Venture company founded by now 25-year-old entreprenuer will go IPO

I've been looking for a good news for those days, and finally I found the one.

The application of Livesense Inc, which was founded by now 25 year-old CEO Taichi Murakami, to IPO for Toshou Mothers Stock Exchange  was approved today.

Livesense operates part time job information Web portal site. What's new? Their revenue comes from the advertizer when the actual applicant for the job gets hired. If not, advitizor does not pay for the ad at all.

In order to get the information for the application succeeded by the ad, the company will pay for the applicant as they hired.

An applicant for the job is happy, because he / she gets job and gets paid from the company.

That is a new business model.

IPO with 25-year-old entreprenuer is the youngest record.

So, many congrats.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan will be forced to resign by the end of August

On July 9th, Democratic Party secretary general, Katsuya Okada, said that additional budget plan will be put together under new leadership  at a Democratic Party's meeting, gathering all representatives from every  regional organisations of the party.

And this means there is no supporters within Democratic Party for Naoto Kan,

Therefore,  it is highly likely PM Naoto Kan is forced to resign by the end of August when this extended congress of this summer end.

If this is the case,  prime mister is going to resign wihtin two years again. This is going to be the 6th prime minister who resigne within two years since 2000.

I strongly believe the resignation of the Prime minister with this very short period is not good at all.

First, I think this is due to each prime minister's individual ability. But given that this is the 6 th prime minister within 12 years, I am beginning to think that this might be the problem to select our Primi Minister.

I wonder if there are any political systems that will fix the mal fuctioning Japanese political election system?  

The icecream that every Japanese Love

It is so hot these days, especially this summer.  Since the 3.11 nuclear power plant trouble, every company is forced to reduce by 15% of total consumption of electricity. So, every office set the air conditioning system to maintain 25c in office hour. Couple of dacades ago, at a time air conditioning sytem is not so familiar, everyone went to Department Store, Bank Offices, llibraries, coffee shop, etc., somewhere that had had an air cooling system to away from heat. But this year, those places are not so cool because they are also forced to reduce power consumption.

So, now icecream and beverage bottling companies are full in operation.

Here I introduce th ranking of some inexpensive icecream, that you can buy at convinience store.

No.1  Jumbo Choco Monaca
produced by: Morinaga Corp.
Price           : JPY 120  (USD$1.5)

Vanila and slice of chocolate icecream covered by Monaka. When you bite, it's crispy. 'Saku-Saku' is how we describe its crispiness. Monaka is a kind of wafer, but it's not like what you can imagine with waffles It's more thick and crsip on the surface, and soft inside,  and a little bit of sweetness included,. ... mmh, try first.






No.2  Gari Gari Kun
produced by Akagi  Nugyo
Price      : JPY 60 (US $0.8)

Look at this unsophisticated package. It looks cheap, plain and simple. And the inside is exactly it looks like.

This is a kind of icecrashed candy bar. Soda (ramune flavored)  icecream is inside. When you finish eating, look at the wooden stick. When you find 'あたり'　written on surface, then you won and can get another free Gari Gari kun,


See how cheap this campaign is. This is exactly boy kids love, and most adult men love. This product has been put in the market since 1964. And surprisingly, this ice candy bar was the most sold icecream at convenience store last year.
This Akagi Nyugyo is not a big company. I am sure they bet their live on this product.


No.3  Super Cup
produced by Morinaga
Price :  JPY 120 (US$1.5)

This is the best standard vanila ice cream.

Yes, this is plain and simple vanila ice cream.

 

but I may recommend this

My No.3 Sou

produce by Lotte
Price :  JPY 120 (US$ 1.5)

As this prodcut name shows, it's more brisk on tongue.

It's creamy, but not too much, sweet but not too much.

It feels like a litte bit of crashed ice in it.  You can't find any of such small ice cubic. Probably it is in micro mm scale.

Lastly, every icecream  Maccha (Grenntea) flavour icecream. try those, too.

240,000 households need to read my blog!!

According to the NHK survery, still 240 thousands households do not have digital-broadcasting-support TV set at the end of June, while the number decreased by 24 thousand since mid June.

Those 240 thousands household need to buy at least digital tuner, and  have to install digital broadcasting antenna. Otherwise, you won't be able to watch TV programs at all with those analog-broadcasting support TVs.

The least expensive TV tuner will cost about JPY 12,000, and antenna implementaion may cost JPY 30,000.

I think it's worth to buy them, otherwise your analog TV becomes just a huge heavy box.

For a person who subscribe cable TV, probably you don't need to pay those money because probably your set top box changes digital signal into analog signal in case your TV only support analog signal.

But just in case, I recommend to double check to your cable TV company.

Something that not many Japanese people know

I happened to have a chance to walk by in front of the Tokyo Denryoku HQ Building today.
And I found out that there are still many policemen patrolling around the building to protect the HQ from unexpected incident.

I did not know that the security guard of the building is still so tight. I though they had gone back to the nomarl security guards by private security guardmen some time ago, but has not. You know, sending policemen, waring a gun in his waist belt, with public expense is not normal at all.

I hope things get back to normal very soon.



TEPCO HQ in Tokyo
   

You should double check by July 24, aboout if you don't need to buy a new TV

This is not a sales promotion of TV.

In Japan, analog broadcasting will end by the July 24, and only digital broadcasting will be the one that is available all over Japan. (Small exceptions, such Iwate Pref, Miyagi Pref. Fukushima Pref. In those area, analog broadcasting will be available for a while, because of the aftermath of 3.11 earthquake.)

After July 24, analog TV device can not recieve TV programs, that means TV device is going to become just a big box if you don''t do anything necessary to recieve digital broadcasting

The most simple way to change your analog support TV to digital support TV is to put a digital Tuner, which will cost about 10,000 Yen.

In addition to this, you need to make sure your antena, which is usually on top of the roof, also supports digital broadcasting.

Anyway, you should double check your TV before July 24th

Do you like humanoid robot?

The video clip I found out yesterday really impressed me. :)
I didn't know the robot came to this far.

And here is another video clip taken at the same event,



In this video, they are comparing latest version of the robot and one generation older robot, and emphasising what the latest one can do while older one can't do and how new one improved many things, putting both type of robots side by side. (Grinding its waist is what new one can do and older one can't do, etc.)


Okay, I think I had seen similar situation in somewhere.
Oh, it definitely was in RoboCop. I forgot the name, but the company that once developed Robo Cop created new ones, and emphasised how new robot is superior than old one,

Exactly the same thing is happening in this video. Older robot came onto the stage just to show how new one is superior than the old one.

I can't help but I feel sorry for the old version of the robot, really.

What are Japanese robots doing when Fukushima faces hard time?

Still, there are a lot of things to do in Fukushima Nuclear power plant until it becomes stable to cool down the reactor. All on-site workers are working  for long hours, with wearing heavy anti-radio active uniform. Until this season it may be endurable for workers keep wearing those uniforms. But soon the summer season will be coming and it is expected the temperature goes up to more than 40C very soon.

So, I wonder what Japanese robots are doing. If they could replace human workers, it will significantly reduce the burden which are now only on human beings.

Then I found out at youtube what they are doing.

They are dancing, and singing on the stage.


This video clip was taken in October, 2010.

The other day, I watched TV program in which some very famous doctors in the robot research lab got together and had open discussions. Some of them said that Japanese robot industry tend to stick too much to humanoid robots. And some said, despite of the critics about the fact that none of the robots have been working so far when actual trouble happens, that they will keep all their focus on developing humanoid robots until it comes into our dairy life. I think both opinions are correct.

It is a bit ashamed that none of the robots developed by Japan is working on site.
But like we see in a super computer industry, which has just developed the world's fastest super computer this year regardless of the significant budget cut of the Government's subsidiary for the project,  I hope those hard critics will help robots industry to expand their focus more widely as a whole.


For the record, if we could say that unmanned track vehicle to carry the debris as one of robots, yes those Japanese made vehicles have already been working on site.

And yesterday, first Japan made robot 'Quince' went into the building of the Fukushima reactor to measure the radio-active contaminated water.

So, I am expecting more robots are coming into this facility to help human beings.

A Man Behind the AKB48, who made AKB48 sell CDs by JPY 6.7 Billions

AKB 48 sold  almost 2.6 million of CD with just two songs, and earned 6.7 Billion JPY (rougly USD 83.7M) during 1st half of 2011.

At a time when music industry is struggling because of the  decreasing sales of CDs, this figure is extraordinary. The CD featured No.3 ranked song of Arashi sold only 624,000 copies. So,  selling more than a million of CD has been a very tall order for these years.

How could they achieve such a sales record?  It's is because of the strategy of a man behind the AKB 48, whose name is Akimoto, Yasushi.

Akimoto, Yasushi was once a famous TV scenario writer, and mid 80's he produced two mjor girl's music groups. The first 'All Nighters' composed by  women in their colleges, and  'Onyanko Club', that may be translated as 'Kitty Club'. composed by  high school girls.

His theory to make huge boom  is to bring amature level girls into the enternaiment world and have the audience involve into the process of those girl's growth as a top idol.

This time's huge CD sales of AKB 48 is because of the votes by their fans to determine who is going to be a center position for next one year.  One voting right comes along with one CD. So if you want to vote for one girl, you buy 100 CDs, they you can cast your 100 vote for her.  The more you buy CDs, the more you can have a voting write. (this is literally money oriented politics. It is often done in a night club when they determine the most hottest host/hostess. The hottest host/hostess are determined based on the number of the orders of champaigns, which cost hundreds of dollars, they got from their customers.)

By doing this, AKB 48 achieved incredible sales during this 1st half of the year.

Below clip is Onyanko Club, that made great sensation in the entertainement industry in mid 80s, where we can see Akimoto's golden theory.

Update: Now U.S Airforce's Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(Global Hawk) helps Fukushima Nuclear Plant

It seems the article that I posted March 17 got many hits from the visitors of my blog.
http://myprojectatdc.blogspot.com/2011/03/now-us-airforces-unmanned-aerial.html

So, here is the update.
It seems that Global Hawk flew over the Fukushima nuclear powr plant couple of times at the beginning of the Fukushima Nuclear Powerplant outage.


But it seems they figured what the most useful in this situation is not a Global Hawk, but T-Hawk, which is the Unmannned  Helicopter.



Yesterday,June 24, this T Hawk fell over to the roof of Daini (No.2) nuclear reactor, since it became uncontrollable from remote locations.

AKB 48 is the top idol of Japanin 1st Half 2011

Do you like AKB 48?  Whether you like them or not, this girls music unit is litteraly a top in Japan music scene.

According to the Oricon Chart, AKB occuppied top1 in the category of

Category1: The most sold single music CD;
  No.1 Title; "Go with Katyusha!!"
 Second most sold music is also by AKB48,  "Let's become Cherry Tree."

Category2: The total sales by artists
 No.1 AKB 48

In Japan's music scene now, couple of Korean girls units are also popular. Probably it is fair to say that those Korean group's sing and dance is way better than AKB48.

But some say AKB48 is not a group that shows the final figure of the artists, but have fans enjoy by showing the whole process of their growth as artists, while olders complain that they can't remember each girl's name and face.

Anyway, here is the best sold single music in 1st half of 2011.
I hope you understand why they are so popular in Japan by seeing this clip.

Buzz Word: HOT SPOT

HOT SPOT is now becoming a buzz word, and what area does HOT SPOT mean in recent these days?

We now use this HOT SPOT to point out the area which shows high radio-active doze despite of being long distance away from Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

Now, it turned out that Kashiwa city, Misato city, Matsudo city, Nagare Yama City shows the high radio-active zone, while adjacent other cities to those four cites does not show that high level.
(Yellow high lighted area at the bottom of the below map shows those four cities.)

Recently now many people, especially house-wives that have little kids, buy Geiger Counter and measure the radio-active by themselves to protect their children.

Hoo, I suppose this commotion will continue for a while.

Do you stand up when your country's national flag raising up the pole?

Do you stand up while your country's national flag is going up the pole? or not?

In Japan, there are many people who won't stand up. Especially not stand-up people are there, particularly among school teachers.

It is always a very controversial topic, when those teachers won't stand up at official ceremony, such as graduation or entrance ceremony at school.

Yesterday, Osaka - Ishin no kai (Osaka revolutionary Party), headed by  incumbent Osaka Hu Governor Toru Hashimoto, proposed a bill to crack down those teachers at public schools for their neglect of duty.
In  this bill, there is no penalty related articles. But the party is planning to propose a separate bill that includes the penalties, that enables Osaka Hu Government dismiss those teachers.

This argument may sounds a little odd.

But given the fact that are so many teachers at WWII era who strongly encouraged their students to become soldiers under the national flag, Hinomaru,  for me, it is still make sense that there are many teachers who won't blindly stand up to respect Japanese national flag. They are trying not to follow the past history.

Of course, it's very sad that there still are many teachers that can't show their respect to the national flag.
While I would be outside the county,  when I see Japanese flag,  it always makes me feel reassured.
I like singing Japanese national anthem, while watching Worldcup, whether it is for football, baseball, volley ball, or even table tennis, it doesn't matter.

But I don't think it's a good idea to regulate people by law to stand up in front of the national flag.
And I think it is healthy for our society if we admits different opinions, and allow those teachers working at schools.

I welcome any opinions, objections of yours.

Pic is Toru Hashimoto, the Govenor of Osaka Pref.

Where did Mr. Son's donation go?

One day before Mr. Son, CEO of Softbank made his announcement of his intention to donate his personal money, Mr. Mikitatani, CEO and founder of Rakuten Co, one of the most famous EC portal,  had announced that he would donate his personal JPY 1 Bn (approx. 12M USD). And he had already sent his money to some NPO organizations.

OK, Mr. Mikitani san is quick for everything.

MR. Yanai, CEO of FastRetailing Co, whose brand is very famous as Uniqlo, had also donated JPY 1 Bn.

It turned out Mr. Yanai's donation was completed one week faster than Mr. Mikitani.

So, it is very natural for our ordinal people to wonder where Mr. Son's donation did go.

The answer is 'not yet'.  He has NOT even sent just ONE yen to any organizations.

Softbank's PR dept replied that 'Mr. Son is busy. So he is still looking for the appropriate organization to donate for.'
It purportatedly told that the one of the appropriate organizaitions that is appropriate for Mr.Son to donate is one of SoftBank's subsidiary company. If this is the case, is it worth for him to announce that he would donate JPY 10 Bn. publicly?


Meanwhile, thanks largely to Mr Son's announcement about his donation with surprising amount of money, SoftBank became No.1 as most favorable company.

During couple of days, the new announcement of Mr.Son, made with Governor of Kanagawa pref. and Sizuoka Pref. ,surprised every ordinary people that he would invest in solar eletricity generation business in allign with total of 19 regional prefs, and cities.

OK, the annoucement again. He always blows up big balloons before he do anything.
(He is really a genius to get public attendions.)

So, let's see what those project end up with.

Tepco has just publicly disclosed the video which captures Tsunami hit Fukushima Nuclear plant

Two months later after the incidents, Tokyo Denryoku (Tepco) newly  disclosed the video which captured how Tsunami hit the facility at Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The movie and picture shows Tsunami went over 10m seawall and went up to the top of  tank which hight was 5m.

But why did this disclosure have to be two months later?
Also, yesterday was the first date of the worker on site, went into the #3 reactor facility.

this is the video clip of the news show.
How Tsunami hit the facility shows up from 00:28 to 01:45.
http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00199726.html

What's our concern now is how to reduce electric power usage in the summer

Now our hottest topic is how we can reduce the electricity consumption in summer. When you walk in Tokyo, you'll realise many escalators out there are stopped, such as in train station, office buildings.

That's all because we need to reduce the electricity consumption to avoid the unexpected power outage.

Auto makers expressed that they will close the factories on weekdays and operates on Saturdays and Sundays. But this kind of attempts are not only for the auto maker industries, but usual business offices are planning to change each office hours from 9:00-17:00 to 8:00-16:00.

Those decisions are up to each company's decisions, but I know that many companies will do these things, because it is expected to reduce 15% of the power consumption against previous year.

So, I am wondering why Japanese Gov. is not officially introduce summer time.

By the way, many portal sites, such as Yahoo, Nikkei News Corp, is showing their forecast of the current and future power consumption on their top page (see below), so everyone can know how much power is used at the moment.  You will be able to see this at http://www.yahoo.co.jp/

One worker at Fukushima nuclear power plant collapsed and died

Yesterday, a worker who was working within the Fukushima nuclear power plant reactor collapsed on site, and brough to the hospital immediately, but unfortunately died yesterday in his early 60s. The death is because of the cardiac infarct.

Now the conditions to work within the facility is incredibly difficult. The workers are supposed to wear special anti-radio active uniforms and carry air tank on his back, put on the full-face mask which has a filter not to inhale radio infected substances. With all of those equipment and suit equipped, which becomes 15Kg,  the workers are implmenting the water hoses, which sometimes becomes 20kg,  into the facility by carrying it over their shoulders to cool down the reactor. Also , the environement in the facility is high temperature (34 - 40 C) and high humidity (94 -99%) now.

It is not good work environment at all for everyone, espcially for the man in his 60s.


Workers on site purpotatedly say that 'It is like wearing sauna suite in summer. Within 15 minutes, mask are filled with the sweat tearing down from the face. And we can't drink water two or three hours when once we get into the facility.'

As I said, we trust in those worker's devotions, hardworing in Fukushima plant, where 1,934 people are on duty.  But I believe it's time for Japanese Government to take initiatives to improve the work envirionment and some measures to help make the facility settled much faster.

This picture is taken when they survey the facility before the implementaion work of those hoses.

Chubu Electric determined to ceaze the up and running Hamaoka nuclear power plant

On May 6th, Prime Minister Kan requested for Chubu Electric to cease up-and-running No.4 and No.5 reactors at Hamaoka nuclear powerplant.
It was a sudden request for everybody. As Kan admits, he only consulted with his very close couple members to determine his mind, to avoid interventions from various interest party.

It was so sudden that the one of the respoinsible entities of the Governement for nuclear power plant operations ,  the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, which surveyed the facility at the end of April, and approved that Hamaoka facility had completed the immediate additaional measurement to prevent electricity outage that had caused Fukushima plant severe damage, had to announce that the request of PM Kan is coming from out of the regurations, that allow Goverment to cease nuclear power plant operation in case it is considered that the facility does not have enough safety standard. The agency  also concluded at the end of April's survey that Hamaoka would be safe from the level of the Tsunami that hit Fukushima because Hamaoka facitily located on the hill 10 meter up from the sea surface.

Prime Minister Kan pointed out the reasons for Hamaoka nuclear power plant to stop it operations that;
Hamaoka locates in the area where the level 6 intensity of the earthquake are anticipated to happen with more than 80% probaility within coming 30 years.

On May  9, Chubu Denryoku announced that it would accept PM Kan's request and cease the nuclear plant operations.

This PM Kan's request is very contraversial. Some, for instance Mr.Son, CEO of Softbank, Mr.Suzuki, CEO of Suzuki Motors,  highly praise PM Kan's decision. But some, such as Mr. Yonekura, chairman of chamber of Commerce Of Japan, blamed PM Kan's decision, blaiming that Kan's decision process is always blackbox.

Anyway, TEPCO, which is suffering the shortage of its electric power gerenation for the demands for Kanto area needs to give up the idea of having a help from Chubu Denryoku because of its significant reduce of the power generation capacity.

That means Kanto area's residents needs to endure more severe planned blackouts in this summer.
This summer is going to be very hot one.

Mass Food Poisoning at Yakiniku Restaurant

During these couple of days, media report massive food poisoning at one of Yakiniku Chain restaurant. It is said that three people are dead and 26 are in hospitals. (Those paitients are found in Fukui Pref, and Kanagawa Pref, where this chain store restaurants has its branch restaurant.)

The food poisoing is due to the coliform bacillus O111, and  people suffered from this bacillus is only who ate one of the most favorite delica at Yakiniku restaurant, Yukke, which is a raw beef meat served with raw egg.

Surprisingly, Ministry of Welfare and Labor said that there have been no beef meat distributed in the market since 1999, which meet with the sanitary standard set by the Ministry to be eaten raw, while the fact is that Yukke  is served at almost every Yakiniku restaurant.

Since the sanitary standard set by the ministry does not have any penalty related rules, the reality is that the sanitary check is handled by only the retail restaurants.

The ministry is planning to introduce penalty rules about the standard of the sanitary for the meat to be eaten raw.

This video clip is exactly the restaurant which occured food poisoining.
This clip was recorded to award one of thier best retail restaurant.
The point is that they use the same towel to clean kichen board and sheff's hand, and using water bowl but alcoholic sanitary.

Service Area on a High Way

There still remains two days for this year's Golden Week. Despite of the predictions in advance of the Golden Week, it seems that the number of the travelers inside Japan is coming back to normal. Probably 75% of the normal year.

I think this is because the aftermath of the earthquake is getting settled recently, such as
- few aftershocks recently
- Temporaly stop of planned blackout operation (until summer season)

But this year's trend is to pick nearest locatons, which might be one-day trip. In that case, many will drive to the destination by high way.

In Japan, each highway has to locate Service Area(SA) or Parking Area(PA) every 30 km.
PA has a small parking lot and small kiosk. But SA usually has decent restaunrants and food court and, might have Onsen (Hot-Spa) in it. Foods provided at SA are usually local foods, and facities are gorgeous these days. So there are some people whose travel destination is just SA on highway.

Major highways started from Tokyo and its famous SA are  (from Pacific Ocean Side)

-Tou Mei Highway: (Tokyo - Osaka thru Nagoya):  Ebina Service Area
-Chuou Hhighway: (Tokyo-Osaka thru Nagano) : Dango Saka Service Area
-Kan Etsu Highway:(Tokyo-Niigata): Kamisato Service Area
-Touhoku Highway:(Tokyo-Aomori):  Sano Service Area

If you have a chance to use these highways, I suggest you better stop by one of Service Areas and enjoy local foods.

I personally stopped at Yokokawa Service Area. This Yokokawa is famous for Kama-meshi, which is rice Obento, with some seasonal ingredients on top of .)  The restaurant was once at the top of the mountain and delivered this Kama-meshi for the people who walk up and down the mountain to go to Karuizawa.

I beleive this Kama-meshi is the best Kama-meshi in Japan. So, just try if you have chance to go to Karuizawa.

Yokokawa Service Area: outside of this pic, there are small lawn yard where you can enjoy Obento,

Sorry for the mess around this Kama-meshi.

Ranking of the most trusted consumer brand 2011; where did Sony go?

This is the result of the survey done by Nikkei BP, through November 8 to December 13, 2010.


(Details and analysis are shown in http://business.nikkeibp.co.jp)

No. 1 Google

No. 2 Uniqlo

No. 3 Panasonic

No. 4 McDonald

No. 5 Nisshin Shokuhin

No. 6 Disney

No. 7 YouTube

No. 8 Studio Ghibli

No. 9 Rakuten

No.10 Suntory

No.11 Apple

No.12 Sony

No.13 Nintendo

No.14 Windows

No.15 Coca, Cola

No.16 Muji(Clothes)

No.17 Amazon

No.17 Mos Burger

No.19 Yahoo!

No.20 Sharp

No.20 Meiji Seika

No.22 QP

No.23 Fuji Television

No.24 Seven-Elven

No.25 Cagome

No.26 Microsoft

No.27 Cup Noodle

No.27 Nintendo DS

No.29 Tokyu Hands

No.29 MisterDonut

No.31 Hagen Darts

No.32 Calpis

No.33 Softbank

No.34 Calbee

No.34 Canon

No.36 Asahi Super Dry (beer)

No.36 Toyota

No.38 Kentucky Fried Chicken

No. 39 Daizo

No.40 Kirin Beer

No.40 Yamato Transport

No.42 Nagatani En

No.43 Honda

No.44 Wii

No.45 Microsoft Excel

No.46 House Shokuhin

No.47 Nike

No.48 Kao

No.49 Nescafe

No.50 iPod

No.50 Televi Tokyo

Also, please refer the last year's result.




Sony went down to No.12 from previous year's No.4. Sony was originally known for its unique technology development company, but recently its brand gets rusted recently.



As Tsujino Koichiro, who took strong initiative to develop VAIO, Sugo-Roku, Cocoon as an executive of Sony and was former CEO of Google Japan, wrote in his book, it seems Sony is still struggling because of the internal power fighting that prevent the company to release truly innovative products to the market.



Former CEO of Sony, Mr. Norio Oga passed away on April 23, 2011. He was the last executive who closely worked with the founders of Sony, Mr. Morita and Mr. Ibuka and knew the Tokyo Tsuushin Kogyo, former establishment of Sony. After his resignation and since the helm of following CEO, Mr. Idei, Sony seems to lose its innovator positioning in the market.

Golden Week

Golden Week is one of the week in which national flag holidays are concentrated.
Here is this year's schedule.

1.April 29: *Maemorial day for Showa era, which was originally the birthday of Showa Ten nou
2. April 30: Saturday
3. May 1: Sunday
4. May 2: Monday:this is ordinal day. We should work!!
5. May 3: Constitution Day
6. May 4: Green Day
7. May 5: Kid's Day
8. May 6:Friday:this is ordinal day. We should work!!
9. May 7:Saturday
10. May 8:Sunday

So, if you take 2 days day-offs,  off-work day could be 10 days in a row. If this year's is an ordinal year, Golden Week should be the most busiest week for travel industry. But because of the earthquake, it is expected that the people who have plan to travel is 25% fewer than preveious year. Then, many hotels and travel agencies are doing special campaigns by reducing  price, to encourage people to travel.
(And those hotels in Japan can not expect travelers from other countries, which they claim is one of Huu hyou higai.)

Anyway, the travel angencies are eagar to stimulate the people to go travels.
So, still you may be able to find special offerings.  

Horiemon, Takafumi Hori, is convicted to be in jail for 2.5 years

Takafumi Horie, founder of web design company, has been convicted today, and his sentence is fixed to be in jail for coming 2.5 years.

He is very unique person. He dropped out Tokyo University, literally top university in Japan, in 1995 and founded Web design company. With the follwoing wind of the embryo of internet era, his company repeated mutilple huge hostile M&As. He usually put on T-shirt at any official event and took on very legacy companies, such as one of major league baseball team and TV broadcasting company. Those companies did not want to welcome such a upstart young kid, so paid him huge amount of money to maitain independent from his control.

In spite of Mr. Horie's true intention, he ended up earning billions of yens in cash in a year. So, it was like Doraemon, one of anime character, pulled out special moeny making machine out of his pocket.

So, he was nicknamed as Horie-mon after Doraemon.

But in 2006, he and his company's board members were arrested because of the suspicions on securities fraud and money laundering, and three months later, he was released on 300 mil yen bail. But because of that suspisions, his company lost its subscribers and forced to be liquidated.

After he was released, he cotinuously showed up on many TV programs and showed his unique view of everything, from Adult video critics and outer space developments.

Today, he had press conference and said that 'It is like moving one step ahead in life game. While I am in jail, I would read many books and update my blog and tweet as much as possible. And 2,5 years later, I would be back
to you.'

I would say he was guilty not because of securities fraud or money laundering but because he hurted Japanese people's recognition about venture companies.

But he is also smart to attract people and want us to listen what Horiemon would say this time.

So we are waiting for his release after 2.5 years later.

SNS Game Conpany GREE acquired OpenFeint Inc, to go into U.S market

Japan is a kind of isolated country from various perspectives. So sometimes many things show unique developments. Those phenomena is called Galapagoz-ka, where many species have been developed uniquely,

IT techologies and service companies are one of the typical industry that shows unique trend.

For instance, community site, MIXi is unique SNS service in Japan, while Facebook is trying to squeeze into Japanese Market.

GREE is a gaming platform company focusing on the mobile phone, which has 25 million users, according to its announcement.

Now the company is expanding overseas business aggressively and announced that they will acquire OpenFeint Inc,(HQed in California, U.S) with USD 104 millon dollars.

Founder and CEO of GREE is Yoshikazu Tanaka, who graduated from Nihon Univ and ex-employee of Rakuten co.

His aggressive management style is well known and enabled the comapany to grow rapidly. So, let's see if his new challenge will work as planned.

Now Robot developed in Japan is ready to send to Fukushima Nuclear Powerplant

So, at last, Robot developed in Japan is ready to sent to Fukushima nuclear power plant. This robot is originally developed as rescure robot, and had been expected to send to Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant from the beginning.
But due to the high level radio active in Fukushima plant, the IC circuit of it is anticipated to be melt down in quite few minutes.

Chiba Kogyou Univ. and Tohoku Univ. modified to enforce anti-radio active protection and made sure that it will work under 100 Sv/h environment, which is 400 times higher radio-active level that people can work.

This robot has an arm,

can climb over stairs and debris, shoot laser beam to get 3D image and measure radio active level.

Suu chan, (Tanaka, Yoshiko san), former member of Candies, passed away

Tanaka,Yoshiko san passed away on April 20th at her age of 55, due to breast cancer.

She was a former member of famous singer group, 'Candies', and top idol in late '70s. After the group disbanded in 1973, she became an actress and joined many movies.

According her Husband(Mr.Odate), her first operation of her breast cancer was when she was in her 30s'. Since then, operations repeated.

Mr. Odate was a real brother of Masako Natsume, who is a beautiful and popular young actress and also died in her 20's because of leukemia.
My deep condolence.



Right person is Tanaka san,

Sakura

It's too sad not to be able to enjoy Sakura blossom this spring.
It has all gone. Sakura only bloom in two weeks,

Japanese love Sakura because it's symbol of the season for farewell and new encounter with something new. (You know, most of the official thing will start from April and end in March, such as school, fiscal year etc.)

There are many songs for Sakura.
Here is my favorite.



Lyrics say
Sakura, Sakura, Now it's in full bloom, knowing that the fate is to fall off in a moment.
Good-bye my friend, It's time for farewell now, having eternal aspiration in mind.

==aspiration may be substituted by love, friendship, etc.

'Omoi' is so vague to be tranlated.

Spring has come and Tokyo Disney land has come back

This year was not a mood to enjoy the arrival of spring. For Japanese people, admiring Sakura is one of the most biggest seasonal event. But due to the aftermath of the earthquake, we could not pay much attention to notice weather Sakaura is blooming or not. But we really feel that the temperature is getting warmer and warmer. So, now every household stopped using heating system, which decreased the total consumption of the electrocity. Now Tepco seased planned blackout operations temporarily until coming summer when total electric power consumption will rise again because of the increase of the usage of cooling system. Last Friday, Tokyo Disney Land resumed its operation and came back to normal operation. Lives in Tokyo area is gradually coming back to normal.

Don't be surprised, but be alerted by this alert sound

For people you may have heard this alert sound but don't know what this is, I would like to explain. (Click above video to confirm the sound, if you are not sure.)

This is the alert sound sent by Meteorological Agency Japan to let us know the huge earthquake will hit the area where you are very soon.

Let me explain more detail.

Meteorological Agency defined the level of seismic intensity of ground motion at a scale of zero 0 to seven 7. (some degree is divided two levels so in total scale comes to 10 degrees.)
And we should be careful from Level 4, in which case hanging objects such as lamps swing violently. Dishes in cupboards and items on bookshelves may fall. Many unstable ornaments fall. Unsecured furniture may move, and unstable furniture may topple

This alert sound will be sent only to mobile phones device where level　4 is expected.

When you watch any TV program, of course, you will get early warning information on TV screen.
But this is not necessarily a useful information, because most TV programs is nation wide programs. For instance, in case level 4 earthquake happens in Tohoku area, it may not be felt that strong in Kanto area.

But this alert sound is different. Again, this alert will be sent 'ONLY' to the cell phones which are in exactly the area where more than level 4 ground motion is expected.

So unlike the alert from the TV, we really should be careful when you hear this sound.

That being said, recently we hear this sound too often wherever we are. And I feel it's very funny when you are in train cargo and start hearing this beep sound suddenly from 'EVERYBODY'S' pockets, handbags, and cargo will be filled with this strange sound. (The actual situation is not funny at all, though.)

This system is started since 2007. And the default setting of any mobile phones purchaed after 2007 is 'ON', regardless of the mobile phone carrier, Docomo, AU, Softbank. The only exceptional device is iPhone. It doesn't have features to receive such alert in default setting. Softbank telecom should do something.

New Buzz Word in Japan: Huu Hyou Higai (economic damage from rumors)

If you are in Japan, I'm sure you've heard a word 'Huu Hyou Higai' on TV news show a lot everyday.
'Huu Hyou Higai' means the damage, in most case economic damage, due to the groundless rumors.

Japanese mass media repeat everyday that the most dangerous ting is the economic damage from the rumors that has no rational reasons. Media repeats that the radiation level detected near Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear power plant will not affect immediately to human health. The foods, such as vegetables, milk, of which radiation level exceeds the safety standards, are well controlled by Government and never go to market. So, feel safe and buy foods even from Fukushima Pref. as long as those are in market.

Even after Japanese Government raised risk rating of nuclear incident from 5 to 7 based on the IAEA standard, most of the Japanese media reports focusing on how Fukushima and Chernobyl cases are different.

So, we feel very odd when we see the way people in other countries is responding to this Fukushima nuclear issue. It seems overreacting.

The thing we need to be careful is not the way Japanese Government announce but the way how Japanese media broadcast the nuclear problem.

By the way,
Huu meas wind (we often say a wind bring rumors)
Hyou means judgement
Higai means loss or damage

It might be interesting if you count how many time you hear this word on one TV news show.

Mr. Son, CEO of SoftBank Telecom, personally donates 10Billion Yen

In addition to the many donations from many countries, many donations are give from foreign countries for this time's Tohoku earthquake.
Japanese people really thank those countries.

And what difference in Japan is that many celebrities expressed their donations for this disater.

Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank and large shareholder of Yahoo Japan, is one of those celebrities. He announced couple of days ago that he would personally donate 10 Billion Yen and 10 million yen each year until he step down the CEO of Softbank telecom.

He is really unique person and his name is well known to eveybody as large comapny's CEO, which is very rare in Japan these days.
Now generally, we don't know who is the CEO of Hitachi, Fujitsu, NEC, Panasonic, Honda etc. Those companies once had a well-known CEO, or sometimes they were founders and took strong leadership. But now such CEO never exists except Son Masayoshi.

He graduated from UCLA in 1980, and founded his company which was a distributer of software. Since then, he built many companies, and most of them became buzz in each time.
However, almost none of them alive at the moment. But funny thing is that he personally could be one of the top executive of large telecom company. He is good at bringing in new ideas and technologies from other countries, mostly from U.S.A. And he really dislike to develop new technology in Japan. Now his company, Softbank made historically good numbers because his company is the only authorised network provider of iPhone, iPad etc. iPhone, iPad can not be connected to other network carriers such as NTTDocomo, KDDI.


He is famous for not investing in developing technologies.

One of the famous anecdotes is that he pushed the project team in Japan back in early 1980's, which aimed to develop personal computer's OS by leveraging a political pressure.

He also became one of strong obstacles for NTT to introduce their unique ADSL standards with insisting to introduce ADSL standard of U.S. His company is famous for not investing in its infrastucture as network carrier. When his company gets in trouble, he usually try to use Japanese Government to push NTT back. Last year, he tried to do that again claiming that Japanese Government should divide NTT again and establish cable optic installation company. But this time KDDI, that once used to be collaborative with SoftBank as to NTT management issue, opposed to SoftBank, because KDDI made their own effort to esbalish their own local fiber network by purchasing CATV companies. KDDI said that they can not be in a same position with the party that didn't make effort by themselves.

But he earned a lot of money and made his dream come true, which was to become large company's CEO.

11500 tons of contaminated water was poured into the sea

What a shame this is! TEPCO determined to throw a low level radio contaminated water away into the sea to secure the space to keep high level contaminated water. And Japanese Government approved it.

TEPCO explained that this is an emergency situation. Large container ship which can store 10,000 tons of water in it had already headed from Shizuoka toward Fukushima.
But it didn't arrive in time. TEPCO now explained that they are going to build sea wall among the nuclear plant to prevent for the contaminated water spreading over the sea.

We are so sorry for neighbouring pacific ocean facing countries.

This is Tsunami hit Haramachi Thermal power plant

This thermal electric power plant is located along with the same seacoast of Fukushima nuclear power plant, which is just 10 miles away to the north.



You'll see huge white-wall like Tsunami is coming. At the beginning, everybody felt safe, but realised this Tsunami was extraordinary. They quickly started to evacuate.

!! Tsunami is Dangerous!! -How people behaved at Japan Earthquake 2011

Here are some youtube video clips that shows how Tsunami is dangerous.
You may think you can swim. But it's impossible because Tsunami includes many debris in it. Tsunami is dangeraous when it comes. But also dangerous when tide is retrieving. Many were involved in this drawing tide and found dead. I collected to clips that shows how people behaved when hit by Tsunami. What I want to say is DON'T underestimate Tsunami. It may take 5 min until big Tsunami arrives. RUN as soon as pssible when you notice Tsunami is coming. Don't be bothered by anything such as 'Oh, I need to bring this out, I need to bring this deed to prpoperty'. One minute really change the life.

**Kesen numa, Miyagi Pref.


At the beginning, a woman says 'Is this nightmare? Is this nightmare? What's this? What's this?' The video shooter worries about his friend, 'Pon chan is OK? Pon chan was in his house. He might not know Tsunami was coming.' I hope Pon Chan is safe.

**Oirase,Aomori Pref.


At the biginning, it seems that seawall is working well, and prevented the wave going into the town. And the very beginning, you'll see the bottom of the creak.
That is called Drawn Tide. The larger the drawn tide is, the bigger the Tsunami is.

**Kamaishi,Iwate Pref.


It seems PA system worked well. Probably, many people's lives were saved.

**Minami-Sanrikucho, Miyagi


They are people shouting from the hill, 'Hurry, Hurry, Run,Run Run away.'
But people at below don't know from where and how near the Tsunami is coming .
The difference between those people is just 5 min. When you hear the alert from PA, whether you could jump out of the house and run toward hill top without bringing anything or not had changed the destination. Left bottom of the screen shows people who tried to help a person in wheel chair. There were people coming down from the hill to save the person. But they all were brought away. I have no word to say.


**How TV Reporter escaped from Tsunami



This reporter had experienced to do interviews with the people who experienced Tsunami before. So he knew how dangerous the Tsunami is.

At the beginning, he got a call and was informed Tsunami was coming 6 min. later.
And he saw drain and bottom of the river, and realised Tsunami was going to be a huge one. So, he decided to run away. (This area was where 300 dead were found.)
While he was on a Taxi, he saw Tsunami was coming to the seawall. He was told by Tsunami victims that you are not supposed to see the seawater. So, when the car was struck in the middle of the traffic jam, Luckily, in order to shoot the video, he kept the car window opened. And realised people were shouting 'Tsunami is there. Tsunami is there.', he gave up running away by car.

So, he decided to go into the building. In the full version of the video being broadcasted on TV, he said he wanted to evacuate into the building which is standing across the road, and was looked like much stronger. When he saw seawater passed him under his shoes, he picked the nearest building. When he was at a gate, you see seawater is just arriving to his foot. But he though 'Oh, I am going to die, because seawater catches me up.' Until he started to clime the stairs, it DIDN'T take ONE MIN. But you realise how quickly the amount of the seawater had changed. He kept saying to the evacuees in the building, 'Go on top of the building, or as much higher place as possible. hurry, hurry.' It used to be said that you would be safe when you were in 3rd floor, But this time was different.

At the end of the clip, you'll see some people helping other people who could not go into the building. Luckily, there were three ex-fire fighters. So, they could help a woman, a mam, and one family with kids.

He answered in the interview that still there were more many people calling a help near from the building, but we couldn't help them.


Among every those video, you'll realise PA system is announcing that Tsunami is coming and call a quick evacuation. Every towns along with the seacoast had this PA system. But victims with this tragedy may reach more than 20,000.

Japanese have never been changed.

With this unfortunate disaster, I realised that Japanese have never been changed since World War Ⅱ．　Especially, in Fukushima Nuclear incidents, I feel this strongly.

In one of NPR news show in U.S, a caller asked to a reporter in Tokyo dispatched from U.S, 'Why don't Japanese go panic in the first place. They trust Japanese Government?'.

It was when U.S government ordered Americans evacuate from 50 miles from Fukushima Nuclear Plant, while Japanese Gov. ordered Japanese to evacuate from just 12 miles from the plant.

The reporter avoided the clear answer to that question. So, I will give.
The answer is NO. We don't believe Japanese Gov. Then, what we believe?

We believe workers, engineers working on the spot.

Yesterday, NHK reported that workers on the spot don't have enough instruments to measure how much they were exposed by radiaon. Those equipment were supposed to be prepared enough numbers so that individual worker can put on to work at radiation contaminated area. But most of those equipment were out of orders because of Tsunami.

So one measuring instrument is given to one team consisted of 4 to 5 persons, while they work separately. (It is obviously not good!!)

Under this situation, they've installed power cabling, came control center back on line, and have just completed to install temporary water pumps.

We really trust those workers' and engineers' dedications and devotions.

Isn't this like Iwo Jima? No enough instrument, desperate operations. only having the sense of responsibility in mind to protect lives in ordinal people?

We should remind that they're not ignorant. They are well trained and have more knowledge about how dangerous to work in radiation contaminated area. They are professionals.

This makes workers on the spot more frightened to work on the spot, without having proper instrument put on. Workers came back from the work area answered the interviewed how much they should encourage themselves and make themselves to be BRAVE to work under such situation.

Those dedications of the workers make Japanese feel relief and avoid going panic.

This is nothing we should proud of, rather I feel ashamed.

But the this might be a unchangeable culture of the Japanese.

P.S
Also, we don't believe Japanese Gov (Politicians) has a courage to hide some critical information from the public.
We are sure that they'll let us know innocently when things are getting out of control.
(Bureaucrats are different story. But in this Fukushima emergency situation, there is not so much space for bureaucrats to work. That is good thing.)

***Update;
Not preparing measuring device for each worker is apparent violation of the regulation. Government ordered TEPCO to prepare enough number of the equipment for each workers. Then, 500 workers are supposed to work in the radiation contaminated area at the same time. TEPCO has already prepared 420 equipment, still needs 80 more devices. It is reported that many companies are offering those devices to TEPCO to fulfill that missing number.

Now trying to remove radiogenic substance by Japanese Traditional Food, Natto

If you have ever been in Japan, you might be surprised to know how Japanese love to eat weired, gooey, slimy food Natto, which is fermant soy beans.

Before you eat it, you need to stir up with chop stick to make it more gooey.It is said the more gooey ,the more delicious.
(

A Professor of Handai Univ. in Osaka made a report to TEPCO(Tokyo Electric Co,) that this stickiness will help remove raiogenic substance from contaminated water.

Theoritically, it makes sense, and TEPCO will do field test to see how much this will be effective.

Yesterday, French specialists of Areba arrived at Tokyo and would start working with TEPCO engineers on the facility.

It is good to use highly state-of-the-art technology to make things settled.
But I like to see those weired challenges as well, because how many those weired idea come up in this emergency situation shows the depth of the fundamental knowlege of the technology.

Actually, TEPCO have already picked up one idea from ordinary road construction company, which is to scatter the chemicals, which is usually used for the road construction, over the surface of the land to prevent the radiogenic substance to flow up and scattered in the air.

Video Clip shows Natto. He tried to stir it up 10,000 times.
It's just he's been carried away.

For children to be born

I am living in Tokyo area. Today, still we had two relatively large earthquakes.
Since we lost 25% of electric power capacity, the number of the commute train is drastically reduced. Elevators in every building and public space are off, my office turns off the lights in daytime, so the places are dim in the building. To save the electricity, tens of thousands of households are suffering 3 hour long planned blackouts everyday. It's still cold out there, so blackouts from 6:00pm until 9:00pm really gives huge impact to our daily life.

TV media is broadcasting the elderly people dying in hospitals in Tohoku area, because they don't have enough medicines. Under these circumstances, TV showed one old gentleman looking for his missing wife at last got caught pneumonia, and were brought to hospital by helicopter. We know that we need to deliver water, food, medicines for refugees in each camp, but not have been achieved because roads to more than thousand of camps widely spread for 400km are totally collapsed. So those stuffs have been piled up somewhere on the way, and never arrived to the people in need.


At Fukushima power plant, two workers in the facility are severely injured from the dose of radiation, while they were trying to install electric power cable in the reactor to get back control system up and running. They were immediately taken away to the hospial by ambulance.

This is a huge disaster.

I am just wondering what we can learn from this disaster and make this painful experience useful for future. Otherwise,,,,,

It's too sad.


This is the song came out about 30 years ago. I didn't like that much when I listened at first time.
But now, this really sinks in.

Tsunami was more than １４M hight

It is getting apparent that the hight of Tsunami hit Tohoku area on Mach 11 was more than 14M.
Who could predict in advance that such enoumous lump of water would hit the towns, or nuclear power plant?

In Japan's history, we could go back at least 600 -700 years with certain reliable records, we can't see any records that shows such enourmous Tsunami hit Japan's sea coast.

According to the Japan Meteological Agency, this time's earthquake is the very rare case that three major earthquakes happened working together.

Don't think that those area have not prepared in advance. Each town actually prepared for Tsunami with building big bank along with the coast line, with periodical evacuation training etc.

But those banks were just 5 meters, which were good enough to avoid most Tsunami.
Last year, Government made special assgined to team to slash the national budget.
Ironically, the first budget being cut was to build Super-Bank to avoid huge Tsunami.
I would say nobody was against such budget cut. Rather, every Japanese see that the plan to build-out such huge bank was the evidence of how inefficient the government's budgetary plan is.

In terms of the preparation of the preparation of Tsunami, Fukushima power plant did emergency training last November, assuming one of their facilities totally lost electric power.

But this time, four out of six facility went out of controll at the same time.

Like this, this disaster shows nature is far beyond our imagination based on our historical experiences.

Earthquake again, again, again !!

This Saturday is the first Saturday we can stay relatively calm.
Everythig seems to be getting settle down.

Last week was so hectic. Through the entire week, every single day, small earthquakes continued to happen. (Not small, though.)

Since the electric deliery capacity lost its 25%.

Oh, just right now when I am writing this, the earthquake happed again.
Again, again, it never settled.

Now U.S Airforce's Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(Global Hawk) helps Fukushima Nuclear Plant

Due to the high radiation, onsite engineers are not able to close the failities.
More worse, nobody in war-room for remedy action can see what exactly the status of each reactor is.

Then, Japanese Government asked US Air force to send Global Hawk(UAV) to take pictures of the facities so that engineers can see and understand the exact conditions of the facility. (although they are still monitoring various figures at various points, those information has its limitation to know the actual situation.)

NHK news reported that this US airplane would be onsite from March 17 and work from March 18.

*****Update April 1, 2010
It seems that the pictures taken from this airplane are given to the Japanese Government. I don't know why. I think the most party in need to see the pictures is TEPCO people. As of today, none of those pictures are disclosed to the public.
Is this because U.S does not want to disclose the pictures that may reveal how much in detail the airplane can shoot in picture?

Fukushima nuclear power is an old facility operated since 1971

In a TV show where the security of nuclear power plant was discussed, some professors pointed out,
'it's too sad to hear from many countries, such as U.S, France,Germany, announcing the revisit of the nuclear power plant development plant by looking at the situation in Fukushima power plant. That facility is built and started it's operation couple of decades ago. The security and plant designs have been improved in more latest facilities. As Fukushima No.2 power plant shoes, which is located few miles away from Fukushima No1 power plant which is now deep in trouble and have been operated in a very stable manner even after the hit by same natural disaster, the facility with the latest technology showed the capability of much more reliant operations.'

Granted their claims are technically correct, new incidents coming out everyday get us frustrated and exhaisted so much.
Now it seems number 4 Is in the deepest trouble.

Refugees from Fukushima power plant are desparately wanting Gas

Now it turned out the fuel rods are fully exposed regardless of a huge efforts of the engineers to add more seawater to cool down the fuel rods. As authorities admit, this is severely critical situation.
The people living near from this power plant were ordered to keep away at least 20km from the facility.
They are spending their times in several emergent facilities which province had provided.

What the evacuees are desperately hoping is the gas to fulfill their motor vehicles to run further away from the facilities,which currently they don't have.

Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant #2 needs to be stopped

Following the operation stop from Plant #1 and #3, both of which had exploded, now Plant #2 came to a situation to stop operations.

All of those nuclear power plant's problems came from the break-down of the redundant generators which were all soaked by Tsunami. They were supposed to pomp up pure water to cool down the core poles. But they didn't work.

Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant has been covering 25% of electricity consumption of Tokyo area. With the outage of Plant #1, #2 and #3, now the capability of providing enough electric power is extremely decreasing.


Now planned black-outs started to executed from Group 5. For the area categorized as Group 5, they won't have traffic lights and hospitals neither. Large hospitals might be fine because they have generators, but small clinics may not.

Planned Black-out

Fukushima nuclear plant also exploded, and several workers are injured.
This explosion is because of the Hydrogen accumulated in the building. Authorities emphasized that the explosion blow away outside wall but core facilities are safe.

But it is obvious that we are lacking the electric power supply against demands.
Tokyo Denryoku (Substantially dominant power company for eastern Japan) divided Kanto Area into five segments, and announced the time frame which may occur black-out.

Segment1: 6:20 am-　10:00am and/or 16:50pm -20:30pm
Segment2: 9:20 am - 13:00pm and/or 18:20pm - 22:00pm
Segment3: 12:20pm - 16:00pm
Segment4: 13:50pm - 17:30pm
Segment5: 15:20pm -19:00pm

Fortunately, as of now, electric power keeps coming. But it is anticipated the demand for electricity is high around 7:00pm, so planned black-out might be executed sometime tonight.
(Railways may be also affected.)

So, some of office workers in metro area have already started leaving their offices before black-outs come.

We are still in serious situation.

Here is explosions of Fuskushima nuclear plant 1,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMEV-_X5b_8

Exactly the same eplosion happened for Plant#3.

In this case, the engineers are doing very good to regain controlls.

Still Struggling to control NueClear Plant

After posting my last comment, I quickly run out and went several supermarkets to buy water and batteries. But they were all gone, it was too late. All disappeared from the shelf.

The news of Fukushima nuclear plant changed everything for the living of Kanto area residential directly.

Last late night, the government announced that they stated to pour seawater and boric acid into the plant #1, the one which exploded, too cool down. Pouring seawater and boric acid will make it very difficult to resume its operation. (It is said that progress to cool down is going well, but it will take about one week to completely cool down the facility.)


This early morning, the government also announced that plant #3 is also starting to decrease the water, so determined to add more water and boric acid, too.

Operation stops will bring severe shortage of the electricity for Tokyo area, and it will last relatively long period.

No mention that it is tremendous disaster for the people living in Tohoku area.
But this earthquake severely hits the livings of the people who lives nearly 400km away from the hypocenter.

Fukushima NewClear plant exploded

Media is broadcasting that one of the facilities of Fukushima newclear plant exploded at about 4 pm JST because of the other strong earthquake hit the area directly.

While many concerned parties are trying to controll the plant, especially trying to cool down the facilty, it is going to unforeseeable what will happen next.

Planned Blackout will be coming from tomorrow Sunday for Kanto are residential

Yesterday's earthquake gave huge impact even for the Kanto are residential.
First off, every railway had to stopped its operation since they needed to check out the safety of the physical rail. So, more than several hundred-thousands of people were forced to stay in their office area.

I, personally, walked back to my home with 6 hours strait walk. Luckily I was out of my office when earthquake hit, and was about to have a meeting at Shinjulu-area. Shinjuku was 25km away from my home, while my office is more than 30km away.
(I didn't have any experience to walk such long way. Given that marathon runners run 42Km, I thought it was relatively easy to walk 25km. But that idea was totally wrong!! it took 6 hours to finish 25km walk. It was cold last night, and I didn't know the way to home, so Google Map was useful, but the mobile device went out of juice at the most complicated area. So, I lost the way. It guided a short-cuts, but I had to go back to the main street which I Iknew for a drive.)

First, most foods went out from stores, next batteries for mobile phones, while voice communications were stopped by network carrier. Internet from mobile phone was barely-available,

Many people who have a physical confident went back to their home by walk. So, many pubic facility opened its facility for the rest of such walkers. (It was quite helpful.)
Media reported that many bicycles were sold out instantly from bicycle stores.
I, personally stopped by the bicycle along the way my home, but the least cheapest one costs 15,000 yen, so I didn't buy it. It was bad idea, too. I should have bought it given the long way home to go back.

Aftermath still continues. Since Nuclear power stations in Fukushima was damaged heavily and stopped operations, the capacity to generate for Kanto area has been decreased significantly.
Authorities has just announced that they are planning to stop supplying electricy to area. Residentials, offices will have planned blackout from tomorrow, which is expected to continue about two to three hours per area.

Still, many small earthquakes continues. We really needs to be careful.

Eco Point is going to end by the end of March

If you are living in Japan, probably you've heard of this 'Eco Point', which is a kind of cash back program of Japanese Gov.

This cash back program is what Japanese Gov. is taking initiative to encourage people to buy eco-friendly goods.

Applicable goods are pre-determined by Japaneses Gov. after the investigation to see how much those goods are eco-friendly. So, manufacture company sends applications for thier products, and depending on the result of how much such product can be eco-friendly, such as energy saving, the points that product can get will be determined.

Let's take TV as a sample.

Now, when you go to home appliance stores, you'll see TVs that gets 11,000 eco points.

At the moment, the most standard LED TV of 40 inch screen cost around 70,000 yen.
So, 11,000 eco points means 15% discount.

These points were double when you buy this TV by the end of last year. Or, not only for TV sets, but most of the home appliances, such as refrigerator, vacuum clear,,, you name it.

The ratio of the eco-point that will be given to each product is decreasing, and will end by the end of this March.

So if you have plan to buy home appliance, you certainly better to go and buy it by the end of March, so that you'll get a cash back. (to be precise, this is not cash back. But you can get coupon in return.)

Sharp's TV is famous and one of the most popular brand, because it is now strongly marketing its 'Kameyama Brand', which will be put on a product made at Kameyama factory. They say that the product with this label means all materials, even one small screw, are made in Japan.

Consumers affairs Agency Japan gave Groupon orders to improve

Groupon Japan today received orders for improvement of its operation from Consumers Affairs Agency.
It's because of the trouble of the delivery of the Oseti deli for Jan.1st. Of course, this oseti deli. were made by one of Groupon's client food delivery firms. But Groupon was blamed not to give any deep considerations on the capability of the food delivery firm to deliver committed Oseti deli.
Groupon Japan was once one head ahead among the coupon companies in Japan, where it is said that there are more than one hundred competitors.
Now, Pon-pa-re, a subsidiary of famous information magazine company, took on Groupon with massive advertisements.
It's banner ad is giving a huge sensation, enough to draw attentions from the ordinal consumers who might not have any interest in using group coupon.

Groupon needs to seek strong marketing to keep it's No.1 position.

Here is Groupon's rival, PonPaRe's banner ads.

This beautiful young woman says 'This Ryokan (Japanese Traditional Hotel) must be expensive, isn't it?"

Then, a man thinks in his head, ' I can't say this is less than half the price.'

Ticket Maximum 83% discount at Pon Pa Re

Shin kan sen 2011

I took a ride on Shin Kansen from Tokyo station to Shin Ossaka station with about two hours.

It was very comfortable, because the cargo does not quake even it runs with the speed of 200km/h. So, you are not going to get tired even you watch the screen of your PC.

And now I found that each seat has power plug as picture shown below.

I think Shin kansen is still No.1 in the world, when it comes to how comfort you feel when you take a relatively long hour ride.

Power plug is just in front of your seat, or side of the wall.

Happy New Year and Goddess in Toilet

We celebrate O-shogatu (new year day) a lot.

Especially the first 3 days are called as 'San ga nichi' and they are basically holidays.

Until 7th of January are called as 'Maku no Uchi' and generally accepted as a day to celebrate the new year.

So, after starting work at your office on Jan. 4th until Jan 7th, you can say 'Happy new Year' to the people that you met first time in this new year.

Then people would talk how you spent New Year Vacation. So, it is worth reviewing Ko-Haku music show.

The most impressive musician of Ko-Haku was Kana Uemura who sang 'Toilet no Kamisama; Goddess in Toilet'

This song sang about her grandmother by whom Kana Uemura was grown up.

The grandmother kept saying to Kana Uemura that ' you have to clean a toilet because so beautiful goddess lives in toilet and you have to keep it clean so that the goddess is always happy and smile on you. Then you can be as beautiful as the goddess of toilet'

(Toilet cleaning is often cosindered as the most important thing to do to make people honest, generous and sincere.)

This song gradually became a hit song since Jan. 2010 from small local music radio show and got its upward momentum by word-of- mouth.

Check out this song at 'Goddess in Toilet.' Viewers reached 6 mil!! Amazing.