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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
