Japan Lax Nuclear Security Could Make It The Land Of The Melting Sun

Japan is a giant nuclear pressure cooker. Let’s hope it doesn’t get set off. full article is in the Japan Times (May 5th, 2013)  On April 15, two alleged terrorists in Boston killed three people, injured more than 170 others and terrified a nation — for about $100 it cost them to modify pressure cookers into bombs. We should be glad they didn’t come to Japan, where they may have been able to explode a ready-made nuclear dirty bomb,... Read More

“Strong In The Rain” shines among books on Japan’s 3/11

 Strong in the Rain: Surviving Japan’s Earthquake, Tsunami, and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster by Lucy Birmingham and David Mcneill is a book with the literary density of uranium, it penetrates deeply and leaves the reader with a personal and factual understanding of of Japan’s 3/11 mega-disaster that a simple narrative could never do. The title, is of course, taken from the well-known poem by Kenji Miyazawa about perseverance and compassion.... Read More

Japan’s Media, Mega-Ad Agencies, & Nuclear Industry: A Lethal Combination?

Ryu Honma, author of Dentsu and the Nuclear Coverage (電通と原発の報道) spoke at the FCCJ a few weeks ago and his explanation of how Japan’s powerful advertising agencies, “the fifth estate”, stifled unfavorable coverage of nuclear power was eye-opening. The collusive role between Japan’s major advertising agencies, the media, and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)–one of the largest advertisers in Kanto while... Read More

The Melting Sun: Japan’s Nuclear Follies

In light of all the recent information that has come to light about TEPCO and the Japanese nuclear industry’s problems and involvement with anti-social forces, not to mention the industry’s history of criminal malfeasance, we have decided to repost Professor Kingston’s chapter on the subject. It’s from his eerily prescient book  Contemporary Japan  published long before the Fukushima triple meltdown. It’s a long read... Read More