TEPCO: N-plant xenon not result of criticality
The Yomiuri Shimbun




Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday radioactive xenon detected in the No. 2 reactor at its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was the result of spontaneous fission, not a nuclear chain reaction known as criticality as had been feared.
TEPCO said spontaneous fission, in which radioactive curium produced during the operation of a reactor splits on its own, is occurring sporadically inside the reactor.
The recent detection of minute amounts of xenon can be explained by the splitting of curium, it said.
Xenon was detected Tuesday in gas from the No. 2 reactor's containment vessel.
Although the amounts were minute--about one-100,000th becquerel per cubic centimeter--TEPCO said a small-scale criticality incident could have taken place temporarily, given the short half-lives of the two types of xenon detected--five days for xenon-133 and nine hours for xenon-135.
However, after analyzing the data, TEPCO concluded criticality did not occur, explaining that even a small-scale criticality incident should produce 10,000 times more xenon than the amount detected.
TEPCO said the spontaneous fission of curium is a normal phenomenon in idled reactors and it would not hamper ongoing efforts to stabilize the reactor.
"There will be no impact on the stabilization of the nuclear reactor and the surrounding environment," the utility said.
(Nov. 4, 2011)

Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2011


Volcano evacuation zone widens
MIYAZAKI (Kyodo) Officials in Takaharu, Miyazaki Prefecture, have told about 500 households to evacuate because the volcanic eruption on Mount Kirishima could trigger landslides and send boulders flying their way.


Extracurricular: Children clean a hallway covered with volcanic ash at their elementary school Monday in Takaharu, Miyazaki Prefecture. KYODO PHOTO

Takaharu issued the recommendation at around midnight Sunday after the Miyazaki Local Meteorological Observatory said the lava dome on 1,421-meter Shinmoedake peak was rising. The warning could affect 1,100 residents.

About 610 people had evacuated to four shelters as of Monday morning, the town said.

But an observatory on the Kagoshima Prefecture side of the volcano said the risk posed by the lava dome isn't high enough to evacuate.

According to the Kagoshima Local Meteorological Observatory, satellite images show the lava dome, which measured 100 meters across on Thursday, had widened to about 500 meters Saturday.

Smaller eruptions have continued to rock Shinmoedake peak since it blew its top last week in its first major eruption since 1822. The volcano is one of several on Mount Kirishima and appeared in the 1967 James Bond film "You Only Live Twice."

発音

pool / pull

green / grin

nurse

Whoever undertakes to sell any description of goods to the public, does what affects the interest of other persons, and of society in general; and thus his conduct, in principle, comes within the jurisdiction of society: accordingly, it was once held to be the duty of governments, in all cases which were considered of importance, to fix prices, and regulate the processes of manufacture. But it is now recognised, though not till after a long struggle, that both the cheapness and the good quality of commodities are most effectually provided for by leaving the producers and sellers perfectly free, under the sole check of equal freedom to the buyers for supplying themselves elsewhere. This is the so-called doctrine of Free Trade, which rests on grounds different from, though equally solid with, the principle of individual liberty asserted in this Essay. Restrictions on trade, or on production for purposes of trade, are indeed restraints; and all restraint, quâ restraint, is an evil: but the restraints in question affect only that part of conduct which society is competent to restrain, and are wrong solely because they do not really produce the results which it is desired to produce by them. As the principle of individual liberty is not involved in the doctrine of Free Trade, so neither is it in most of the questions which arise respecting the limits of that doctrine; as for example, what amount of public control is admissible for the prevention of fraud by adulteration; how far sanitary precautions, or arrangements to protect workpeople employed in dangerous occupations, should be enforced on employers. Such questions involve considerations of liberty, only in so far as leaving people to themselves is always better, cæteris paribus, than controlling them: but that they may be legitimately controlled for these ends, is in principle undeniable. On the other hand, there are questions relating to interference with trade, which are essentially questions of liberty; such as the Maine Law, already touched upon; the prohibition of the importation of opium into China; the restriction of the sale of poisons; all cases, in short, where the object of the interference is to make it impossible or difficult to obtain a particular commodity. These interferences are objectionable, not as infringements on the liberty of the producer or seller, but on that of the buyer.

Chapter V: Applications

THE PRINCIPLES asserted in these pages must be more generally admitted as the basis for discussion of details, before a consistent application of them to all the various departments of government and morals can be attempted with any prospect of advantage. The few observations I propose to make on questions of detail, are designed to illustrate the principles, rather than to follow them out to their consequences. I offer, not so much applications, as specimens of application; which may serve to bring into greater clearness the meaning and limits of the two maxims which together form the entire doctrine of this Essay, and to assist the judgment in holding the balance between them, in the cases where it appears doubtful which of them is applicable to the case. 1
The maxims are, first, that the individual is not accountable to society for his actions, in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself. Advice, instruction, persuasion, and avoidance by other people if thought necessary by them for their own good, are the only measures by which society can justifiably express its dislike or disapprobation of his conduct. Secondly, that for such actions as are prejudicial to the interests of others, the individual is accountable, and may be subjected either to social or to legal punishment, if society is of opinion that the one or the other is requisite for its protection. 2
In the first place, it must by no means be supposed, because damage, or probability of damage, to the interests of others, can alone justify the interference of society, that therefore it always does justify such interference. In many cases, an individual, in pursuing a legitimate object, necessarily and therefore legitimately causes pain or loss to others, or intercepts a good which they had a reasonable hope of obtaining. Such oppositions of interest between individuals often arise from bad social institutions, but are unavoidable while those institutions last; and some would be unavoidable under any institutions.

Sea Shepherd member held / Intruding antiwhaling activist handed over to JCG in Tokyo
The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Japan Coast Guard arrested an activist of the antiwhaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society on Friday in Tokyo on suspicion of trespassing on a security ship belonging to the Japanese research whaling fleet.

Peter Bethune, a New Zealand national, had been detained on the Shonan Maru No. 2 for allegedly boarding it while the vessel was in Antarctic waters last month. The ship, which provided security to the fleet, entered Tokyo Port on Friday morning and Bethune, 44, was handed over to the JCG.

It is the first time Japanese authorities have arrested a member of Sea Shepherd, which has repeatedly obstructed Japanese whaling research ships. The JCG plans to question Bethune over allegations including having a small vessel collide with the Shonan Maru No. 2.

Bethune was the skipper of the Sea Shepherd's high-tech powerboat, the Ady Gil. The JCG served him with an arrest warrant while he was still on the Shonan Maru No. 2 at about 11:15 a.m.

According to the JCG, Bethune approached the ship on a personal watercraft in the Antarctic Ocean on Feb. 15, and climbed aboard by using a knife to cut through a net on the ship that was set up to prevent people from accessing the deck illegally.

Bethune was detained on the ship as the Mariners Law allows a ship's captain to take necessary measures to avoid harm if a person performs an action that could cause danger on the ship. The Shonan Maru No. 2 suspended its mission to surveil vessels trying to obstruct Japanese research whaling ships and sailed more than 10,000 kilometers to Japan on its own.

According to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, which has jurisdiction over research whaling, the Ady Gil was crippled after it collided with the Shonan Maru No. 2 on Jan. 6. After Bethune climbed onto the ship, he reportedly told the ship's crew that he sought compensation for the Ady Gil. He also reportedly admitted that he had lobbed bottles filled with butyric acid, which emits a strong odor, at the ship.

The JCG plans to question Bethune over these allegations on suspicion of assault or forcible obstruction of business.

The Criminal Code stipulates penalties for trespassing on a vessel in the same section that causes unlawful entry into a building. Under the Criminal Code, if a person makes an unlawful entry onto a vessel that is capable of accommodating a person, the intruder will face up to three years in prison or a maximum fine of 100,000 yen.

===

Arrest message to intl community


By Mikoto Hata

Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

The arrest of an activist from the antiwhaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was prompted by the necessity for Japan to emphasize the validity of whaling to the international community.

After the activist Peter Bethune, allegedly trespassed onto a security ship belonging to the Japanese research whaling fleet in the Antarctic Ocean on Feb. 15, the Fisheries Agency quickly announced that it planned to hand over Bethune to the Japan Coast Guard, with the intention to punish the New Zealand national in Japan.

Such a quick response resulted from a bitter lesson from an incident two years ago.

In January 2008, two Sea Shepherd activists were held after they boarded a Japanese research whaling vessel. However, Japan soon handed them over to the Australian government, where the Sea Shepherd has a base.

However, antiwhaling activities against Japanese vessels by the group have intensified, while the experience of two years ago has led the agency to rethink its position: That if Japan did not take a resolute attitude toward such incidents, the nation would not be able to claim the validity of whaling to the international community, according to a senior official at the agency.

The agency also has in mind the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission to be held in Morocco in June.

Last month, the chairman of the IWC made a proposal to allow Japan to resume coastal whaling in exchange for reducing the scale of the nation's research whaling.

The Fisheries Agency hopes to expose the radical activities of the antiwhaling group to the international community at the upcoming meeting, and to realize Japan's long-held intention of resuming coastal whaling.

However, the antiwhaling group likely will claim in court that Japan's research whaling has provided the nation with a cover to disguise commercial whaling. The development of the investigation into the suspect should be monitored carefully.

(Mar. 13, 2010)

Japan says it won't comply with possible tuna ban

By SHINO YUASA
Associated Press Writer


AP Photo/David Guttenfelder

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan will not comply if a ban is imposed on international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna, prized by Japanese for sushi, a senior official said after the United States threw its support behind the move ahead of a crucial vote.

"If worse comes to worst, Japan will inevitably have to lodge its reservations," Vice Fishery Minister Masahiko Yamada told a news conference Thursday.

His comments came a day after the United States threw its support behind the ban on the international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna, which conservationists say risks extinction if current catch rates continue.

At a March 13-25 meeting in Qatar, 175 member countries of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, will vote on a proposal by Monaco to list the species under Appendix 1 of the convention. If the measure wins support from two-thirds of member nations, trade of the fish would be banned.

Environmentalists say that would significantly reduce the catch because 80 percent of all Atlantic bluefin ends up in Japan, where it is a key ingredient in sashimi and sushi. Fatty bluefin - called "o-toro" here - can go for as much as 2,000 yen ($22) a piece in high-end Tokyo restaurants.

But Japan may register a reservation on the ban, which in practical terms means it could engage in trade with any other nation that also files a reservation.

The impact of such a move remains unclear because it depends on how many other nations might also register reservations. But activists say it could seriously undermine any ban.

"If major fishing nations show the same position as the Japanese government, it will ruin the concept of the CITES treaty," said Wakao Hanaoka, an ocean campaigner with Greenpeace in Tokyo.

Bluefin tuna stocks in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean have dropped by 60 percent between 1997 and 2007, a result of surging demand as well as illegal and underreported catches.

The upcoming CITES vote is starting to garner more attention in Japan, with TV programs saying a ban would make it much harder for Japanese to obtain the succulent red and pink tuna meat. Other tuna species, including the Pacific bluefin, bigeye and yellowfin, would not be affected by the ban.

Yamada said Japan is committed to protecting bluefin species. Tokyo believes that catch quotas, which have already been cut 40 percent this year to 14,900 tons (13,500 metric tons) by another body, the International Commission on the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna, should be sufficient.

But environmentalists say the quotas are widely ignored and are too high anyway.

The European Commission has proposed that EU governments commit to the ban, although there still appears to be some division. Greece, Malta, Spain and Italy - which have strong fisherman lobbies - have resisted steps to curtail the hunt for bluefin, but recently France signaled it would support a trade ban if its implementation were delayed.

3/5 24 Generation Gap (3)
Wakimoto
I suppose baby boomers and their kids are getting along much better than earlier generations of parents and their children. Am I right?
Hughes
Yes, the generation gap has narrowed and mellowed quite a bit in recent years. That wasn't always the case.
There used to be a huge gap in terms of understanding and basic values between the generation that grew up in the Depression and fought World War 11 and their offspring.
Wakimoto
Right. In the 1960s, the two generations went head-to-head over divisive issues such as the Vietnam War, sexuality and civil rights.

That gave rise to the term "counterculture" to describe disaffected young people of the era who rejected many of the values held by their parents.
Kinkaid
Nowadays, the generation gap is more a matter of amiable disagreement than a deep, acrimonious divide between parents
and their kids.
Hughes Right. It's as if they've agreed to disagree.
Today's younger generation isn't necessarily challenging or questioning the core values of their parents.
Wakimoto
Even if they don't agree about everything, there's better communication between the generations these days as well.
I think there's more willingness on the part of parents to give their kids their own space.
They don't want to control every aspect of their children's lives.

Japanese princess bullied at elementary school

By JAY ALABASTER
Associated Press Writer


AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's Princess Aiko, granddaughter of the emperor, has missed several days of classes because of bullying by boys at her elementary school, a spokesman for the royal family said Friday.

The news provided a rare glimpse into the private affairs of the world's oldest hereditary monarchy, which usually abides by strict, formal protocols and is tightlipped about personal matters.

The 8-year-old princess complained of a stomachache and expressed deep anxiety and has not attended school since coming home early Tuesday, the spokesman for the Imperial Household Agency said. He declined to provide his name, citing agency policy.

An investigation by the agency and the school revealed that she and several other students had suffered "violent things" from boys in another class, the spokesman said, declining to elaborate.

The story is likely to shock Japanese. The imperial family is treated with deep reverence in the country, where Aiko's great-grandfather, Emperor Hirohito, was worshipped as a living god until Tokyo's defeat in World War II.

But an official at the elite Gakushuin Primary School in Tokyo's central Shinjuku district attended by Aiko said the incident may have been a simple misunderstanding.

"She had decided to leave school, and just as she had returned from changing into her normal shoes from her school shoes, I hear it was two boys that approached very suddenly and nearly collided with her, which scared her," school director Motomasa Higashisono told reporters.

Japanese schoolchildren often have a separate pair of shoes for school use.

Aiko is the daughter of Crown Prince Naruhito, son of the current emperor, and Princess Masako. The agency spokesman declined to comment on the reaction of her parents or when she would return to school.

Naruhito is to visit Africa starting Saturday but won't be accompanied by Masako, who hasn't attended official duties for several years. She has long suffered from a nervous disorder attributed to the difficulties of adjusting to palace life and the pressure to bear a son.

After suffering a miscarriage in 1999, Masako gave birth to Aiko in 2001. The lack of a male heir fanned a movement to change the law to allow Aiko to succeed her father.

But Naruhito's younger brother, Prince Akishino, and his wife Princess Kiko had a baby boy in 2006, who is now third in line to the throne.

Politics and Money in Democracy
Masaru Kohno
Professor, Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University

A series of affairs related to Ichiro Ozawa, the secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, and his secretaries has highlighted again how difficult it is to establish rules about politics and money. As is well known, the Political Fund Control Act has been amended over and over in Japan. In fact, it is an endless loop in which every amendment is followed by problems where its defects are exploited, making yet another amendment inevitable. For example, the media is reporting as a big story that Rikuzankai, Ozawa’s political fund management organization, purchased real estate with political funds. This type of purchase is prohibited by the current law, but not at the time of the purchase. The expensive real estate still owned by the organization is nothing but a symbol of the loophole in the previous law.

Why does closing one loophole result in another loophole emerging in the form of another law? One answer would be simply that there is a classic conflict of interest. The Political Fund Control Act restricts politicians’ daily behavior more directly than any of the other numerous laws. The legislative power, however, can only be exercised by the sole law-making organ the Diet and the active politicians inside it. The source of difficulty is the fact that politicians themselves have to create laws which are to regulate their own behavior.

However, a more fundamental cause, perhaps, of the recurring problems of politics and money is that a serious discussion has been lacking in Japan on the principle of how to deal with these issues in the democratic system. This essay is an attempt to promote such a discussion from a more theoretical point of view for the improvement of rules governing politics and money.

In general, there are three major approaches to restricting political funds: First, to limit the amount of donations from individuals or groups; second, to require politicians or political organizations to report their revenues and expenses in detail in order to make the incoming and outgoing flow of funds more transparent; and third, to stiffen penalties for violations of amount limits or reporting requirements. The current Political Fund Control Act uses these three approaches in combination. Many of the packages that have been proposed for solving the problems of politics and money also incorporate these three elements.

Upon reflection, however, these approaches are not necessarily based on the commmon principle or on the same understanding of democracy. If these three elements involve any contradictory views or philosophies, they should not be easily integrated.

For example, the first approach limiting the amount of donations is, in other words, a notion that politicians or political parties may not collect unlimited amounts of money. This view assumes that there is, or there should be, an appropriate level set as the total amount that politicians or political parties may spend. In contrast, the second approach increased transparency in the flow of funds would work even without assuming such an appropriate level. In fact, the idea behind requiring politicians to disclose funding information is that the appropriate level should be determined by general voters. Sufficient dissemination of information would allow individual voters to judge for themselves whether specific politicians have collected too much money or whether certain political parties have received contributions from only particular types of groups and then the voters can make their voting decisions accordingly.

This difference between the first and the second approaches ultimately reflects the difference in philosophy about how to perceive democracy. According to the libertarian view, different voters should consider different amounts of money as appropriate for political activities. This leads to a conclusion that it is wrong to fix a monetary level binding the behavior of politicians or political parties. For libertarians, such an arbitrarily defined level itself would be against the principle of democracy in the first place. On the other hand, a more interventionist notion emphasizes that this libertarian assumption itself may result in a bias in favor of specific classes of people or groups. Interventionists argue that the democratic society, consisting of voters with varying capabilities, cannot be a political version of a simple economic “market,” and therefore appropriate levels of funding must be set up at various stages in the political process as a matter of course.

The third approach heavier penalties is also not always consistent with the second one. Increasing transparency is important precisely because the electorate believe that they can punish politicians whom they regard as inappropriate by voting. On the other hand, the idea of strengthening fines or other criminal penalties is based on a view about democracy that punishing inappropriate politicians takes more than just voting. This reasoning implies that the first and the third approaches are similar in that they are interventionist, and that the difference between them is whether they rely on ex ante or ex post intervention.

Following the series of the affairs mentioned above, it is expected that the Diet will discuss various bills for amending the law during the rest of the current session, such as the abolishment of corporate donations and the introduction of a tax system encouraging individual contributions. It is, however, difficult to generate constructive discussion regarding politics and money due to the interests of the political parties that are intricately intertwined with each other. Establishing a broad consensus for reform would first require fully recognizing the beliefs underlying specific proposals and the respective understanding of democracy.

Masaru Kohno
Professor, Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University
[Biography]
Prof. Kohno was born in 1962 and graduated from Faculty of Law, Sophia University. He received an M.A. in International Relations from Yale University and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University. He has been a Professor on the Faculty of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University since 2003 after serving as an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia; a National Fellow for the Hoover Institute at Stanford University; an Associate Professor for Aoyama Gakuin University, among other positions. Prof. Kohno is also a Research Associate at the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study and a Fellow at The Tokyo Foundation Virtual Center for Advanced Studies in Institution (VCASI).

[Major Publications]
Masaru Kohno, Japan's Postwar Party Politics, Princeton University Press, 1997.
Ichiro Miyake, Yoshitaka Nishizawa, and Masaru Kohno, Politics and Economy under the 1955 System: Analysis of Jiji Public Opinion Data [55-Nen Taisei-ka no Seiji to Keizai: Jiji Yoron Chosa Dehta no Bunseki], Bokutakusha, 2001
Masaru Kohno, Institution [Seido], Theories and Models in Social Sciences Vol. 12 [Shakai Kagaku no Riron to Moderu 12], University of Tokyo Press, 2002.
Masaru Kohno, ed. From Institution to Governance: Intersection of Knowledge in Social Sciences [Seido kara Gabanansu e: Shakai Kagaku ni okeru Chi no Kousa], University of Tokyo Press, 2006
Masaru Kohno and Frances Rosenbluth, eds. Japan and the World: Japan's Contemporary Geopolitical Challenges. New Haven: Yale University Council on East Asian Studies, 2009.
Masaru Kohno, ed. Expectations, Institutions, and the Global Society [Kitai, Seido, Gurohbaru Shakai], Keisoshobo, 2009
Aiji Tanaka, Masaru Kohno, Airou Hino, Ken Iida, and Opinion Poll Department of Yomiuri Shinbun Newspaper, Why did the change of the administration take place in 2009? [2009-nen, Naze Seiken-koutai dattanoka], Keisoshobo, 2009

VANCOUVER 2010 / Mao-chan a winner in fans' eyes
Akiko Yoshinaga / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

VANCOUVER--Mao Asada shed tears of vexation Thursday after she failed to capture the figure skating gold medal she so earnestly sought. Asada ended up a distant second behind her South Korean rival Kim Yu Na, who put on a flawless performance at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

But Asada's fans who watched the battle between Asada and Kim offered words of appreciation. "A silver medal also is great," said one, and others complimented her performance or talked of how it moved them.

Asada, 19, wept during an interview after the competition.

"My performance seemed to go by in a flash," she said before breaking down momentarily, adding in a strained voice: "I feel frustrated, but I did all I could."

Skating immediately before Asada, Kim received a very high score, generating a buzz among the crowd that continued into the beginning of Asada's performance.

Asada got off to a strong start, successfully performing a triple axel and completed jumps one after another. She slipped up midway through her performance, wobbling a bit on a landing.

Asada could not manage a smile immediately following her performance and accepted the cheers of spectators with a grim expression.

But she had done enough to win the silver medal.

"It was a great performance. Foreign spectators also cheered her on. I want to tell her that she was the most wonderful," said Rika Tone, 29, a company employee from Tokyo who went to the Pacific Coliseum to cheer for Asada.

"If Asada is satisfied [with the result], a big fan like me doesn't care about the color of the medal she won. Kim's performance was just too perfect," said Yasuyo Shiono, 49, also from Tokyo.

"I want to say congratulations to both Mao and Kim. I don't think we'll see such wonderful performances again for some time," said Kazuko Ueno, 78, of Itami, Hyogo Prefecture.

===

Fans in Tokyo cheer Asada



The Yomiuri Shimbun



Crowds cheered and applauded in Tokyo on Friday as Japanese figure skaters competed in the women's long program at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

About 1,200 people gathered in front of a 166-inch screen installed on the ground floor of the Marunouchi Building in Chiyoda Ward. They shouted and clapped their hands as each Japanese skater appeared on the screen.

"[Mao Asada] didn't win a gold medal, but getting a silver on the great stage [of the Olympic Games] is a marvelous achievement," said Yoshino Emoto, a 45-year-old company employee of Ota Ward, Tokyo, as he clapped loudly after Asada's performance.

The K's Cinema movie theater in Shinjuku Ward, which is now showing a film about a female figure skater aiming to compete in the Olympics, set up a temporary cheering area for the competition.

Small national flags were passed out to the about 30 people gathered there, revving them up to cheer on the skaters.

"It's too bad [Asada] lost to Kim, but I hope she wins a gold medal at the next Olympic Games," said Kensuke Yamada, a university freshman who is the same age as the 19-year-old Asada.

(Feb. 27, 2010)