Starting Tsunami Reconstruction Now

February 4, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Japan-629x418

Japanese university students survey the tsunami devastation in Minamisanriku before getting to work. Credit: Daan Bauwens/IPS.

Daan Bauwens

TOKYO, Feb 04 (IPS) – Funding for reconstruction is beginning to decline after the tsunami almost two years ago – but in large parts of Japan’s north-eastern region reconstruction has yet to begin. More and more young Japanese are now moving into this area for reconstruction in a new way.It is six in the morning. A bus arrives on the barren plane that used to be the coastal town of Minamisanriku. Except for two metal frames of what once were large buildings, there is no sign of human presence.

Twenty students from Tokyo step out of the bus and visit the grounds. An hour later they join another group of volunteers and start digging the frozen ground to clear away debris the giant mud wave washed up two years ago.

Among them is Akinori Fujisawa, vice-president of the project University of Tokyo Aid (UT Aid) that gathers students from all over Japan to volunteer in the stricken areas on weekends.

“Just after the tsunami,” he tells IPS, “all Japanese wanted to come here and volunteer. But many couldn’t. Students had the time but not the money to get here while employed people had the money but no time. That’s how we started: we got funding from individuals and companies and started organising these weekend trips.”

It’s not just students. “We come here every weekend with friends,” says Machiko Ogata, a young Japanese woman in her thirties. “We meet up in Tokyo and drive here together. We all met on one of these sites. It is a social happening.”

But initiatives like this are likely to die out soon. “There will be no more need for people shoveling and digging,” Akinori Fujisawa tells IPS. “We would like to start new projects, like trying to improve studying conditions for children in the area. At the moment most of them are doing homework on the streets. But we can’t do anything about it with the current budget.

“What’s more, it’s getting more and more difficult to gather funds,” Akinori adds. “People mistakenly think the reconstruction is over. You can clearly see that’s not the case. But there’s not a lot we can do about it, in two months our organisation will be put to a permanent stop.”

While grassroots projects as UT Aid are moving out of the area, an increasingly professionalised group of young NGO and social business leaders is moving in.

Entrepreneurial Training for Innovative Communities (ETIC) in Tokyo is a training centre for young entrepreneurs who want to start a social business. Since the tsunami, the organisation has started a fellowship programme that trains and sends young entrepreneurs into the region to help in rebuilding.

“We already sent more than 135 people into the region,” says Yoshi Koumei Ishikawa, ETIC’s research division manager. “Most of them are in their twenties and thirties and almost all quit their jobs at Japan’s biggest firms to start their own social project.”

At the same time, leaders of successful Japanese NGOs choose to relocate to Tohoku, a devastated region. Katariba, an NGO led by Kumi Imamura (33) has already set up three schools for more than 300 children to compensate for the lack of study space at the temporary homes of tsunami victims.

“But most importantly, local residents are employed as teachers and will soon take over the organisation of the programme,” says Retz Fujisawa (37), coordinator of almost all NGOs working in the area. “The first phase of relief is over,” he tells IPS. “Now our intention is to stimulate self-reconstruction, the Tohoku residents must assume leadership now.”

With the Tokyo-based Tohoku Earthquake Consulting Team, Fujisawa is guiding reconstruction efforts by NGOs. He is also member of the government’s Reconstruction Agency and Educational Reconstruction Council, where he defends a brand new reconstruction policy.

“The Tohoku region is devastated, the damage was enormous,” he tells IPS. “But even without a tsunami the region was heading towards a catastrophe. It was suffering from a very bad economic situation, especially caused by an aging society and the emigration of all young people to Tokyo. If we now are to rebuild the region, we must grab this chance to rebuild it in a way that it won’t happen again, and do everything we can to create a new style of living.”

Retz Fujisawa describes Tohoku as a test case for the rest of Asia. “We are suffering from the fact that all resources, capital and education are concentrated in large cities. In the meantime the rest of the country is being forgotten. We now have the chance to reorganise a whole region and to distribute resources.”

According to Fujisawa, Tohoku is not just a test case but also the perfect example that his country is rapidly changing. “This is the first time an NGO leader is invited to work for the government,” he tells IPS. “It is the first time that policy ideas originate from young people down below the decision chain.

“There are as many female as male project leaders in Tohoku. Most are in their twenties and thirties and quit their jobs to come here. There’s one main reason for this: we are all connected by social media, information is being shared and no longer withheld. Young people can start acting on their own. This never happened before in Japan.”

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2013.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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Opposition to U.S. Bases Reaches Turning Point

November 26, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Nov 25 (IPS) – Okinawa, the largest of a group of 60 sub-tropical islands forming Japan’s southernmost prefecture, has an equable climate and preferential treatment for United States servicemen under the Mutual Cooperation Security Treaty between the U.S. and Japan.According to Chobin Zukeran, a member of the House of Representatives from Okinawa, the archipelago is the perfect U.S. base because it fans out into the Pacific Ocean towards Taiwan, making it a vital bulwark for U.S. military strategists concerned with containing China.

Here is where the bulk of the U.S.’ 47,000 troops in Japan are based.

But Okinawans, who number roughly 1.4 million, have long opposed U.S. military presence on their homeland, which experienced the only bloody ground battle between Japan and the invading U.S. military at the end of World War II in 1945.

Since the return of the islands to Japan in 1972, over 90 percent of Okinawans – concerned about their personal safety and noise and environmental pollution – have supported the demand for a complete removal of the bases, which occupy 18 percent of their land.

Now, a string of recent incidents involving military personnel has pushed opposition to the bases into outright protest and threatens to foil the U.S.’ plans to beef up its military in the Asia-Pacific region.

On Nov. 7, Christopher Browning and Skyler Dozierwalker were charged with raping and injuring a local woman on Oct. 16, in a case that sparked widespread protest across Okinawa.

“Okinawa’s struggle against the U.S. military bases is reaching a turning point. We are prepared to take our demands all the way to Washington to end the deadlock,” Zukeran said at a press meeting in Tokyo earlier this month.

Frustration with impunity for U.S. troops on the island is nothing new. In 1995, the gang rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by three U.S. servicemen resulted in a U.S.-Japan agreement to reduce U.S. military presence on the Okinawan chain of islands, but this did little to appease the local population.

“The rapes and a skewed sense of justice when these crimes involve U.S. servicemen is the worst form of violence against women,” said Ryuichi Hattori, a member of the Social Democratic Party that has traditionally led political demands to have the bases removed from Okinawa.

Statistics compiled by the police indicate no fewer than 6,000 cases of crime – including violence and rape – since 1972.

Catherine Fisher, an Australian national who was raped in 2002 by a sailor stationed on a ship on the U.S. naval base of Yokosuka, 64 miles south of Tokyo, was among the first women to speak publicly about the latest crime.

Fisher took her own case to the U.S. in September in pursuit of her attacker who had been honourably discharged by the U.S. military, although he was found guilty by the Tokyo district court in 2004 and ordered to pay damages.

“I was determined to receive justice and challenge a system that is totally unfair. Perpetrators, when they are U.S. soldiers, have legal protection and this must be changed,” she told IPS.

Fisher is currently touring Japan to gather support for her demand that perpetrators of crimes remain in Japan to face trial. She is also trying to set up a 24-hour rape crisis centre that can deal specifically with crimes committed by U.S. military servicemen.

Yet another wave of protest is growing over regular crimes committed by U.S. marines who frequent the bustling bars of Okinawa and participate in its vibrant nightlife.

Masayo Hirata, a former counselor for women seeking advice on their problems with U.S. troops – including offspring abandoned by fathers returning to the U.S. – says romantic liaisons with locals are common.

“Marrying or having relationships with American servicemen has become common these days among younger generation females who meet them in bars,” she said.

These interactions are a big part of the problem, according to protest groups, which include academics, lawyers and local politicians.

Sexual exploitation of local women has also sparked protests in other Asia-Pacific countries hosting U.S. forces, such as in the Philippines, which has a ship repair and recreational facility.

Public protests compelled the Philippine Senate to vote against the renewal of the lease on Clark Base in Angeles City in 1991 – a decision that many Okinawans found encouraging.

South Korea, officially at war with North Korea, hosts 37,000 marines located around the country, but the brutal killing in 1992 of a local woman working in an entertainment area close to the bases triggered demands for an end to the arrangement.

A 2010 survey conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun and Ryukyu Shimpo newspapers found that 71 percent of the Okinawans polled felt that the presence of U.S. troops was not necessary and 41 percent wanted the bases removed.

Campaigns have also focused on environmental degradation caused by the construction of military bases.

Human sit-ins against the construction of a heliport off the northeast coastline of Henoko, a quiet village, were forcibly disbanded. Locals, along with environmentalists on the mainland, claimed the heliport construction endangered coral and the native dugong population.

Okinawans say their daily lives are consumed with gnawing fear of accidents from U.S. fighter airplanes that also create deafening noise as they fly into U.S. bases located in densely crowded areas.

Animosity has recently been aggravated by the deployment on the island of Osprey aircraft, with locals voicing concerns over the poor safety record of the plane, which is capable of taking off and landing vertically.

Prof. Tsuneo Namihara, sociologist at the Okinawa University, explained to IPS that the recent territorial clashes between Japan and China over the Senkaku islands, claimed by both countries, have made it more difficult to get rid of U.S. bases.

“As a result, I fear the anti-base movement will veer away from the traditional pacifism (associated) with the local protests. The younger generation is getting impatient with the heavy hand of the Japanese government that is ignoring the wishes of the local population,” he warned.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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Shifting to Renewables in Japan – An Uphill Task

August 29, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Aug 28 (IPS) – Renewable energy is emerging as the “clinch deal” in Japan`s painful power crisis that pits the government and business against public demand for zero nuclear power. But experts say the going is easier said than done.“Renewable energy is now seen as the way forward for a decision that is heavily political. But issues remain contentious,” said energy expert Professor Takao Kashiwage, the advisory head of the government`s New Energy Subcommittee.

Kashiwage points out that renewable energy sources – mainly solar, wind, small hydro and geothermal from hot springs – while seen as a solution are still fraught with uncertainties given their dependence on the vagaries of the weather or public support.

“For a leading economy such as Japan`s, I would support keeping nuclear power as a firm option even though we must work to lessen that percentage,” he told IPS.

He explained that research has shown windmills located on Japanese seashores produce power that drops during the summer when winds are usually not strong. And in winter, when daylight hours shrink, solar generated energy is less abundant.

Even geothermal, touted as a vital energy investment in Japan given the country’s abundant hot springs, is facing a battle with local resorts – the Kusatsu Hot Spring Resort association, on Kyushu island, announced opposition to developing the clean energy for fear that the precious mineral hot springs would decrease in supply.

Japan is set to unveil a new energy policy this month that aims to reduce the country`s dependence on nuclear power drastically by 2030. Nuclear power officially supplies 30 percent of national needs, a figure that has changed given the temporary halt of 52 of Japan`s 54 nuclear reactors.

The devastating Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011 has forced Japan to phase out nuclear power. High radiation spewed from the damaged reactors contaminated large swaths of farmland, the ocean and cities and forced tens of thousands of people out of that area in the northeast of the country.

The bitter test now for Japan is to ensure a stable supply of electricity from alternative energy sources to match the nuclear power output that provided over a trillion megawatts per hour.

Anti-nuclear advocates say they are determined to keep the pressure on the government, to force a pledge for zero nuclear power in the upcoming energy policy.

“Civic protests must highlight the actual economic benefits of their movement. Energy efficiency technology development in Japan will support economic growth and also reduce our dependence on power,” said Professor Masaru Kaneko, a leading opponent of nuclear power.

The cabinet sees energy policy as a choice between two scenarios. On one hand, zero nuclear power, which would boost renewable energy dramatically to 35 percent as well as increase the use of fossil fuels. The other is maintaining nuclear power, but at a reduced rate: less than 20 percent.

The first option is rejected by nuclear proponents, who warn that higher electricity charges as Japan imports fossil fuels and invests more on new electricity grids would lead to business decline and security risks in the next few years.

The Japan Association of Corporate Executives released a statement this month warning that it was against the national interest to abandon the peaceful use of nuclear power and scrap-related technologies.

The Japan Research Institute reports companies will face higher production costs given higher generation costs for renewables.

Indeed, electricity charges this month have risen, albeit slightly (less than 10 percent per kilowatt per hour). This is nevertheless expected to dampen business growth significantly and increase unemployment, while pushing companies to move abroad.

But politicians are reluctant to announce a solution, fearful of a backlash from the electorate. A government opinion poll released this week showed nearly 50 percent of respondents want Japan to abolish nuclear power by 2030, and also indicated that the more informed people are with regard to energy issues, the greater their support for reducing nuclear reliance.

Sumio Saito, an energy consultant with Wind Connect Japan, a new company that promotes alternative energy, says there is no turning back to nuclear energy, even though Japan will consume more fossil fuels in the short term.

“Fossil fuels are needed in this transition period as Japan moves away from nuclear power. This could be viewed as a ‘grace period’ in the short term despite the increase in greenhouse gas emissions as a result,” he said.

An illustration of the growing commitment to change are the efforts of the local government in East Izu, a hot spring resort located on the coastline of Shizuoka prefecture, 200 kilometres west of Tokyo.

Three windmills supply one-third of the town`s 6,300 households with energy that is first sold to the Tokyo Electric Power Company.

Takumi Umehara of the local government explained to IPS the income from wind power sales is used to subsidise solar panels for households. The way forward, he said, is to raise awareness among the community of the need to support renewables.

“We have discovered that the only way to combat local opposition to renewables, from noisy or upset hot spring owners, for instance, is community understanding. A major part of this process is providing studies and research that show them the benefits of renewables,” said Umehara.

East Izu also has plans to develop geothermal power by tapping local hot springs.

Izu is a picturesque sea and mountain resort that is prone to earthquakes. “Our natural vulnerability gives us all the more reason to develop safe energy,” he pointed out.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Energy, Environment, Featured Tagged With: ,

The Tale of Two Cleaned Up Asian Cities

November 23, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN

By Taro Ichikawa

IDN-InDepth NewsFeature

DALIAN (IDN) – The partner cities of Dalian in Northern China and Kitakyushu in Western Japan have distinguished themselves as dedicated proponents of pollution control and clean environment. Back in the 1960s and 1970s the two cities were severely polluted by heavy industry and smokescreens. Now they are working together to mitigate global climate change in the interest of sustainable development.

It was not surprising therefore that the city of Dalian, which hosted the World Economic Forum’s ‘Annual meetings of New Champions’ in 2007, 2009 and 2011, organized the first Low Carbon Earth Summit (LCES) from October 19 to 26, 2011.

The Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as ‘Summer Davos’, is the foremost global business gathering in Asia, Introduced in 2007 in close collaboration with China and with the personal support of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.

The eight-day conference in Dalian with the theme titled ‘Leading the Green Economy, Returning to Harmony with Nature’ was arranged by the Information and Research Centre of China’s State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. It attracted more than 4,000 experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials, according to the organisers. Nearly half of them came from 57 countries and regions such as the U.S., Canada, Germany, India and Japan.

The significance of the summit lies in the fact that the need for "low carbon economy" is widely recognized particularly since the 2009 UN climate change conference (COP 15) in Copenhagen. The conference covered multitude of climate change issues involving both public and private sectors, and offered a universal platform of scientific and technical communication for decision makers, researchers, industrial participants, business leaders and beyond.

Expressing the sentiments of several participants, J.C. Kala, Director General of the prestigious Amity Institute of Global Warming and Ecological Studies (AIGWES), told IDN that the summit was important because as Mahatma Gandhi said: "Nature provides everyone for his needs but not for greed."

Green Eco Project

Aware of the history of environmental cooperation between Japan and China, General Manager and Director of the Department of Environment of the Tokyo Trucking Association (TTA), Keiji Endo, presented the Green Eco Project, which appears to be of relevance to China and other countries. TTA is presided over by Kazuo Ohtaka.

The project has four key aspects: sustainability; reasonable costs; accuracy of data collected; and, above all, the activities should be such that drivers are kept motivated. An important plank of the project is Green-Eco-driving education. Good drivers are given recognition as a means of motivation. Managers are involved in the project on an equal footing, and have the possibility to take part in seminars seven times a year, Endo told summit participants.

He reported that the project had made great strides: member participation has been on the rise every year. By July 2011, over 530 companies and more than 12,214 vehicles participated in the Green Eco project.

In addition, fuel consumption was reduced over the past four years – the fuel saved was equivalent to what would have been used by 546 large-sized tank trucks. The savings were worth about US$14.4 million or about 10 million Euros.

The reduction of fuel consumed implied a reduction in 22,888 tons CO2 emissions or equivalent to 1,635,000 cedar trees forested. Also the number of traffic accidents declined by 40 percent over a period of four years.

"We can say that this Project has made a great achievement not only in terms of national economy but also of the society as a whole," Endo said, adding that the next step would be to benchmark fuel efficiency database for each type of vehicle.

"In Japan, we have many advanced devices to support the practice of Eco-driving, such as Digital Taco-graph or Drive recorders," he said.

However, the Green Eco Project neither requires huge financial investment nor hi-tech. All that it needs is a piece of paper called Driving Management Sheet, and a pen to start with – and all this to protect the environment, reduce fuel costs, bring about a decrease in the number of traffic accidents and foster better communication among company co-workers.

"Gathering accurate data is critical to making good policy decisions," Murtaza Ziauddin, Advisor, Matrix Stimulation, Schlumberger Pressure Pumping & Chemistry told IDN. "However, it is extremely difficult to get representative data. Many times the process is unnecessarily complex and few people participate. The elegance of Mr Endo’s work is that it is simple and yet extremely effective. It allows collection of representative data and also has the right incentives for the participants. It creates a win-win situation for all involved," Ziauddin added.

"Considering that this project can be implemented with pens and papers without utilizing expensive instruments, I think that it can be put into practice in China and other countries too," Hiroshi Maji, President of Japan’s ASUA Corporation, told IDN.

"As Mr Endo pointed out in his presentation," Maji added, "even though Green Eco Project is a tiny initiative, once undertaken by great many people, it can have an enormous impact on environment."

Sino-Japan Environmental Cooperation

Maji, a native from Kitakyushu City, said the City of Dalian was rightly chosen as the venue of the Low Carbon Earth Summit. The city once served as headquarters of the South Manchuria Railway Company (from 1906 till Japan’s defeat in WWII in 1945) and it has a long history of exchange with the city of Kitakyushu through the port of Moji. On the other hand, Dalian and the surrounding area carry footprints of Sino-Japanese history of the 20th century, particularly from a perspective of history of war.

According to a background paper on Sino-Japan environmental cooperation, Dalian became a sister city of Kitakyushu in May 1979. Since then, Dalian Environmental Protection Bureau on the one hand and Kitakyushu Environmental Protection Bureau and KITA (Kitakyushu International Training Association) on the other have been involved in frequent exchanges. Environmental protection trainees from Dalian return home "with greatly enhanced awareness in environmental protection, technical level and management experience," the document states.

Japan’s Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto visited China in 1997 to commemorate 25th anniversary of normalization of relations between China and Japan and proposed choosing one or two cities in China for conceptualization of building a "model city" for Sino-Japan cooperation in environmental protection.

The proposal was backed by Prime Minister Li Peng. Through Dalian’s efforts and Kitakyushu’s support, Dalian was finally listed as one of cities for this program, says the document.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) supported the development of ‘Dalian Environmental Model Area’ between 1996 and 2000. Experts from China and Japan deliberated Dalian Environmental Model Area Development Investigation Report, which drew a grand blueprint for Dalian’s environmental protection work in future.

The "model city" program has not only helped clean Dalian’s environment but, as the document points out, also benefited enterprises engaged in environmental protection.

What provides additional dimension to partnership is that midway between Tokyo and Shanghai, Kitakyushu is the most advanced city in Japan with regard to pollution control and recycling technology. In fact, it calls itself the "world capital of sustainable development".

In the 1960s it saw the birth of environmental protests in Japan, led by a group of housewives in Sanroku-cho, Tobata ward, who were concerned that their washing always became dirty while drying on the lines. Now Kitakyushu advises sister cities such as Dalian on water purification.

In 1992, Kitakyushu was one of twelve world cities given a Local Government Honours Award at the UN Earth Summit in Brazil to pay a tribute to its environmental programs. Within Japan it is a leading city in anti-pollution measures and recycling with the Ecotown facility in Wakamatsu ward.

Kitakyushu is home to the West Japan Industry and Trade Convention Association, with Kitakyushu International Conference Center and the West Japan General Exhibition Center. It is actively engaged in organising and hosting international conferences particularly on environment and education. A theme park called Space World is situated in Yahata-Higashi ward. JICA runs a training centre (JICA Kyushu International Center) there.

The ‘Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’ (OECD) introduced Kitakyushu’s improved environment to the world as the example of city transformed from a ‘Gray city’ to a ‘Green city’. Thanks due to Kitakyushu’s support, UN Environment Programme awarded Dalian the UNEP ‘Global 500 Award’ in 2001.

- This is the 10th in a series of special IDN-InDepthNews features on ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’. Previous articles are available as compilation, which can be downloaded here. [IDN-InDepthNews – November 22, 2011]

Copyright © 2011 IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

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JAPAN: Workers Bear Brunt of Nuke Clean-up

June 26, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Jun 24, 2011 (IPS) – Twenty-eight-year-old Yushi Sato washes cars for a living, but they are no ordinary cars. Every day, Sato hoses down vehicles contaminated with radiation from the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant that was damaged by the earthquake and tsunami that hit north-east Japan Mar 11.

Sato, who has worked at the Fukushima plant for the past five years, used to be a welder, but after the disaster struck he was assigned the job of washing the plant’s various vehicles. "We wash on average around 200 vehicles that show higher than normal radiation levels," he told IPS.

Wearing heavy protective gear and checked daily for radiation exposure, Sato says he worries about the effects of radiation on his health but is determined to keep working.

"The main workers are battling heavier risks than myself so I try not to think of the risks I face," he explained, pointing to colleagues working directly on the repair of the Fukushima reactors.

Radiation monitoring indicates Sato is exposed to around 20 microsieverts daily, roughly the same amount of radiation emitted by a single X-ray, and far less than the official danger limit of one millimetre which is equivalent to 100 microsieverts. But Sato acknowledges the threat posed by accumulated exposure to radiation.

Analysts say workers like Sato represent the commitment now shouldered by workers of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) at the Fukushima reactors as well as in the company’s other subsidiaries. These workers have committed to repairing the damaged plant and stopping radiation leaks.

"They face huge pressure mentally and physically," explained Professor Takeshi Tanigawa, an expert on social medicine at Ehime University who has been spearheading advocacy for better working conditions for TEPCO employees in Fukushima.

He told IPS that his recent surveys show workers grappling with high levels of stress as a result of tough working conditions that include long shifts and poor living standards. Other indicators point to simmering personal guilt for the radiation contamination the plant inflicted on residents of surrounding areas.

"The evidence I have collected has pressured TEPCO to ease some of the workers’ difficulties such as providing them with fresh vegetables and better bedding to help them have a good night’s rest. There is also a doctor on call to provide them with medical counselling," he said.

The plight of Japan’s nuclear workers has grabbed the public limelight this past month, and they have been portrayed as symbols of national resilience, on the one hand, and also evidence of the downside of the country’s post-war economic miracle, on the other.

This week, the Labour Ministry reported that 102 workers have been exposed to more radiation—over 250 millisieverts—than the limits stipulated by the government, leading to the recall of these men from the plant.

TEPCO is now reporting a shortage of workers in Fukushima; more than 2,000 employees currently work in the reactors. High radiation inside the buildings has severely hampered rehabilitation efforts with workers permitted to enter for stints of as short as 15 minutes.

Professor Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a seismologist from Kobe University, has long been an advocate against Japan’s nuclear power policy, which he describes as a "doctrine." Ishibashi said, "The alarming situation in Fukushima has finally revealed that all nuclear plants in Japan are built on fault lines and thus have the possibility of ending up with a major accident due to tsunami."

Other experts also point to root causes that brought about the policy, exposing a fundamentally flawed system based on the close collaboration among bureaucrats, power companies and politicians who have resisted opposition to the national nuclear policy. "Building nuclear power plants was considered a pillar of Japan’s post-war economic growth and was facilitated by powerful elites…who gained most from the policy. Everybody else just had to fall in line," said Shigeaki Koga, author of the bestselling book "The Collapse of Japan’s Central Administration".

In a press briefing this week, Koga noted that Fukushima is a rallying point for reforms and underscores the need for Japan to foster healthy, transparent competition among independent entities, if Japan is to develop as a safer and richer country.

Still, critics acknowledge that pursuing change is not easy in Japan where the disaster has caused a political stalemate. Prime Minister Naoto Kan is set to resign this summer amid increasing political bickering between parties, with the electorate divided between yearning for a strong leadership and calls for a major overhaul of the system.

In the meantime, volunteers are stepping up to help address the nuclear problem. A case in point is the growing popularity of the so-called "suicide corps" formed by retired engineer Yasuteru Yamada and composed of men over 60 years old who are willing to work in the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant.

More than 300 people have signed up, Yamada told IPS. His group, he said, "is ready to work in any job whether inside the contaminated plant, or clearing debris in the area. We need to help out the country at the moment," he said.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Environment, Report Tagged With: , , , , ,

JAPAN: Anti-Nuke Policy to Bring Severe Economic Fallout

June 21, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Jun 21, 2011 (IPS) – Three months after the devastating Mar. 11 earthquake that caused an accident at the Fukushima power plant, energy experts warn of economic fallout if nuclear energy is snuffed out too quickly, much to the dismay of an increasingly angry and frustrated public.

"The horror of the Fukushima nuclear accident cannot be denied. But the future of nuclear energy must be weighed wisely if Japan is to remain an economic power," said Professor Takao Kashiwagi, an engineer at the prestigious Tokyo Institute of Technology. Japan has pushed the expansion of nuclear power as crucial for its economy but is currently faced with the difficult test of building a new energy policy that can appease growing anti-nuclear public sentiment without adverse effects to industry.

Kashiwagi, who is also a member of the government’s New Energy Committee, clarified his point by referring to Japan’s overwhelming dependence on nuclear energy. Almost 30 percent of the country’s power needs are covered by nuclear energy, he said.

"Rather than turn our back on the reality of our dependence on nuclear energy," Kashiwagi argued, "it is time to develop technology that will fortify the safety aspects of nuclear plants. The best option for Japan is to work internationally towards this goal."

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supported that option in a long awaited report released Jun. 1 that rapped the current emergency measures in Fukushima, while calling for universal safety regulations in nuclear plants.

Anti-nuclear activist Professor Reiichi Suzuki who launched a new committee with representatives of business and academia in Fukushima said, however, that there is widening support to stop nuclear power plants in the area.

"Our focus is to keep on the burner the terrifying truth that nuclear power does not have merits. It is not only unsafe, but also a financial burden on people for subsidies that have to be paid back and also allows rich companies to control our natural resources," he pointed out.

Still, the Fukushima calamity raised the spectre of power cuts from the closure of reactors, that has alarmed the manufacturing industry. Expected business losses and huge financial compensation payments have dealt a blow to the Japanese economy, whose growth in 2011 is expected to fall to less than one percent.

Economists say power shortages will force more Japanese companies to relocate to foreign countries, ushering in higher unemployment and further squeezing public funds.

International relations analyst Takeshi Inoguchi said economic alarm bells have turned the limelight onto the difficult issue of guaranteeing the safety of nuclear power. The government has promised increasing alternative energy to 20 percent of national needs as well as a transparent nuclear power policy, as shown by its acceptance of IAEA inspections this month.

"The horror of nuclear contamination in Fukushima has pressured Tokyo to humbly accept its past mistakes and promise a better era of safety. People expect these changes," he said.

Indeed, despite national polls in May that indicate an overwhelming high of 70 percent against nuclear power, there are signs that the initial defiance, while not receding, is being tempered slightly.

A significant case in point is the re-election on Jun. 8 of Shingo Mimura as the governor of Aomori prefecture that is home to one active nuclear power plant and four more under construction.

Mimura, who was backed by the conservative Liberal Democratic Party that spearheaded Japan’s nuclear power expansion, defeated opponents who wanted to freeze construction of the nuclear plants.

He promised higher safety standards while visiting the local nuclear reactors himself. The strategy seems to have paid off.

Older Aomori residents quoted in the Japanese media spoke of the huge pressure they felt when they voted. "I am scared and I don’t like it. But everyone’s livelihood depends on the nuclear plant," Junji Takeyama, an 80-year-old man, told Asahi Newspaper last week. His son and grandson work for electric power companies.

Nearly half the population in most municipalities in Aomori, which host nuclear reactors, is dependent on the Tohoku Electric Power Company. People are either workers, labourers in construction sites of nuclear related facilities, or shopkeepers providing services.

Subsidies over the past three decades for municipalities with reactors and fuel reprocessing plants are reported to be around 2.8 billion dollars that pay for new roads, schools and other state-of-the-art infrastructure.

Proponents of nuclear energy point out that this system allowed the government to supply stable energy resources and support economic growth in post-war Japan based on high tech manufacturing and sophisticated transportation networks.

The Fukushima tragedy struck when Japan was planning to add to its 54 nuclear reactors to increase nuclear energy to 50 percent of national power consumption.

Suzuki and Kashiwagi agree Fukushima has certainly forced Japan to abandon its former nuclear ambitions.

"How we proceed with nuclear power represents a commitment to ending the old system completely or accepting piecemeal changes. The fight is just beginning," Suzuki said.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Economy, Energy, Environment, Report Tagged With: , , ,

Recalling Hiroshima Encounters in Times of Fukushima Crisis

May 2, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN

By Ramesh Jaura

IDN-InDepth NewsReport    
   
BERLIN/HIROSHIMA (IDN) – Images of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, following an unprecedented nine magnitude earthquake and resultant tsunami, inevitably evoke memories of my two encounters with Hiroshima.

A gentle monument in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is festooned with thousands of paper cranes that symbolise humankind’s fervent desire that Hiroshima and Nagasaki may never happen again. About one quarter of a million people died in the two cities where the United States dropped the first nuclear bombs — euphemistically, if not cynically, codenamed ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’.

Named the Children’s Peace Monument, the memorial commemorates Sadako Sasaki and the thousands of children who fell prey to the atomic bombing or the radiation that penetrated their young and innocent bodies sixty-five years ago.

Sadako was two years old when the bomb detonated on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Three days later, a second nuclear bomb devastated Nagasaki. Her story has pierced my heart though it is one of the several poignant stories of young and old caught unawares by the atomic bomb.

During my first visit in May 2008, I heard of young girls whose eyes melted as they were watching the parachute carrying the bomb. I heard of men, women and children whose faces turned into giant charred blisters. I heard of people seeking help in vain as their skin dangled from their fingernails.

I heard of entire families who were burnt alive as their houses tumbled in flames. And I heard of human beings whose eyeballs and internal organs burst from their bodies. I heard stories of Hiroshima that was a hell where those who somehow survived envied the dead.

‘ATOMS FOR PEACE’

Unlike the nuclear reactors in Fukushima that by all accounts embody "atoms for peace" and were designed to support economic and industrial development in the interest of human welfare, the Little Boy dropped on Hiroshima and the Fat Man that caused devastation in Nagasaki were intended as tools of destruction and programmed to annihilate targets without any regard for human life.

In retrospect, the radiation set free by the disaster-stricken Fukushima nuclear reactor in its impact is as lethal as the one that killed Sadako. And yet history will prove whether even the atoms for peace are in effect tools of malevolence and annihilation or whether not enough was done or could have been done to harness the best of benevolence.

At any rate, the story of Sadako also drives home the pressing need to work and campaign for a nuclear-free world – as homage to hundred of thousands who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

As if by some miracle, Sadako and her mother survived the atomic holocaust unharmed. It is said that until 1955 when she caught cold and felt stiffness in her neck, she was a healthy, energetic child who never missed a day of elementary school. She loved singing and sports. In fact, she could outrun anyone in her class.

Sadako recovered from the cold but her neck stayed stiff. In the following days, her face was swollen. After various tests, the doctor told her father that she had leukaemia. "She has a year left at the most," he proclaimed.

Sadako was admitted to the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital. According to the story that has been recorded in the Peace Memorial Museum, some five months after being hospitalised, Sadako heard about a five-year old girl who had died of leukaemia in that very hospital. Knowing that she herself had leukaemia, Sadako wondered whether there was any chance of her surviving.

Months passed by. And hope appeared around the corner when in August high school students of the port city of Nagoya sent one thousand paper cranes to patients in the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital. Sadako’s room was also brightened by cellophane cranes folded in many colours.

When she heard that if you "fold 1000 paper cranes, your wish will come true," Sadako took to folding paper cranes fervently. She wanted to live. Into each crane she folded the wish: "Let me get well."

But her illness got worse. In the morning of October 25, 1955 Sadako died. She was 12 years old.

Time will tell whether such stories will be repeated in the coming years in the aftermath of Fukushima nuclear disaster. But the need of the hour is not to sit back, but translate into reality the commitment to creating the awareness for action and mutual solidarity. This applies to nuclear weapons too.

"If nuclear weapons epitomize the forces that would divide and destroy the world, they can only be overcome by the solidarity of ordinary citizens, which transforms hope into the energy to create a new era," says Daisaku Ikeda in his 2009 proposal for Building Global Solidarity Toward Nuclear Abolition.

A nuclear-weapon free world would either make nuclear power plants superfluous or lead to research and development (R&D) efforts to harness the atom in such a way that it offers the best for the humankind.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

My September 2010 visit to Hiroshima gave me reason to trust that the Japanese youth has the ability and mettle to "create a new era". Encounters at the Hiroshima Ikeda Peace Memorial Centre, named after the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) president turned out to be tremendously encouraging.

Etched on my mind is the encounter with Yasuro Kubo, Vice President, Hiroshima Region and Executive Leader of Soka Gakkai, who greeted me with an affectionate smile, memorable souvenirs, valuable information about the Memorial Centre, and tea and snacks on a hot September afternoon before we moved on to the hall upstairs.

More than one hundred mostly young but also middle aged persons waited to hear me — a journalist born in India and living and working in Germany for nearly 38 years — express my views on Dr. Ikeda’s annual peace proposals and his unrelenting commitment to plead for a world without nuclear weapons. The attention and interest with which they listened was exceptional.

The Centre’s commitment to peace and disarmament is underlined by the fact that it hosts a series of lectures by eminent people around the world, who have made significant contributions to the cherished goal of a world free of atomic arsenal.

In 2010 alone, the Soka Gakkai Hiroshima youth members sponsored a Hiroshima Study Lecture Series in conjunction with the 11th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates which took place at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park from November 12 to 14.

Guest speakers were Frederik Willem de Klerk, former president of South Africa, Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala, president of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, and the co-founder of Northern Ireland’s Peace People, Máiread Corrigan Maguire.

Frederik Willem de Klerk spoke about the history of apartheid in South Africa, his experience of spearheading the dismantling of South Africa’s nuclear weapons program, and the need to rid the world of nuclear weapons. He pointed out that in order to achieve this, feelings of threat which often lead to violence must be replaced with feelings of trust derived from dialogue. De Klerk, who was instrumental in abolishing apartheid, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, together with the legendary Nelson Mandela.

Ambassador Dhanapala, whose organization the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs was awarded the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize, called the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki a crime against humanity. He emphasized that civil society has huge power to create change and influence governments and paid tribute to Soka Gakkai for its ongoing efforts toward the abolition of nuclear weapons.

The co-founder of Northern Ireland’s Peace People, Máiread Corrigan Maguire, whose sister’s three children were killed during the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, shared her experience of using nonviolence to end the conflict in Northern Ireland and emphasized the power of one-to-one dialogue. Maguire told the Hiroshima youth that because they come from a city that has directly witnessed the effects of a nuclear weapon; they have an important mission to persuade people around the world of the necessity for nuclear abolition. She also stressed the importance of Article 9 of the Japanese constitution which renounces war.

The significance of Maguire’s talk was underlined by the fact that together with Betty Williams and others she founded the grassroots organization called Peace People to promote the vision of a future free from violence. She is also a recipient of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize.

As their response to the Fukushima disaster underlines, the Soka Gakkai youth is not only profoundly committed to a world without nuclear weapons, and violence in all forms but also to assisting the victims of Japan’s triple disaster. They are engaged in relief activities in crisis-stricken areas, guided by SGI president who says:

". . . Buddhism . . . allows us to change poison into medicine and to transform our negative karma. There is no hardship or suffering that we cannot overcome, no darkness that we cannot break through. Now is the time to bring forth the vast and immeasurable power of the Buddha and the Law. The more challenging the times, the more important it is that we take a step forward based on powerful prayer."

Note: This article first appeared in the March-April 2011 issue of Global Perspectives: http://www.global-perspectives.info. (IDN-InDepthNews/29.04.2011)

Copyright © 2011 IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

This article should not be republished or redistributed without the permission of the original author or copyright holder.


Filed Under: Asia, Energy, Featured, History, Nuclear Weapons, Peace, Security Tagged With: , , , ,

Japan, the Forgotten Protectionist Threat

April 18, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy

By Ian Fletcher

Everyone’s worried about China today on the trade front. And they should be.

But let’s not forget that China is only the most brazen player of one-way free trade out there. We ran a $273 billion deficit with China in 2010, but we also ran an $80 billion deficit with the European Union and a $60 billion deficit with Japan.

These rich-country trade deficits are in some ways more alarming than our deficit with China, because they are emphatically not the result of cheap foreign labor. In fact, nearly a dozen European countries now pay their manufacturing workers better than we do.

So let’s look at Japan for a minute.

In the 1980s, Japanese industrial policy was the object of intense American interest, which has since waned due to the deliberately cultivated misapprehension that Japan is in economic decline (This illusion has been exhaustively debunked by the Tokyo-based Irish journalist Eamonn Fingleton; Japan is playing sick to get us off their back.) There was a flurry of books on the subject and for a while it seemed that America might acquire a serious industrial policy of its own (which never happened). But Japan remains much more relevant to America’s situation than China, simply because Japan has wages comparable to the U.S., while China competes largely on the basis of a low-wage policy that is impossible for a developed nation to emulate. China is following Japan’s old playbook anyway, so it is well worth examining Japan’s trade history.

Japan’s protectionism runs very deep in its political and economic system. The Japanese themselves certainly believe their economic success has been due to protectionism. No one in Japan of any standing in business, government, or academe believes that Japan’s success has been due to free trade. In the words of economic historian Kozo Yamamura:

Protection from foreign competition was probably the most important incentive to domestic development that the Japanese government provided. The stronger the home market cushion…the smaller the risk and the more likely the Japanese competitor was to increase capacity boldly in anticipation of demand growth. This can give the firm a strategic as well as a cost advantage over a foreign competitor operating in a different environment who must be more cautious.

The cultural roots of Japan’s repudiation of free trade are extraordinarily deep–as deep, say, as the roots that make America a capitalist culture. This was, after all, a nation which literally sealed itself off from the outside world for two centuries (1635-1853). This act is regarded by most Westerners as merely odd, but it was, in fact, profoundly consistent with the enduring character of Japanese civilization.

Japan’s forcible opening to the modern world in 1853, when U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry sailed his famous "black ships" into Tokyo Bay demanding trading rights, added a new element to Japan’s existing authoritarian social order: the need for economic and technological sophistication sufficient to defend its existence as an independent nation. Japan promptly set about engaging the modern world on terms congenial to its own political priorities–not those of outsiders.

The key slogan of the day was fukoku kyohei, "rich country equals strong army." Thus private economic interests have never, except perhaps for a brief liberal moment in the 1920s, been allowed to be the primary drivers of its national economy. Instead, private interests have been subordinated to the national economic interest under a system most succinctly describable as state capitalism. And protectionism is an innate part of that system.

Japan in 1945 was economically crushed, its cities smoking ruins, its empire gone. It was poorer even than some African nations untouched by the B-29. It seemed so far behind the United States that there was no plausible way ever to catch up. It was widely expected that Japan would end up an economic also-ran like that neighboring island chain, the Philippines. And within the economic ideology America was promoting to Japan at the time, free trade according to comparative advantage, there seemed to be no way out, as Japan had comparative advantage only in low-value industries.

History records a fascinating exchange on this topic, which encapsulates the entire postwar free trade debate. In 1955, when the U.S. and Japan were negotiating their first post-occupation trade agreement, the head of the American delegation, C. Thayer White, told the Japanese to cut their tariff on imported cars because, in his words:

1. The United States industry is the largest and most efficient in the world.

2. The industry is strongly in favor of expanding the opportunities for world trade.

3. Its access to foreign markets in recent years has been limited by import controls.

4. Although the United States Government appreciates that it is necessary for some countries to impose import restrictions for balance of payments reasons…it would be in Japan’s interest to import automobiles from the United States and ex-port items in which Japan could excel.

Upon Ricardian comparative-advantage principles, White was, of course, 100 percent correct. But the Japanese trade negotiator, Kenichi Otabe, replied that:

1. If the theory of international trade were pursued to its ultimate conclusion, the United States would specialize in the production of automobiles and Japan in the production of tuna.

2. Such a division of labor does not take place…because each government encourages and protects those industries which it believes important for reasons of national policy.

Needless to say, Japan did not choose to become a nation of fishing villages!

Instead, its rulers drew the same conclusion that Alexander Hamilton had drawn 150 years earlier and Henry VII 300 years before that, opting for protectionism and industrial policy. They closed Japan’s markets to foreigners in industries they wished to enter, only welcoming foreign goods insofar as they helped build up Japan’s own industries. They applied administrative guidance to key industries and rigged Japan’s banking system and stock market to provide cheap capital to industry.

Tokyo instead protected its fledgling automobile industry in the 1950s, limiting imports to $500,000 per year. (In the 1960s, prohibitive tariffs replaced this quota.) Japan only allowed foreign investment insofar as this transferred technology to its own manufacturers. Today, it produces over two-and-a-half times as many cars as the U.S., mostly for export.

As Japan has historically been the economic leader for the whole of Confucian Asia (Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Singapore), its protectionist policies have been shared with nearby nations to a huge extent. The ultimate basis of these policies is an attitude towards economics that sees the economy not as an end in itself, but as an instrument of national power. As Harvard Asia specialists Roy Hofheinz and Kent Calder have written, "For more than a century, nationalist sentiments…have been a basic driving force underlying East Asian economic growth." Even today, Chinese industry is 30 percent owned by the state. Over a dozen strategic industries have been slated to remain under outright government ownership and control, including information technology, telecommunications, shipping, civil aviation and steel. Laissez faire this is not.

In relation to its neighbors, Japan has employed something called the "flying geese" strategy, christened thus by the Japanese economist Akamatsu Kaname in the 1930s. Japan breaks into an industry, wipes out existing Western competitors, then successively hands the industry down to less sophisticated neighboring economies such as Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam as they mature. This pattern has held for goods from garments to televisions for five decades. Japan’s withdrawal from labor-intensive goods in the 1970s opened up space for Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and their ongoing withdrawal from these goods is opening up space for China.

Among other things, this nicely illustrates how rational protectionism is a dynamic, not a static, strategy, and does not consist in defending every job and every industry.

© Copyright 2011 Ian Fletcher. All rights reserved.

This article should not be republished or redistributed without the permission of the original author or copyright holder.

Ian Fletcher is Senior Economist of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a nationwide grass-roots organization dedicated to fixing America’s trade policies and comprising representatives from business, agriculture, and labor. He was previously Research Fellow at the U.S. Business and Industry Council, a Washington think tank, and before that, an economist in private practice serving mainly hedge funds and private equity firms. Educated at Columbia University and the University of Chicago, he lives in San Francisco. He is the author of Free Trade Doesn’t Work: What Should Replace It and Why.


Filed Under: Asia, Economic Policy, Featured, History, Trade Tagged With: , ,

JAPAN: Difficult Shift From Aid Donor to Recipient

April 13, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Apr 13, 2011 (IPS) – April has traditionally being the time for ‘hanami’ or cherry blossom festivals here when millions of Japanese hold parties under the pink flowering trees in parks and streets lit up gaily by lanterns.

But, one month after the earthquake and tsunami of Mar. 11 which left almost 30,000 people dead or missing, a widespread donation drive has supplanted the festive hanami spirit in Tokyo and other major cities.

"The terrible Tohoku disaster has galvanised the nation to launch a nation- wide charity movement," Kyoichi Kobayashi, a social critic and author here, told IPS. "The drive is an entirely new experience for the people who have gotten used to an affluent lifestyle that marks Japan’s post-war economic might."

Indeed, from Hokkaido, Japan’s north island, to Okinawa, the southern tip in the archipelago, hundreds of local volunteer groups, companies and organisations have launched frantic aid projects or are working as volunteers to help the stricken populations in the disaster zones.

For example, the international movie festival held annually in Okinawa by Yoshimoto Kogyou, a leading entertainment company, turned from its original purpose of boosting the Okinawan economy into a charity for Tohoku instead.

Governor Shintaro Ishihara, the governor of Tokyo, the nation’s capital and lynchpin of the local economy, has asked people to voluntarily refrain from hanami parties to show their solidarity with the pain of Tohoku. "This is not an era in which people at this time of year may drink viewing cherry blossoms, even during day time."

Such unusual steps, according to Kobayashi, are a clear example of how Japan, after decades of being a country that gives charity given its rich economy, is now trying to cope with being a country that needs help.

The massive destruction including the ongoing nuclear radiation emergency, explained Kobayashi, has exposed and turned into a bitter lesson, the lack of preparation in the country despite its vulnerability to earthquakes.

"The chaos we witness in Tohoku – thousands of people still stuck in evacuation centres and the lack of food and water – is sobering," Kobayashi said. Japan has gone "in a few seconds" from a country that was – till recently – the world’s top aid donor, "to becoming a recipient itself."

Indeed, the emerging new mood in Japan is a scenario best described by the country’s leader himself. Prime Minister Naoto Kan, published a message in newspapers worldwide Monday. He wrote of ‘Kizuna’, or bonds of friendship, shown by more than 130 countries and regions after the disaster and pledged that Japan will "recover from their own efforts and with the help of the global community." Japan will "come back even stronger… to repay you," Kan said.

International relations expert, Takeshi Inoguchi explains that outpourings of financial donations from countries like Rwanda and Sri Lanka – who are struggling to overcome domestic hurdles of their own – have been welcomed in Japan. "The Japanese view such generosity as important signs of encouragement during their bereavement and are very grateful," Inoguchi said.

Bilateral donations covering 117 countries were offered through the Japanese Red Cross and totalled more than 33 million dollars (Yen 2.8 billion) according to figures released here.

Inoguchi also pointed out that, apart from warm international expressions of support and armies of volunteers entering Tohoku, there are other encouraging developments arising form the dire situation.

A case in point is China’s support and help. Prior to the quake, Sino-Japanese relations were tense due to territorial issues, but leaders in Beijing have been at the forefront of the aid effort in Japan.

The Asahi Newspaper noted Tuesday that China reacted "calmly" to the discharge of radioactive material from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea so close to its borders.

China’s reaction comes in sharp contrast to the vociferous name calling that went on in September 2010 after a Chinese skipper was arrested, and later released, by Japan after he rammed into a Japanese navy patrol vessel close to the Senkaku Islands, which are claimed by both countries.

Help is also coming from Russia with which bilateral relations have been tense since November when Russian leader, Dimitry Medvedev, visited the Northern Territories, which are occupied by Russia but claimed by Japan.

Russia has sent 161 workers and also announced an energy support measure at a time when Japan is facing black outs.

Meanwhile, Mokoto Torri, a Tokyo resident who decided to abandon hanami celebrations this year, told IPS "the disaster is terrible". But, pointing dejectedly at the long line of trees, in full pink bloom, lining the streets, he said, "I wonder whether I am doing the right thing after all."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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‘No Safe Levels’ of Radiation in Japan

April 5, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Dahr Jamail*

TOKYO, Apr 4, 2011 (IPS/Al Jazeera) – In a nuclear crisis that is becoming increasingly serious, Japan’s Nuclear Safety Agency confirmed that radioactive iodine-131 in seawater samples taken near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex that was seriously damaged by the recent tsunami off the coast of Japan is 4,385 times the level permitted by law.

Airborne radiation near the plant has been measured at 4-times government limits.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, the company that operates the crippled plant, has begun releasing more than 11,000 tons of radioactive water that was used to cool the fuel rods into the ocean while it attempts to find the source of radioactive leaks. The water being released is about 100 times more radioactive than legal limits.

Meanwhile, water that is vastly more radioactive continues to gush into the ocean through a large crack in a six-foot deep pit at the nuclear plant. Over the weekend, workers at the plant used sawdust, shredded newspaper and diaper chemicals in a desperate attempt to plug the area, which failed. Water leaking from the pit is about 10,000 times more radioactive than water normally found at a nuclear plant

Thus, radiation from a meltdown in the reactor core of reactor No. 2 is leaking out into the water and soil, with other reactors continuing to experience problems.

Yet scientists and activists question these government and nuclear industry "safe" limits of radiation exposure.

"The U.S. Department of Energy has testified that there is no level of radiation that is so low that it is without health risks," Jacqueline Cabasso, the Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation, told Al Jazeera.

Her foundation monitors and analyses U.S. nuclear weapons programs and policies and related high technology energy, with a focus on the national nuclear weapons laboratories.

Cabasso explained that natural background radiation exists, "But more than 2,000 nuclear tests have enhanced this background radiation level, so we are already living in an artificially radiated environment due to all the nuclear tests."

"Karl Morgan, who worked on the Manhattan project, later came out against the nuclear industry when he understood the danger of low levels of ionising radiation-and he said there is no safe dose of radiation exposure," Cabasso continued, "That means all this talk about what a worker or the public can withstand on a yearly basis is bogus. There is no safe level of radiation exposure. These so-called safe levels are coming from within the nuclear establishment."

Risk at low doses

Karl Morgan was an American physicist who was a founder of the field of radiation health physics. After a long career in the Manhattan Project and at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, he became a critic of nuclear power and weapons. Morgan, who died in 1999, began to offer court testimony for people who said they had been harmed by the nuclear power industry.

"Nobody is talking about the fact that there is no safe dose of radiation," Cabasso added, "One of the reasons Morgan said this is because doses are cumulative in the body."

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) published a report in 2006 titled Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR) report, VII Phase 2. NAS BEIR VII was an expert panel who reviewed available peer reviewed literature and wrote, "the committee concludes that the preponderance of information indicates that there will be some risk, even at low doses."

The concluding statement of the report reads, "The committee concludes that the current scientific evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that there is a linear, no-threshold dose-response relationship between exposure to ionising radiation and the development of cancer in humans."

This means that the sum of several very small exposures to radiation has the same effect as one large exposure, since the effects of radiation are cumulative.

For weeks engineers from Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) have been working to restore power to the plant and have resorted to having seawater sprayed on radioactive fuel rods that have been at risk of meltdown.

Despite this, Japanese officials conceded to the public on Mar. 31 that the battle to save four crippled nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been lost. On Mar. 29 a U.S. engineer who helped install the reactors at the plant said he believed the radioactive core in unit No. 2 may have melted through the bottom of its containment vessel and on to a concrete floor.

Tepco’s chairman, Tsunehisa Katsumata, said they had "no choice" but to scrap the No’s 1-4 reactors, but held out hope that the remaining two could continue to operate, despite the fact that he admitted the nuclear disaster could last several months. It is the first time the company has admitted that at least part of the plant will have to be decommissioned.

But the government’s chief spokesman, Yukio Edano, repeated an earlier call for all six reactors at the 40-year-old plant to be decommissioned. "It is very clear looking at the social circumstances," he said.

Even after a cold shutdown, scrapping the plant will likely take decades, and the site will become a no-man’s land.

Tonnes of nuclear waste sit at the site of the nuclear reactors, and enclosing the reactors by injecting lead and encasing them in concrete would make it safe to work and live a few kilometers away from the site, but is not a long-term solution for the disposal of spent fuel, which will decay and emit fission fragments over tens of thousands of years.

Near the plant, the radiation levels dangerously escalated to 400 milliseiverts/hour. Considering background radiation is on the order of 1 milliseivert per year, this means a yearly background dose every nine seconds, based on industry and governmental "allowable" radiation exposure limits.

That compares with a national "safety standard" in the U.S. of 250 millisieverts over a year. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says a single dose of 1,000 millisieverts is enough to cause internal hemorrhaging.

Meanwhile, more than 168 citizens organisations in Japan submitted a petition to their government on Mar. 28 calling for an expanded evacuation zone near the Fukushima nuclear disaster site. The groups are also calling for other urgent measures to protect the public health and safety.

Residents of evacuated areas near the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant have been warned that they may not be able to return to their homes for months as Japan’s nuclear crisis stretched into a third week.

The neighbourhoods near the plant will remain empty "for the long term," Yukio Edano, the country’s chief cabinet secretary, said on Apr. 1.

Though he did not set a timetable, he said residents would not be able to return permanently "in a matter of days or weeks. It will be longer than that."

The official evacuation zone remains only 20 kilometers, while the government has encouraged people within 30 kilometers to evacuate.

Yet levels of cesium-137 in the village of Iitate, for example, have been measured at more than twice the levels that prompted the Soviet Union to evacuate people near Chernobyl. Iitate is 40 kilometers northwest of Fukushima.

Radioactive Iodine has already been found in the tap water in all of Tokyo’s 23 wards.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission had already recommended an 80-kilometer evacuation zone for U.S. citizens in Japan.

Fukushima as Chernobyl

This month marks the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

"There are still no-go areas there, and the workers town has long since been abandoned, and we are seeing radioactive refugees from there, like we are now seeing generated in Japan," Dr Kathleen Sullivan, a disarmament educator and activist who has been engaged in the nuclear issue for over 20 years told Al Jazeera.

"Tepco is trying to cover their ass, and the Japanese government is being cagey about it, and I believe people don’t understand that radiation is a major problem and issue."

Dr Sullivan cited Albert Einstein, who said, "The splitting of the atom changed everything, save man’s mode of thinking; thus we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe."

"So we don’t understand this mistake because of the timeless invisible nature of the problem that radiation is," Sullivan, who has been an education consultant to the U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs, added.

Some experts have warned of a nightmare scenario where clouds of radioactive material could spread lethal toxins across the planet for months on end if the spent fuel rods catch fire due to lack of coolant.

The Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics of Vienna told New Scientist on Mar. 24: "Japan’s damaged nuclear plant in Fukushima has been emitting radioactive iodine and caesium at levels approaching those seen in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident in 1986.

"Austrian researchers have used a worldwide network of radiation detectors – designed to spot clandestine nuclear bomb tests – to show that iodine-131 is being released at daily levels 73 per cent of those seen after the 1986 disaster. The daily amount of caesium-137 released from Fukushima Daiichi is around 60 per cent of the amount released from Chernobyl."

The same group of scientists stated, "The Fukushima plant has around 1760 tonnes of fresh and used nuclear fuel on site," while, "the Chernobyl reactor had only 180 tonnes."

According to a report from the New York Academy of Sciences, due to the Chernobyl disaster, 985,000 people have died, mainly from cancer, between 1986-2004.

Monitors have detected tiny radioactive particles which have spread from the reactor site across the Pacific to North America, the Atlantic and even Europe.

Andrea Stahl, a senior scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, told Reuters, "It’s only a matter of days before it disperses in the entire northern hemisphere."

Tens of thousands of people living near the plant have been evacuated or ordered to stay indoors, while radioactive materials have leaked into the sea, soil and air.

Last week also marked the 32nd anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster in Middletown, Pennsylvania, in the United States.

250,000 years of radiation

Sullivan explained that when dealing with long-lived radioactive materials, in addition to carcinogens there are inter-generational effects that include the mutation of the genetic structure of life.

"This is permanent and irreversible," she added.

Sullivan uses Fukushima reactor No. 3 as an example, because it is fueled with Mox fuel uranium and plutonium. Plutonium has a half-life of 24,000 years, which means it is carcinogenic and mutagenic for up to 250,000 years, or 12,000 human generations.

A radioactive half-life means that in this case, in 24,000 years, half of the ionising radiation will have decayed, then in another 24,000 years half of that radiation will decay, etc.

"That’s not really understandable or explainable in a conventional sense of knowing," Sullivan said, "We have to apply our moral imagination to 12,000 generations to even begin to understand what we are doing in this moment."

*Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

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