News in Japan - November

GEJET

Volunteers staying the course in Tohoku

A message from tsunami-hit Rikuzentakata: Make the trip

Regulators OKs fuel rod removal from pool at Fukushima plant
Video: This Is How Removal of Fuel Assemblies from Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool Is to Be Carried Out, According to TEPCO
For many Fukushima evacuees, the truth is they won't be going home

Japan
This is the year of the typhoon
http://www.japanquakemap.com/
Osaka estimates 133,000 could die if quake hits Nankai Trough the number of deaths could be reduced by 80% if evacuations begin within 10 minutes of a tsunami alert.
Japan's poor gender gap worsening, WEF survey finds
System ‘failing asylum seekers’
Long green card wait has happy ending for Japan woman and wife
1,500 disabled Japanese abused in half-year period
Thousands protest against tough new official secrets law
Japan to spend Y1 tril on public works for stimulus
Foreign trainees in Japan face exploitation

Netherlands
Tornado affected Netherlands (Dutch)
Deaths from storm in Netherlands (Dutch)
Amount of people aged 45 and up with poor literacy skills is growing (Dutch)

USA
Midwest tornadoes, winds slam towns and trucks; 5 killed in Illinois
Kids Today Run Slower Than Their Parents Did

Other
Scientists Develop New Method to Help Global Coasts Adapt to Sea-Level Rise

Big demonstration in favor of legalizing same sex marriage in Taiwan (Dutch)

Philippines battle to move storm aid

Desperate Philippine typhoon survivors start looting, dig up water pipes

Just 3 pathologists struggle to identify Philippine dead

Accounting for the great divergence

China to ease one-child policy, abolish labor camps, report says

Taking up physical activity in later life and healthy ageing: the English longitudinal study of ageing

Deep earthquake

A very deep earthquake occurred last night, at a depth of some 350 km. Probably due to fault lines not being vertical, the quake was felt to be the strongest some 350 km Eastward, resulting in the below awkward map from JMA:

It was only shindou 2, so we could continue our sleep.

Talk by Kunio Okamura, Senior special advisor of JICA

As part of the course on official development assistance, we had a talk by Kunio Okamura.

He started off detailing his career at JICA, from the moment the 'new JICA' was formed in 2008 by combining agencies to 11 months later, when he became the face all over the national news as the new administration of the Democratic Party of Japan targeted existing policies, especially those spending lots of money. We then learned that Japan actually provides a huge amount of aid to developing countries, and that JICA's funds make it bigger than the Asian Development Bank, but slightly smaller than the world bank.

JICA has supported many countries, including Singapore, South Korea and China, which are famous examples of countries that have risen above the developing status. China is now not only the country with the second largest GNP in the world, but is also providing ODA itself. In fact, the so called BRIC countries (Brasil, Russia, India, China) are even discussing about setting up their own development bank in about 2 years.

He also touched on some trends in population and income. Russia is the country with the highest income disparity, with around 146 million inhabitants and 140 billionaires. The population increase in certain countries is slowing down, such as Japan where it has already become negative (-0.1%); whereas Sub-Saharan Africa countries have figures close to the world average of 2.4% (around 2.7%); and in some countries in the Middle East it is as high as 6 or 7%. It is expected that countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Congo, which are now classified as fragile states, will increase in population 25-50%. Another global demographic issue is that more than 50% of all people now live in cities, while 70% of all energy is consumed and 80% of all greenhouse emissions occur in urban areas.

I asked if in his opinion one of the goals of JICA was to make itself unnecessary, or in other words, that JICA aims to provide so much support to develop a country that it would no longer need the assistance of JICA in the future. Aside from the aforementioned success countries, he foresaw a shift of issues JICA or the global society would have to deal with in the near future. The main issue is aging, as after 2030 it is expected that ASEAN countries will all have to deal with this and there is no solution yet. He concluded with the strong wish, that in 30 to 40 years JICA would become unnecessary. Let's hope so.

Talk by Kenzo Oshima, commissioner of the NRA

As part of the course of official development assistance, we had a talk by Kenzo Oshima.

He described himself as a retired diplomat, not a technical nuclear expert, and he has been involved in the nuclear regulation authority for 1.5 years now. The NRA has a chairman and 4 commissioners, as well as over 400 staff (experts/engineers) in many fields, not just nuclear science. It will expand in March 2014 with technical support agencies who have professionals in nuclear science, to up to 1000 members.

He provided much information on the location of nuclear power plants around the world. The maps only showed power plants and no scientific or medicinal facilities. While Japan was highly dependent on nuclear energy, France is dependent for 75%.

He also commented on the TEPCO incident at the Fukushima power plants. The zero risk safety myth was prevalent there, and it had probably been preventable. The health repercussions include thyroid complications. While the international reports state that there is no evidence leading to radiation leading to increased cancer risks, doctors at Chernobyl have said that international organizations don't want to see the local facts on the ground.

I asked him about the storage of debris, since Fukushima town has had much difficulty in finding temporary storage 1-2 meter below ground for the cleanup activities. He explained how while this was an issue, it was not the real problem Japan has to face. It is necessary to find an interim nuclear facility but also a spent fuel facility. Other materials are a much larger issue than the soil/leaves in the towns. No location has been found for these higher radiated materials yet. The hardest part is the molten debris inside the reactors, as no one knows how much there is and how it can be removed. Robots will play a big part this cleanup, and it may take 30-40 years for a full decommission.

Finland or Sweden are storing nuclear waste at about 500 meter underground experimentally, and it is being investigated whether this is possible in Japan. However, due to the many earthquakes, there aren't many suitable locations. I then asked if there was no suitable location in Japan, perhaps another country or place could be found. Apparently some countries have been considered already. Russia was quick to welcome all nuclear debris on the condition that the equipment that generated it came from Russia. The Australian ambassador stated 'don't even think about it', when asked if they would consider aiding Japan. Mongolia is still under consideration.

It is clear that nuclear debris is a problem of the entire world, not just of a single country. The global community has yet to objectively find a solution for this, regardless of the origin or storage location of the debris. I think we can only move forward when we start to think of these problems globally, and with a future time frame in mind, rather than purely based on national resources and legislation, and historic relationships. In any case, Mongolia would be a lot closer (3000 km vs. 7000 km), reducing the length of transportation risks by 57%.