Daily Japan Headlines: Friday, Aug 5, 2011
Photo Source: National Geographic.
National Geographic: Japan Earthquake Vibrations Nearly Reached Space
At heights where airplanes travel, about 30,000 feet (9,100 meters), Okal said, the waves from the Japan disaster might have expanded to about three feet (one meter) in amplitude, which is the extent at which a vibration travels from its normal state of equilibrium. That’s not enough for an air passenger to even feel a bump.
But in the upper atmosphere, the ionosphere, the waves were amplified to thousands of times their original sizes, scientists say.
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Bloomberg: Japan Stocks Plunge Most Since March as Global Sell-Off Rattles Investors
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 3.7 percent to 9,299.88 at the 3 p.m. close in Tokyo, sliding the most since March 15. All but nine stocks declined on the 225-member gauge. The broader Topix index plunged 3.1 percent to 800.96. For the week, the Nikkei lost 5.4 percent while the Topix index dropped 4.8 percent, the biggest weekly declines since the five-day period following Japan’s March 11 earthquake.
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BBC Video: School life carries on for tsunami children in Japan
Tens of thousands of children were caught up in the powerful earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in March.
Many of those were left without homes and schools, whilst others lost friends and family in the tragedy.
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Bloomberg: Japan Blackout Risk Eases on Cooler Weather
Japan’s cities and industries may be saved from power blackouts this summer as energy-saving measures combined with cooler-than-expected temperatures reduce electricity demand.
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Reuters: Japan index on economic outlook rises at record
An index gauging the outlook for Japan’s economy rose in June at a record pace from May in a sign that the recovery from the March earthquake is broadening, although the government warned of risks to the outlook such as slowing global growth.
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Wall Street Journal: Japan Finance Minister’s Jeffersonian Moment
Japan’s mountain of debt would be more than 2,500 times the height of Mount Fuji if stacked up in ¥10,000 notes, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda once said…“To-masu Jefa-son” in an 1816 letter to his fellow Virginian politician, John Taylor. “The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale,”
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Wall Street Journal: Strong Yen for Dummies: The Coffee Index
The phrase “strong yen” gets bandied about all the time, especially Thursday, when Japan’s economic policy titans moved dramatically to try and treat this affliction. But what exactly does that mean in lay terms?
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Reuters: Hitachi-Mitsubishi merger talks crumbling: sources
Hitachi Ltd and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are ready to walk away from merger talks, sources with knowledge of the matter said on Friday, dashing hopes for a groundbreaking marriage of two of Japan’s oldest conglomerates.
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Washington Post: In a switch, Japan’s A-bomb survivors turn against nuclear energy
For more than 65 years, the worst event in Japan’s modern history stood alone, with nothing afterward momentous enough to change its lessons. Those who survived the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki decided that similar bombs should never be dropped again. To ensure that outcome, they called for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Nuclear power, though, was another matter. Japan’s nationwide survivors’ group never rallied against nuclear-generated energy as such, perhaps because many saw a redemptive justice in using it peacefully. Reactors could power the country’s economy, they hoped, by harnessing the same force that once caused so much damage.
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China Daily: Japan’s aircraft carrier jitters unfounded
Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa also said that there is “generally no transparency” in China’s aircraft carrier plan, “it is totally unclear what China will use its aircraft carriers to do,” and he said it is likely to lead to regional tensions.
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Goal.com: Remembering former Japan international Naoki Matsuda – never one to go quietly
Naoki Matsuda was always destined to go out with a bang, he was that sort of a person. Somehow you just knew that he wouldn’t slip quietly into the shadows of retirement and old age.
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LA Times: By remaining with Dodgers, Hiroki Kuroda stayed true to himself
“I think your self-identity is defined by certain decisions you make. If you go back on them, you lose a sense of who you are.”
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