Daily Japan Headlines: Wednesday, Aug 17, 2011
Photo Source: Wall Street Journal.
Wall Street Journal: At Sado Festival, New Meaning for Earth Celebration
Earth Celebration will be held Aug. 19-21 on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, off Japan’s northwestern coast. Hosted by the renowned taiko drumming group, Kodo, which makes its home on the island, this year’s festival features as guests the Persian music ensemble, Ranaei Family, from Iran.
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ABC News: Honest Japanese Return $78 Million in Cash Found in Quake Rubble
In the five months since the disaster struck, people have turned in thousands of wallets found in the debris, containing $48 million in cash.
More than 5,700 safes that washed ashore along Japan’s tsunami-ravaged coast have also been hauled to police centers by volunteers and search and rescue crews. Inside those safes officials found $30 million in cash. One safe alone, contained the equivalent of $1 million.
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Wall Street Journal: For Once, A Small Victory for Nukes
The turning point could be the northernmost region of Hokkaido, which is on the verge of formally restarting the first nuclear plant to come back online since the March 11 disasters. Hokkaido Gov. Harumi Takahashi announced at a press conference Wednesday that she will be asking the government for final approval, effectively giving the green light from the local level to restart the nuclear plant.
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LA Times: Japan’s Hokkaido Electric gets approval for restarted reactor
Japan’s Hokkaido Electric Power Co won local backing on Wednesday for commercial operation of a nuclear reactor that has been operating in a grey zone, removing uncertainty over its status as Japan weighs the need for a steady supply of electricity against worries over the safety of atomic power.
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UPI: Japan criticized for radiation policy
A cancer center chief said Japan’s method of designating individual homes as radioactive due to the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster is faulty.
Director Masamichi Nishio of the National Hospital Organization Hokkaido said designating hot spots on a house-by-house basis “is not reasonable” since radiation levels are influenced by living conditions
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Wall Street Journal: Scientist Lambastes Lawmakers, Becomes YouTube Star
The end-July video shows increasingly impassioned University of Tokyo professor Tatsuhiko Kodama giving an unvarnished view on the dangers of radioactive contamination from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster — and calling lawmakers out for their failure to take action on it. At one stage near the end of a 15-minute dissection of the problems Japan’s facing, and the perceived inadequacies of the government reponse, he exclaimed, “What on earth is the Diet doing when 70,000 people are forced out of their homes?”
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Wall Street Journal: ‘Super Cool Biz’ Springs Sales Boost
“Most companies ignored ‘Cool Biz’ these past few years,” Mr. Uchiyama said. “But now that the companies have an added incentive because of the need to save electricity, workers have realized that they do not have the appropriate ‘Super Cool Biz’ clothes, so they are out shopping.”
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NPR: International Hit Parade: Moumoon Is Japan’s Guiltless Pleasure
The Japanese charts are all a-bubble with large, identically dressed groups of teens, some schoolgirl, some punk-Goth, that have their own synthetic charm. But Moumoon are different. While still living on cutesy Planet J-Pop (as Japanese pop is known), they have a faint waft of irony about them, like almonds. With Yuka’s demure Peter Pan collar dotted with pearls and Kosuke’s mod ‘do, they fit right in on the L train shuttling between Manhattan and the designated cool zone of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
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