Tag Archives: japan

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Economic War: Japan creates fund to help Japanese corporations to take over foreign companies, blames crashing U.S. dollar

Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced that a U.S.$100 billion fund is being created, to help Japanese companies to use yen to buy foreign money, and take over foreign companies.

Noda says the fund is a response to the crashing U.S. dollar, which is forcing up the value of the Japanese yen.  The more the yen is worth, the more expensive it makes Japanese exports.  Already Japan has seen the effect, reduced sales to other countries.

The fund will loan money to Japanese companies, and investors, who will then use it to buy foreign money, and foreign companies.  It’s hoped that action will bring down the value of the yen.

The Japanese government will counter speculators from abusing the fund, by requiring daily reports of financial transactions.

Business/Economics, Fukushima

Japan Megadisaster boosts Insurance sales!

The Non-Life Insurance Rating Organization of Japan said insurance companies gained more than 2.51 million new earthquake contracts, since the 11 March 2011 megadisaster.

Not surprisingly the biggest gains were in the areas hardest hit: Fukushima Prefecture saw a 49.6% increase.  Iwate Prefecture 26.4% increase.  Miyagi Prefecture up 22.3%.

Fukushima

Radiation decontamination in Japan will be complicated

The Japanese government is about to vote on a standardized decontamination plan.

Here’s a list of suggested decontamination procedures for cities and towns:

High pressure washing of homes and buildings, including rain gutters.

Trimming of outer leaves and branches on bushes and trees.

Pulling up smaller plants and removal of top soil.

Washing roads, including flushing joints on asphalt and concrete roads, removing mud and dirt along roadsides.

All removed soil and plant material must be treated as nuclear waste.

The Japanese government will vote on a standardized plan on 26 August 2011.  The amazing thing is that it’s been more than five months since the start of the ongoing nuclear disaster, and they’re just now coming up with a standardized national government decontamination plan.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Moody’s downgrades Japan’s credit rating, says government is incompetent

Moody’s downgraded Japan, from double A2, to double A3.  Moody’s cited continuing government budget problems, huge government debt, and government incompetence.

One of the signs of government incompetence is what has become a revolving door of government agencies and leaders.  The latest change is that Prime Minister Naoto Kan has resigned, effective by the beginning of September.

Japan is the second largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt.

International, U.S.

March 11 Tsunami picked up on Radar in California

Japanese and California scientists are now reporting they were able to track the March 11 tsunami on radar.  It was the first time a tsunami was observed on radar.

For the past ten years, scientists from California and Japan, have been using radar to track ocean currents. They discovered they could track large tsunamis as well.

The radar did not pick up the actual tsunami surge, but the changes in the ocean currents caused by the surge.  The scientists hope radar could be used as an tsunami early warning system.

 

International

Pacific Ring of Fire: March 11 now being called world’s first “megadisaster”, it was a real air bender, more to come

Journal of Geophysical Research-Space Physics published a study which showed the March 11, 9.0 quake in Japan hit the upper atmosphere as well.

Disturbances in the upper atmosphere, directly above the epicenter of the earthquake, were picked up by more than 1,000 GPS systems. The effect is called seismotraveling ionospheric disturbances, literally air bending.

This is not the only study that shows a connection between major quakes and the atmosphere.  An earlier NASA report showed the atmosphere above Japan “heated up” days before the March 11 disasters: “Our first results show that on March 8 a rapid increase of emitted infrared radiation was observed from the satellite data.”-Dimitar Ouzounov, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

It wasn’t just the 9.0 quake that hit the atmosphere, air bending also took place immediately after the massive tsunami hit Japan.

It turns out that air bending took place after the 2004, 9.3 Sumatra quake.  But, the 9.0 Japanese quake of March 11 produced air bending three times that of the 2004 Sumatra quake.  This is one reason why March 11, 2011, is being called the world’s first megadisaster.

The other reason is all the massive aftershocks that keep rocking Japan. Just in the last week three aftershocks, greater than 5.0, hit northern Japan within days of each other.  Japanese scientists have warned that such huge aftershocks could continue for years.


 

 

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Japan government now realizes contamination too high to cancel evac orders!

When orders were finally given to evacuate areas around Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, government officials led people to believe it would only be a few months.

It’s more than five months, and now the government realizes the level of contamination is so bad that it will be “…a long, long time…” before some city and towns can be considered safe for people to live in.

A meeting is being arraigned with local officials to explain the severity of the situation, and to better explain to evacuees why they might never be able to return home.

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Japan announced beef was safe to eat, then once again, more cesium contaminated cows!

The day after the Japanese government announced it was lifting the contaminated cattle ban on Fukushima cows, four cows tested for cesium levels above safe limits.

Then, the very next day five more cows showed up with cesium contamination.

The contaminated cows had already been shipped to a slaughter house in Yokohama.  It was there that the beef was found to be highly contaminated.

To make matters worse, the cow farmers swear they were not feeding the cows local rice hay, but more expensive imported hay.  The imported hay had been stored indoors.

This means that the cows could be getting contaminated on their way to the slaughter house.  Officials are trying to figure it out.

And yes, the Japanese government suspended the lifting of the contaminated cattle ban.

Business/Economics, International, Technology

Global Economic War: Japan has a new agressive policy for acquiring Rare Earth Minerals

Japan says it will offer less developed countries money, and other aid, to help them develop infrastructure and industries, in exchange for exclusive mining rights for rare earth minerals.

China has been using the same tactic for decades.  Japan says they’re adopting such a policy in order to compete with China.

Rare earth minerals are used in high tech products like cell phones and hybrid cars.  Because of the rapid development of high tech devices, and the increasing global dependence on them, rare earth minerals could become the “oil” of the 21st century.

 

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo knew explosion could occur, but just didn’t want to believe that it would!

In a case of hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil, a Japanese government investigation into the corporate mind of Tokyo Electric Power Company revealed that officials just couldn’t believe the worse case scenario could happen at Fukushima Daiichi.

TEPCo officials admitted that they discussed the possibility of explosions inside the reactor buildings, but dismissed the possibility as unlikely.

Then, just one day after the 11 March 2011 quake/tsunami, Reactor 1 exploded.  TEPCo officials were focused so much on other concerns, that it took the second explosion, in Reactor 3 on 14 March, to wake them up.

Some government officials conclude that Tokyo Electric officials don’t realize just how dangerous a nuclear reactor can be.