China's premier to visit tsunami-hit area in Japan

The Jakarta Post | Wed, 05/18/2011 12:06 PM | World

China says Premier Wen Jiabao will visit the devastated area of Fukushima when he travels to Japan this weekend to show his country's support for reconstruction efforts after the twin earthquake and tsunami disasters.

Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue told reporters at a briefing in Beijing on Wednesday that Wen himself decided to make the visit and that it was meant to show Chinese concern for those affected and a commitment to helping support the area's reconstruction.

While in Japan, Wen will also take part in a trilateral meeting with leaders of Japan and South Korea.

Japan nuke plant dumps radioactive water into sea

Mari Yamaguchi and Yuki Kageyama, The Associated Press, Tokyo | Tue, 04/05/2011 8:17 AM | World

Workers began pumping more than 3 million gallons of contaminated water from Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, freeing storage space for even more highly radioactive water that has hampered efforts to stabilize the reactors.

The pumping began Monday, and it was expected to take about two days to get most of the less-radioactive water out of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, whose cooling systems were knocked out by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

Radioactivity is quickly diluted in the ocean, and government officials said the dump should not affect the safety of seafood in the area.

Since the disaster, water with different levels of radioactivity has been pooling throughout the plant. People who live within 12 miles (20 kilometers) have been evacuated and have not been allowed to return.

The pooling water has damaged systems and the radiation hazard has prevented workers from getting close enough to power up cooling systems needed to stabilize dangerously vulnerable fuel rods.

On Saturday, they discovered that some radioactive water was pouring into the ocean.

The less-radioactive water that officials are purposely dumping into the sea is up to 500 times the legal limit for radiation.

"We think releasing water with low levels of radiation is preferable to allowing water with high levels of radiation to be released into the environment," said Junichi Matsumoto, an official with plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.

Workers need to get rid of the highly radioactive water, but first they need somewhere safe to put it. Much of the less-radioactive water being dumped into the sea is from the tsunami and had accumulated in a nuclear waste storage building.

The building is not meant to hold water, but it's also not leaking, so engineers decided to empty it so they can pump in the more-radioactive water. The rest of the water going into the sea is coming from a trench beneath two of the plant's six reactors.

More water keeps pooling because TEPCO has been forced to rely on makeshift methods of bringing down temperatures and pressure by pumping water into the reactors and allowing it to gush out wherever it can. It is a messy process, but it is preventing a full meltdown of the fuel rods that would release even more radioactivity into the environment.

"We must keep putting water into the reactors to cool to prevent further fuel damage, even though we know that there is a side effect, which is the leakage," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for Japan's Nuclear Safety and Industrial Agency. "We want to get rid of the stagnant water and decontaminate the place so that we can return to our primary task to restore the sustainable cooling capacity as quickly as possible."

Engineers have been using unusual methods to try to stop the more highly radioactive water leaking into the sea.

They thought it was coming from a crack in a maintenance pit they discovered Saturday, but an attempt to seal the crack with concrete failed, and clogging it with a special polymer mixed with sawdust and shredded newspapers didn't work, either.

They dumped milky white bath salts into the system around the pit Monday to try to figure out the source of the leak, but it never splashed out into the ocean.

In the meantime, workers plan to install screens made of polyester fabric to try to stop some of the contamination in the ocean from spreading.

Although the government eventually authorized the dumping of the less-radioactive water, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said officials were growing concerned about the sheer volume of radioactive materials spilling into the Pacific. It is not clear how much water has leaked in addition to what is being dumped purposely.

"Even if they say the contamination will be diluted in the ocean, the longer this continues, the more radioactive particles will be released and the greater the impact on the ocean," Edano said. "We are strongly urging TEPCO that they have to take immediate action to deal with this."

Experts said Monday that at this point, they don't expect the discharges to pose widespread danger to sea animals or people who might eat them.

"It's a very large ocean" with considerable powers of dilution, noted William Burnett of Florida State University.

Very close to the nuclear plant - less than half a mile (800 meters) or so - sea creatures might be in danger of problems like genetic mutations if the dumping goes on a long time, he said. But there shouldn't be any serious hazard farther away "unless this escalates into something much, much larger than it has so far," he said.

Also Monday, a spokesman for the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom, Sergei Novikov, told reporters that Japan has requested Russia send it a vessel used to decommission nuclear submarines, and that Moscow was considering the request.

"If the Japanese side arranges answers to the questions we sent them, it can be transferred ... within a very short period," Novikov said, according to a statement on Rosatom's website. The nature of the questions wasn't specified.

Novikov said the vessel, called the Landysh, was built with Japanese funds under the "Global Partnership" program to help dispose of liquid nuclear waste from decommissioned submarines.

The crisis has unfolded as Japan deals with the aftermath of twin natural disasters that devastated much of its northeastern coast. Up to 25,000 people are believed to have died and tens of thousands lost their homes.

The situation at the Fukushima plant has brought protests in Japan and raised questions around the world about the safety of nuclear power. Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told delegates at a nuclear safety conference Monday that the industry cannot afford to ignore these concerns.

"We cannot take a business-as-usual approach," Amano said.

General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt, who was in Tokyo this week to meet with TEPCO's chairman, defended the industry when asked by a reporter if the Fukushima incident would cause global concern about nuclear safety.

"This is an industry that's had an extremely safe track record for more than 40 years," Immelt said. "We have had more than 1,000 engineers working around the clock since the incident began and we will continue in the short, medium and long term working with TEPCO due to this horrific natural disaster."

All of the plant's reactors were designed by GE, and Immelt offered assistance in dealing with the electricity shortage brought on by damage to the Fukushima Dai-ichi facility and other power plants. Japan is expecting a shortfall of at least 10 million kilowatts in summer, and Immelt said gas turbines with both short- and long-term capabilities are on their way from the U.S.

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Associated Press writers Ryan Nakashima and Noriko Kitano in Tokyo and Jim Heintz in Moscow and AP science writer Malcolm Ritter in New York contributed to this report.

Letter: Invaluable lessons from Japan

The Jakarta Post | Wed, 03/30/2011 8:47 PM | Readers Forum

Here is a forwarded email that I received recently on how the Japanese faced the calamities that befell them after the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami, further compounded by the nuclear crisis.

The contents were so inspirational that I thought them fit to share with the readers of The Jakarta Post.

The calm: Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.

The dignity: Disciplined queues for water and groceries, not a rough word or a crude gesture.

The ability: The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall.

The grace: People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody get something.

The order: No honking and no overtaking on the roads, just understanding.

The sacrifice: Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the nuclear reactors. How will they ever be repaid?

The tenderness: Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.

The training: The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do and they did just that.

The media: They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins; no silly reporters, only calm reportage.

The conscience: When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly.

Isn’t it amazing to know how the Japanese managed to embed such gracious discipline and unique national character even in these dire circumstances?

Surely, each one of us and the whole world can learn from the Japanese culture!

D. Chandramouli
Jakarta

Japan PM to reshuffle Cabinet to push for reforms

Associated Press, Tokyo | Fri, 01/14/2011 9:09 AM | World

Japan's Cabinet resigned en masse Friday as the prime minister reshuffles his lineup in a bid to revive the struggling economy and open up the country to stay globally competitive.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Thursday that the new Cabinet is aimed at pushing for reforms as Japan faces a string of daunting problems, including a rapidly aging population, growing national debt and an anemic economy - the world's third-largest.

The Cabinet that will be announced later Friday will be Kan's third since he took office in June. The one that just resigned was formed in September in an earlier reshuffle.

"I will have the most powerful Cabinet," Kan said Thursday at the annual convention of his ruling Democratic Party of Japan held in Chiba, near Tokyo. "The changes will reflect how best we can push for reforms for Japan and tackle the problems."

The reshuffle is largely seen as an attempt to increase chances of passing key legislation, including the 2011 budget. Distracted by personnel issues and a scandal involving a party veteran, Kan's government has been unable to make much progress in parliament.

Kan didn't specify what changes he will make, but media reports say he will replace Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku, who has come under fire from opposition parties for controversial comments on diplomatic and defense issues.

The opposition bloc had threatened to boycott parliamentary sessions if Sengoku is not replaced.

Yukio Edano, the ruling party's acting secretary general and Sengoku's close ally, is among the top candidates for the job as the top government spokesman, according to Japanese media reports.

Kaoru Yosano, a 72-year-old veteran lawmaker known as a staunch advocate of fiscal reform and supporter of raising the sales tax to meet the country's climbing social security costs, is also expected to serve as minister of economic and fiscal policy, replacing Banri Kaieda.

Kaieda, an economist and supporter of free-trade zones, is reportedly shifting to economy and trade minister, reflecting the prime minister's push to achieve his goal of opening the country, one of his key reform agendas this year.

Yosano has held a number of senior government posts under the former Liberal Democratic government, and Kan's likely decision to tap him suggests that the prime minister is focused on fiscal reconstruction and wants someone who could foster consensus across party lines.

Other key Cabinet members, including Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa, are likely to retain their posts, Kyodo News agency reported.

At Thursday's party meeting, Kan faced criticism from fellow party members that his administration was failing to tackle urgent problems confronting Japan.

Tokyo is considering whether to join a U.S.-backed free-trade zone called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which nine countries are negotiating. Business leaders say Japan must join the TPP or suffer a competitive disadvantage, but farmers are opposed because of worries that cheaper imports would ruin them.

Japan PM calls for opening up country, tax debate

The Associated Press, Tokyo | Tue, 01/04/2011 9:35 AM | Headlines

Opening up: Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan speaks during his first news conference of the year at his official residence in Tokyo, Tuesday.Kan said he wants 2011 to be the year that Japan opens up to rest of the world, and called for debate on raising the sales tax to prop up ailing finances as the country's population shrinks and ages. (AP/Shizuo Kambayashi)

The Japanese prime minister said he wants 2011 to be the year Japan opens up to rest of the world and called Tuesday for debate on raising the sales tax to prop up ailing finances as the country's population shrinks and ages.

To revive its economy, Japan needs to embrace free trade and reform its protected farming sector, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in a nationally televised press conference to set his agenda for the new year.

"I want this to be Year One of opening up the country" of the modern era, Kan said.

Kan asked for cooperation from his political opponents, saying the public has been disappointed by political squabbling that has paralyzed parliament. He also called for the eradication of "money politics," a reference to the series of scandals that have plagued Japanese politicians over the years.

He also raised the possibility of increasing the consumption tax to shore up the country's finances, a potentially politically poisonous notion. Support for the ruling party plunged and it lost badly in July's upper house elections after he suggested that Japan needs to raise its 5 percent sales tax to as high as 10 percent.

"The need for a discussion about social welfare and the resources required, including tax reform and raising the consumption tax, is clear to everyone," he said.

Japan's economy is entering its third decade of stagnation, and last year China overtook it to become the world's second-biggest economy. Last month, the Cabinet approved a record 92.4 trillion yen ($1.11 trillion) draft budget aimed at creating jobs and reviving growth.

At the same time, the country faces a looming demographic squeeze. Last year, its population fell by a record 123,000 people, and stood at 125.77 million as of October. Young people are waiting longer to get married and choosing to have fewer children because of careers and economic concerns.

Japanese aged 65 and older make up about a quarter of the country's current population. The government projects that by 2050, that figure will climb to 40 percent.

In office since last June, Kan also said he wanted to work to decrease the burden of the U.S. military presence in the southern island of Okinawa, which hosts more than half the 47,000 American troops based in Japan under a security pact with Washington.

Kan has said he would stick to an agreement with the U.S. to move a controversial U.S. Marine base to a less crowded part of Okinawa - a plan that faces strong opposition from local residents who want the facility removed from the island entirely.

Strong earthquake hits off southern Japan

The Associated Press, Tokyo | Wed, 12/22/2010 9:42 AM | World

Residents of southern Japanese islands scrambled to community centers early Wednesday when a strong offshore quake briefly triggered a tsunami alert, but the 7.4-magnitude temblor prompted only a mild swelling of waves.

There were no immediate reports of damage from the quake, which struck at 2:20 a.m. (1720 GMT Tuesday) about 80 miles (130 kilometers) off the southern coast of Chichi Island in the Pacific Ocean and was felt as far away as Tokyo.

"It shook quite violently. I'm sure everyone was scared," said Kenji Komura, principal at a high school on Chichi Island.

Japan's Meteorological Agency issued an alert for a tsunami of up to 6 feet (2 meters) for Chichi and nearby islands and warned of a milder tsunami for the southern coasts of the main Japanese island. It later lifted all warnings and said a minor swelling of about 1 foot (30 centimeters) was observed on Chichi's shorelines about 40 minutes after the quake.

Scores of residents of Chichi, which is about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) south of Tokyo, and nearby Haha islands rushed to community centers and school buildings before the warnings were lifted. Island fisheries official Tomoo Yamawaki said fishermen moved boats from the coast "to protect them from the tsunami."

The quake took place at a depth of 6 miles (10 kilometers), the Meteorological Agency said. The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake's magnitude at 7.4.

Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. In 1995, a magnitude-7.2 quake in the western port city of Kobe killed 6,400 people.