Daily Japan Headlines: Monday, Aug 8, 2011
Photo Source: Daily Mail.
‘Japan is also working to revise its energy policy from scratch,’ [Prime Minister] Kan said. ‘I deeply regret believing in the security myth of nuclear power.’
Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui stopped short of calling for a nation without nuclear power while reiterating his pledge to work toward a world without atomic weapons.
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Reuters: Analysis: Japan in ratings cross-hairs as debt in focus
“The fiscal capacities of Japan, India, Malaysia, Taiwan, and New Zealand have shrunk relative to pre-2008 levels,” S&P said in a statement. “If a renewed slowdown comes, it would likely create a deeper and more prolonged impact than the last one.”
With gross government debt at twice its $5 trillion economy, Japan is pretty much on every rating agency’s radar even though most of the debt is owned and funded by Japanese investors.
S&P already has the sovereign on an AA-minus rating, with a negative outlook. Fitch Ratings likewise has a negative outlook.
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BBC Video: Hiroshima atomic bomb remembered amid nuclear debate
Hiroshima in Japan is marking the 66th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bomb attack.
The city holds a peace memorial ceremony every year to remember those who lost their lives and to pray for world peace.
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Wall Street Journal: A New Twist on Hiroshima ‘Revisionism’
A controversial school of thought has long held that the United States did not need to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima or Nagasaki, because Japan was close to surrendering anyway. The bombings, according to this line of thought, had more to do with President Truman’s desire to make a geopolitical statement to a territorially ambitious Soviet Union. (When this argument got an airing at the Smithsonian, years ago, a national brouhaha ensued.)
But what if, far from being on the brink of surrender before Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan was not on the verge of surrender even after the unleashing of atomic force on its citizens? That’s the provocative argument made by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, a historian at the University of California, at Santa Barbara.
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Washington Post: Japan premier promises UN chief to share lessons from nuclear crisis, disasters with the world
“The Japanese government will share invaluable experiences learned from this tragedy with the international community, particularly in area of disaster reduction and preparedness and also strengthening nuclear safety and standards,” Ban told reporters after talking with Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
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USA Today: Japan’s festival season has a somber undercurrent this year
It’s summer festival season in Japan, a nation that deeply venerates tradition, but this year’s celebrations carry more weight and poignancy than usual. Some events have been canceled as Japan still struggles with the social, political and economic fallout of the massive earthquake and tsunami March 11.
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Washington Post: Toyota shrugs off sinking to No. 3 in global vehicle sales, sees growth ahead
Toyota Motor Corp., which has sunk to No. 3 in global vehicle sales from pole position, is counting on emerging markets to drive a revival in its fortunes, one of its top India executives says.
Toyota sold 3.7 million vehicles around the world in the first half of 2011, down 11 percent from a year earlier as sales crashed 62 percent in April-June on production disruptions caused by the March earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan.
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Reuters: Searching for a new Sony in the rubble of the great quake
“History tells us that after a major quake or war there are more entrepreneurs coming up,” says Hori, the founder of Globis Capital Partners and Globis Business School.
Many of Japan’s best-known firms, Sony and Honda included, grew from ventures that got their start amid the wreckage of World War II as America dismantled Japan’s military-industrial complex.
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Washington Times: Japan team produces sperm from mice stem cells
The Kyoto University researchers managed to induce mice stem cells into creating sperm precursors, which were transplanted into infertile male mice. The mice then produced sperm that was successfully used to fertilize eggs in a lab dish.
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Daily Mail: Shocktopuss! Horrifying moment squid comes back to life and jumps off plate
A restaurant has created a dish, named Odori don – literally meaning dancing squid rice bowl – by adding soy sauce to a fresh squid.
The high salt content in the sauce reacts with ions in cells of the squids’ tentacles creating voltage differences, and making the squid move.
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