Japan Coverage Heating Up

"35 of 54 reactors are idle, causing electricity shortages in sweltering heat."

"High radiation still plaguing Japan plant" August 03, 2011|Associated Press

TOKYO — Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported its second deadly radiation reading in as many days yesterday at its wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant north of Tokyo....

Radiation has impeded attempts to replace cooling systems to bring three melted reactors and four damaged spent fuel ponds under control.... 

Yeah, those things are still spewing.

The utility was forced to pump water into the three reactors after the earthquake and tsunami disabled cooling systems. The company in May estimated there would be 200,000 tons of radiated water in areas of the Fukushima Daiichi plant by December.

Which at SOME POINT will need to be DUMPED SOMEWHERE -- like the PACIFIC OCEAN!

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"Japan to aid nuclear plant operator" August 04, 2011|New York Times

TOKYO - Radiation has also been detected in crops and livestock, prompting the government to impose shipment bans.

Yesterday, Tokyo Electric Power reported its second deadly radiation reading in as many days at its No. 1 reactor building.  

Wouldn't that be the third in as many days?

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"Japan’s leader ousts three top nuclear energy regulators; Prime minister’s action may be bid to stay in office" August 05, 2011|By Martin Fackler, New York Times

TOKYO - Prime Minister Naoto Kan removed three top officials in charge of Japanese nuclear energy policy yesterday, taking aim at the cozy ties between regulators and the power industry that were exposed after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident.

It seems to be the same everywhere and in every industry.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, the nation’s main nuclear regulatory body which is part of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, has also been accused of trying to manipulate public opinion by planting people at recent town hall-style meetings to speak in support of nuclear power....

The announcement was made nearly five months after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and the tsunami it unleashed left more than 20,000 dead or missing in northern Japan.

The twin disasters also damaged the Fukushima Daiichi plant and led to radiation leaks, the worst since the 1986 nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in Ukraine.

The firing of the three officials is highly unusual in Japan, where elite career bureaucrats taken from top universities have long been the nation’s de facto rulers. However, Kan has begun to focus on collusion between the government and the power industry in what many here see as a belated effort to prolong his stay in office.  

Pfffft.  

I find the politics distasteful.

The embattled prime minister had promised to step down in the face of intense criticism from his own Democratic Party of the government’s slow and seemingly haphazard response to the nuclear disaster. But he has since appeared to backtrack, refusing to say when he will leave office.

He appears to be trying to revive his fortunes by deflecting the criticism onto the bureaucracy. He has also tried to tap the public’s deep misgivings about nuclear power by calling for reducing reliance on it in favor of solar and other energy sources.

Kan seems to be betting on his reputation as a crusader against inept and corrupt bureaucracy, which he earned as health minister in the 1990s by disclosing how his ministry and industry had tried to cover up the use of HIV-tainted blood.

On Sunday, he made his harshest remarks yet about government ties to the nuclear industry, saying it was “exactly the same structure of collusion that I found as health minister during the AIDS blood products problem.’’

But Kan’s continuing lack of popularity, as well as criticism in the local press, suggests that his efforts may be too little, too late....

That's the way I feel about the Globe.

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"Joining Switzerland, Japan Acts to Ease Currency’s Strength" By HIROKO TABUCHI, Published: August 4, 2011

TOKYO — As global investors flee the dollar and euro for refuge in stronger currencies, those havens have started to send out a message: enough.

Demand for currencies like the Japanese yen and Swiss franc, seen as relatively safe assets to hold in turbulent times, have surged in recent weeks, driving up their value as investors have dumped dollars and euros as a result of debt worries in the United States and Europe.

Declaring the yen’s rise to be a threat to the economy, Japan’s Ministry of Finance moved on Thursday to reverse the trend, a day after the typically sedentary Swiss bank unexpectedly cut interest rates in an effort to weaken the franc.

A strong currency might sound like a validation of investor confidence in the performance of an economy. But for trade-dependent Japan and Switzerland, a sudden jump in the value of their currencies can wreak havoc by making their exports uncompetitive.

By intervening, though, Japan and Switzerland risk criticism that they are inciting what some market players call “currency wars,” where countries compete to devalue their currencies.  

The dollar is leading the way!

But Japan right now sees itself having little choice.

On Thursday, Japanese authorities delivered a one-two punch. First, the Finance Ministry said it had begun selling yen and buying dollars. Then the Bank of Japan announced that it had further expanded its program to buy government and corporate bonds, a form of monetary easing aimed at increasing liquidity and helping to dilute the value of the yen.

That's what the Fed did with the dollar!

The recent rise in the yen is, to a large extent, the continuation of a trend that began several years ago with the global economic crisis, which caused investors to flee to the yen. Since the start of the crisis, the yen has strengthened by 30 percent against the dollar.

The muscular yen has been squeezing profits among Japanese exporters, making their cars and electronics more expensive overseas, and eroding the value of overseas earnings when converted into yen. Toyota, Honda and other exporters all recently blamed the strong yen, in part, for their sharply lower earnings in the latest quarter.

And so the nation’s exporters welcomed Thursday’s intervention....   

Where printed Globe basically cut it.

The March disaster struck an economy that, despite its strong currency, was even more fragile than that of the United States. The Japanese economy has shrunk in two of the last three years, and its debt is twice the size of its economy. Japan’s sovereign debt rating, AA-, is three notches below that of the United States.  

See: The AAA Scam

Backseat rape by bankers!

On the other hand, most of Japan’s debt is held domestically, and the country runs a current account surplus — factors that help to make the yen a haven currency for investors in times of turmoil on global markets.  

That is not AmeriKa. 

So what kind of military machine does Japan need support?

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Oh, right, their military empire ended a long time ago:

"66th anniversary of bombing marked 

HIROSHIMA - The city yesterday marked the 66th anniversary of the first atomic bombing yesterday, as Japan fights a different kind of nuclear disaster: reactors in a meltdown crisis after being hit by a tsunami. A moment of silence was observed at 8:15 a.m. - the time the bomb was dropped on Aug. 6, 1945 in Hiroshima. Prime Minister Naoto Kan laid a wreath of yellow flowers at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and reiterated Japan’s promise to never repeat the horrors of Hiroshima. Japan has long vowed never to possess nuclear weapons, but embraced nuclear power as it worked to rebuild after World War II."

Related: Why did Japan surrender?

Please tell me they are not trying to say the atomic bombings did not matter. 

Also see: Japan remembers Hiroshima

I Hear You, Hiroshima

August 6 and 9 are always two of the saddest days of the year for me. Although I was not yet alive, I issue my annual apology to Japan for the single greatest war criminal acts in history. It may not mean much, but I'm sorry. 

Update: Brookline philanthropist Atsuko Toko Fish rallies help for Japan