Northern Japan was bracing for more heavy snow Friday as severe winter weather continues to cause misery across a large part of the country, claiming at least 83 lives so far.
Forecasters were predicting up to 60 centimeters (24 inches) of snow would fall in parts of the northernmost island of Hokkaido and in the north of Japan's main island of Honshu over 24 hours.
In Sukayu, in Aomori prefecture, where the temperature dropped to minus 12.8 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday, more than four meters of snow is already lying on the ground, with more forecast.
In Hijiori in northwestern Yamagata prefecture, where the average annual snowfall is 2.6 meters, there is already four meters of snow. (inquirer.net)
Japan braces for more snow as death toll hits 83
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Japan's Kirin posts 35% annual profit drop
Kirin Holdings Co. said Friday that its net profit for the business year ended Dec. 31 fell 35%, weighed by weak domestic demand, a write-down of its fixed assets and a securities valuation loss.
The Tokyo-based beverage company generated a net profit of Y7.41 billion in the 12-month period, compared with a year-earlier profit of Y11.39 billion.
The company, which holds a 100% stake in Australia's Lion Nathan Ltd. and 48% of the Philippines' San Miguel Brewery Inc., booked an extraordinary loss of Y96.68 billion, including a securities valuation loss of Y24.12 billion and an impairment loss of Y16.90 billion. (MarketWatch)
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Japan GDP likely to show contraction in Oct.-Dec.
Japan's economy likely shrank in the final three months of last year, contracting for the fourth quarter in the past five as the effects of the strong yen, weak overseas demand and flooding in Thailand put the brakes on a nascent recovery.
The figures, to be released Monday, are expected to show real gross domestic product shrank 1.6% on an annualized basis in the three months ended Dec. 31, according to the median forecast of 10 economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires. The most pessimistic forecast said GDP contracted 2.1%, while the most optimistic predicted the economy shrank 0.6%. (MarketWatch)
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Independent human spaceflight sought by Japan
The Japanese space agency is pushing for a domestic human spaceflight capability, proposing modifications to the country's International Space Station cargo delivery system to carry astronauts into orbit by 2025.
Artist's concept of the HTV spacecraft and a returnable cargo capsule. The proposed HTV-R spacecraft could launch by 2018, proving key technologies for a Japanese human spaceflight capability. Credit: JAXA
If approved by the Japanese government, the craft's development would follow a crawl-walk-run approach. Japan has already demonstrated its H-2 Transfer Vehicle can haul cargo and experiments to the space station, and next up could be developing a return capsule to bring equipment from the outpost back to Earth. (spaceflightnow.com)
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The missing million in Japan
They were once called "the missing million". The 'hikikomori' phenomenon emerged in the early 1990's in Japan when there were reports of young people that began staying at home for months or even years at a time.
Authorities suggested that there were over a million people suffering from 'hikikomori' syndrome, but some researchers believe the actual number may be higher.
In April 2010, one 'hikikomori' man, 30 years old, killed and wounded his family members and set fire to his house. He had withdrawn from society for 14 years.
His parents had entrusted management of family finances to him but he gradually became addicted to Internet shopping and auctions and racked up about 3 million yen in debt. (macaudailytimes)
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DPJ unveils 'hidden' tax estimate of 17.1% to sustain pension system in 2075
2075 scenario: The consumption tax is 17.1 percent just to keep the pension system afloat.
This is according to apparently leaked provisional calculations made by the Democratic Party of Japan-led government as part of pension reforms to get the top opposition forces, the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, to discuss the tax hike bugbear.
The DPJ hopes to sell the public on phasing in consumption tax hikes until the levy is 10 percent by fiscal 2015 to meet the mounting social security costs of the graying and dwindling population.
(Japan Times)
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Divers recover one body in Kajima tunnel cave-in
Police divers on Friday found the body of one of five workers missing since an undersea tunnel being built in Okayama Prefecture collapsed and flooded earlier in the week.
The police later identified the victim as Akihiro Minamitsubo, 57, from Hokkaido, adding the body was found in the flooded shaft.
Kajima Corp. earlier the same day had begun removing rubble from the flooded shaft that leads to a collapsed undersea tunnel at an oil refinery of JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. in Okayama Prefecture so that divers could resume their search for five missing workers. (Japan Times)
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Tepco to shut down last reactor in March
Tokyo Electric Power Co. will become totally reliant on thermal power on March 26 when it halts the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power plant's remaining active reactor in Niigata Prefecture.
The move will take the last of Tepco's 17 reactors out of service and also terminate power generation at the world's largest nuclear plant, which has seven reactors.
Tepco's other 16 reactors are already out of service.
The suspension of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa's reactor 6, announced Thursday, will take the last of its seven reactors offline for regular checks. Unit 6 generates 1.356 million kw. (Japan Times)
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Malaysia, Singapore back TPP bid
Malaysia and Singapore expressed support for Japan's plan to join the U.S.-led trans-Pacific free-trade agreement.
Japanese foreign affairs and trade officials met with their Malaysian counterparts Friday for over three hours to gather input on the Trans-Pacific Partnership initiative.
Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed told reporters Thursday that Malaysia welcomes Japan's participation in the TPP process.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, a Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry representative said after a preliminary meeting between Japanese and Singapore trade officials on the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks that the country welcomes and supports Japan's interest in the TPP. (Japan Times)
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Dinosaur Bridge brings Japan traffic up to speed
Tokyo's Dinosaur Bridge opens this weekend after 10 years of construction as the world's largest metropolis tackles traffic jams that slow vehicles to half of Japan's average highway speed.
The 2618-metre bridge, whose nickname derives from its shape, will bring 19 billion yen ($A22 million) in economic benefits a year as it almost halves journey times to container terminals in Tokyo Bay. Built at an estimated cost of 113 billion yen, it will carry about 32,000 vehicles a day between eastern Tokyo and a man-made island, where a new container terminal is being built.
The Tokyo Gate Bridge, as it is officially known, will shorten the travel time to the island from the city's Shin-Kiba district to 10 minutes from 19 minutes. The bridge, which weighs 36,000 tons, was built for less than the original estimate of about 140 billion yen, thanks to new techniques and materials, said Koki Hosaka, a civil engineer at Tokyo Ports. It is built to withstand an earthquake directly under Tokyo. (Sydney Morning Herald)
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Japanese quake gave scientists an unprecedented look at a big tsunami
By many measures, the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that shook Japan a year ago was a record-breaker. It was the largest quake in the country's written history, the trigger for the worst nuclear accident in 25 years and the costliest natural disaster ever.
Amid such superlatives, it's easy to forget one more: During the Tohoku-oki quake, the seafloor off Japan's coast wrenched itself farther apart than scientists had ever measured along any seafloor. In places, chunks of ground slipped horizontally past their neighbors by more than 50 meters and vertically by 10 meters.
"The earthquake was a scofflaw," says Emile Okal, a geophysicist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. "It violated the scaling laws we're used to."
That deviant behavior is what made the quake so deadly, by producing a monster tsunami. (sciencenews.org)
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Amazon.com to launch Kindle in Japan
World's biggest online retailer Amazon.com Inc. will begin sales of its Kindle e-book readers in Japan, as early as April, for less than 20,000 yen ($260), The Nikkei said.
The Kindle Touch, launched in the U.S. in November, will likely be Amazon's flagship model in Japan, the daily said.
The company will team up with NTT DoCoMo Inc. for wireless downloads of e-books over the mobile phone service provider's network, the business daily reported.
Kindle users will not have to pay communications charges for e-book purchases over the DoCoMo network, the paper said. (Reuters)
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Pursuit of perfection: The Japanese swordsmith
Korehira Watanabe is one of the last 30 remaining swordsmiths in Japan having spent 40 years honing his craft. His life ambition has been to re-create a type of sword called Koto, that dates back to the Heian and Kamakura periods that spanned from 794 AD to 1333 AD, even though there is no written guide or formula for creating the sword. The challenge to hand-craft a sword without any blueprint has been an obsession of Watanabe's since he was a child.
While there is no set formula to re-create the Koto swords Watanabe refuses to take any shortcuts and use any modern technology available, because for him the only way to maintain the tradition of sword making is to ensure the craft survives in its purest form. (humansinvent.com)
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The idol's mom, the underage boy and the media
The recent arrest of the mother of a Japanese pop idol for sex with a minor raises questions on how the media here handles such high-profile cases.
Usually, if someone who is related to a tarento (TV personality), or other type of celebrity, is arrested in Japan, the shukanshi (weekly gossip magazines) almost always report the names of the celebrities - though major TV news programs and newspapers don't always reveal this information.
Last week, this was the case when Shukan Bunshun reported in its Feb. 16 issue (on sale Thursday) that the 44-year-old mother of Minami Takahashi (20), a leading member of the idol group AKB48, had been arrested on suspicion of having sex with a 15-year-old boy. (Japan Times)
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Daio Paper to punish 23 for scandal
Daio Paper Corp. said it will discipline 23 board members and officials at seven group companies for their roles in making massive illicit loans to former Chairman Mototaka Ikawa, who has been indicted for aggravated breach of trust.
The board members at group firms will be suspended for up to six days after being assigned back to the parent company. The others will be demoted and have their pay cut, all effective March 6, the nation's third-largest paper maker said Friday. (Japan Times)
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Thousands march against nuclear power in Japan
Thousands of Japanese people marched against nuclear power Saturday, amid growing worries about the restarting of reactors idled after the March 11 meltdown disaster in northeastern Japan.
Holding "No Nukes" signs, people gathered at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo for a rally Saturday, including Nobel Prize-winning writer Kenzaburo Oe.
The protesters then marched peacefully through the streets demanding Japan abandon atomic power.
Protesters held a banner that said in Japanese, "Goodbye to nuclear power, call for 10 million people to act." (AP)
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Japanese emperor to undergo heart bypass surgery
Japanese Emperor Akihito will undergo heart bypass surgery this week after a detailed examination found a heart problem had worsened, the Imperial Household Agency was quoted as saying on Sunday.
Kyodo news agency, quoting the Imperial Household Agency, said the emperor, 78, would have the surgery on February 18.
Akihito had undergone an angiogram on Saturday which showed that blood vessels had narrowed over the past year. He had been treated in hospital for three weeks in November for cold, fever and symptoms of bronchitis.
The Imperial Household Agency was unavailable for comment.
Kyodo said the test was performed after the emperor experienced difficulty while engaging in light exercise. (AP)
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Rebuilding Japan
Within months after after the hoffific quake, Japan's government approved three supplementary spending budgets totalling some 18 trillion yen ($20 trillion) for the reconstruction of disaster affected areas -- the most severely hit being the Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures in the Tohuku region of northern Japan.
A fourth extra budget, of 2.5 trillion yen ($2.75 trillion), primarily aimed at boosting business, was recently approved. Funds were earmarked to help small businesses obtain loan guarantees to rebuild, and finance green vehicle promotion programmes as the country stares down energy challenges due to the meltdown of the Fukishima nuclear power plant during the tsunami.
But there is still a mountain of challenges. The traditional patience of the Japanese people has been tested, as evacuees have been forced to endure tough living conditions. In the dilapidated coastal area of Tohuku, 23,600 hectares of prime farmland was left uncultivable by the tsunami, and the agriculture and fisheries industries, a major source of jobs, have been destroyed. What's worse is that Japanese exports now face the scrutiny of an international community which remains wary of possible radiation exposure.
(jamaicaobserver.com)
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Why women-only transit options have caught on
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Japan's first women-only trains. The idea, back in 1912, was to spare young women the indignity of being ogled by admiring men.
Over the course of the century Japan's women-only trains were discontinued and resurrected several times until they were at last fully restored in late 2000. At that time, the term sekuhara - 'sexual harassment' - had become a bit of buzzword in the Japanese media, as stories of just how often most women were subjected to public groping began to receive more attention.
Standing on a crowded Osaka subway platform during a rainy rush hour last month, it was easy to find women willing to talk about why they prefer women-only trains. Chinatsu Kawamoto, an 18-year-old high school senior, offers a typical response.
"I've been groped on the train, and I don't want that to happen again," she says.
Japan is not the only country to offer women-only transportation. Cities in Indonesia, India, Brazil, and Russia operate similar programs, while women-only buses have gained popularity in cities in Guatemala, Mexico, and most recently, Pakistan. ()
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Fukushima No. 2 reactor temperature rises to 82 C
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sunday the temperature at the bottom of the No. 2 reactor at its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant rose further to 82 C, but the reactor has not gone critical.
While the thermometer reading at shortly after 2 p.m. marked a new high since the reactor attained a cold shutdown in December, the utility said it has confirmed that sustained nuclear reactions are not taking place in the reactor as no radioactive xenon has been detected inside its containment vessel.
Tepco reported the latest development immediately to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry as the temperature exceeded the limit of 80 C designated by the company's safety regulation for maintaining a cold shutdown, it said. (Japan Times)
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