Hajime Shiraishi's moment of truth came when her online video news show, at the time relatively unknown, decided to buck the government line and call a story as it saw it.
On March 11, after an earthquake-driven tsunami damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the world waited anxiously to see how its fragile reactors would fare.
Later that day, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco, announced on national TV that all was well: The utility was on top of the accident. No radiation had been released into the atmosphere. Return to regular programming.
Mainstream media dutifully reported that story. But not Shiraishi's "Our Planet TV," which soon broadcast a live interview with five Japanese reporters in Futaba City, a community near the stricken plant. The reporters, who had covered the Chernobyl disaster, told a very different tale.
(Los Angeles Times)
Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of Softbank Corp., was chosen best president of 2011 for the second consecutive year in an online survey of corporate executives in Japan, the Sanno Institute of Management said Thursday.
Son collected 140 votes, or about 30 percent of the total, for his generous donation to victims of the March 11 disasters and for other related activities. He was also lauded for his charisma and plebeian image, the college said.
The survey was conducted by an Internet research firm between Nov. 25 and Dec. 5 and received valid replies from 456 of 541 executives at companies with at least 10 employees. (Japan Times)
