23 August 2012, after buying back control of its Swedish cell phone operation, Sony announced it will lay off 15% of the employees.
Sony will also move most of the Mobile Communication division back to Japan.
Until Sony’s buyback, the Mobil Communication division was a joint venture with Sweden’s Ericsson. The cuts are on top of planned lay offs in Sony’s television division.
“With 96% of the world’s population and 80% of the world’s wealth being outside of the United States, the international market opportunities for agricultural products are great.”-Idaho Department of Agriculture
According to the Idaho Department of Agriculture, farm exports are up 15% compared to 2011, and 2011 was a record setting year!
“Canada and Mexico are Idaho’s largest agricultural export markets, with Japan and China following closely behind.”-Idaho Department of Agriculture
South Korea has also become a top importer of Idaho ag products, seeing a 98% increase since 2011!
Dairy has become Idaho’s number one ag product, making up 35% of Idaho’s exports! Compared to other U.S. states, Idaho’s exports rank 3rd for vegetables and 4th for dairy products (2011 stats).
For the first six months of 2012, total ag exports hit $2.7 billion USD for Idaho! State officials thank currency exchange rates, strong commodity markets, trade agreements and growing international consumer demand.
It also doesn’t hurt that Idaho’s agricultural industry produces far more than what the state’s population of 1.5 million people can eat.
Unfortunately most of the employees of the Idaho ag industry are migrants. Idaho employment laws allows farm workers to be paid less than minimum wage.
21 August 2012, the Environment Ministry of Japan has revised upward the estimated amount of radioactive waste in nine prefectures around Fukushima Daiichi.
As of now, there is 42,575 tons of waste, containing radioactive cesium levels of more than 8,000 becquerels per kilogram, in storage. Officials originally estimated that only 50,000 tons of debris would be contaminated with that much radiation, but it’s now obvious there is much more.
A newly passed law makes the national government of Japan responsible for disposal of all nuclear waste. Recently it was decided that four or five prefectures will be designated as permanent nuclear waste disposal sites. However, there is great concern over the fact that Japan is crisscrossed by seismic faults. Officials stated that any new waste site must not be built near a fault line.
Not surprisingly at least 75% of the contaminated waste is being collected in Fukushima Prefecture.
21 August 2012, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCo) announced it has caught fish near the failed Fukushima Daiichi reactors that have as much as 38,000 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium!
TEPCo says they’ve caught 20 kinds of fish and shellfish from 5 locations along the Pacific coast, just 1 kilometer (0.62 mile) off Minamisoma City, from mid July to the beginning of August.
A type of trout was contaminated with the most cesium, 38,000 becquerels. That’s 380 times the safe limit set by the Japanese government! To top that, the last time TEPCo tested local fish the amount of contamination was 18.8 times the safe limit!
Fishing was allowed to resume about 50 kilometers northeast of Fukushima Daiichi, on a trial bases, but not for rock trout or other fish that are showing up highly contaminated in TEPCo’s surveys.
17 August 2012, the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) ordered an investigation into TIBOR, or Tokyo Inter-Bank Offered Rate.
It’s a system similar to Britain’s LIBOR, and tries to regulate interest and currency rates.
18 financial institutions in Japan have been ordered to reveal their TIBOR operations. Specifically the FSA is looking for evidence that bank employees unfairly manipulated rates. FSA is concerned about the credibility of the TIBOR system.
The Japanese Bankers Association gave an immediate response to the order, saying their were no TIBOR irregularities, despite the European and U.S. investigations into TIBOR.
17 August 2012, people forced to flee their homes, because of the General Electric designed nuclear disaster reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, have been living in temporary prefab homes. Now the Japanese government wants to know if they will accept living in ‘temporary’ towns as well.
A year ago the ignorant Japanese government told nuclear evacuees that they’d be returning home in a few weeks or months. It’s finally become clear to the exalted leaders that radiation contamination could last years. Some areas will exceed 20 millisieverts per year for at least a decade!
The Japanese government admits they are now considering the wishes of the evacuees for the first time! At least 15,000 people can never go back to their homes, and the government says it is willing to build new villages for the victims.
14 August 2012, the Japanese government is now trying to find owners of hundreds of abandoned pets in the 11 March 2011 disaster areas. Last year the Environment Ministry was able to pick up 750 dogs and cats and place in shelters, 300 are still unclaimed.
Government officials believe there are still hundreds of abandoned pets still living in the radiation zones.
The prefectural government of Fukushima is asking people who are known to have lost their pets if they want them back, or not. Fukushima officials say they have contacted at least 1,000 people so far. Officials say they will try to find homes for pets that are no longer wanted, and they will continue to try and capture those pets still loose.
Some owners fear their pets are radioactive, others say they can not afford to take in their pets as they are living in temporary housing, and many owners are still unemployed.
NHK (nippon housou kyoukai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation) recently ran a sad documentary about pets who are being kept in private shelters, until the owners can take them back. The owners are paying for the shelters. However, in one sad example, the owners of one old dog were finally able to take their dog back only to learn that their dog died just days before they arrived at the shelter.
Visit American Humane Association Visit globalanimal.org
ONE YEAR LATER: FRESH WATER FISH MORE RADIOACTIVE THAN SALT WATER FISH! MORE PROOF THAT YOU NEED LOTS OF SALT IN YOUR DIET!
GOVERNMENT INCOMPETENCE: MORE RADIOACTIVE BEEF SOLD TO PEOPLE, JAPANESE CATTLE FARMERS ARE NOW BEING TOLD NOT TO USE LOCAL FEED, FARMERS SAY ADVISE IS TOO LITTLE TOO LATE
14 August 2012, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCo) said a new radioactive water leak has been found, coming from Reactor 4.
This morning a worker found a 350 square meter (1,148 square feet) room on the first floor of the reactor building flooded, about one centimeter (0.39 inch) deep.
The water is contaminated with 77,000 becquerels per milliliter of cesium.
TEPCo officials think the water might be coming from a pipe that is transferring contaminated water from Reactor 3 to a storage tank. The pipe runs next to Reactor 4 building.
Also this morning, workers discovered a fire in a water pump. The pump is used in a building that is used for filtering contaminated water. They used fire extinguishers to put out the fire.
12 August 2012, on the same day that Japan announced it was sending minesweepers to join the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf, a USN destroyer collides with a Japanese oil tanker.
It happened in the middle of the night, near the Hormuz Strait. The USS Porter is badly damaged and must be repaired. No injuries were reported. The USN is investigating why the crew of the USS Porter did not see the huge Japanese oil tanker.
There has been no word about damage to the tanker.
Japan had recently allowed the government backing of insurance for Japanese tankers carrying Iranian oil, as a way to get around U.S./European sanctions. Japan also discussed with Iran the possibility of using Iranian insurance companies.
12 August 2012, two Japanese Self-Defense Force (JSDF) mine sweepers left for military exercises with the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf.
The Uraga and Hachijo will join the USN for mine sweeping operations that begin on 16 September. 20 other navies will take part in the operation.
About 90% of Japan’s petroleum comes from the Persian Gulf area, through the Strait of Hormuz.