care enough to hire a Japanese speaker. The gibberish that the translation software spits out looks “cool” enough. Customers are either ignorant of the bad Japanese, or don’t seem to mind. Some people are even under the mistaken impression that it is actually a Japanese brand.

The head of the company compares the pseudo-Japanese on his products to the English seen on t-shirts in Japan.

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]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/16/superdry-popular-uk-fashion-brand-uses-gibberish-japanese/feed/ 48 http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/15/will-japan-give-free-airfare-to-10000-foreign-tourists-maybe-not/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/15/will-japan-give-free-airfare-to-10000-foreign-tourists-maybe-not/#comments Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:05:32 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=22830

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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]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/15/will-japan-give-free-airfare-to-10000-foreign-tourists-maybe-not/feed/ 9 http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/14/setagaya-radiation-hot-spot-not-from-fukushima/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/14/setagaya-radiation-hot-spot-not-from-fukushima/#comments Fri, 14 Oct 2011 03:29:27 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=22842

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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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/14/setagaya-radiation-hot-spot-not-from-fukushima/feed/ 11 http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/11/japanese-people-in-alabama/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/10/11/japanese-people-in-alabama/#comments Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:24:21 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=22826

A short documentary by Alexandra Jo Hancock and Christian Sutton about the people Honda sends to work at its factory in Alabama:

“The Japanese families of the men working at the Honda Plant in Lincoln, AL, strive to maintain their culture and connection to their homeland.”

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

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