| The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus Newsletter |
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Newsletter No. 23. 2011
| June 6, 2011 |
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Greetings!
The Journal has now published more than fifty articles on the catastrophe that has shaken Eastern Japan since 3.11. This week is no exception. Perhaps you noticed, as The New York Times did in referring its readers to APJ as a major source on the earthquake/tsunami/meltdown. If you appreciate this work, we would be pleased to hear from more of you in the form of helping us to expand our coverage. This means that we need your financial support as subscriber or donor via Paypal to help defray the heavy expenses this additional coverage has entailed. http://japanfocus.org
Many of our most import articles on 3.11 appear in What's hot and they bring a diversity of sources and reports from Ground Zero in Tohoku and Tokyo. "What's hot" present breaking stories and provides information beyond the headlines, to cast them in broader perspective. What's hot is regularly updated, at times on a daily basis, and we invite you to consult it and contribute to it. http://japanfocus.org/site/view/126
We encourage those who wish continuing coverage of the earthquake and aftermath to follow the English and Japanese coverage on the Peace Philosophy Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Peace-Philosophy-Centre/138024751212 More than fifteen hundred people now follow Focus through Twitter or Facebook and their numbers are growing steadily. Please consider joining them by clicking at the appropriate link on our home page: http://japanfocus.org Growing numbers of colleges and universities are subscribing to the journal for use in classes. If you or colleagues wish to incorporate Asia-Pacific Journal articles into courses, please encourage your library to join subscribers on three continents by taking out a subscription to the journal. The rate is $40/year for unlimited access to, and reproduction of, all articles. You or your librarian can contact us for an invoice at info.japanfocus@gmail.com.
We invite authors, publishers and directors to bring their books, films and events on East Asia and the Pacific to the attention of our readers. See the home page for information about presenting relevant books and films at our site and for examples of authors, publishers and filmmakers who are presenting their work at the Journal.
Thanks to readers who subscribe or become sustainers of the Journal, and who order books and other items through Amazon via our website. A small portion of the sales of books and any other products purchased when accessing the Amazon site through one of the book logos on our home page go to the Journal at no cost to you.
Contact Japan Focus by email at info@japanfocus.org
To access our full archive with more than 2,000 articles, and to view the most widely read articles through their titles or via our index, go to: http://japanfocus.org
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Subscription information
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The Asia-Pacific Journal is free and accessible to all. We invite supporters, authors and readers who find the journal useful to join our sustainers by making a small contribution to support technical upgrades, defray technical, mailing and maintenance fees, and help us to expand outreach. As we have expanded our output since the 3.11 earthquake and tsunami, our costs have risen sharply. Recommended support level: $20 ($10 for students and residents of developing countries); $40 for institutions including libraries, research centers, government offices. If you experience difficulty in subscribing, write to us with the error message at info@japanfocus.org
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Lori Dengler & Gregory Smits,
The Past Matters: Lessons From History and From Japan's March 11 Earthquake and Tsunami
This four part article introduces geophysicist Lori Dengler's assessment of Japan's March 11 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, and its lessons for Japan and the world. It includes: an introduction by Gregory Smits, an interview with Yale Environment 360, a note by Dengler summarizing her ten day site visit to Japan beginning April 30, and an interview with The Asia-Pacific Journal.
Recommended citation: Lori Dengler and Gregory Smits, The Past Matters: Lessons From History and From Japan's March 11 Earthquake and Tsunami, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Volume 9, Issue 23, No. 1, June 6, 2011
Read more . . .
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| Furukawa Takuya,
How Japan's Low Carbon Society and Nuclear Power Generation Came Hand in Hand
The "Egoism" of TEPCO "Ecoism"
While tackling global warming issues has gained popular approval in the names of Eco and LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability), in recent years the voices of citizens against nuclear power have been suppressed in Japan's environmental protection movement. It is worth reflecting on the possibility that Japan's eco became warped in light of the fact that TEPCO became its big sponsor.
The Fuji Sankei Group sponsors a prize, the Grand Prize for the Global Environment Award, given annually to a company or a group actively engaged in protecting against global warming and supporting environmental protection. The twentieth recipient to be of the prize announced on February 25 this year was, ironically, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), that is now the party concerned with the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
According to the Sankei article announcing the prize, TEPCO built, at a Kawasaki power plant, a system that recycled the vapor produced in power generation as an energy source. Apparently, judges on the screening committee including Mukuta Satoshi, managing director of Keidanren, highly evaluated this as, in Mukuta's words, "a good example of energy conservation that goes beyond a company's borders."
At this late point, this can only be called a black joke, and in April, TEPCO declined to accept the prize. In fact, the company had won a reputation as a leading Japanese company that invested in environmental protection.
Furukawa Tetsuya is a reporter. This article was published in the May 13, 2011 Shukan Kiny'obi.
Recommended citation: Furukawa Takuya, How Japan's Low Carbon Society and Nuclear Power Generation Came Hand in Hand: The "Egoism" of TEPCO "Ecoism," The Asia Pacific Journal, Volume 9, Issue 23, No. 2, June 6, 2011.
Read more . . .
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Norimatsu Satoko, Worldwide Responses to the 20 Millisievert Controversy
On April 19, the Japanese government raised the allowable annual radiation exposure limit from 1 mSV (millisievert) to 20 mSV. The decision has been heavily criticized by experts inside and outside Japan, as it is applied to children who are more susceptible to radiation, and this limit does not take internal radiation dosage into consideration. 20 mSV is the yearly average of what is allowed for Japanese nuclear plant workers under normal circumstances. On this website, we have so far primarily written and provided information in English on this "20 mSV" issue and on the Fukushima nuclear crisis in general. In this post we attempt to compile a list of articles, video news, press releases available in English and other languages.
Read more . . .
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Matthew Penney, Songs for Fukushima
Popular culture has long been an important tool used by the Japanese government and energy companies to promote nuclear power. In the two months since the 3.11 quake and the beginning of the Fukushima crisis, Japanese netizens have circulated key examples as a reminder of past propaganda. This 1993 video "Our Reliable Friend Pluto" was produced by the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation, a group associated with the Japanese government. In it, a cute cartoon stand-in for radioactive element plutonium tells children that not a single case of cancer can be traced to him and that he is even safe to drink!
Read more . . .
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Miyamoto Yuki, Ninomiya Shohei and Shin Kyon, Resign now, Prime Minister Kan
Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun has published a letter from Nishioka Takeo, the House of Councillors President and an important member of Kan's own Democratic Party calling for Prime Minister Kan's resignation.
The original link in English and a reproduction of the original in Japanese (not available in full on the Yomiuri website) is published.
Nishioka has consistently criticized Kan since early April. In an April 7 press conference he said "The Kan Cabinet cannot be allowed to run the country at a time like this. As the President of the House of Councilors, I just cannot remain silent."
Furukawa Tetsuya is a reporter. This article was published in the May 13, 2011 Shukan Kiny'obi.
Kyoko Selden is a translator and an Asia-Pacific Journal Associate. Her translations include Japanese Women Writers: Twentieth Century Short Fiction and, most recently, More Stories by Japanese Women Writers: An Anthology (both co-edited with Noriko Mizuta).
Recommended citation: Furukawa Takuya, How Japan's Low Carbon Society and Nuclear Power Generation Came Hand in Hand: The "Egoism" of TEPCO "Ecoism," The Asia Pacific Journal, Volume 9, Issue 23, No. 2, June 6, 2011.
Read more . . .
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