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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wanderlust
A Subaru AWD is used by the Tokyo police on Hahajima, Ogasawara, 1,000 km south of Tokyo. Not exactly a snow-bound area, but handy for the rougher roads.
Posted in: Snowed in
3
wanderlust
The recognition tends to be compromised by different clothes...
That tends to make it absolutely useless!
Posted in: Bum's the word in Japan security scans
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wanderlust
In general they are are good, but better access is required - barrier free often means escalators to the below ground level, then steep narrow stairs for the final path to the surface - rendering them useless. More seats on the platforms would be useful for those lines/ times where trains run less frequently. And quieter platforms - no need for the constant announcements that end up as irritating background noise.
Posted in: What do you think are the good and bad points about the subway systems in Japan's cities?
4
wanderlust
That's the end of cheap nuclear-generated electricity. Now utilities must factor in the real cost of decommissioning NPPs after their estimated 40 year life span, something that they never considered back in the heyday of designing and building them in the 1970s.
Posted in: TEPCO to raise electricity rates for corporate users by 17% from April 1
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wanderlust
Looks like a lot of companies will be divesting non-core assets of their portfolios in the not too distant future. Maybe if RBS had concentrated on banking only, it would not have got into so much trouble?
Posted in: Sumitomo buys RBS aircraft leasing unit for $7.3 bil
8
wanderlust
There are huge conflicts of interest with these big four accounting firms; tasked with both audit and minimizing costs and taxes, even acting as external consultants. It is very hard to believe that they knew nothing. It seems as if one of these big four is always involved when some company has been found to have been fiddling the books, avoiding taxes, corrupt and combinations of these...
Posted in: 2 accounting firms cleared, 5 in-house auditors blamed in Olympus cover-up
2
wanderlust
What's really alarming is being unable to launch the lifeboats due to the initial slight list, let alone the final capsize. That sounds like a massive design/ building error, and I wonder how other cruise ships of similar design would fare - they all look like massive, unstable blocks of flats floating high on the water
Posted in: 3 dead, dozens missing; captain arrested after Italian cruise disaster
4
wanderlust
@netninja - the casual labour used at most nuclear plants do not get annual health checks - they also rely on the sub-sub-sub contractors to employ them to monitor the radiation doses, away from the utilities responsibility. On many occasions they have falsified these books, under-reported doses, or just ignored the dose limits. They move from plant to plant under different names, as they know that once their radiation books show that they have accumulated a certain dose, they are no longer employable.
These "nuclear gypsies" are recruited from lower levels of Japanese society, used and abuse, then discarded to die. The utilities who initially designed and built these nuclear power plants, knew that workers would be exposed to radiation in the operations, maintenance, repair and cleaning of the plants, but did nothing to minimise the risks. They preferred to employ workers, through layers of subcontractors, in conjunction with organised crime syndicates, so they could claim no responsibility.
The workers themselves, were supervised by staff from Hitachi, Toshiba, etc., not even the utilities, another abrogation of responsibility. Few are really aware of the risks of radiation exposure, education programmes are minimal; they just know that they have to get up each day and earn money.
This is the price Japan is paying for "cheap and clean" power...
Posted in: Fourth worker at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant dies
1
wanderlust
400 million at home is nothing. Ozawa's mentor Shin Kanemaru, had more than 4.3 billion yen hidden at home, including gold bullion and cash.
Interestingly, Kanemaru's downfall came for failure to pay tax. The arrest came on the very last day before the five-year statute of limitations ran out for 1987. Ozawa was involved in dirty money even then...
For more details of the Japanese political system and dirty money, I'd recommend Steven Hunziker and Ikuro Kamimura's biography of Kakuei Tanaka
Posted in: Ozawa: Nothing unusual about keeping Y400 mil in cash at home
2
wanderlust
"Sony Time" has become a byword for their poor manufacturing control - that very small period of time between the expiry of the guarantee/ warranty, and the failure or breakdown of their products.
Plus Sony service is extremely poor, unless it involves professional broadcasting equipment which they do fix very quickly; otherwise you risk being shunted from one department to another, with constant excuses of why something cannot be fixed...
A legendary company, who spent a fortune breaking into Hollywood, and then forgot their reason for being there...
Posted in: Sony's Stringer reportedly to step down as president
0
wanderlust
You will need a re-entry permit if you are away from Japan for longer than one year.
And looks like a dual system for three years (2012~2015), when the last of the Permanent residents have to apply for the new cards.
For those complying with the rules, it's easier; for those pushing and bending them, those who's situation is not so clear, and those who lose their job or their sponsoring spouse, it's going to be harder.
Posted in: Changes coming to foreign registration, visa system
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wanderlust
They could always reduce the number of free tickets given to officials, VIPs, sponsors, celebrities, royalty, diplotrash, dignitaries and the other hangers-on associated with all of these events. Trouble is they may then have difficulties filling the stadia and arenas with bona-fide paying supporters...
Posted in: London Olympic tickets mistakenly oversold: organizers
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wanderlust
Except for the guitars, these seem to be B-list equipment makers, and not on any audiophiles' shopping list. Onkyo has always been a budget/ no-name brand here in Japan. But I''ve seen more people buying good audio equipment of late, as they go out less, and often use it with "home theatre" systems.
Posted in: Gibson Guitar buys stake in Onkyo Japan
1
wanderlust
It's a pity he could not have ordered the politicians in the diet, the ministry bureaucrats and local government to work together after March 11th...
Posted in: Emperor urges people to work together to rebuild Japan
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wanderlust
Bit of a "window rattler" in downtown Kanagawa, monitors shook across the table, but the cats never moved!
Anyone noticed a trend of the quakes moving southwards recently? Last few months they've moved from Fukushima coast down to Chiba coast, and now further down towards the Marianas. Let's hope that they don't turn towards Tokai...
Posted in: M7.0 quake rocks Tokyo, eastern Japan; no danger of tsunami
1
wanderlust
Don't know what the fuss is - it's an appearance VIA video link - she won't be in Japan at all.....
Posted in: Lady Gaga to appear on 'Kohaku Uta Gassen'
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wanderlust
@lucabrasi - they have to shut it down, take the top of the pressure vessel, fill it with water, and only then can they see inside to judge metal fatigue, embrittling of the core components, move around fuel cells to different positions, check turbine and pipe seals, control rods, etc.. 2,600 degrees core temperatures, and 300 degrees C of pressurized steam make this a little difficult when it is running...
Posted in: Genkai No. 4 reactor shut down; only 6 reactors now operating in Japan
-1
wanderlust
@tokyokawasaki - the running and maintenance costs of the Typhoon are very high, it is has limited range without tanker support, and has only just had a strike capability added to it - a sort of bolt-on pack. The RAF raids on Libya using Typhoons and tanker aircraft were very expensive, compared to sending up a cruise missile from a submarine, but the UK and BAE were desperate to show the world it could be done. Even now, some of the older Typhoons are being cannibalised for parts for the newer models, and pilots are complaining of a lack of cockpit time in them.
The Typhoon is basically one of the last gasp efforts to keep a UK armaments industry alive...
Posted in: Japan likely to buy Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighters: media
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wanderlust
@noripinhead - the Rafaele is the French plane that resembles the Typhoon/ Eurofighter - both have distinctive canard wings. The Mirage is nothing like it...
Posted in: Japan likely to buy Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighters: media
2
wanderlust
As an example of real world situations, the UK is dismantling a fast-breeder reactor at Dounreay, on the coast of Scotland. The goal for completing the dismantling of the facilities, which requires the removal of fuel rods, is 2039. But nearly 30 years have passed since the reactor, which was shut down in 1977, started being dismantled in 1983, yet workers are still unable to remove the fuel rods from the reactor's core. Even if the remaining work proceeds smoothly, it will take another 20 years, he predicts. That means the dismantling work will take at least half a century in total.
That was from a regular shutdown, albeit in a fast-breeder like Monju. The 2nd Unit at Three Mile Island, a more similar design, but with significantly less damage, with the melted fuel rods remaining inside the intact reactor vessel, also took 15 years to decommission, but the building is still standing and won't be fully decommissioned unti Unit 1 shuts down for good in 2034. Today, the TMI-2 reactor is permanently shut down with the reactor coolant system drained, the radioactive water decontaminated and evaporated, radioactive waste shipped off-site, reactor fuel and core debris shipped off-site, and the remainder of the site being monitored.
At Fukushima they do not even know where the melted fuel rods are, and currently there is no technology available to directly visualise them.
Stable.....?
Posted in: Noda says Fukushima nuclear plant will be stable by year's end