Japan: Honesty before Profit

I want to cry. 




Japanese citizens turning in cash found in tsunami zone


By Kyung Lah
CNN
April 10, 2011 9:35 a.m. EDT






Tokyo (CNN) -- A tsunami that followed a massive earthquake last month may have destroyed some of Japan's structures, but police say the honest practice of turning in lost items, especially cash, remains intact.


Residents have turned in lost cash across the tsunami zone at a much higher rate than usual, the Miyagi Prefectural Police Department tells CNN.

A police spokesman, who asked not to be identified, citing department policy, said he could not specify how much cash has been turned in to lost-and-found offices at police stations. But, he said, of the 24 police stations across Miyagi Prefecture, nine of them are on the Pacific coastline.

Between March 12, the day following the earthquake and tsunami, and March 31, those nine police stations collected 10 times the amount of lost cash collected at the other 15 stations combined.

Japanese children, from a young age, are taught to turn in any lost items, including cash, to police stations. The cultural practice of returning lost items and never keeping what belongs to a stranger has meant police departments like Tokyo's Metropolitan have an entire warehouse filled with lost shoes, umbrellas and wallets.

In the tsunami zone, where personal items lie amid miles of rubble, it's meant that lost valuables have often gone directly to police, rather than the pocket of the finder.

The lost cash hasn't been easy to handle, the Miyagi Prefectural Police Department says. Money found along with some identification is being returned, but officers have been able to return only 10% of the cash.

Cash that wasn't in a wallet is left unclaimed at the police station. After three months, the person who turned in the cash is able to collect that lost money. But police say people are already waiving their rights to claim the cash when they turn it in.

Unclaimed cash will eventually be sent to the Miyagi Prefectural Government, though police say they do not know how it will be used.

Also found: Hundreds of safes that can't be opened. If the prefectural government allocates funding for opening the safes, police will start doing so.

Prefectural police believe that these safes could contain not only currency, but bank books, stocks and land deeds, which could give a huge boost to the amount of lost money.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
japan

I will tell you what you need to know, otherwise don't ask.

They don't need to know, they don't need to do anything unless they believe it is in our best interests.

Golfing, Rio - out of touch?  No, out of this world.

On question of Japan and a nuclear meltdown occuring at several locations ...




JAKE TAPPER, ABC NEWS: "What is going on over there right now? We have not heard the latest information from the NRC or the Japanese government and apparently there has been something that has happened in the last few hours."


CARNEY, WH Press Secretary: "Well, it is clearly a crisis. There is clearly --"

TAPPER: "-- what is specifically going on?"

CARNEY: "Again, I am standing here at the White House, I think you have reporters in Japan, you have reporters including ones here that could get the technical detailed information on what we know from the NRC, from the Department of Energy --"

"It's up to the media, not the government?" Tapper asked in response to Carney dismissing his question.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
obama

Japan: Goes Before ...

Admittedly, the 123,000 decrease in population is and could be an anomaly.  Less important than the other numbers provided and some which are not, but which can be on population websites.

The Japanese hover at 1.3 as the average number of children born to a woman during her lifetime.  In order to have a stable population, you need the number to be 2.0.  That fact alone will, within a generation show a marked decrease in population!  In any other country, 1.3 would also spell certain doom for the culture.  For the Japanese, given the near zero number of immigrants who are non-Japanese, their culture will remain in tact, albeit much smaller.

The Japanese have a wonderful social system - your medical and health care needs are covered, pensions, and generally a birth to death care system.  This system can work when you have several people under you working to support your system.  For example:  1 person to pay taxes toward your social security, while 1 person pays taxes toward the medical system you use, and 1 person pays taxes to cover other miscellaneous costs.  3 working for 1 retired = a great system.

What the article tells us is in 20 years or so, the number retired or old will be 40% and the number working or younger, will be at 60%.  Not quite 1 to 1, but close.  And that should terrify every Japanese citizen aged 10 and up.  Terrify as in Godzilla rampaging through the city with reckless abandon.






Japan population shrinks by record in 2010




Sat Jan 1, 2011
AP


TOKYO – Japan's population fell by a record amount last year as the number of deaths climbed to an all-time high in the quickly aging country, the government said Saturday.

Japan faces a looming demographic squeeze. Baby boomers are moving toward retirement, with fewer workers and taxpayers to replace them. The Japanese boast among the highest life expectancies in the world but have extremely low birth rates.

Japan logged 1.19 million deaths in 2010 — the biggest number since 1947 when the health ministry's annual records began. The number of births was nearly flat at 1.07 million.

As a result, Japan contracted by 123,000 people, which was the most ever and represents the fourth consecutive year of population decline. The top causes of death were cancer, heart disease and stroke, the ministry said.

Japanese aged 65 and older make up about a quarter of Japan's current population. The government projects that by 2050, that figure will climb to 40 percent.

Like in other advanced countries, young people are waiting to get married and choosing to have fewer children because of careers and lifestyle issues.

Saturday's report showed 706,000 marriages registered last year — the fewest since 1954 and a sign that birth rates are unlikely to jump dramatically anytime soon.

Japan's total population stood at 125.77 million as of October, according to the ministry.









 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Japan

Japanese Suicides

Some 32,845 Japanese people killed themselves in 2009 and the rate is likely to remain above the 30,000 threshold for the 13th straight year when the statistics for 2010 are released.


Article on one man who hung himself while streaming live on the internet, for all to watch.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
suicides

North Korea: Another Nuclear Test Obama Failed

Mr. Obama, This is a good test for your 'negotiate' theory. Perhaps if you talk to North Korea for another six months they will only be able to test one more nuclear weapon - and some say that talking would achieve nothing.

You have been so eager trying to get Israel to concede you forgot about a real enemy with nuclear weapons.

Japan has already begun preliminary discussions about changing its constitution to amend the military limitations imposed. Japan has also raised the possibility of requesting or building its own nuclear arsenal. South Korea will be even more concerned than it was last week and may ask for nuclear weapons.

See Mr. Obama, talking has done a lot already.






NKorea says it has conducted a second nuclear test

May 25
By JEAN H. LEE
Associated Press Writer


SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea announced Monday that it successfully carried out a second underground nuclear test, less than two months after launching a rocket widely believed to be a test of its long-range missile technology.

North Korea, incensed by U.N. Security Council condemnation of its April 5 rocket launch, had warned last month that it would restart it rogue nuclear program, conduct a second atomic test as a follow-up to its first one in 2006, and carry out long-range missile tests.

On Monday, the country's official Korean Central News Agency said the regime "successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test on May 25 as part of measures to bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defense."

The regime boasted that the test was conducted "on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control."

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak convened an emergency security session. His spokesman, Lee Dong-kwan, confirmed that a North Korean nuclear test was possible.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Andy Laine said: "At this point, we've seen the reports and we're trying to get more information, but we're not able to confirm at this time."

Seismologists from the U.S., South Korea and Japan reported activity shortly after 9:50 a.m. in a northeastern area where North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.

The Japan Meteorological Agency measured the seismic activity at magnitude-5.3. Quake expert Gen Aoki noted that its depth was "very shallow."

"The area is not active seismically so it is highly possible that it could be an artificial quake," Aoki said in Tokyo.

In Seoul, the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources reported seismic activity in Kilju in North Hamgyong Province—the same area where North Korea carried out a nuclear test in October 2006.

Seismological measurements back North Korea's claim that the test was far stronger than in 2006.

At the Chinese border city of Yanji, 130 miles (200 kilometers) northwest from the test site, an emergency siren sounded shortly before 9 a.m. when officials thought an earthquake occurred. A receptionist at Yanji's International Hotel said she and several hotel guests felt the ground tremble.

An official at Yanji's government seismological bureau, who declined to give his name, said his agency confirmed that some type of explosion occurred, "but it is hard to say what kind of blast it was."

North Korea's 2006 test measured magnitude-3.6, an official at the Korea Meteorological Administration in Seoul said. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

Monday's test raises the stakes in North Korea's standoff over its nuclear and missile programs.
North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006, drawing widespread international condemnation and drawing stiff sanctions from the U.N. Security Council.

The Security Council demanded that North Korea eliminate its nuclear weapons and ordered countries to prevent Pyongyang from importing or exporting any material for weapons of mass destruction or ballistic missiles.

The surprise nuclear test prompted five nations to pressure the North to agree to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for energy aid and other concessions—a pact Pyongyang signed in February 2007. North Korea began disablement in November 2007.

That process came to a halt in July 2008.

South Korean troops were on a high alert but there was no sign North Korean troops were amassed along the heavily fortified border dividing the two Koreas, according to an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing agency policy.

North Korea is believed to have at least a half-dozen atomic bombs. However, experts say North Korean scientists have not yet mastered the miniaturization technology for mounting a nuclear device onto a long-range missile.


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A lot of good talking has done until now!



Britain calls NKorea nuclear test 'breach' of UN resolutions

May 25 12:08 AM US/Eastern

British junior foreign minister Bill Rammell Monday called North Korea's announced nuclear test a "clear breach" of UN Security Council resolutions and urged it to return to disarmament talks.












North Korea

Japanese Suicides

Throughout the 1980s we were inundated with all things Japanese - their culture, their marketing methods, their business techniques. For a brief moment, the fear was, we would be conquered by the Japanese - the numbers of buildings and properties bought up, the work-style and work ethic, the strong sense of educational discipline (most of each day and most days of each week and most weeks of each month and most months of the year were spent in school) - theirs was the system to emulate.

Yet beneath the surface lay the real Japan, the reason we need not fear a system that is inadequate and unhealthy, nor should we seek to emulate a system that kills of its population through suicide. The whys are what need to be flushed out and the whys are in large part tied to the expectations of a society that settles for perfection and little else. Where children grow up as adults and where adults are required to conform to certain standards or face social sanctions.




From Times Online
June 19, 2008
Japan gripped by suicide epidemic

Japanese professionals in their thirties are killing themselves at unprecedented rates, as the nation struggles with a runaway suicide epidemic.

Newly published figures show that 30,093 people took their own lives in 2007 — a 2.9 per cent increase in a year — leaving the country as the most suicide-prone anywhere in the developed world and rendering government efforts to combat the problem a failure.

Suicide rates remained highest among men — at 71 per cent of the total — and very high among Japan’s rising population of over-60s. Geographically, most suicides took place in the prefecture of Yamanashi, where the forested foothills of Mount Fuji continue to attract the suicidal from around Japan.

Government analysis of the figures, for the tenth year consecutive in which suicides have remained above 30,000 mark, has exposed a series of new and troubling trends: people in their thirties are the most likely to kill themselves, and work-related depression is emerging as a prime motive.



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Japan

The Japanese government established a development commission on the island in 1869, which led to the migration of Japanese and the island's acquisition. That was followed by the forced assimilation and relocation of the group. The Ainu were also banned from practicing certain traditions, including men wearing earrings and women getting tattooed, and they were forced to learn the Japanese language and adopt a Japanese name.

"When I think of having been treated like trash and discriminated against because of our ethnicity, I feel like screaming at the sky," says Ms. Toyama.

"You see so many place-names on this land are from the Ainu language," says Koji Yuki, a secretary-general of the upcoming Indigenous Peoples Summit in Ainu Mosir. The government "had better come clean."

Local government estimates show that 23,782 Ainu people remain in Hokkaido, while Ainu leaders and experts argue the number could be much larger because of those who are believed to hide their identity for fear of discrimination or who may have left the island.

"Japan modernized itself while denying its diversity and multiculturalism. However, the nation, which aspires to a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, has already risen to an international stage where they have to acknowledge it," says Hideaki Uemura, a professor and expert of indigenous people's rights at Keisen University, and director of Citizens' Center for Diplomacy.






Countries we should apologize to?


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