Personnel strategy for international cooperation

Japan Nuclear Human Resource Development Network published a report with the title of "a new direction of human resource development in response to the accident of Fukushima nuclear power plant" (東京電力福島原子力発電所事故を踏まえた原子力人材育成の方向性について）. At the section of "future direction" in this report, the following notices are found:

In order to contribute to the development of new safety criteria in international organizations governing nuclear safety in response to the accident in Fukushima, it is required to develop human resources who have communication skills as well as technical knowledge on nuclear safety.

The central government mentioned in a report with the title of "An additional report prepared by the Japanese government to internal nuclear agency - the accident of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima- ". At the section of "securing personnel in the field of nuclear safety" in this report, the following notices are found;

We will launch a study to establish "a training center in the field of nuclear safety for international cooperation and improvement of personnel quality".

The other section of "strengthen of regulatory organization for nuclear safety" mentioned as the followings:

We aim to establish "Nuclear Safety Agency" (tentative name). Will will secure high quality personnel ,regardless of public sectors or private sectors, in order to proceed properly with our missions.

The more I encountered such kind of voices from the governmental sides or private sectors, the more I am convinced that environmental consultants will play a pivotal role to provide stakeholders with proper solutions.

Before the 3.11, the nuclear safety is not managed under conventional environmental regulations like water pollution prevention acts or soil pollution prevention acts in Japan. Environmental quality standards for radioactive substances have not yet been established. On the other hand, a set of strict regulatory frameworks on the nuclear safety is developed for radiation controlled areas. Although some people including Dr. Sakata Shoichi had suggested that the regulatory framework should be expanded in order to regulate radiation contamination outside the radiation controlled areas, there is yet no rules in Japan to regulate nuclear safety outside the radiation controlled areas.

I think that it is time for environmental consultants to work with this big issue in collaboration with experts of nuclear safety.

Personnel strategy in Fukushima

Several measures, from the central governmental level to private organization levels, with respect to personnel issues have been already taken to manage the radioactive substance contaminated soil and the ongoing accident in Fukushima.

The central government has established "Fukushima decontamination work promotion team"（福島除染推進チーム" in Fukushima prefecture. One of the missions of this team is to promote decontamination works in collaboration with local governments. Though the details of this team are still unclear, the importance of personnel issues seems to be recognized in the central government in the work of decontamination.

Fukushima prefectural government has announced that it would establish "the personnel bank for decontamination work" (除染人材バンク) in the next January. According to a basic policy of the central government, local governments has responsibility to undertake decontamination work for the areas where radiation levels are less than 20 micro Sv/year and more than 1 micro Sv/year. Fukushima prefectural government has thus decided to establish the personnel bank, seeks technical experts to be registered in the bank, and conduct decontamination works with the help of knowledge of the bank.

There is other movement in a private field. Skilled Veteran Corps for Fukushima （福島原発行動隊） is not a governmental organization, but a source of skilled personnel. People who are over 60 years old, have technical skills and mission based minds are permitted to join  this corps. One of the missions of this corps is to provide advice with respect to decontamination works for governmental bodies and private companies and even send the registered personnel to decontamination works.

Business Trip to Thailand (Third Time)

I am now at a departure gate in the Narita International Airport. I am going to visit Bangkok today, and this is the third time to land on Thailand.

Thailand is currently suffering from severe flood threat. The flood is causing damages in the northern part of Thailand, but it has not reached the central part of Bangkok.

I will arrive at Bangkok this afternoon, and will leave Bangkok at the midnight tomorrow.

According to news obtained so far, I am not sure whether the flood threat will reach Bangkok. If the central part of Bangkok is attacked by the flood, then, I will not be able to undertake my business mission in Bangkok, and in the worst case, I will not be able to leave Bangkok if the international airport in Bangkok halts its functions due to the flood threat.

This is similar to the situation which I experienced in Japan on March 11, 2011. Large earthquakes and subsequent massive tsunami as well as the successive meltdowns of the nuclear power plants in Fukushima completely halted functions of Tokyo. Trains were delaying and even not moving, and electricity was stopped in some areas.

Urban areas are fragile to natural disasters.

--until here, written on October 20---

--from here, written on October 22---

I am writing this post in a train back to Tokyo.

I came back to Tokyo, and I am safe and well. I was not trapped in the flood thread in Bangkok, but I felt the situation was not solved and still facing future crisis. I am not sure whether Bangkok will be safe.

This crisis tells me that a megacity is fragile to natural disasters. Once a natural disaster occurs in a metropolitan, then, at first, vast of information starts distributing. We face massive of information. In addition, this kind of information spreads all over the world in a short period.

Next, many of managers are assigned from different authorities to the disaster. For example, in the Japanese case of the nuclear crisis, the prime minister of Japan, the minister of Economic Trade and Industry, and President of Tokyo Electric Power Company were conducting operations to minimize damages of the nuclear crisis. Although each of the representatives seemed to try to do their best, communication among each other was reported not to be enough.

In the past, I have read a book, but I forget the title of the book. The title was probably “sustainability future” or stuff like that. According to the book, 50 to 75 % of human beings will live in mega cities in the future. Given the ongoing flood crisis damage social and economic activities in Thailand, people will face a similar hard situation in the future as well.

Chrysanthemum Festival

Today and tomorrow, there is a chrysanthemum festival in my town. A couple of hand-made-Japanese dolls dressing chrysanthemum is displayed at a temple near my home during this two days. This festival is held every October. It is the fourth time for me to see this festival.

When I was in my home today after my dinner, I heard pulses of Japanese drums. I went outside, and found five young women and one man were beating Japanese drums on top of a float decorated as like a fishing boat. I was fascinated with the performance.

While watching the performance, I found that people in my town seem to be connected to each other rather strongly. I have no kids, and my working place is about 1 hour away by foot from my town; thus, I have very limited connections with people in my town. On the other hand, when I went back to my hometown where I had been living until the 18 years-old, I found myself a member of communities in my hometown.

Someone regard this valuable connection as social capital. We need time and effort to foster social relationships in communities; but, once such a connection is developed, you will be able to obtain many opportunity from your community.

Air pollution in Tokyo

Japan experienced severe environmental issues during the period of 1955 to 1970. In this period, air pollution was significant in industrial complex areas. The Yokkaichi industrial area, in which many petrochemical factories were located, was notorious for its air pollution. Air in the Keihin industrial area, including seaside areas of Kawasaki and Yokohama, was also contaminated by air pollutants originating from petroleum burning. Residential areas in Tokyo also experienced severe air pollution due to heavy traffic loads. A number of people were damaged by the air pollution, and people were even killed in the worst case.

During the period, a relationship between a cause and its result was simple. Production activities required oil burning, and pollution control technique was not matured. Thus, air pollution was inevitable issues at that time. A relationship between light and shadow were really understandable. You would have good reasons to say that economic activities were enemy to your environment at a loud voice.

I am currently living in a residential area in Tokyo, but am able to breathe air prevailing in Tokyo. I believe that acute toxicities arising from air pollution is not almost at a concerned level in Tokyo. This is thanks to recent emergences of environment-friendly vehicles and severe technical and regulatory pollution prevention measures taken in Japan for the past several decades. Although air pollution levels along main road side areas in Tokyo should be still taken cared about, I can find a residential place in the metropolitan Tokyo where I have not to take care about air pollution.


However, I cannot say anything about newly appearing air pollutants: radioactive substances coming from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. I am not totally sure whether the radioactive substances will cause negative impacts on your health in the future.

After 10 years

I was in Washington D.C. on September 11, 2001. I was there for my private trip. I was 20 years-old, and traveling over the U.S. by the national train company called AMTRAC. I arrived on L.A. at the end of August in that year, and started to move from L.A. to Arizona, Florida, New York, Boston, and to Washington D.C by the train.

I was in FBI at the moment when two airplanes crashed into the World Trade Centers. FBI had invited travelers to its headquarters, and I applied that tour, which was free of charge. When we were in a room designed for shooting practices, we travelers were forced to leave the headquarters without any explanation.

I was on a bench in a large park located in the center of Washington D.C. when an airplane crashed into Pentagon. I forgot the name of the park, but it should be famous one. The park included Smithsonian museums and Lincoln Memorial and others. I heard a large sound, and later I confirmed white smoke. And, the world has changed after those consecutive terrors.

The U.S. had a policy to put evils outside its own country, and attacked Afghanistan and Iraq. It was easy for us to understand logics preparing in the U.S. at that time. There were enemies in the Middle East, and you had to attack the enemies before the enemies attacked to you. You were always at the side of justice. With this simple logic, the U.S. has been spending huge USD and precious human resources for those wars.

This is a universal picture which you often encounter in your life. For example, cult religious groups such as Oumu Shinri Kyo played similar actions to the ones conducted by the U.S. Oumu seemed to believe that they were at the justice side, and all the worlds constructed outside Oumu were at the evil side, thus, Oumu had to attack the evils.

The same concept can be applied to our individual households. If a wife and her husband are both naïve and very honest, then they have to face many difficulties because honest people is always fighting against something (or, people who are always fighting against something are called as honest people.) If the wife and her husband find themselves at the side of justice and the remaining others at the side of evil, then the wife and her husband have a possibility to attach the remaining others.

In this sense, it is one of good ideas that we hold evils inside our own home.

Business Trip to Thailand (Second visit)

I have been and will be staying in Bangkok from September 5 to September 9, 2011 for my business purpose.

For socio-economic survey, I visited an open-air market in Bangkok yesterday. It was a very huge market. There were fish, meat, vegetable, and other foods as many varieties as I can imagine. An atmosphere prevailing in the market was totally different from other places where I visited during my stay in Thailand. Smells, sounds, faces of people and dogs floating or walking in the market impressed me very much. It was rather a chaotic atmosphere, which was similar to the one which I had during my stay in Mumbai in May, 2010.

Thailand has many faces.

Private Life

A couple of years ago I read a book with the title “Einstein: His Life and Universe” written by Walter Isaacson. This book is a biography of Dr. Einstein. According to the book, when teaching theoretical physics in a university, Dr. Einstein said to his students “You can ask me anything that you are interested in except for my private life.”

Indeed, Dr. Einstein had a deep story in his private life. He and his first wife had two boys and one girl. Or more correctly, Dr. Einstein and his girlfriend who would become his first wife got the girl before their marriage. The girl, however, was transferred to a friend of the wife soon after her birth, and Dr. Einstein had hardly or never contacted the girl after her leave. The reason why she left was unclear.

The younger son of Dr. Einstein had disability in his mental health, and did not have good physical strength. Although his first wife always took great care of the younger son, he passed away in relatively younger ages, I forgot the correct age, but probably in the 20s of the younger son.

The first wife of Dr. Einstein was his classmate in their university. Her major was physics, and had a good talent in science. She helped so much Dr. Einstein develop special relativity when he was 25 or 26 years-old. The relationship between her and Dr. Einstein was good in their initial stage of the marriage, but later, it got worse and worse. They lived together at one time, but lived in a separate location at other time, and finally they were divorced.

I think that the reason why Dr. Einstein did not want to talk about his private life to his students was simple; it was too long. It would take too long time to explain his private life as per requests from his students. Actually, the author of the biography required more than 800 pages of a paperback to explain his private life in place of Dr. Einstein.

On the other hand, how about my private life? I have little to talk about. I have a wife, but no kids. When I am out of office, I usually read novels, listen music from YouTube, write this kind of posts, or strengthen background knowledge of my profession by studying technical books. I like to walk around my town or take a bicycle just to go around. Nothing seems special, and everything seems usual.

I have made some friends through activities of a non-profit organization, Citizen Science Initiative Japan. A head office of the organization is very close to my home, it took just five to ten minutes by walk from my home to there. About once in a month, I visited the office and talked with friends about something. In recent days, out topics were mainly related to 3.11. Many of the people gathering at the office have their interests in science, and their professions are also related to science. Thus, it is comfortable for me to contact them since sometimes we do not need additional explanation or clarification when talking about science.

A record of my private life is important. Although or because my private life is not special, I try to keep recording my viewpoints on my daily life. This motivation originates from my primitive desires.

Staying Alone in Home

I am in my summer vacation. I have been and will be out of my office from August 19 (Friday) to August 25 (Thursday). I have been staying in my home since starting the vacation, hardly have gone out of my home except for having a short walk around my home.

During the walk, I have visited a coffee shop nearby my home to have a cup of coffee. It was nice coffee with a bit of a strong flavor. Its cost was 190 yen, and could be accessible from my home a couple of minutes by foot. Still now, I remember that the first two or three sips of the coffee were the best, anyway.

When strolling around my home, I also have visited a used-book store just to see around; but, I found a book written by Toshiko Hirata interesting, and bought it. It was a poem typed story. The author has a good talent to express herself with nice lyrics. In her book, she focused on a relationship between a husband and a wife. A course of ordinary and usual relationships were depicted with a nice writing style.

My wife has been and will be also out of our home due to her business for this week.

I found it comfortable to be alone in my home. I ate every meat with reading books. I have successively completed reading novels. I am currently reading “Underground” by Haruki Murakami. This book is not a novel, but a non-fiction typed story with a root from the terror occurred in subways on March 20, 1995.

The situation in early 1995 in Japan was quite similar to the one in early 2011. In January 1995, a massive earthquake struck a center of Kobe, and more than 5,000 people were dead. Subsequently, in March 1995, the terror occurred in Tokyo. The nuclear accident at Fukushima followed by the massive earthquake occurred in March 2011. Natural disasters seem to be liked with human origin disasters.

In my office, I spent many of my time in communicating with my colleagues, bosses, subcontractors both in Japanese and English. Day by day, I communicated and communicated and communicated. I am a consultant as well as an engineer. I need time to prepare management plans or technical documents as for my work as an engineer. Along with this, I have to grasp needs of my clients and provide them with adequate solutions as a consultant. Thus, day by day, I have communicated with relevant people and prepared documents, and provided them with the documents, and again communicated with….

As a whole, I like working as a consultant, but, at the same time, I like to stay alone in my home. Reading and thinking alone are good and quite relaxed.

The wind-up bird chronicle

Someone who has visited my blog has said that “The wind-up bird chronicle” by Haruki Murakami was an impressive book. During the trip to Thailand last week, I completed reading The wind-up bird chronicle. I had a set of time in the airplane and before falling in sleep at a hotel in Bangkok.

The novel was interesting. Tohru Okada is a main character. He is 30 years-old, and got married, but has not had kids yet. He lives in Tokyo. His life is not special at one glance. However, as the novel continues, he begins to get involved in unusual things. He often jumps between in reality and in dream. Many characters appear in the novel, and they speak and speak and speak. With the help of those characters, I sometimes thought that I could touch one of fundamental questions of our life. They are usually called as love, dream, mission of our life, enemy to our soul, or others.

I like Murakami’s novels because he sheds light on important things which exist in my mind, but do not usually appear in my daily life.

Business Trip to Thailand

I am now in Bangkok, Thailand. I am here for my business purpose. One of the missions of this trip is related to waste management in Thailand.

Thailand is a good place to stay. Food is good even though it is a little bit hot and oily. Air pollution here in Bangkok is not severer than in Hanoi or Mumbai. Waste is not scattered on streets. Stray dogs are here and there, but they do not come close to me.

What impressed me here was that poor people was poor, and rich was rich. I feel that there are a huge discrepancy between people who have and people who do not have. Taxi drivers or clerks at restaurant or shopping markets seems really poor, on the other hand, business people working at offices seems smart and intelligent.

I will visit Thailand probably 3 to 4 times within the next half year to accomplish my business mission.

Macroscopic and microscopic

When I was a university student, I used to think that I would like to engage in a job through which I could add a valuable contribution to the realization of a better world. I did not hope to spend my time in conducting superficial things in exchange for salary in my future career.

Six years has passed since I graduated my school and started working at a consulting company. So, one question is “Am I doing and delivering valuable services to my clients?

In addition, as a result of my service, our society goes to a better direction?” Of course, no one knows an answer to my question.

From the macroscopic point, our Japanese society becomes worse than six years ago. China has overcome an economic competition over Japan recently. We experienced the large earthquake and tsunami as well as the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant and distributed a large amount of radioactive substances throughout the eastern part of Japan. The disaster on 3.11 is already and will more strictly tight our national budget in the future.

From the microscopic point, some of my works, which I completed for the period of the six years of my career, satisfied my clients’ needs, and such types of experiences have strengthened the confidence in my management and technical skills. Even I may have satisfied my clients’ needs in some of my past projects, the situation surrounding Japan got worse in the macroscopic context.

After all, individuals can do a very little thing in our society, but I would like to keep doing my best performances in my professional career in the future.

Perception of Radiation Risk

Four months have passed since the nuclear accident occurred in Fukushima. A huge number of information flows with respect to radiation risks is still spreading our society. A remarkable point of the information flow is that the radiation risks are expressed purely based on scientific languages. This makes it difficult for me to understand and evaluate current and prospective risks; thus, I cannot make a priority how to respond this issue.

This sounds contradiction. Scientific language should provide us with reasonable explanations, and I believe that other languages, such as intuitions, arts, astrology, cannot play the same role as science. Then, why cannot I grasp the radiation risks surrounding me even though I am in a position where I can gain scientific information? An answer is easy. My scientific literacy is limited, and a complexity of the radiation risks exceeds my limitation.

“No acute toxicity arising from the radioactive substances to our health is expected”, the Japanese government have been repeatedly expressing to its citizens. However, the government statement lacks scientific explanations; thus, I cannot accept the government explanation without hesitations.

For example, last night I bought a pack of cherries, which have been produced in Yamagata prefecture. If the cherries were to be produced in Fukushima, I would have hesitated to buy them. However, I cannot make a reasonable decision in buying the one produced in Yamagata. I do not know whether or not agricultural products produced outside Fukushima prefecture are safe. Thus, I stop thinking the safety issues in buying the cherries. That was not an act that those who have scientific knowledge should have done.

Since March 11, 2011, I started studying safety issues relating to radioactive substances in my private time. However, I am still uncertain whether or not my life in this Tokyo is safe.

In any way, if similar accidents to the one in Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant occur in Japan in future, the Japanese government will collapse easily. No more nuclear power plants are requested, and current operating nuclear power plants should be abolished in an adequate manner in near future.

Deleting maps showing radiation contamination distribution

I have deleted all the maps showing radiation contaminatin distribution posted in this blog. The similar maps will be published on appropriate websites in the future.

Efficiency and System

Mainichi Online kindly published a Japanese translated full text of the 2011 International Catalunya Prize speech delivered by Haruki Murakami in Barcelona, Spain. Though I tried to find an English original full text of the speech, the original one seems to be protected under some licenses.

In his speech, he concentrated on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear accident, and criticized “Efficiency” penetrating our Japanese society as a crucial origin of this nuclear accident.

I remembered another speech delivered by Haruki Murakami in Jerusalem, Israel in 2009. In this speech, he criticized a battle occurring in Gaza at that time, and generalized a root of the battle, and arrived at a metaphor “Egg and Wall”. Egg is individuals, and Wall is “System”. According to the speech, the Egg is always confronting the Wall called System.

I am an engineer, and one of the fundamental missions of engineers is to improve “Efficiency”, and other one is to establish “System”. “Efficiency” and “System” are always in my head. Inefficient events or disorganized structures imply potential needs or potential clients.

Efficiency should be improved and systematic management should be also introduced in our society. However, we should also consider a factor called timescale together with efficiency and system.

Nuclear power generation is indeed highly efficient compared with solar power or wind power generation if we focus on a short timescale. With respect to a much longer timescale, say 100 years or 1,000 years, nuclear power generation must be inefficient. Over this longer timescale, nuclear power plant accidents may occur. Once a nuclear power plant accident like the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accidents occurs, the nuclear power plant happens not to be under our control. From this point – a longer timescale, nuclear power generation is not efficient and not systematic one.

--from here, wrote on June 12---
I made a mistake.
Haruki Murakami made the speech in Japanese.
Youtube contains a broadcast of the speech.

Since he made the last presentation in English in Israel and I feel that his writing style is influenced by English cultures, I thought that he had made the speech in English in Spain as well.

I think that Haruki Murakami wanted as many as Japanese to listen his speech, thus, he decided to deliver it in Japanese.

--until here, wrote on June 12---

Personal Impression on Nuclear Power

Before March 11, 2011, I have paid little attentions to potential risks arising from nuclear power plants, and I have not cared about why nuclear power industries have been or have not been required by our society. On the other hand, I have received a couple of orders from nuclear power related industries in my job in the past. In this sense, the nuclear power industry was one of my clients, and along with this line, I have not had strong negative impressions on this industry.

However, after the accident of Fukushima Daiichi, I started to gather information relating to nuclear power safety issues. During this process, I found that a small number of individuals, some from science and others from engineering, have kept insisting potential risks of nuclear power energy for a long time – more than 10 years.

Before March 11, such anti-nuclear activists seemed to be minority, and major opinions prevailing over our society was that “we need nuclear power in order to sustain our current level of life, then why should we abandon the nuclear power?” Probably, reflecting to such negligence to voices from the minority part, I have not set aside enough time to hear opinions posed from the anti-nuclear activists.

However, today on the Internet, I heard discussions held in the Upper house on May 23, 2011. The purpose of the discussion was that members of the House of Councilors could scrutinize the first response to the nuclear accident in Fukushima by the Japanese government and look into past and current status regarding nuclear energy policy in Japan.

The following four people were invited for the discussion as an information holder:

-       Hiroaki Koide (Assistant Professor at Kyoto University) (小出裕章 (京都大学原子炉実験所助教))

-       Masashi Goto (Part-time lecturer at Shibaura Institute of Technology) (後藤政志 (芝浦工業大学非常勤講師))

-       Katsuhiko Ishibashi (Emeritus Professor at Kobe University) (石橋克彦 (神戸大学名誉教授))

-       Masayoshi Son (President at Soft Bank) (孫正義 (ソフトバンク株式会社代表取締役社長))

After quick search by Google, I found that the first three people were, as it is called, anti-nuclear activists. They have been raising an alarm mainly over safety issues of nuclear power plants for a long time. One of the worse scenarios which they had forecasted to occur in the near future was really realized in Fukushima on March 11.

After hearing the discussion, I found that I did not have any reasons to disagree the standpoint that there seem to be little locations suitable for nuclear power plants in Japan because Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world.

The fact that Japan is a quake prone country seems to be scientifically fact. In addition, power and scale of earthquake and its subsequent event by tsunami were proved to be extraordinary on March 11. I am not sure whether current safety measures prepared in nuclear power plants in Japan are capable of future earthquake and tsunami.

Radiation Contaminated Waste (Part 1)

No one can neglect his/her fears arising from radioactive contamination. We can relief ourselves only when scientific insight tells us how safe or how dangerous the contamination is in a quantitative context.

In a near future, a good number of workers will be needed when the Japanese government proceeds with a task to remediate or remove a large amount of radiation contaminated soil in or around Fukushima Prefecture.

Under the Radiation Hazards Prevention Law enacted in Japan, a radiation protection supervisor is defined as a specialist who shall be in charge of the safe management of radioactive substances. One can become a radiation protection supervisor when he/she passes a national examination and take a set of lectures.

Nuclear Safety Technology Center (usually called as NUSTEC) is a responsible organization for the national examination as well as the set of lectures regarding the radiation protection supervisor. According to the website of the NUSTEC, 8607 people have passed the national examination for the last 10 years from 2001 to 2010.

I will discuss a shortage of the number of a radiation protection supervisor at this moment in some days on this blog.

Roles of Individuals

I found many individuals writing their opinions on the crisis in Tohoku caused by the tsunami as well as the Fukushima nuclear accident on their own blog since last March. Individuals have been acting and uploading the action on their blog. As a matter of fact, each blog is not connected to each other, and can be regarded as just the flooding of information. However, they provide me with opportunities to think about the roles and the responsibilities of individuals in the time of and after the crisis. Let me introduce several blogs which are interesting.

To begin, the blog of Junichiro Makino is interesting. He is specialized in astrophysics and a professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology. He has been estimating and uploading the severity of the Fukushima nuclear accident in a quantitative manner almost every day since the nuclear crisis occurred in March 11. He wrote his motivation for doing the estimation on March 14 as following:

(Original text)

こういうみつもり計算をやるのが普段役に立たない天体物理学者の使命だと思う。

(Translated into English by Takanori Ishizuka)

I think that the mission of astrophysicists, who seem to be unable to function in a daily life, is to conduct such a type of estimation.

His estimation helps me understand the severity of the current situation regarding the nuclear accident.

Next, I like the blog of Ai Kanoh. She lives in Bombay and is working at an Indian company. She has sometimes uploaded her posts with respect to the crisis in Tohoku. On April 28, she introduced a song "I love you & I need you, Fukushima" on her blog. I have not heard the song until I found it on her blog. The song and the moving images on YouTube are very good, and kind of moving.

Finally, the blog of aYa also contained good information. aYa lives in Geneva and is working at the WHO (World Health Organization) as a technical expert. She had been voluntarily translating parts of English official documents published by the WHO Western Pacific Region into the Japanese language from last March until last April, and both the original document and the translated document were uploaded onto the website of WHO. She uploaded this activity on her blog on March 25.

Activities conducted and information published by these three individuals taught me the roles and responsibilities of individuals.

Radioactive Substance Fall Out in Tokyo

I have downloaded all the necessary data to draw the above graph (the data from 1957 to 2009 was from  Environmental Radioactivity Monitoring in Japan and the data from March to April 2011 was from Tokyo Metropolitan Government).

The total amount of the 137 Cs fall out from April, 1957 to December 2009 is 6,500 Bq/m2 (0.18 Ci/km2). On the other hand, the total amount of the 137 Cs fall out from March, 2011 to April, 2011 is 7,000 Bq/m2 (0.19 Ci/km2).

In the past, large amounts of 137 Cs fall out were observed from 1950s to 1960s in Tokyo due to intensive atmospheric nuclear testings in the world outside Japan. In addition, the 137 Cs fall out was also observed in May, 1986 one month after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

However, much more amounts of 137 Cs fall out were detected in the past two months. We are facing an unprecedented accident.

The situation gets much worse in Ibaraki Prefecture, which is located much closer to Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant than Tokyo. The total amount of 137 Cs fall out from March, 2011 to April, 2011 in Hitachinaka city, Ibaraki Prefecture was 29,000 Bq/m2 (0.78 Ci /km2). The data of Hitachinaka city was obtained from MEXT.

I write the original data to draw the above graph as the followings;

 Year,Month,137Cs Monthly Fall Out in Tokyo [Bq/m2]
1957,1,0.00E+00
1957,2,0.00E+00
1957,3,0.00E+00
1957,4,4.07E+01
1957,5,7.25E+01
1957,6,1.48E+02
1957,7,3.81E+01
1957,8,1.92E+01
1957,9,7.18E+01
1957,10,1.59E+01
1957,11,9.99E+00
1957,12,1.04E+01
1958,1,7.40E+00
1958,2,1.52E+01
1958,3,4.44E+01
1958,4,3.40E+01
1958,5,4.96E+01
1958,6,4.66E+01
1958,7,5.37E+01
1958,8,3.15E+01
1958,9,3.66E+01
1958,10,4.85E+01
1958,11,1.78E+01
1958,12,3.70E+01
1959,1,4.00E+01
1959,2,4.70E+01
1959,3,1.35E+02
1959,4,1.44E+02
1959,5,1.93E+02
1959,6,1.31E+02
1959,7,4.59E+01
1959,8,2.85E+01
1959,9,2.66E+01
1959,10,1.37E+01
1959,11,2.37E+01
1959,12,1.55E+01
1960,1,1.33E+01
1960,2,2.59E+01
1960,3,2.66E+01
1960,4,3.74E+01
1960,5,2.37E+01
1960,6,2.37E+01
1960,7,1.52E+01
1960,8,8.88E+00
1960,9,7.40E+00
1960,10,1.30E+01
1960,11,5.18E+00
1960,12,3.70E+00
1961,1,3.33E+00
1961,2,3.33E+00
1961,3,7.40E+00
1961,4,1.26E+01
1961,5,7.40E+00
1961,6,3.40E+01
1961,7,4.07E+00
1961,8,2.96E+00
1961,9,1.11E+01
1961,10,1.19E+02
1961,11,1.18E+01
1961,12,2.63E+01
1962,1,2.41E+01
1962,2,1.96E+01
1962,3,6.99E+01
1962,4,9.51E+01
1962,5,1.42E+02
1962,6,1.43E+02
1962,7,5.92E+01
1962,8,2.59E+01
1962,9,9.99E+00
1962,10,5.40E+01
1962,11,1.07E+02
1962,12,5.55E+01
1963,1,2.22E+01
1963,2,3.77E+01
1963,3,1.79E+02
1963,4,2.15E+02
1963,5,1.94E+02
1963,6,5.29E+02
1963,7,1.89E+02
1963,8,1.02E+02
1963,9,9.21E+01
1963,10,1.16E+02
1963,11,2.07E+01
1963,12,1.55E+01
1964,1,4.59E+01
1964,2,2.63E+01
1964,3,7.18E+01
1964,4,8.88E+01
1964,5,3.85E+01
1964,6,5.70E+01
1964,7,3.00E+01
1964,8,1.96E+01
1964,9,2.11E+01
1964,10,1.70E+01
1964,11,1.33E+01
1964,12,1.07E+01
1965,1,1.44E+01
1965,2,1.92E+01
1965,3,6.22E+01
1965,4,5.70E+01
1965,5,7.84E+01
1965,6,6.73E+01
1965,7,1.85E+01
1965,8,3.59E+01
1965,9,9.25E+00
1965,10,1.15E+01
1965,11,8.14E+00
1965,12,7.77E+00
1966,1,7.40E+00
1966,2,2.00E+01
1966,3,8.88E+00
1966,4,1.44E+01
1966,5,4.11E+01
1966,6,4.07E+01
1966,7,9.99E+00
1966,8,7.03E+00
1966,9,4.07E+00
1966,10,7.40E+00
1966,11,3.33E+00
1966,12,1.85E+00
1967,1,1.07E+01
1967,2,9.25E+00
1967,3,6.29E+00
1967,4,1.04E+01
1967,5,8.14E+00
1967,6,1.22E+01
1967,7,2.59E+00
1967,8,1.48E+00
1967,9,1.85E+00
1967,10,3.33E+00
1967,11,1.48E+00
1967,12,3.70E-01
1968,1,3.70E+00
1968,2,2.22E+00
1968,3,7.77E+00
1968,4,1.59E+01
1968,5,1.26E+01
1968,6,5.92E+00
1968,7,1.85E+00
1968,8,6.29E+00
1968,9,5.18E+00
1968,10,6.29E+00
1968,11,1.48E+00
1968,12,3.70E+00
1969,1,2.22E+00
1969,2,3.33E+00
1969,3,3.33E+00
1969,4,7.03E+00
1969,5,1.18E+01
1969,6,7.40E+00
1969,7,1.26E+01
1969,8,4.81E+00
1969,9,4.44E+00
1969,10,7.03E+00
1969,11,1.85E+00
1969,12,1.11E+00
1970,1,2.59E+00
1970,2,1.48E+00
1970,3,4.44E+00
1970,4,1.15E+01
1970,5,1.26E+01
1970,6,3.37E+01
1970,7,1.11E+01
1970,8,4.44E+00
1970,9,4.07E+00
1970,10,3.70E+00
1970,11,2.96E+00
1970,12,1.11E+00
1971,1,1.44E+00
1971,2,1.92E+00
1971,3,3.33E+00
1971,4,1.69E+01
1971,5,1.37E+01
1971,6,1.77E+01
1971,7,1.18E+01
1971,8,3.40E+00
1971,9,3.70E+00
1971,10,2.66E+00
1971,11,7.40E-01
1971,12,7.40E-01
1972,1,5.18E+00
1972,2,4.44E+00
1972,3,2.22E+00
1972,4,3.70E+00
1972,5,3.70E+00
1972,6,8.14E+00
1972,7,4.44E+00
1972,8,1.85E+00
1972,9,4.44E+00
1972,10,1.11E+00
1972,11,7.40E-01
1972,12,1.11E+00
1973,1,8.51E-01
1973,2,1.85E+00
1973,3,1.11E+00
1973,4,2.74E+00
1973,5,2.55E+00
1973,6,2.66E+00
1973,7,1.59E+00
1973,8,5.92E-01
1973,9,9.25E-01
1973,10,2.59E-01
1973,11,5.92E-01
1973,12,2.59E-01
1974,1,7.40E-01
1974,2,1.85E+00
1974,3,5.18E+00
1974,4,6.66E+00
1974,5,7.40E+00
1974,6,1.59E+01
1974,7,9.99E+00
1974,8,2.26E+00
1974,9,1.92E+00
1974,10,1.85E+00
1974,11,1.11E+00
1974,12,1.85E+00
1975,1,2.41E+00
1975,2,2.00E+00
1975,3,3.00E+00
1975,4,7.18E+00
1975,5,4.81E+00
1975,6,2.41E+00
1975,7,1.30E+00
1975,8,3.70E-01
1975,9,6.29E-01
1975,10,2.11E+00
1975,11,8.88E-01
1975,12,2.59E-01
1976,1,2.22E-01
1976,2,1.07E+00
1976,3,1.44E+00
1976,4,2.07E+00
1976,5,1.30E+00
1976,6,1.18E+00
1976,7,4.44E-01
1976,8,4.81E-01
1976,9,5.18E-01
1976,10,1.63E+00
1976,11,5.18E-01
1976,12,1.48E-01
1977,1,3.70E-01
1977,2,4.07E-01
1977,3,1.92E+00
1977,4,2.63E+00
1977,5,1.63E+00
1977,6,5.18E+00
1977,7,4.81E+00
1977,8,6.29E+00
1977,9,1.70E+00
1977,10,8.51E-01
1977,11,1.63E+00
1977,12,1.44E+00
1978,1,7.40E-01
1978,2,2.78E+00
1978,3,2.89E+00
1978,4,8.51E+00
1978,5,7.77E+00
1978,6,3.07E+00
1978,7,4.81E-01
1978,8,4.07E-01
1978,9,1.67E+00
1978,10,7.40E-01
1978,11,1.11E+00
1978,12,7.77E-01
1979,1,6.66E-01
1979,2,1.04E+00
1979,3,1.96E+00
1979,4,2.70E+00
1979,5,3.22E+00
1979,6,5.18E-01
1979,7,1.26E+00
1979,8,5.92E-01
1979,9,4.44E-01
1979,10,6.29E-01
1979,11,4.81E-01
1979,12,2.22E-01
1980,1,3.70E-01
1980,2,1.48E-01
1980,3,8.88E-01
1980,4,1.26E+00
1980,5,1.30E+00
1980,6,9.62E-01
1980,7,9.99E-01
1980,8,2.96E-01
1980,9,4.07E-01
1980,10,2.59E-01
1980,11,3.70E-01
1980,12,2.59E-01
1981,1,1.48E-01
1981,2,5.92E-01
1981,3,3.07E+00
1981,4,4.07E+00
1981,5,5.55E+00
1981,6,2.70E+00
1981,7,1.96E+00
1981,8,9.99E-01
1981,9,5.92E-01
1981,10,3.70E-01
1981,11,2.59E-01
1981,12,1.11E-01
1982,1,0.00E+00
1982,2,4.07E-01
1982,3,8.51E-01
1982,4,1.04E+00
1982,5,6.29E-01
1982,6,8.88E-01
1982,7,5.18E-01
1982,8,1.48E-01
1982,9,1.48E-01
1982,10,1.11E-01
1982,11,1.11E-01
1982,12,0.00E+00
1983,1,1.11E-01
1983,2,1.11E-01
1983,3,2.59E-01
1983,4,2.59E-01
1983,5,2.59E-01
1983,6,2.22E-01
1983,7,1.11E-01
1983,8,7.40E-02
1983,9,0.00E+00
1983,10,1.11E-01
1983,11,1.85E-01
1983,12,7.40E-02
1984,1,0.00E+00
1984,2,1.11E-01
1984,3,4.44E-01
1984,4,1.11E-01
1984,5,1.85E-01
1984,6,1.11E-01
1984,7,0.00E+00
1984,8,1.11E-01
1984,9,0.00E+00
1984,10,7.40E-02
1984,11,0.00E+00
1984,12,7.40E-02
1985,1,0.00E+00
1985,2,1.11E-01
1985,3,1.11E-01
1985,4,1.48E-01
1985,5,0.00E+00
1985,6,7.40E-02
1985,7,0.00E+00
1985,8,0.00E+00
1985,9,0.00E+00
1985,10,7.40E-02
1985,11,0.00E+00
1985,12,0.00E+00
1986,1,0.00E+00
1986,2,7.40E-02
1986,3,1.11E-01
1986,4,1.11E-01
1986,5,1.78E+02
1986,6,0.00E+00
1986,7,1.70E+00
1986,8,5.92E-01
1986,9,2.96E-01
1986,10,2.22E-01
1986,11,1.11E-01
1986,12,5.18E-01
1987,1,6.66E-01
1987,2,9.62E-01
1987,3,2.59E-01
1987,4,1.11E-01
1987,5,1.85E-01
1987,6,1.11E-01
1987,7,1.85E-01
1987,8,1.48E-01
1987,9,7.40E-02
1987,10,7.40E-02
1987,11,0.00E+00
1987,12,1.11E-01
1988,1,7.40E-02
1988,2,0.00E+00
1988,3,1.48E-01
1988,4,1.00E-01
1988,5,9.00E-02
1988,6,0.00E+00
1988,7,0.00E+00
1988,8,0.00E+00
1988,9,0.00E+00
1988,10,0.00E+00
1988,11,0.00E+00
1988,12,0.00E+00
1989,1,7.00E-02
1989,2,0.00E+00
1989,3,0.00E+00
1989,4,1.00E-01
1989,5,0.00E+00
1989,6,0.00E+00
1989,7,0.00E+00
1989,8,0.00E+00
1989,9,0.00E+00
1989,10,0.00E+00
1989,11,0.00E+00
1989,12,0.00E+00
1990,1,5.00E-02
1990,2,5.00E-02
1990,3,0.00E+00
1990,4,5.20E-02
1990,5,0.00E+00
1990,6,0.00E+00
1990,7,0.00E+00
1990,8,7.90E-02
1990,9,0.00E+00
1990,10,0.00E+00
1990,11,0.00E+00
1990,12,0.00E+00
1991,1,0.00E+00
1991,2,0.00E+00
1991,3,0.00E+00
1991,4,0.00E+00
1991,5,0.00E+00
1991,6,0.00E+00
1991,7,0.00E+00
1991,8,0.00E+00
1991,9,0.00E+00
1991,10,0.00E+00
1991,11,0.00E+00
1991,12,0.00E+00
1992,1,0.00E+00
1992,2,0.00E+00
1992,3,0.00E+00
1992,4,7.40E-02
1992,5,0.00E+00
1992,6,0.00E+00
1992,7,0.00E+00
1992,8,0.00E+00
1992,9,0.00E+00
1992,10,0.00E+00
1992,11,0.00E+00
1992,12,0.00E+00
1993,1,0.00E+00
1993,2,0.00E+00
1993,3,5.63E-02
1993,4,9.18E-02
1993,5,0.00E+00
1993,6,0.00E+00
1993,7,0.00E+00
1993,8,0.00E+00
1993,9,0.00E+00
1993,10,0.00E+00
1993,11,0.00E+00
1993,12,0.00E+00
1994,1,0.00E+00
1994,2,0.00E+00
1994,3,0.00E+00
1994,4,0.00E+00
1994,5,0.00E+00
1994,6,0.00E+00
1994,7,0.00E+00
1994,8,0.00E+00
1994,9,0.00E+00
1994,10,0.00E+00
1994,11,0.00E+00
1994,12,0.00E+00
1995,1,0.00E+00
1995,2,0.00E+00
1995,3,0.00E+00
1995,4,0.00E+00
1995,5,0.00E+00
1995,6,0.00E+00
1995,7,0.00E+00
1995,8,0.00E+00
1995,9,0.00E+00
1995,10,0.00E+00
1995,11,0.00E+00
1995,12,0.00E+00
1996,1,0.00E+00
1996,2,0.00E+00
1996,3,0.00E+00
1996,4,0.00E+00
1996,5,0.00E+00
1996,6,0.00E+00
1996,7,0.00E+00
1996,8,0.00E+00
1996,9,0.00E+00
1996,10,0.00E+00
1996,11,0.00E+00
1996,12,0.00E+00
1997,1,0.00E+00
1997,2,0.00E+00
1997,3,0.00E+00
1997,4,0.00E+00
1997,5,0.00E+00
1997,6,0.00E+00
1997,7,0.00E+00
1997,8,0.00E+00
1997,9,0.00E+00
1997,10,0.00E+00
1997,11,0.00E+00
1997,12,0.00E+00
1998,1,0.00E+00
1998,2,0.00E+00
1998,3,0.00E+00
1998,4,0.00E+00
1998,5,0.00E+00
1998,6,0.00E+00
1998,7,0.00E+00
1998,8,0.00E+00
1998,9,0.00E+00
1998,10,0.00E+00
1998,11,0.00E+00
1998,12,0.00E+00
1999,1,0.00E+00
1999,2,0.00E+00
1999,3,0.00E+00
1999,4,0.00E+00
1999,5,0.00E+00
1999,6,0.00E+00
1999,7,0.00E+00
1999,8,0.00E+00
1999,9,0.00E+00
1999,10,0.00E+00
1999,11,0.00E+00
1999,12,0.00E+00
2000,1,0.00E+00
2000,2,0.00E+00
2000,3,4.90E-02
2000,4,4.80E-02
2000,5,0.00E+00
2000,6,0.00E+00
2000,7,0.00E+00
2000,8,0.00E+00
2000,9,0.00E+00
2000,10,0.00E+00
2000,11,0.00E+00
2000,12,0.00E+00
2001,1,0.00E+00
2001,2,0.00E+00
2001,3,0.00E+00
2001,4,0.00E+00
2001,5,0.00E+00
2001,6,0.00E+00
2001,7,0.00E+00
2001,8,0.00E+00
2001,9,0.00E+00
2001,10,0.00E+00
2001,11,0.00E+00
2001,12,0.00E+00
2002,1,0.00E+00
2002,2,0.00E+00
2002,3,3.70E-02
2002,4,3.50E-02
2002,5,0.00E+00
2002,6,0.00E+00
2002,7,0.00E+00
2002,8,0.00E+00
2002,9,0.00E+00
2002,10,0.00E+00
2002,11,0.00E+00
2002,12,0.00E+00
2003,1,0.00E+00
2003,2,0.00E+00
2003,3,0.00E+00
2003,4,0.00E+00
2003,5,0.00E+00
2003,6,0.00E+00
2003,7,0.00E+00
2003,8,0.00E+00
2003,9,0.00E+00
2003,10,0.00E+00
2003,11,0.00E+00
2003,12,0.00E+00
2004,1,0.00E+00
2004,2,0.00E+00
2004,3,0.00E+00
2004,4,0.00E+00
2004,5,0.00E+00
2004,6,0.00E+00
2004,7,0.00E+00
2004,8,0.00E+00
2004,9,0.00E+00
2004,10,0.00E+00
2004,11,0.00E+00
2004,12,0.00E+00
2005,1,0.00E+00
2005,2,0.00E+00
2005,3,0.00E+00
2005,4,0.00E+00
2005,5,0.00E+00
2005,6,0.00E+00
2005,7,0.00E+00
2005,8,0.00E+00
2005,9,0.00E+00
2005,10,0.00E+00
2005,11,0.00E+00
2005,12,0.00E+00
2006,1,0.00E+00
2006,2,0.00E+00
2006,3,3.90E-02
2006,4,7.00E-02
2006,5,0.00E+00
2006,6,0.00E+00
2006,7,0.00E+00
2006,8,0.00E+00
2006,9,0.00E+00
2006,10,0.00E+00
2006,11,0.00E+00
2006,12,0.00E+00
2007,1,0.00E+00
2007,2,0.00E+00
2007,3,0.00E+00
2007,4,6.00E-02
2007,5,0.00E+00
2007,6,0.00E+00
2007,7,0.00E+00
2007,8,0.00E+00
2007,9,0.00E+00
2007,10,0.00E+00
2007,11,0.00E+00
2007,12,0.00E+00
2008,1,0.00E+00
2008,2,0.00E+00
2008,3,0.00E+00
2008,4,4.30E-02
2008,5,0.00E+00
2008,6,0.00E+00
2008,7,0.00E+00
2008,8,0.00E+00
2008,9,0.00E+00
2008,10,0.00E+00
2008,11,0.00E+00
2008,12,0.00E+00
2009,1,0.00E+00
2009,2,0.00E+00
2009,3,0.00E+00
2009,4,0.00E+00
2009,5,0.00E+00
2009,6,0.00E+00
2009,7,0.00E+00
2009,8,0.00E+00
2009,9,0.00E+00
2009,10,0.00E+00
2009,11,0.00E+00
2009,12,0.00E+00
2011,3,6.56E+03
2011,4,3.59E+02

One month after

I pray for all the victims of the tragedy on March 11, 2011.

Critics on Totalitarianism

I read “Animal Farm” by George Orwell in last January. The current situation in Japan is very similar to the world depicted in the novel.

In the Animal Farm, there is Mr. Jones. He is a human being and has been expelled from the Animal Farm. He is an ex-governor of the Animal Farm. The animals in the Firm hope to live their life without the interference of human beings.

Mr. Jones has repeatedly attacked the Animal Farm with his fellows in order to recapture the Farm, but the animals have fought against him to protect their Firm every time Mr. Jones invaded the Firm. The animals are living with being afraid of prospective future attacks by Mr. Jones. There is a simple structure; Mr. Jones and human beings are enemies to every animal in the Firm.

In this sense, Mr. Jones is equivalent to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. We Japanese people are currently living with the fear of the ongoing crisis at the plant. We wish that we could calm down and control the plant soon. We hate the very existence of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The Animal Farm is governed by pigs. Other animals such as horses, fowls, and goats are obedient to the pigs. There are two pigs called Napoleon and Squealer in the Animal Farm. Napoleon is the leader of the Firm and Squealer is the No.2 leader of the Firm. Napoleon seldom appears in front of the other animals. Instead, Squealer is distributing messages from Napoleon as well as the current situation of the fight against Mr. Jones. Squealer plays the role of a spokesperson. The reason why Napoleon has not so often showed his appearance to the other animals is not well explained by Squealer.

There is a similarity. Napoleon is similar to Mr. Kan, the prime minister. On the other hand, Squealer is similar to Mr. Edano, the chief cabinet secretary. Mr. Edano has been explaining the current situation of the nuclear power plant to the Japanese nationals on behalf of Mr. Kan since the nuclear crisis occurred on March 12th, 2011. We Japanese people have been nervously reacting to the explanation provided by Mr. Edano.

The living conditions in the Animal Farm are severe because many resources and works have to be spent in the preparation of the prospective fight against Mr. Jones. Food is always short of supply, thus the animals are always hungry except for the pigs. The pigs have been eating plenty of food with good nutrition because the pigs have to organize the Animal Farm, so enough nutrition is essential for such brainwork. The working conditions of the animals, except for the pigs, are not good. From early morning till night, the animals have to do muscular work without enough holidays.

I feel a similarity on this point, too. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is currently conducting a planned blackout because TEPCO lost a part of its power generating capacity after the crisis of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The planned blackout has been conducted inside the Kanto Area except for the central part of Tokyo. Of course, the central part of Tokyo includes the cabinet office, and the headquarter of TEPCO.

On the final page of the “Animal Firm”, there is one scene. The pigs are playing a card game with several people on a table on which plenty of food and wine are served. The pigs are trading daily necessities with the human beings. Initially, the Animal Firm hated all human beings. However, the pigs gradually earn a profit from the trade with human beings. Of course, the pigs refrain from trading with Mr. Jones.

We have to be very careful about totalitarianism. Totalitarianism emerges far too easily when an unprecedented event such as the ongoing nuclear crisis is occurring.

Celebrating New Fiscal Year

In Japan, we are living according to the fiscal calendar, which starts on April 1st and ends on March 31st. Enrollment and graduation ceremonies of school are held in April and March respectively, and freshmen join his/her company in April. The annual account settlement date of many companies in Japan is March 31st. Thus, I like to celebrate April 1th because this day means something new.

A couple of managers left our company today (Mar. 31st), and they will work at our associated companies. A new manager will come to our company tomorrow (Apr. 1st.) The internal environment of my company will be updated in response to this personnel change. In addition, the external environment of my company will also rapidly change in accordance with the earthquake and subsequent crisis.

I am feeling rather fresher on this New Fiscal Year’s Day than the last New Year’s Day.

Nuclear Crisis after Earthquake and Tsunami

At 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake with a magnitude 9.0 hit off the coast of Miyagi prefecture, and subsequently triggered a gigantic tsunami which was reported to be more than 10 to 20m in height. The tsunami devastated a large number of towns and villages located along the coastline of the northeastern part of Japan. To date (Mar. 29, 2011), 27,000 people are confirmed to be death or lost, and 0.17 million people are still at evacuation centers.

I would like to express my greatest sympathy to the families of the people who died or were lost in the incident. In addition, I hope that the devastated area will be recovered in an adequate manner.

On the other hand, the tsunami triggered another tragedy in Fukushima. Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was struck by the unexpected scale of the tsunami, and the plant lost its cooling system completely. In spite of extraordinary efforts conducted so far by the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plant is going out of control, and releasing a huge amount of radioactive substances into the environment, including the atmosphere and seawater. Although the Japanese government announced that the severity of this incident was equivalent to the Three Mile Island accident, some scientists estimated that the total amount of radioactive substances released so far is rather closer to that of Chernobyl.

I cannot be an optimist with respect to the ongoing nuclear crisis. What I can (or want to) do now is to grasp the risk arising from this crisis, and inform the surrounding people of the risk and its background information with understandable vocabulary. Scientific knowledge and good communication skills are needed at this moment.

10 Days after the Earthquake

10 days have already passed since the massive earthquake hit the northeastern coast of Japan. 21,000 people are confirmed to be dead or lost mainly in the tsunami. More than 0.3 million people are still living in evacuation centers in northern and eastern Japan.

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is not yet in a stable state. Today, white colored steam and grey colored smoke were confirmed to be generating from the No. 2 nuclear reactor and the No. 3 nuclear reactor respectively.

Radiation levels in air near Fukushima Daiichi are still high enough to harm human health. In addition, radiation levels in drinking water taken from a village more than 30km away from Fukushima Daiichi were confirmed to exceed the national environmental standard. Furthermore, radiation levels in milk and spinach produced in agricultural firms more than 100 km away from the nuclear plant were also reported not to satisfy the national standards.

The crisis has not still ended. The government spokesman Mr. Edano cannot still provide the Japanese national with a blueprint for reconstructing the devastated places and resolving the nuclear crisis. We have been reacting nervously to the consecutive announcements from the government.

I hope that Japan will overcome this crisis.

Encouragement from Oversea

The government announced that the electric power supply in the Kanto Region, where more than 40 million people are living, would not be able to be maintained over this night unless electric power demand decreased. It is cold today, so the lower temperature is increasing power demand for heating both in residential houses and the industrial sector, and there may be a possibility that the demand will exceed the supply.

My boss requested his subordinates to go home at 4:30 p.m. because the transportation system would not be functionning if the electric power supply stopped. Though I had a task to be finished, I left the office. The unintentional and large scale blackout has not occurred so far, fortunately.

Tokyo Electric Company (TEPCO) is responsible for supplying electricity in the Kanto Region. Since several power plants, including Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, owned by TEPCO were damaged by the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami and did not work at this time. Thus, TEPCO is now short of electric supply.

The situation is more severe in the Tohoku Region than in the Kanto Region. More than 15,000 people who had lived there were confirmed to have died or been lost so far. In addition, more than 0.45 million people are in refugee camps in the Tohoku Region. Little water/gas/electricity/oil/food have been provided to the refugee camps so far.

Furthermore, the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is getting worse day by day. I cannot capture what is going on there, but I am certain that in the future this crisis will be proved to have harmed the health of many people (I don’t know whether or not the radiation pollution remains to be confined in Japan) and polluted the soil/air/water in Japan and the Pacific Ocean.

The Japanese people are now in trouble. Thus, I am very glad to hear that foreign people are kindly expressing their sympathy for Japan. Some artists gave money donations to us. Some countries provided us with daily necessities. Other individuals encouraged us over the Internet. I greatly appreciate every bit of help offered by foreign countries. The encouragement from foreign countries must directly help us.

Crisis after the Earthquake

The crisis caused by the earthquake has not ended at this time. The number of casualties is not still known. The TV said, a couple of hours ago, that more than 4,000 people were confirmed to have died or been lost mainly in the tsunami. The cooling system of three nuclear power plants were damaged by the tsunami, and a hydrogen explosion occurred at one of them two days ago. Another hydrogen explosion occurred at another one today.

Furthermore, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) has a shortage of electrical power supply due to the troubles with the nuclear power plants. Thus, they announced yesterday that they have decided to conduct a planned power outage in their supply area including Tokyo. In response to this announcement, rail providers were forced to cancel or reduce services on many lines today. Many of my colleagues, clients, and subcontractors could not reach their respective offices today because they could find no way to get there.

In addition, groceries such as tofu and bottled water and the daily necessities such as tissue paper were sold out at most of the supermarkets nearby my house and office. Many individuals must be rushing to prepare for contingencies.

I cannot predict when this crisis will end smoothly. Everyone should maintain a calm state.

Strong Earthquake and Subsequent Events

A series of strong earthquakes has been and is still hitting Japan, including Tokyo, since the first strongest one hit the northeastern part of Japan yesterday afternoon. Fortunately, my family members and I are safe, but more than 1,000 people are reported to have passed away or been lost at this time. A large tsunami devastated many towns and villages. In addition, a nuclear power plant is still in trouble. I trusted that technical countermeasures against seismic activities in the field of the nuclear power plant in Japan were well established and introduced; however, the magnitude and the scale of these earthquakes must have exceeded our best available technology.

I was in a conference room and had a meeting with more than ten people when the earthquakes struck us. I had never experienced such massive (in terms of both the magnitude and the duration) earthquakes before. The railway system was paralyzed just after the event and still did not fully recover till today. I stayed all night in the conference room because there was no way to get back home at that time. I could hardly sleep there and then. I arrived at my home around 9:00 a.m.

I sincerely hope that the damage arising from the disaster will be taken care of properly.

Life without Novel

I have read little novels recently. This is simply because I have little time to set aside for reading novels. Over the past several years, I have devoted myself to reading technical documents relating to my profession when I had the opportunity to decide what documents I would read. Some technical documents have inspired me, and led me to add value to my job. Since technical knowledge has sometimes provided me with job opportunities, reading technical documents should be welcomed and thus done. This is a simple logic, and I have followed it accordingly.

I have been working intensively over the past two months. I have been reading or writing technical documents even when it was a holiday. I have not allowed myself to read novels because I did not have time for any leisure.

Today is my holiday, and I had some time to talk to my friend. I am still in a relaxed mode. However, I will read a set of technical documents in an hours time. Although I woul like to read a novel now, I have to read the technical documents by tomorrow, instead. I have to realize that there are many technical documents which should be read preferentially.

When I was in university, I studied my research themes and related fields as intensively as I am doing my business now. I read academic papers and textbooks from morning to night. However, I read novels at night and on holidays. I came back home around 7 p.m. at that time, so I had some time to read novels. The novels nurtured my humanity.

The intensity of my business schedule is expected to ease in April. I will come  home early, and read novels at night. Because I have a job now, I keep prioritizing my job over reading novels.