JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

pawatan's past comments

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  pawatanOct. 13, 2011 - 09:28PM JST

  ssway

  This is a poor attempt to misdirect people into believing there is no high radiation in Setagaya.

  And you know better... why? Perhaps this is the actual source of the radiation.

  Posted in: Radiation likely came from radium in bottles beneath floor of empty house

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  pawatanOct. 13, 2011 - 08:52PM JST

  What decade is this??? Who buys an FM/AM radio in 2011? Is this sold only to people over the age of 80 or under 8?

  The mind is thoroughly boggled. There's so many ways to consume music that buying a 3500yen radio these days is like communicating with your family via telegram.

  Posted in: FM/ AM radio and speaker combo

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  pawatanOct. 13, 2011 - 04:57PM JST

  Japan stagnant economy has no choice but to open it's markets.

  What's in it for Japan? Strong outflow of jobs overseas when unemployment is already ludicrously high? More cheap crap like you get at an American Walmart? Slave labor products? Just curious how this benefits anyone who's not a manager, the workers will get screwed.

  Posted in: Japan to decide on joining TPP by next month

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  pawatanOct. 13, 2011 - 04:53PM JST

  Yes they can. They need to become more efficient.

  The free marketeers refrain. PLEASE explain how a country with labor costs minimum 4x of a competing nation can ever hope to be competitive on commodity prices. It's all about price, and you will never be efficient enough in food production to make up for extreme inequality in land prices and wages.

  Posted in: Japan to decide on joining TPP by next month

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  pawatanOct. 13, 2011 - 03:27PM JST

  Actually to should push Japanese farms to become more efficient and lower food prices to Japanese consumers.

  Go tell that to American manufacturers. People thought Ross Perot and his "giant sucking sound to the South" was crazy, but he was dead right. American manufacturing is not more competitive, it's virtually non-existent.

  When Japanese farmers realize they cannot compete with lower priced foods from overseas you think they will become more competitive? No, they will go under, because they cannot possibly compete with countries with very low cost of living and doing business. Places where wages are very suppressed like Peru, Vietnam, Malaysia. How can Japan possible compete on commodity prices? Those farmers won't be able to make a living anymore.

  The US sold it's working class soul long ago which is why it has no problem with joining such a block. Japan should avoid getting dragged into that same pit.

  Posted in: Japan to decide on joining TPP by next month

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  pawatanOct. 13, 2011 - 11:04AM JST

  If the "estimated annual exposure at the spot wouldn't pose a health danger", then why has "the area has been closed off"?!

  For decontamination and for people to know where the area is.

  Posted in: Stringent tests planned to map radiation spread after hotspot found in Setagaya

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  pawatanOct. 13, 2011 - 10:03AM JST

  Look at how Steve Jobs helped Apple become one of the most profitable companies in the US. He was worth whatever Apple was paying him, but I never read about his outlandish salary.

  What a prime example of how it should be! Jobs was paid the princely sum of $1.00/yr as JapanGal said. He made his money when his company made money an his stockholders made money. Isn't his job to make his stockholders money?

  Too often we see these CEOs making princely sums for poor performance - if I don't perform in my job I get fired, they seem to get bonuses. Doesn't sound like the market system to me, sounds like a cartel of executives paying each other.

  Posted in: Chief executives are fond of saying “That’s the market system” when it comes to defending their remuneration package. What do you say?

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  pawatanOct. 13, 2011 - 09:25AM JST

  How many more hotspots remain undetected and how long has the hot spot in Setagaya Ward been cotaminated?

  Probably a lot, I am sure, and this one probably for 7 months. There's so many places small deposits can be, how can anyone find them all?

  I don't think anyone, and especially Japanese people, are surprised by this. Why do people say they are?

  Posted in: Stringent tests planned to map radiation spread after hotspot found in Setagaya

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  pawatanOct. 13, 2011 - 09:21AM JST

  Of course nobody wants ANY exposure to radioactive materials above legal limits, myself included for sure.

  Posted in: Radioactive strontium found on Yokohama condo rooftop

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  pawatanOct. 13, 2011 - 09:20AM JST

  So when is it time for the government to admit that if you choose to live in NE Japan you have an increased risk of cancer and birth defects?

  Well you don't for the most part. Look at reputable health sources - it would take exposure to a lot more than this amount of strontium for a long while before you would see an increased risk of cancers and birth defects. And don't trust the government on that, go look at independent sources.

  Posted in: Radioactive strontium found on Yokohama condo rooftop

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  pawatanOct. 12, 2011 - 06:08PM JST

  Here we saw a group of 'stooges'!

  I have never heard that term in use outside of communist propaganda.

  But the measure’s opponents, stressing the bill’s cost on China ties, also warn that a rise in the yuan would merely boost manufacturing and jobs in countries such as Vietnam or Malaysia—not in the United States.

  I fail to see the downside - at least Malaysia and Vietnam do not use slave labor, have the army gun down protestors in the street, or act like the neighborhood bully. Unlike China.

  Posted in: China slams U.S. after Senate passes currency bill

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  pawatanOct. 12, 2011 - 01:16AM JST

  All news sources I were watching were saying that it was damaged but there was not a significant risk of radiation leakage. Of course, I didn't believe that one bit.

  Well aren't you special then? It must be nice to have psychic powers to see into heavily damaged reactors from far away. It's amazing how many on here 'know' everything even when they are making a total guess, and very rarely does anybody admit their guess was wrong.

  Posted in: Damage control

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  pawatanOct. 11, 2011 - 01:44PM JST

  Yes but at the same time they were telling the public that there WASN'T radiation leaking from the reactors. If there wasn't radiation then why not get pictures? It's called sheeple control, you fell for it.

  Read my link from the 15th; the government was saying at that early date that there was not only radiation leakage but it was too high for humans and people needed to evacuate. That's right after the disaster. So when was this non-leak time?

  Posted in: Damage control

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  pawatanOct. 11, 2011 - 08:26AM JST

  Nice article. But I disagree with

  Not a single bartender articulated this rule, but I’m laying it out anyway. That cigar might match your cognac, but it doesn’t necessarily suit my gin fizz. I don’t stick my bar snacks up your nose, so don’t blow smoke up mine.

  Not a single bartender articulated this because a lot of Japanese bars encourage cigars - and even sell them.

  Posted in: The definitive Japanese bar code of conduct

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  pawatanOct. 11, 2011 - 08:22AM JST

  Poor girl - glad she was smart and strong enough to report the attack immediately. Nobody deserves that.

  Posted in: Two riot police officers arrested for molesting izakaya worker

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  pawatanOct. 11, 2011 - 08:20AM JST

  recherche88

  The cost of travel to and in Japan is a disincentive to visiting Japan but the radition worry is a bigger issue right now.

  I disagree - all of my foreign friends seem to think everything is grand at Fukushima and the tsunami cleanup is complete (I have to tell them otherwise) but everybody knows Japan is ridiculously expensive to visit right now due to the exchange rates.

  Posted in: Japan to offer 10,000 free trips to foreigners to boost tourism industry

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  pawatanOct. 11, 2011 - 08:14AM JST

  This is where everything goes blurry. There are Japanese version and US version. The US State Dept issued evacuation alert to all personnel within 200 km on 3/21.

  There is NOTHING blurry. Japan requested evacuations on 3/15, the US on 3/21. You claim Japan did nothing but sit on its hands; this is demonstrably false.

  Agaiin, what did TEPCO try to do on 3/18? They were trying to save the plants for reuse.

  On 3/18 there were a few hundred men and women on site working in lethal conditions with inadequate protective gear and little information due to no instrumentation or anything. They were trying to save you and me and all of us in Japan - they've probably doomed themselves to a much shorter life. THAT'S what they were doing on 3/18.

  Posted in: Damage control

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  pawatanOct. 11, 2011 - 08:06AM JST

  Nice!

  Posted in: Misty morning

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  pawatanOct. 11, 2011 - 02:08AM JST

  What, you expected journalists and photographers to go and take photo's of the reactors when they were bleeding high levels of radiation. Even if they were allowed? I think next time we'll ask you to go and do the job?

  I'm always amazed at the crowd that thinks everything should have been known instantly about everything and all sorts of people should have been permitted on site to document and observe. That place was so lethal after the explosions that the engineers trying to bring the site under control were considered as good as dead! It's only recently that the place is stable enough for a real evaluation of the site status, let alone for someone to document the site in pictures.

  Posted in: Damage control

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  pawatanOct. 11, 2011 - 02:04AM JST

  globalwatcher

  Why no official evaculation alert was issued by Japan?

  Did you even bother to read what I quoted? Here it is again.

  In a televised address, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said: "There is still a very high risk of more radiation coming out."

  He said that 140,000 people living within between 20km (12 mile) and 30km of the plant were at risk and should not leave their homes.

  Some 70,000 residents within 20km have already been evacuated, and the premier urged anyone left in that exclusion zone to leave.

  "Now we are talking about levels that can impact human health," said the chief cabinet secretary.

  He told residents: "Please do not go outside. Please stay indoors. Please close windows and make your homes airtight.

  "Don't turn on ventilators. Please hang your laundry indoors."

  The government also announced a 30-km no-fly zone above the plant to prevent planes spreading the radiation further afield.

  That sounds like... an evacuation!

  Posted in: Damage control

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