Strongest Ever Japan Earthquake
and Tsunami News updates
for May 21-27, 2011
This page is a continuation of my main Strongest
Ever Japan
Earthquake and Tsunami
page, reflecting May 21-27, 2011 news updates
for the
11th week after
the initial quake. Thanks so much for your
concern, and please remember in your thoughts and prayers those
thousands of people who are
suffering right now and haven't heard from their missing
family
members.
News Updates for
11th Week after Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
-- May 21-27,
2011
(JST=UT+9 hrs., or CDT+14 hrs., e.g. 8 am in Houston = 10 pm in Tokyo):
May 27, 2011
21:15 (JST): TEPCO may need to plug leak at Fukushima plant
- The operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant says highly
radioactive water continues to leak from a waste disposal facility in
the complex.
Tokyo Electric Power Company said on Friday that the water level had
dropped by around 3 centimeters as of 7 AM from the level observed at 5
PM on Thursday. TEPCO had transferred to the facility some of the
highly radioactive water flooding the basement of the No.3 reactor's
turbine building and nearby tunnel, before it suspended the work
earlier this week. (Source: nhk.or.jp)
May 27, 2011
10:20 (JST): Japan Should Stop Building Skyscrapers After
Quake, Mori Says - Japan needs to stop building
skyscrapers after the March earthquake traumatized office workers and
residents in tall buildings, said billionaire Akira Mori, the president
of Mori Trust Co.
"People realized that it's difficult to live and work in high-rise
buildings after this earthquake," said Mori, who heads the country's
second-biggest privately held developer. "The buildings themselves are
fine, but they swayed back and forth greatly. Some people got dizzy and
that experience will probably leave a scar in their mind."
Mori, Japan's third-richest person, said the government should consider
setting a standard height for new buildings at about 100 meters (328
feet), a level for so-called base-isolation systems that shift and
reduce the energy of quakes to work best. More...
Akira Mori, president and chief executive officer of Mori Trust Co.,
stands for a photograph at the company's headquarters in Tokyo.
(Photographer: Robert Gilhooly/Bloomberg)
May 27, 2011
2:50 (JST): Families of tsunami victims visit no-entry zone
- People who lost family members in the March 11 quake disaster are
visiting the no-entry zone around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power
plant to offer prayers for their loved ones.
On Thursday, 111 people who were forced to evacuate from Namie and
Futaba towns are making brief home visits on a supervised bus tour.
This is among the special visits the nine municipalities near the
nuclear plant began on May 10th.
Among the participants on Thursday's tour are some 50 people whose
relatives were killed or are missing. They were forced to leave their
homes after those areas were designated as a no-entry zone. (Source:
nhk.or.jp)
May 26, 2011
21:45 (JST): Tohoku Earthquake Increases Japanese Earthquake
Risk - The recent magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck
Japan has increased the risk of earthquakes across the rest of the
country, say scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
(WHOI), Kyoto University and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
After studying data from the extensive and "superb monitoring networks"
in and around Japan, the researchers have identified several areas
across the country now at greater risk of earthquakes. The earthquake,
which is the largest Japan has ever recorded, has already triggered a
large number of aftershocks across the country.
More...
Map showing the 11 March 2011 magnitude 9.0 off Tohoku mainshock and
166 aftershocks of magnitude 5.5 and greater until May 20.
(Source: Planetsave)
May 26, 2011
13:50 (JST): Citizens, local gov'ts target vending machines
for energy saving - Environmental groups and local
governments have begun taking actions to reduce the number of beverage
vending machines in Tokyo and its vicinity as a means of energy saving
before power shortages expected for this summer.
Ten nongovernmental organizations have launched a campaign calling for
the reduction, while Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures are
calling on the central government to make legal revisions to enable
restriction of such machines' operation hours.
Japan has about 5.2 million vending machines nationwide, half of them
for beverages. (Source: Japan Today)
May 26, 2011
6:05 (JST): Softbank's Masayoshi Son to build 10 solar power
plants
- Masayoshi Son, the CEO and president of Japanese telecom company
Softbank and the richest man in the country plans to involve his
company in a project that will build 10 solar power plants in the
country.
Son's idea is to build an "Eastern Japan Solar Belt" to promote the
country's shift away from nuclear and towards renewable energy --
solar, wind, and geothermal -- and to help the northeast part of Japan
recover after the March 11 quake and tsunami, which triggered a nuclear
crisis after Fukushima plant's reactors were destroyed.
Each of the new plants would cost about Y8 billion ($97 million), and
the funding scheme is still a bit unclear. (Source: The Tokyo Times)
(photo by Danny Choo)
May 26, 2011
0:55 (JST): Elderly engineers want 'final mission' to
Fukushima
- A group of elderly Japanese engineers are prepared to come out of
retirement to fix the Fukushima nuclear power plant for their final
mission. More than 160 nuclear and civil engineers over the age of 60
are planning to set up a Skilled Veterans Corps to assist restoring
control over crucial cooling functions at the tsunami-hit nuclear power
plant. The idea was masterminded by Yasuteru Yamada, 72, a
retired engineer formerly working in plant construction, who was
alarmed by reports of young subcontractors, some unskilled in this
field, undertaking the high-risk work.
More...
May 25, 2011
21:25 (JST): Demand for personal Geiger counters soars in
Japan - With a nuclear plant just 240 km (150 miles) north
of Tokyo still leaking radiation, demand for personal Geiger counters
has skyrocketed in the Japanese capital and manufacturers are
struggling to keep up with the demand.
With many people unsure of who to trust for their information, some buy
Geiger counters to check for themselves.
In Akihabara, Tokyo's electronics mecca, many stores have sold out and
are unable to keep up with demand for the devices. (Source: Reuters)
A radiation monitor indicates 0.41 microsieverts per hour at Mutsuo
Mito's dairy farm in Shinchimachi, Fukushima Prefecture, northern
Japan, April 13, 2011.
(Credit: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon)
May 25, 2011
14:35 (JST): How Microsoft, Partners Are Rebuilding in Japan
- Two months after the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan,
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recapped some of the efforts by Microsoft
and its partners to help, including a "small" $2 million donation to
the relief efforts in cash and in-kind contributions,
and matching its employees' donations. The company also
distributed more than 3,000 Windows PCs to evacuation workers to help
them stay in touch with nonprofit organization headquarters. With so
much server capacity lost along with all the other infrastructure
destroyed in the area of the quake and tsunami, Microsoft also provided
organizations across Japan free access to cloud-based infrastructure,
such as Windows Azure, Exchange, SharePoint and Lync Online.
More...
May 25, 2011
9:30 (JST): March tsunami traveled at 20km/h in Sendai -
An expert says a tsunami triggered by the March 11th earthquake
traveled at a speed of 20 kilometers an hour in the Sendai Plain,
northeastern Japan, making it difficult for people to escape after they
saw the wave.
Professor Fumihiko Imamura of the Tohoku University Disaster Control
Research Center analyzed aerial footage of the tsunami filmed by NHK
about one hour after the mega-quake.
Imamura says the tsunami traveled 260 meters in 46 seconds at a
location in Sendai City, one kilometer from the coast. This means the
wave was moving at a speed of 20 kilometers an hour in the area.
(Source: nhk.or.jp)
May 25, 2011
2:20 (JST): Uniqlo's fashionable celebs pitch in to save Japan
- The latest fashion brand to leverage their industry contacts is high
street brand Uniqlo. Japan's biggest retailer has followed-up their
generous donation of over 16 million pounds ($25.9 million) to
the Japanese earthquake and Tsunami relief fund made in March, by
joining up with the Conde Nast Group -- publishers of Vogue Japan and
GQ Japan -- to recruit a host of fashionable names to design a range of
T-shirts for the 'Save Japan' campaign. 10 top names have flexed their
artistic muscles to create a unique and personal design, including Lady
Gaga, Karl Lagerfeld, Blake Lively, Victoria Beckham, Gwyneth Paltrow,
Alber Elbaz, and Nicole Kidman. (Source: telegraph.co.uk)
A selection of Uniqlo's celebrity designed T-shirts to 'Save Japan'
May 24, 2011
21:20 (JST): Meltdowns also at No. 2, No. 3 reactors
- The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says
findings show that fuel meltdowns may have occurred at the No. 2 and
No. 3 reactors within days of the March 11th earthquake. But it says
both reactors are now stable at relatively low temperatures.
Tokyo Electric Power Company said earlier this month that fuel rods at
the plant's No.1 reactor had melted.
The utility says a cooling system failure at the No. 2 reactor 3 days
after the quake led to a sharp drop in its water level. (Source:
nhk.or.jp)
May 24, 2011
13:35 (JST): Flyjin Reconciliation - The March
11 earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear crisis prompted an exodus of
tens of thousands of foreigners from Japan in scenes more
usually associated with war-ravaged countries. All this
prompted the coining of the term "flyjin" -- a combination of the
English word 'fly' and the Japanese word 'gaijin,' which means
foreigner.
More than two months after the disaster, many foreigners have now
returned to Japan. Yet these returnees are finding a chilly
reception & facing the difficult situation of having to justify
their departure to Japanese colleagues, friends, and in some instances,
even family members.
More...
May 24, 2011
7:00 (JST): Boat washed ashore by tsunami moved back to sea
- A HUGE fishing boat washed ashore by the March 11th tsunami has been
moved by a floating crane to waters off Miyagi Prefecture.
The 800-ton tuna fishing boat had been on a road near Kesennuma port
since the tsunami struck more than 2 months ago.
The floating crane docked about 50 meters away lifted the ship 3 meters
above the ground on Monday morning. Nearly 100 people watched the boat
being moved. (Source: Southern
California Public Radio)
800-ton fishing ship in Kesennuma returned to sea after 2 months
(photo source)
May 23, 2011
21:55 (JST): Purdue University
raises more than
$22K for Japan
relief - The American Red Cross Japan Earthquake
Relief Fund will add more than $22,000 to
its balance today -- courtesy of Purdue
University student organization heads and
a Nobel Prize winner.
Purdue's Japan Student Association and
Purdue Student Government led a
campuswide fundraising effort to help the
victims of the March 11 earthquake and
resulting tsunami that tore through the
country. Nobel laureate Ei-ichi Negishi, who
was in Yamato, Japan, when the
earthquake hit, offered to double funds
raised up to $10,000. (Source: jconline.com)
Elizabeth McKenzie, center, a senior in the College of Science, and
Naoki Wada, right, a junior in the College of Engineering, staff a
donation site for the Purdue Japan Relief Fund. (Photo by
Purdue Japan Student Association)
May 23, 2011
18:40 (JST): 7800 residents in Fukushima evacuation zone
refuse to leave - On April 22nd, the government ordered
people in Iitate Village and a part of Kawamata Town to leave by the
end of this month because of radiation exposure from the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant.
But about half the residents living in parts of Fukushima Prefecture
where an evacuation order is in place have still not left one week
before the government-set deadline runs out.
Some residents remaining in the areas say emergency shelters are far
from their work places and their children's schools. Others say they
will lose their jobs if they move away. (Source: nhk.or.jp)
May 23, 2011
12:15 (JST): Tired Teddy (Japan Today's Picture
of the Day) - (source)
A worker walks by a teddy bear in an area
devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Rikuzentakata,
Iwate Prefecture.
(AP photo)
May 23, 2011
8:15 (JST): Engineers, researchers help disaster survivors
access online info - Engineers from information technology
companies and researchers from universities have cooperated to help
survivors of the March 11 quake and tsunami access online information
such as on daily life and employment.
The "IT volunteers" have installed PCs and networking lines for free
at some shelters housing disaster evacuees as local governments and
citizens groups have provided online information that would be useful
for them.
Employees of IT company Cisco Systems G.K. joined about a dozen other
volunteers from Tokyo in mid-April to prepare for extending a
communication cable to an accommodation facility used as an evacuation
shelter in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture. (Source: Japan Today)
May 22, 2011
21:15 (JST): Japan plans solar panels for all new buildings
- Japan is considering a plan that would make it compulsory for all new
buildings and houses to come fitted with solar panels by 2030.
The plan aims to show Japan's resolve to encourage technological
innovation and promote the wider use of renewable energy.
On Thursday, the first day of the two-day summit in Deauville, France,
Prime Minister Naoto Kan is expected to announce Japan's intention to
continue operating nuclear plants after confirming their safety.
But he is also expected to unveil a plan to step up efforts to push
renewable energy and energy conservation.
More...
May 22, 2011
17:45 (JST): Wen to ease import restrictions -
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao says China will scale back its ban on
imports of Japanese food and its requirement for radiation testing.
Wen conveyed the plan to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan when they
met on Sunday on the sidelines of the summit of Japan, China, and South
Korea.
Kan called on China to ease restrictions on Japanese food imposed
following the Fukushima nuclear accident. (Source: nhk.or.jp)
May 22, 2011
10:45 (JST): Calls for rescue of abandoned pets in Fukushima
grow louder as time runs out - Appeals for the rescue of
pets stranded in the government-designated no-entry zone within a
20-kilometer radius of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant
started by a local woman are increasingly gathering support. A
legislator & veterinarian, who obtained special permission to
enter the no-entry zone to investigate the state of livestock, went
around feeding abandoned cats and dogs. They said they saw abandoned
pets everywhere, and that some dogs were found sitting waiting for
their owners' return in front of their front door. Temporary home
visits for evacuees from many cities, towns and villages are seeing
delays, and there is worry that help will not reach the animals in
time. (Source: Mainichi Daily News)
Mieko Yoshida, center, and fellow volunteers appeal for the rescue of
pets abandoned in the aftermath of the March 11 quake, tsunami and
ensuing nuclear crisis on May 15. (Mainichi)
May 22, 2011
7:15 (JST): Radio station-inspired aid finally headed to
Japan orphanages - An estimated $1.2 million worth of
earthquake and tsunami relief supplies collected in the Pacific
Northwest are finally en route to Misawa Air Base, where they will be
doled out to orphanages and hard-hit coastal areas. A group
called Lift Non Profit Logistics, composed of logistics professionals
with the knowledge and connections to leverage heavy-lift jets, ships
and trucks to quickly respond to humanitarian relief efforts, was able
to find the transportation needed to finally get the goods to Japan,
and are expecting them to arrive in about three weeks.
More...
Gemini Sanford poses with one of the orphans at the Bikou-en
Children's Care House in Shichinohe, Japan (Photo: Gemini
Sanford)
May 21, 2011
21:40 (JST): Japanese government picks 16 new conservation
sites
- The Japanese government will add 16 sites, including 2 beaches in
quake-devastated Miyagi Prefecture, to the list of places to be
conserved for their natural or aesthetic values.
Kugunari and Kukunaki beaches in Kesennuma City are to be designated as
national monuments.
The 2 sandy beaches are noted for the almost musical noises they make
when walked on. Currently, they are both covered with debris left by
the March 11th tsunami, but a survey found that the rubble can be
removed, leaving the so-called "singing sand" intact. (Source:
nhk.or.jp)
May 21, 2011
15:40 (JST): Wen thanks tsunami hero - Visiting
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has expressed gratitude for the acts of a
Japanese man who saved several Chinese trainees from the tsunami
disaster.
Mitsuru Sato, an executive of a fish-processing company, in Onagawa
Town in Miyagi Prefecture, evacuated 20 Chinese trainees to higher
ground before the tsunami struck the town. He then went missing and was
later found dead.
Sato's heroism made headlines in China soon after the disaster.
(Source: nhk.or.jp)
May 21, 2011
8:10 (JST): "Operation Tomodachi" Photo Gallery
- As a special issue of "American View" this spring, we present a
gallery of photographs taken by Embassy staff and the U.S. military
during the various earthquake and tsunami relief efforts, featuring
"Operation Tomodachi." (Source: U.S. Embassy Japan)
U.S. military service members present Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi
Kitazawa with an Operation Tomodachi banner aboard the aircraft carrier
USS Ronald Reagan on April 4, 2011. (U.S. Navy photo by
Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kyle Carlstrom)
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