Japan: Land of the rising silence

5/31/2011 11:51 AM EDT

Only if Japaneses work together shall the situation get better. The willingness of auto industry to shift their schedule is indeed a good start. The sign at the hand dryer is another example. No one knows how many people will follow the sign and reduce the duration of using the hand dryer.

The act of “Fuhyo higai" may be questionable. It is even more on American Eyes. Freedom of speech is important in general. Yet, spreading rumors can actually do more harm to the country.

5/31/2011 12:20 PM EDT

Thanks for shining some light in a place most of the rest of the media has turned its back on in their rush to the next big thing.

5/31/2011 1:26 PM EDT

good blog about the situation in Japan. I must admit that i had completely forget, like the rest of the world, about the disaster in Japan and was not aware of such extreme actions taken by Japanese government to save energy.

5/31/2011 1:49 PM EDT

Thanks for sharing your personal thoughts on this subject matter. Interesting.

5/31/2011 3:29 PM EDT

The author has clearly been away from her home nation too long and has become accustomed to the US - a land of convenience and "I, me, mine". Her story is uninformed, lacks context, and is filled with inaccuracies.

She writes: "It’s clear that no credible solutions are in sight..."

Wrong. The plan to stabilize the reactors was established early in May once the situation had been stabilized. The Japanese government remains confident in a 6 month completion. A larger goal is converting the site into a nuclear fuel waste treatment and storage facility. Japanese do not move forward without careful study and a plan that everyone agrees to, unlike how things are done in the US: on a whim and with short-sightedness.

The radiation limit for children was set by the Education Ministry based on poor information. Immediate protest by parents and academics caused a quick adjustment. A Japanese person should know how their home government operates and provide context. It is easy to draw distinctive parallels to the way in which protest and common sense are summarily ignored by the US government. If the US government responded to its citizens as did the Japanese government, we'd be war-making no more.

Fuhyo Higai means "rumor damage". Spreading false information causes harm. Citizens, and especially media, have an obligation to report facts. There is no diabolical plan to curb thought or free speech. Unlike in the US, Japanese work together for the good of the whole.

Limiting information that would cause unnecessary panic is a reasonable move. Now, more information is available. Contrast the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission whose head, just days after the crisis, announced that there would be no review of US nuclear plant safety. Until, that is, President Obama suggested something a bit more reasonable. Still, there has been little focus or action in the US to seriously address the concern.

In summary, a most unfortunate and inaccurate portrayal.

5/31/2011 5:33 PM EDT

I am neither Japanese nor American by heritage, but I still remember of the chaos after Katrina, which was a much smaller size of natural size of disaster...

5/31/2011 6:40 PM EDT

Thanks Junko, a very useful insight into "what’s really happening on the ground" in Japan, especially given the minimal information from the Japanese Government, international nuclear regulators and indifference of Western media. Please keep us updated, the vast majority of EE Times readers are concerned and keen to learn more...

5/31/2011 6:59 PM EDT

Thank you Junko for a very insightful article.
I echo the sentiment of Adam.Fletcher_#1 and find your unique vantage point of experience in both US and Japanese culture to be very helpful.

5/31/2011 8:18 PM EDT

One thing that I should have mentioned in my blog, but failed to do so, is a simple fact that most Japanese consumers don't trust Tepco; they don't trust Japanese bureacrats; they don't trust Japan's law makers.

The basic trust is broken.

And that's fueling everyone's fear here.

6/1/2011 4:49 AM EDT

k1mgy is working for the other side. careful.

Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.
Sun Tzu

k1 guy...You give yourself away, but we are watching your every move and logging.
Junko.... thank you.

6/1/2011 6:00 AM EDT

Thank you for sharing this, Junko.

6/1/2011 6:05 AM EDT

@pcsalex is right. Compare the situation with what happened after Katrina. I believe that the Japanese believe in their govt's capability to take care of them and they are not panicking. Their cool approach to tackling the problem is appreciable. Solving a problem doesn't mean jumping at it. Extension of life of a old reactor must have been done with a lot of foresight. You don't build-in safety for a once in a lifetime (or many life times) event.

6/1/2011 2:39 PM EDT

Thanks for this article. With relatives on an expat assignment in Japan, your insight is even more appreciated, especially since much of the media here in the US has moved on to other stories.

6/1/2011 3:09 PM EDT

The tragic events in Japan have created a situation in which energy conservation is a necessity. I hope that some good can be achieved from this circumstance by identifying which conservation measures are beneficial. Efficient mass transportation would seem to be highly desirable. Escalators that counterbalance each other (one descending, the other ascending) could be highly energy efficient and speed the movement of people in an otherwise congested transit system. Perhaps waste heat could be recovered for hand dryers. Japan could serve as a testbed for innovative energy saving devices that need not reduce the quality of life - and then export them to the rest of the world which lacks such an immediate clear focus on energy conservation.

6/1/2011 3:14 PM EDT

@junko.yoshida: thank you, again & again, for writing this. This article brings the post-earthquake ground reality in Japan to the outsiders like no other I have read to date.

@k1mgy has reacted the way much of my fellow countrymen & women react (I am originally from India, living in the US for last 25 years). Just because I don't live there all the time, my views are not considered authentic. It is both a cultural and domiciliary reaction to a view when expressed generates push back irrespective of how close it is to the truth.

As an Asian, I resonate with the view that very few trust their government. Japan used to be an exception to that, till now, apparently!

I hope you will get to spend some quality time with your mother.

Dr. MP Divakar

6/2/2011 7:20 AM EDT

The Japanese government has, perhaps, not been as forthcoming as desired, but the citizens share partial blame for that. Indeed, people everywhere do. The government has had unrealistic expectations placed upon them, because we have a hard time accepting that we are powerless in the face of natural disasters of this scale. With 20/20 hindsight, we question why the service life of aging reactors was extended 10 more years, why the backup generators were at ground level, etc.

Perhaps shame prevents government officials from telling the people what they do not want to hear. The service life was extended because it was the only way to supply enough power. There simply is no technology that is capable of replacing nuclear at the moment. However, there are safer, more modern reactor designs. But will the government be willing to approve the construction of a new nuclear facility? Will the people be willing to accept it? That remains to be seen. Nevertheless, both the government and the people of Japan, in my humble opinion, have behaved admirably, given the scale of the disaster they are going through.

6/2/2011 1:38 PM EDT

This very well written and informative article illustrates why it is so important to have an informed citizenry and why as a part of that informed citizenry, we should do our best to be unbiased in our reporting.

When tragedy strikes, clear, unbiased information will give the victims confidence that there will be a recovery and it will give the observers the ability to truly help.

My heart goes out to those that have and are suffering as a result of the earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear plant. It does everyone a great disservice when the officials entrusted with our safety are not clear on what is really happening.

This type of story puts everything into more human terms. Rather than just turning everything in to a statistic, as is so common with the news media these days, this story makes it real.

6/3/2011 8:39 AM EDT

Science and Technology is majorly used for the comfort living . Many times during natural disasters science and technology helped the human and the earth. At few instances of this kind science and technolgy joins with the natural calamities and gives us unsafe situation.
Human need to perfect these science and tech areas soon.

6/3/2011 3:36 PM EDT

Junko, Fine writing; excellent reporting.

6/3/2011 4:35 PM EDT

Junko:Excellent story

6/3/2011 11:48 PM EDT

The poor press received by Japan in my view does not reflect Japan ineptness, it reflects rather their refusal to cater to a bitching, self-centered press.

Thinking Americans aren't worried about the Japanese, they're angered by the slip-shod boorish press.

6/4/2011 1:22 AM EDT

Japanese academicians, business person and common people are very resilient and innnovative. This is natural disastar and it is very difficult time. However, Japanese with their indomitable spirit will rise to the occasion and find suitable solution to lessen the misery of common people. Also, they have to be more innovative for future tsunamis. Our heartfelt feeling for them and wish we can help them more.

Very good narration by Junko.

6/4/2011 1:06 PM EDT

Your personal touch has brought out the human side of the grave situation which is getting worse by the hour. The Japan Times' latest report: "Radiation of up to 4,000 millisieverts per hour has been detected in the building housing the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. says." We should not lose sight of this tragedy and are grateful for your reporting from the "trenches."

6/12/2011 8:54 AM EDT

@Junko, excellent report! While I am no expert in Japanese affairs, I think I understand what's happening there. Applying Western thought processes to understand what is happening there and find the best way forward does not help much in my opinion. The Japanese people will find their own way out of this tragedy. Yes, some individuals will be deemed hard done by but Japanese society as a whole will emerge from this crisis stronger. The balance between individual interests and societal interests varies from one country to another, and I do not think the West always gets it right by the way.

6/23/2011 10:43 AM EDT

Excellent report Junko!! One can understand the skepticism with which the Japanese public is viewing Tepco and the Japanese government now. But IMHO, in most other countries, things would have been far worse. This is a tribute to both the resilience and organized discipline of the Japanese people and to be fair, the professionalism, albeit inadequate to handle a disaster of this magnitude, of the institutions there.

6/30/2011 3:43 PM EDT

thanks for the personal touch and the information.

lack of information (including dis-information) breads fear not the otherway around.