The Japanese government's worst-case scenario at the height of the nuclear crisis last year warned that tens of millions of people, including Tokyo residents, might need to leave their homes, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press. But fearing widespread panic, officials kept the report secret.
The recent emergence of the 15-page internal document may add to complaints in Japan that the government withheld too much information about the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
It also casts doubt about whether the government was sufficiently prepared to cope with what could have been an evacuation of unprecedented scale.
The report was submitted to then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his top advisers on March 25, two weeks after the earthquake and tsunami devastated the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, causing three reactors to melt down and generating hydrogen explosions that blew away protective structures. (AP)
Japan kept silent on worst nuclear crisis scenario
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3 major parties agree on civil servant wage cuts
The ruling Democratic Party of Japan and the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito have finally agreed on a plan to cut the salaries of national governmental employees by more than 8 percent.
According to the agreement reached at a working-level meeting Wednesday, the salaries of national public servants will be cut first by an average of 0.23 percent starting in March as proposed by the National Personnel Authority.
Their salaries will then be reduced by an average of 7.8 percent for two years from fiscal 2012, which starts in April. In total, the salaries will be cut by 8.03 percent on average. (Yomiuri)
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U.S. may extradite drug suspect / Case of American wanted in Kanagawa Pref. would be a legal milestone
A U.S. district court ruled in spring last year that a 30-year-old American former serviceman for whom the Kanagawa prefectural police have an arrest warrant for trafficking drugs must be extradited to Japan based on a treaty between the two countries, it has been learned.
The extradition has not yet been carried out because defense lawyers for the former serviceman, who was stationed at the U.S. military base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, filed an appeal against the ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
If the appeal is rejected, his case would be the first in which a U.S. citizen has been handed over to Japan in line with the Treaty on Extradition between Japan and the United States, sources said. (Yomiuri)
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Yahoo Japan in talks with parent over stake sale
Yahoo Japan in talks with parent over stake sale
By Juro Osawa, Dow Jones Newswires
Wednesday 25 January 2012
Japanese Internet firm reported 2.7% increase in quarterly net profit on back of higher advertising revenue.
Yahoo Japan Corp. said Wednesday it is in talks with Yahoo Inc. on how the latter can sell its stake in the Japanese company, worth over $6 billion by market value, without paying hefty taxes, in one of the most public comments yet about potential share dealings at the struggling U.S. Internet giant.
"Yahoo Inc. is still trying to finalize the mechanism (for offloading its stake) and we are cooperating with them," said Yahoo Japan's Chief Financial Officer Akira Kajikawa at a press conference.
Yahoo Inc. owns a nearly 35% stake in Yahoo Japan, while Japanese mobile and Internet service firm Softbank Corp. owns a 42% stake.
(totaltele.com)
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Japan's KDDI debut's forced Android advertising
For many of us around the world advertising in an unfortunate, but unavoidable fact of life. But Japan's au by KDDI network has taken obtrusive marketing one step further, by pushing advertising directly to its Android subscribers.
Android users across Japan have complained about messages popping up in their in their notifications bar, complete with the usual vibration buzzing and noises that would normally indicate an otherwise innocent message.
Sources in Japan believe the AU one market, a preloaded alternative to the Google official Android market is responsible for the promotional alerts. Japanese users on Twitter have been up in arms as KDDI have made it very difficult to remove the AU one market from their devices, doing so would invalidate their warranties. (totaltele.com)
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Japan - The Ryokan Experience
Ryokans are Japanese-styled inns from centuries ago and are more than just a place to stay. They offer the visitor a chance to experience traditional Japanese lifestyle; from tatami (rice mats) covered floors and futon beds to Japanese styled baths and local cuisine presented in an authentic manner. They are a window into life in Japan in the old days.
Ryokans originated sometime in the 17th century, and their primary purpose was to serve those travelling along Japanese highways such as the famed Tokaido road between Tokyo and Kyoto. They are typically stationed in a quiet, idyllic setting, often next to natural hot springs. While there are quite a few city ryokans in urban areas, seek out the ones next to the hot springs, known as onsen ryokan, for a tranquil Japanese holiday.
The key to having a great time at a ryokan is to understand Japanese traditions beforehand. A quintessential ryokan experience would start when hosts greet their visitors at the street door. After the customary bowing, your shoes are replaced with slippers. According to Japanese tradition, it is considered impolite to ask for your shoes before the stay is over. Tea is served in a large entrance hall, where people can sit and talk, after which guests are shown to their rooms. (totaltele.com)
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New quantum dot growing technique could increase fiber optic speeds
Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology has completed research that it says could let fiber optic networks use new parts of the spectrum. Using tiny chips of semiconductor material known as quantum dots, NICT scientists have optically transmitted data in an unused frequency band about 10THz wide, about the same width as the bands currently used for optical communication. The researchers speculate they could eventually use a band about 70THz wide, opening up large amounts of spectrum for faster communication.
This experiment was achieved by using a new method of growing quantum dots. Currently, most quantum dots are grown directly on a hospitable surface, a process that sometimes leads to defective "giant dots" (on a quantum scale - so, very large very tiny structures) that can affect performance. (theverge.com)
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Tepco set for $13 billion bailout
The owner of Japan's stricken nuclear reactor, Tokyo Electric Power Co, will agree to be taken over by the government in a near-$13 billion bailout, sources said on Thursday, even as the country debates the future of nuclear power.
The injection of 1 trillion yen ($12.8 billion) in public funds would effectively nationalize Tepco (9501.T), supplier of power to almost 45 million people including Tokyo residents, in one of the world's biggest bailouts outside the banking sector.
Tepco has been dragging its feet over a proposal for the state-backed Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund to take at least a two-thirds stake in the company, which has been swamped by liabilities associated with the earthquake and tsunami which ruined its Fukushima nuclear power plant in March. (Reuters)
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NEC to slash 10,000 jobs
NEC Corp said Thursday it will slash 10,000 jobs, almost one in 10 of its workers, to trim costs after the electronics maker announced a loss of 87 billion yen ($1.11 billion) for the three months to December 31.
The company, which employs 115,840 people worldwide, said it will book a 40 billion yen charge in the business year ending on March 31 to pay for the restructuring.
It blamed its poor performance on tougher competition in the telecoms infrastructure business in Japan from foreign rivals, weak demand for its smartphones and difficulty in expanding operations overseas.
The company, which also cut its forecast for mobile phone sales for the business year to 5 million from 6.5 million, said 7,000 of the job losses would be in Japan. (Reuters)
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Doctor, wife jailed for buying illegally harvested kidney
A Tokyo doctor was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison for purchasing an illegally harvested kidney, and his wife was jailed for 30 months over her involvement.
The Tokyo District Court found Toshinobu Horiuchi, 56, and his 48-year-old wife, Noriko, guilty of purchasing the kidney in violation of the organ transplant law.
The court said Horiuchi, facing kidney failure, in July 2010 paid ¥8 million to an intermediary in exchange for a kidney from a 21-year-old unemployed ma, whom the doctor technically adopted to ensure the transplant met the legal criteria of being among relatives. (Japan Times)
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Past 3,500 years saw seven M9s
At least seven magnitude 9 earthquakes have occurred along the Pacific coast from Hokkaido to Tohoku over the past 3,500 years, generating huge tsunami that inundated the coastline, a new study by a Hokkaido University professor says.
Kazuomi Hirakawa, professor of natural geography at the university, drew the conclusion after analyzing deposits believed linked to tsunami at more than 400 sites from Nemuro in Hokkaido to Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, in Tohoku's Sanriku region.
(Japan Times)
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Smartphone traffic projection caught DoCoMo off guard
NTT DoCoMo Inc. said Thursday that the disruption of texting and mobile phone services the previous day happened because its packet-switching equipment doesn't have enough capacity to handle the data traffic generated by smartphones.
The telecoms giant admitted to miscalculating the surge in data traffic that could be expected from smartphone users.
"Our estimate (of the communication volume) was insufficient . . . We apologize to our subscribers for causing the trouble," DoCoMo Executive Vice President Fumio Iwasaki told a news conference.
(Japan Times)
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40% of universities mull shifting academic year
More than 40 percent of the national universities are warming to the University of Tokyo plan to shift the start of the undergraduate academic year from spring to fall, a survey found.
Major private institutions, including Waseda University, Keio University and Ritsumeikan University, have also shown willingness to ponder the move, which a University of Tokyo panel recently advocated to bring the system in sync with international norms.
The survey, conducted by Kyodo News between Monday and Wednesday, covered the presidents of all 81 national universities except the University of Tokyo and graduate schools unaffiliated with universities, as well as 12 major private universities. The response rate was 100 percent. (Japan Times)
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Toshiba plans to release e-book reader
Toshiba Corp. said Thursday it will enter the e-book reader market with the release in Japan of its BookPlace DB50, which boasts a 7-inch color screen, on Feb. 10.
The Internet-enabled device via Wi-Fi services can store up to about 6,000 novels, or about 150 comic books, the electronics company said. The product will be priced at about ¥22,000.
Users can purchase e-books at the BookPlace store run by BookLive Co., a unit of Toppan Printing Co.
(Japan Times)
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Horse racing: Hokkaido racehorse breeders bet on China
Business has been lean over the years for many of the horse breeders in Hokkaido, Japan's leading region for producing thoroughbreds, as the popularity of racing declines.
But breeders now see a ray of hope in China, where an increasing number of wealthy people are aspiring to own their own racehorses and thus acquire a new status symbol.
"The Chinese public is showing growing interest in racehorses," said Han Guocai, vice chairman of the China Horse Industry Association, who was on a visit to a horse ranch in the Hokkaido town of Shinhidaka in December.
"Gambling on horse races is banned in China, but that ban could be lifted in the future," he added while taking a close look at the sinewy bodies of some thoroughbreds. (Japan Times)
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New National Theatre, Tokyo, opens season with Puccini classic
The New National Theatre, Tokyo, (NNTT) is opening its 2012 opera season with a classic by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini.
The Puccini piece, "La Boheme," is especially popular with Japanese opera fans and this time around it will be directed by Jun Aguni and conducted by Germany's Constantin Trinks.
The piece is set in Paris in the 1830s and centers on the love story of poet Rodolfo (Ji Min Park), and seamstress Mimi Veronica Cangemi). It will be both Cangemi and Park's first performances at the NNTT. Cangemi is an Argentinian soprano and has performed on some of the most celebrated stages in the world. Park is a tenor who hails from South Korea. (Japan Times)
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Talks to start on lowering voting age
The government will start talks next month on lowering the voting age from 20 to 18, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Thursday.
Though long debated, no panel meeting has been held on the issue since April 2010.
The panel, Fujimura said, will be headed by a deputy chief Cabinet secretary and include other high-level officials from various related ministries. Though the issue will be taken up next month it is unlikely any bill will be submitted to the current ordinary Diet session.
Affecting an estimated 200 to 300 laws, it is unclear how soon the government would be able to revise the Public Office Election Law, let alone submit the bill to the Diet. (Japan Times)
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Opposition digs in against Noda
Opposition lawmakers grilled Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Thursday over planned social security and tax reforms and his "inability" to keep his party's campaign pledges, and pressed again for him to call a Lower House election.
Just two days into the current 150-day ordinary Diet session, Liberal Democratic Party President Sadakazu Tanigaki blasted Noda for breaking a promise to the public in attempting to raise the consumption tax, which was not part of his Democratic Party of Japan's 2009 campaign platform. (Japan Times)
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Govt aims to add millions of part-timers to state-run pension scheme
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is seeking to add millions of part-time workers to those covered by the government-run employee pension scheme.
Part-time workers are automatically covered by the pension scheme if they work at least 30 hours a week, but the ministry plans to lower the threshold to 20 hours. The change would apply to workers earning at least 800,000 yen a year at companies with at least 300 employees.
The measure will be included in bills the ministry will submit to revise related laws during the current Diet session. (Yomiuri)
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Japanese man fakes own death with brother's body
A Japanese man managed to fake his own death by claiming his late brother's body was his own, according to police.
Even while Tsukasa Oizumi's older sibling was alive, he used to use his driving licence to get around the fact that his own had been revoked for repeated traffic offences, according to Japan's Mainichi daily.
When the brother fell ill and died aged 56 in 2008 Mr Oizumi decided to take over his identity completely.
He told authorities that the corpse was his own, and even the doctor who dealt with the brother's demise did not suspect anything, according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. The body was cremated, as is normal in Japan.
Mr Oizumi, now 58, went on to claim social security benefits in his brother's name for caring for their elderly mother at home, it added. (telegraph.co.uk)
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