JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Kanto region
- RCS (RCSコーポレーション), Kanto
- Salary: ¥180,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month includes performance bonus
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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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the_harper
Flying out of Narita for a dmoestic flight is a pain, but then in Australia the budget carriers don't always fly out of the most convenient airports either.
Posted in: Jetstar Japan to start domestic flights in July
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the_harper
Interesting that almost 30% of Japan's electricity production is offline (nuclear plants) and the grid is surviving. I imagine some of the slack has been taken up by increased oil/coal/gas fired plants, but it would be interesting to know how much is being saved by consumers reducing their power use. It would be interesting to know if savings as large as 20% could be made just through more efficient use of power. Is the government making any progress with getting any of the plants back online?
Posted in: Only one TEPCO nuclear power plant currently in operation
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the_harper
Anna Louise - I think the justification is that if the population of whales can survive an annual hunt of 900 animals, it provides a way of judging a sustainable level. Unfortunately I fail to see how killing 900 animals will provide a measure of the total population or the effect of hunting on it. If this is what the hunt is at a "research" level, I wonder what it would be if Japan returned to a commercial operation? Asuza-san, one of the big issues with hunting whales is their low breeding rate. It's taken decades for the humpback populations to recover from commercial whaling. I wonder what the "carbon miles" would be for the southern ocean hunt considering the distances travelled? Could the southern ocean hunt really be maintained without Government assistance?
Posted in: Activists hurl stink bombs at Japanese whaling ship
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the_harper
The child might have been crying before they saw the ogre. Great costume!
Posted in: Scary guy
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the_harper
Excellent! If systems like this were installed in every significant building in Japan, it would go a long way toward eliminating the need for nuclear power.
Posted in: Geothermal heat extraction system deployed at Fujitsu's Nagano plant
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the_harper
SFJP330 - the story is not quite so simple if the activists who boarded the ship did so in Australian waters. They are Australian citizens and if they were involuntarily taken out of Australian territory by a foreign ship, there would be a legal argment. That was one of the points which was raised by the selectively quoted Australian international law expert mentioned elsewhere.
Posted in: 3 Sea Shepherd activists detained aboard Japanese whaling vessel
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the_harper
I've seen someone have a heart attack after falling into ice-cold water. I don't think I'd recommend it as a fitness regime! It's an interesting photo though; another aspect of Japanese culture.
Posted in: Cold dip
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the_harper
The SEZs in China are effective because the factories are manned by millions of "migrant workers" - low paid people from rural areas elsewhere in China. They are only allowed to work in the factories then they have to return to their place of origin. This wouldn't happen in Japan. Oginome - I really liked Japanese rice when I lived there, and it was different to the rice I can buy at home in Australia. But I wouldn't want to buy any sort of produce from Tohoku until the land is decontaminated.
Posted in: Rebuilding Tohoku, renewing Japan - Part 2
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the_harper
Take his license and his car. Permanently.
Posted in: Man arrested for two hit-and-run violations while drunk
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the_harper
Good on them for bringing some happiness to people in difficult circumstances.
Posted in: Santas distribute gifts in Tohoku
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the_harper
Great action photo!
Posted in: Skeleton racer
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the_harper
I can't imagine what the Chinese crew are thinking. They've been caught in another country's waters fishing illegally and their response is to try to kill the coast guard officers? I feel very sorry for the family of the coast guard officer. Nobody should have to die enforcing their country's laws.
Posted in: Chinese fishing boat skipper kills S Korean coast guard officer
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the_harper
Sad that all the responses here are from climate change deniers. Whether human generated climate change is true or not, we need to live on this planet in a more sustainable way. Digging up billions of tons of coal and billions of barrels of oil, converting it into CO2 and putting it into the air we breathe is not the solution.
Posted in: World's nations set course for 2015 global climate pact
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the_harper
Should have posted a pic of when it was red. I got a few photos of the total eclipse, but unfortunately they were fuzzy due to high cloud.
Posted in: Eclipsed
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the_harper
I lived in a rural area in Japan and saw many farmers with terrible arthritis and spinal problems. Tmarie - they can't afford to buy modern equipment even if they wanted to. From what I've seen, many have such tiny plots of land that significant mechanisation would not be cost effective. They can't afford to buy more land either, and merging plots in many cases would be difficult or impossible. You could try to develop farming into large scale production as in other countries and then you will displace a lot of country families - where will they go and what will they do? It's not a simple problem.
Posted in: Farmers - last of the modern-day samurai
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the_harper
For Japan to redirect tsunami recovery funds into supporting the whaling fleet is appalling and unconscionable. There's far more urgent work that needs to be done for the displaced people of Fukushima.
Posted in: Whaling fleet off to Antarctica with beefed up security measures
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the_harper
I'm glad that conditions for the people working to bring the reactors under control has improved. I hope their efforts continue to improve conditions for everyone in the region.
Editor - could the typo in the headline be fixed, please?
Posted in: TEPCO says conditions for nuclear plant workers improving
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the_harper
A product named after a computer in "2001 A Space Odyssey" made by a company named after a business in "Terminator". Reality inspired by art yet again. It would still be preferable to use robots in high radiation environments rather than a person in a suit. Use a virtual reality control system and the robot's operator could be safely away from the radiation. Maybe they should have taken their inspiration from Avatar rather than Alien?
Posted in: Japanese firm unveils robot suit for nuclear workers
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the_harper
Beautiful! Autumn is the one season I haven't experienced in Japan.
@JeffLee - if the saturation was increased, the grass would look unnaturally green, and it doesn't. Japanese maples really do look bright red sometimes - especially if backlit by a bright sky.
Posted in: Autumn in Nikko
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the_harper
Mexicano - the Australian domestic market is too small to sustain a significant number of airlines. Currently there's Qantas (and their discount carrier Jetstar) and Virgin, with Tiger having a small operation. Australia has less than 23 million people spread over a land area close to the size of the continental USA. There's already a lot of competition for the international market.
Qantas may be flying again, but this will do a lot of damage to the reputation of the brand internationally. Maybe Joyce wants to make the airline look unprofitable to force the creation of the Asian offshoot? The same CEO who accepted a 73% pay raise while saying union demands were impossible to meet?
The unions and management need to find a happy medium instead of dragging this dispute into the new year.
Posted in: Australian court ends Qantas strike, fleet grounding