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.