Fox News reveals Tokyo Music Hall “Shibuya Eggman” is really a secret nuclear reactor! (NOT)

Just when you feel like there’s no hope left in the world, and the constant barrage of negative news about the earthquake in Japan and the looming radioactive death storm is getting you down, at least we can count on FOX News to lift our spirits. In a map of nuclear reactors in Japan, they mistakenly managed to list music hall SHIBUYA EGGMAN as one atomic site. Well, no wonder we haven’t had any black-outs in Tokyo yet. We owe it all to those secretly hard-working... Read More

How dangerous is low-level radiation? Perhaps, much less riskier than we think.

Everyone knows that high levels of radiation are deadly. It seems that no one is certain of how much low-level radiation poses a serious health threat. It’s one of the things that makes the nuclear disaster in Japan such a cause for fear and anguish. One of the problems of assessing the risk is that it’s very hard to study low levels of radiation exposure because there are many things that contribute to people getting cancer. In the September 13th, 201o issue of The New... Read More

Latest Travel Warning from the U.S. State Department

Travel Warning U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Bureau of Consular Affairs March 18, 2011 The U.S. Department of State warns U.S citizens of the deteriorating situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.  The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recommends that U.S. citizens who live within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant evacuate the area or take shelter indoors if safe evacuation is not practical.  The State Department... Read More

The worst of times can bring out the best in everyone, even the yakuza.

I wrote this piece for the Daily Beast and supplied them with confidential materials to vet the article as well. I’d like to say that I’m not an advocate of the yakuza; I don’t consider them generally a force for social good or social welfare.There will certainly be yakuza who take advantage of the crisis to rake in ill-gotten gains; they aren’t boy scouts. There will also be ordinary people doing the same thing. However, even yakuza are capable of doing... Read More

Please no stealing! (please!)

“If your home was hit by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake, a tsunami, and radiation from a nuclear power plant, you’d be forgiven for not remaining calm”, speculates Christopher Beam in a recent Slate article. “Yet that’s what many Japanese quake victims appear to be doing. People are forming lines outside supermarkets. Life is “particularly orderly,” according to PBS. “Japanese discipline rules despite disaster,” says a columnist... Read More

Updated list: How to donate to relief efforts in Japan

Note: This is an updated list from the previous entry. If you have anything to add, please let us know in the comments. For those who are interested in contributing to relief and recovery efforts, below are some of the organisations that are taking donations: Japan Society has created a disaster relief fund to aid victims. 100 percent of contributions will go to organizations that directly help victims recover from the devastating effects of the earthquake and tsunamis. PayPal... Read More

"If the cooling system stops, we could be facing a catastrophe" Nuclear Engineer at FCCJ

Anti-nuclear group, the CNIC (Citizen’s Nuclear Information Center) held a press conference on March 13th, at the Foreign Correspondents Press Club (FCCJ) with Masashi Goto, a former Toshiba engineer who designed containment facilities for nuclear reactors. The following piece was contributed to JSRC by a journalist in attendance. The information is provided as background and her conclusions are based on her knowledge and years spent as a reporter in Japan. (In the last... Read More

For those in Japan: Protecting yourself from nuclear radiation. What you can do.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor (福島第一原発)in Fukushima Prefecture has seriously malfunctioned. The Tokyo government announced on the 15th that levels of radiation in Shinjuku-ward were at their peak as high as 21 times the normal levels but that it is not at a level where imminent physical harm is even a possibility. Whether that’s within a safe range or not, I don’t know. It may simply be a very small increase in the risk of cancer, as one person... Read More

Tohoku disaster: How to help

As I’m sure everyone is aware, Japan was hit by a massive M8.8 earthquake off the coast of Sendai on March 11. As aftershocks still rock most of Honshu, the resulting tsunami, fires and explosions have already entrenched many northern prefectures in death and destruction. There are also food, water and electricity shortages throughout many areas in Iwate, Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures. For those who are interested in contributing to relief and recovery efforts, below... Read More

The Hardest Men In Town: Yakuza Chronicles of Sin, Sex and Violence (Japan Society Yakuza Film Festival Day One): The Yakuza

Today, March 9th, began the first day of the Globus Film Series, Hardest Men in Town: Yakuza Chronicles of Sin, Sex and Violence presented by the Japan Society New York. Hardest Men In Town: Yakuza Chronicles of Sin, Sex and Violence March 9th-19th, 2001 Japan Society New York The film festival opened with a bang or rather the swoosh of a katana (刀) slashing through the air with the showing of Sydney Pollack’s overlooked 1975 classic gangster film, The Yakuza, which starred... Read More