ASIA

Crisis never came close to scenario meriting Tokyo evacuation: panel chief

The Fukushima No. 1 plant worst-case fallout scenario drawn up by Japan Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Shunsuke Kondo last March 25 assumed winds would carry the radioactive materials to Tokyo, forcing the government to help people "migrate" from the capital. But Kondo told The Japan Times last month this simulated contamination scenario was an unrealistic overstatement and steps had been taken to prevent the crisis from escalating to such proportions. Read More | View Original Article

'Stealth' intervention reined in yen

Japan used so-called stealth intervention in November as the government sought to stem yen gains that hammered earnings at makers of exports ranging from cars to electronics. Finance Ministry data released Tuesday showed Japan conducted ¥1.02 trillion worth of unannounced intervention during the first four days of November, after selling a record ¥8.07 trillion on Oct. 31, when the yen climbed to a postwar high of 75.35 against the dollar. Read More | View Original Article

High cesium found in earthworms

Earthworms collected in Kawauchi, a village near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, have cesium levels averaging some 20,000 becquerels per kilogram, government researchers said. The finding indicates the radioactive substance "may accumulate in other animals through the food chain," Motohiro Hasegawa, senior researcher at the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, said Monday, noting earthworms are eaten by birds, boars and other wild animals. Read More | View Original Article

Obama bows to Arab royalty in democracy push

Just after the first anniversary of the onset of the Arab Spring, the Obama administration announced in December an enormous arms sale to Saudi Arabia, with a price tag greater than the annual gross domestic product of more than half the countries in the world. The administration hailed the sale as a "historic achievement" that "reinforces the strong and enduring relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia." Read More | View Original Article

Renault-Nissan to buy Russian firm in stages

Renault SA and affiliate Nissan Motor Co. may pay for their planned 50 percent stake in OAO AvtoVAZ over two years as goals are met, according to an executive at the Russian carmaker's second-biggest local owner. A memorandum of understanding may be signed as soon as the end of February or at the Geneva auto show starting March 8, with the transaction completed three months later, Sergey Skvortsov, deputy chairman of Troika Dialog, said in Moscow. Read More | View Original Article

The Iranian factor in U.S.-Indian relations

In what some are seeing as a diplomatic victory for Tehran, New Delhi has so far resisted complying with new U.S. sanctions aimed at shutting down the Iranian petroleum sector as a means of pressuring the Islamic Republic to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program. Read More | View Original Article

Damage by animals to be studied

The Environment Ministry said Tuesday it will research reports of increased damage caused by wild animals in nuclear crisis-hit Fukushima and three surrounding prefectures this month and consider countermeasures. The move comes amid a decline in the number of registered hunters in Fukushima, Miyagi, Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures in the wake of the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant. Read More | View Original Article

Toyota raises operating group profit forecast for full year to ¥270 billion

Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday raised its expectations for the business year to March, saying it now forecasts group operating profit of ¥270 billion on the back of rebounding sales in the United States and Europe as well as its cost-cutting efforts. Read More | View Original Article

Caution on concessions ahead of U.S. TPP talks

Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba said the government was "cautious" ahead of talks Tuesday on joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc that will include demands to eliminate tariffs on protected goods. Read More | View Original Article

Nuke dangers nowhere near resolved: Kan's crisis adviser

In December, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced the "conclusion" of the meltdown crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, saying Tokyo Electric Power Co. was managing to keep the three crippled reactors cool, as well as the facility's spent fuel pools. Read More | View Original Article

Sapporo buys into U.S. juice maker

Sapporo Holdings Ltd., which last year reported it had about $1.5 billion to spend on acquisitions, bought Florida-based juice maker Silver Springs Citrus Inc. to expand in the United States. The brewer agreed to pay $24 million to Toyota Tsusho America Inc. for a 51 percent stake in the orange and grapefruit juice producer, Sapporo said in a statement. Read More | View Original Article

Hashimoto group claims union tried to tip election

Osaka Municipal Assembly members from Mayor Toru Hashimoto's Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) group are pursuing allegations that a city labor union attempted to gather votes for Hashimoto's opponent in last November's election in possible violation of campaign laws. Read More | View Original Article

Bills could render Hague toothless

Japan may sign the Hague Convention, but if planned new laws for ratifying the treaty fail to compel family court judges to adhere to its principles, the whole exercise could be meaningless, legal experts and people whose children have been victims of parental abductions say. Read More | View Original Article

DeNA lowers annual profit estimate

DeNA Co., the country's biggest social-network website operator, is forecasting annual profit below analyst estimates as costs for labor and software suppliers rose. Net income will probably be ¥32.6 billion in the year ending March 31, the company said Tuesday. A survey of 24 analysts found an average estimate of ¥34.9 billion. Read More | View Original Article

A strategy for Russia's budding snow revolution

Nonviolent revolutions do not always remain nonviolent, as the examples of uprisings in Egypt, Libya, and Syria in the Arab Spring have shown. But peaceful movements for regime change often do succeed. They have toppled illegitimate rulers, as with the post-Soviet "color revolutions" in Georgia and Ukraine, and ended apartheid in South Africa, for example, or, before that, the Jim Crow system in the American South. Non-violent movements broke British rule in India and Malawi, and brought down authoritarian regimes in Chile, the Philippines, and Portugal. Read More | View Original Article

Outline approved for Hague treaty bills

A Justice Ministry panel on Tuesday gave the green light for the ministry to write bills for new domestic laws in preparation for signing the Hague Convention, which would theoretically promise other countries that Japan will try its utmost to return abducted children. Critics, however, are not too optimistic because whether children will be returned to their original countries will depend largely on how Japan's family court judges interpret any new laws. Read More | View Original Article

Caterpillar may up production 20%

Caterpillar Japan Ltd., a unit of the world's biggest construction-equipment maker, said it plans to produce a record number of excavators this year as the nation rebuilds infrastructure following the March 11 disasters in parts of the Tohoku region. The venture between U.S.-based Caterpillar Inc. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. may up output by 20 percent at its Akashi plant in Hyogo Prefecture, spokesman Mutsumi Miyanaga said Tuesday. Read More | View Original Article

Romney: the right's cup of tea

"Many tea party folks are going to find me, I believe, to be the ideal candidate," the Republican presidential contender said in a news conference in December. "I sure hope so." These words were uttered not by Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul or Rick Perry — but by Mitt Romney. Yes, the same Romney who has been pegged as too moderate to attract tea party voters and hard-core conservatives. Read More | View Original Article

Shops selling dried herbs spiked with stimulant chemicals on the increase

Dried herbs mixed with stimulant chemicals carefully packaged to dodge drug laws are gaining in popularity among young Japanese, leading in turn to a drastic increase in the shops selling such products. These "dappo habu" (law-evading herbs) contain stimulant materials whose chemical components are slightly different from those prohibited by drug laws. Read More | View Original Article

2011 stimulant smuggling cases hit record high

The number of stimulant drug smuggling cases processed by customs authorities at the nation's airports and seaports in 2011 rose 22 percent from the previous year to hit a record-high of 185, the Finance Ministry said. The amount of stimulant drugs seized increased by 25 percent to around 402 kg, the ministry said. Read More | View Original Article

Five missing after refinery tunnel floods

Five workers went missing Tuesday afternoon after an undersea tunnel caved in and seawater gushed in at JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp.'s Mizushima oil refinery in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, the company said. Police divers searched for the missing workers after the incident was reported to the fire department at around 12:35 p.m. They suspended the search shortly after 3 p.m. because of poor visibility and dangerous debris. Read More | View Original Article

Japan's population time bomb

A population trend estimate announced on Jan. 30 by the health and welfare ministry's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research shows that in 2060, Japan's population will fall to about 30 percent below the current level, while people aged 65 or older will account for 40 percent of the population. It is imperative that the government take effective measures to make it easier for young people to be able to afford to marry and raise a family. Read More | View Original Article

U.S. is urged to return Okinawa sites

Tokyo asked Washington to return some military sites in Okinawa at an early date during the latest bilateral talks Monday on redeploying U.S. Marines in the Asia-Pacific region, Japanese officials said. The request to return part of Camp Zukeran and the Makiminato Service Area was made in connection with a U.S. plan to move about 4,700 marines in Okinawa to Guam, ahead of the contentious relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to another part of Okinawa Island, the officials said. Read More | View Original Article

Bullying rose 6.7% in 2010 school year

The number of bullying cases recognized by public and private elementary, junior high and high schools nationwide in the 2010 academic year rose 6.7 percent from a year earlier to 77,630, according to an education ministry survey. It was the first increase in five years. The number of such cases had been falling since the 2006 school year, when the ministry began collecting such data. An education official said the number rose as teachers became better at recognizing bullying. Read More | View Original Article

Nation's bullet train blues

The central government has decided to start construction work on three sections of three planned Shinkansen bullet train lines — the Shin Hakodate-Sapporo section of the Hokkaido Shinkansen Line, the Kanazawa-Tsuruga section of the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line and the Isahaya-Nagasaki section of the Kyushu-Nagasaki Shinkansen Line. The construction of the new Shinkansen sections, whose total cost is estimated at ¥3.01 trillion, could cause problems for the central government, local governments concerned and local residents. Read More | View Original Article

Utilities to adopt filtered vent units for pressurized light-water reactors

Kansai Electric Power Co. and other utilities will install filter-equipped venting systems for their pressurized light-water reactors to release vapor and prevent damage to containment vessels in the event of a crisis, according to sources. Read More | View Original Article

China faces rising risks as it looks overseas for resources

China's meteoric rise to become the world's second biggest economy and a global manufacturing center is sustained by ever-growing imports of raw materials and increasing investment abroad, often in under-developed countries shunned by the West for alleged human rights abuses or because they are considered too dangerous. Read More | View Original Article

Water rate increased for reactor 2

Workers at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant increased the amount of water injected into reactor 2 on Tuesday to the highest level since the plant achieved cold shutdown in December as concerns grew over rising temperatures at the bottom of the pressure vessel. Following the move, the temperature in the vessel eased to 68.5 degrees by 5 p.m. from 73.3 degrees logged at 7 a.m. Monday, Junichi Matsumoto, a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co., told a news conference. Read More | View Original Article

Marubeni gets major Angolan order

Marubeni Corp. said Tuesday it has received a $650 million order from the government of Angola for a plant to produce sugar and ethanol from sugarcane. The plant will be built in Cunene, southern Angola, with an annual production capacity at about 400,000 tons of sugar and some 40 million liters of ethanol. It will cover most of the sugar demand in the country that currently depends fully on imports for its sugar supply, the company said. Read More | View Original Article

World economy's uncharted territory

"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." — L.P. Hartley, English novelist Read More | View Original Article