The little country on the fault line

First off I have to say that I, for one, am glad the Japanese women's soccer team won the World Cup, rather than the U.S. team. That is one country that really needed some-thing to feel happy and proud about.

I've mentioned before how much I enjoy having access to television news programs from other countries [see Note of Mar. 31, 2011]. I feel I'm learning a lot about Japan and the Japanese people, thanks to NHK World. For one thing, they still bow to one another! The news program will show some government official walking up to the lectern, to make some announcement to the Diet (parliament), and he'll bow first to whoever is on the dais, then give a little bob of his head and shoulders to the people he will be addressing. Various government officials have been visiting the emergency shelters that are still housing so many people, and they will bow, the people receiving them will bow.

Even in a segment showing how one businessman whose business had been wiped out by the disaster was making overtures to a cooperative in another prefecture, in hopes of being able to market his expertise to them, the gentlemen bowed slightly as they exchanged business cards. It was actually a fairly informal situation, everyone was in shirt sleeves, not suits, but they bowed.

This is a real cultural difference, the sort of thing that makes travel so interesting, that makes the world so interesting.

The Japanese also nod their heads a lot when they speak, but they do not wave their hands around, the way we Americans do. They generally speak softly to the camera. An amusing exception was actually a matter of a voice being recorded, rather than someone being interviewed before the camera. The prime minister, Naoto Kan, was heard castigating representatives of Tokyo Power Company (TEPCO), the company that is responsible for the Fukishima Daiichi Power Plant. This angry assault was a far cry from the super polite public utterings you generally hear from everyone, more like what you'd hear from the furious Japanese general in an old World War II movie.

And speaking of Kan, well, talk about beleaguered world leaders. He had to promise to step down as soon as the nuclear crisis was well in hand, which it is still far from being. As last reported by NHK, his approval rating was at 16%. President Obama is in great shape, compared to him. The Japanese were having economic problems like every-body else, and then this staggering natural disaster strikes, followed by the crisis at Fukishima. People are feeling the government has been too slow in its reconstruction efforts, and too secretive about what has really been happening at the power plant. So naturally the head honcho has to take it on the chin.

And on a lighter note: the sport NHK regularly reports on is...sumo wrestling! They show clips of matches. A round, or bout, or whatever it's called, is incredibly short, just the few seconds it takes for one of the chubby gentlemen to maneuver his opponent out of the small circle they are wrestling in. The crowds are wildly enthusiastic. The referees wear traditional garb. I find it delightful.

There is an excellent article on NHK World at http://cima.ned.org/japan-disaster-coverage-measured-not-breathless (as usual I cannot get the link to work). The things the article says about the station -- no melodrama, just the facts, ma'm, no star anchors -- are the very things I like about it. And again, I thank Maine Public Broadcasting, for making it possible for me to view this part of the world.

Desperate times call for desperate measures

Is anybody else wondering why the Japanese don't just bury the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant? A physicist from City University of New York, Michio Kaku, was recommending that on CNN (which I don't get, but I saw it on YouTube). I have been watching NHK, the Japanese news station, for the past couple of weeks, and they keep reporting that the radiation in the sea water beside the plant is "280,000 times the legal limits set by the government" -- on Saturday, April 3rd, it was 7.5 million times the legal limit! -- but the government keeps insisting there is no "direct danger to human health." What about all those fishermen who make their living from the sea? The Japanese eat huge quantities of fish, and other seafood. And now South Korea is getting concerned about the higher levels of radiation reaching their waters.

Then there are the higher levels of radiation found in the soil in the area of Fukushima, and various foodstuffs (spinach, milk). Things just don't seem to be getting any better -- every time you turn around there's a new crisis, a new complication -- and this has been going on for a month! Kaku was saying in his interview that it was time for the "Chernobyl Option" -- burying the plant in a mound of concrete, sand and boron. When the interviewer asked why the Japanese government wasn't ordering that this be done, Kaku said the government was "out of touch with reality." It's beginning to look like that is indeed the case. I feel so bad for the Japanese people. It isn't enough to be devastated by a giant earthquake and tsunami -- to lose everything you own, and quite possibly a number of loved ones -- but then to have the very air you breath, the soil under your feet, the water all around you, made unsafe for who knows how long, while 50 exhausted power plant workers are giving up their lives for what is obviously a lost cause (it is extremely unlikely the plant can be salvaged to generate power again)...well, I'd say it was time for all those brave, stoic people to stop being so stoic, and get a little angry. Bury the damn power plant.