Emperor and the Empress Visited Minamata City

The Emperor and the Empress of Japan finally visited Minamata City, Kumamoto Prefecture, yesterday.

It was to show respect for victims of the Minamata disease, the gravest pollution disease in Japan caused by waste water including mercury that was first officially confirmed in 1956 in Kumamoto Prefecture, a southwest prefecture of Japan.

Minamata disease , sometimes referred to as Chisso-Minamata disease, is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning. Symptoms include ataxia, numbness in the hands and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of the field of vision, and damage to hearing and speech. In extreme cases, insanity, paralysis, coma, and death follow within weeks of the onset of symptoms. A congenital form of the disease can also affect foetuses in the womb.

Minamata disease was first discovered in Minamata city in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan, in 1956. It was caused by the release of methylmercury in the industrial wastewater from the Chisso Corporation's chemical factory, which continued from 1932 to 1968. This highly toxic chemical bioaccumulated in shellfish and fish in Minamata Bay and the Shiranui Sea, which, when eaten by the local populace, resulted in mercury poisoning.

As of March 2001, 2,265 victims had been officially recognised (1,784 of whom had died)[2] and over 10,000 had received financial compensation from Chisso.[3] By 2004, Chisso Corporation had paid $86 million in compensation, and in the same year was ordered to clean up its contamination.[4] On March 29, 2010, a settlement was reached to compensate as-yet uncertified victims.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease

However it is believed that the total number of people suffering without official recognition or hiding due to social prejudice against the Minamata disease is about 30,000.

But there was one hero among them.

A male assistant nurse launched a hunger strike in front of the main office of Chisso Corporation in Tokyo in December 1971.  Teruo Kawamoto (1931-1999) continued this hard protest till July 1973 leading a group of patients who were not judged to be victims of Chisso.  They were called a voluntary negotiation group.

In 1959 the Government introduced an official recognition scheme of patients in Minamata City as victims of mercury Chisso discharged to the sea.  But Kawamoto and many others were not judged by medical doctors and government officials to be victims of Chisso despite their showing symptoms of the Minamata disease.  They could not receive damages and compensation from the company and the Government.  So, in 1970 Kawamoto filed a request to review his case based on the Law of Administrative Tribunals.

In 1971 he left Minamata City and his job while he was expected to be soon promoted to a regular male nurse, heading for a Tokyo business street where the headquarters of Chisso Corporation was placed.  He said to his wife that he would come back home in a week but he stayed in front of the Chisso main office building for 570 days.  Some of those who were already recognized as Minamata patients joined this hunger strike conducted in front of the main office of Chisso.

Kawamura even directly exchanged words with the then president of Chisso in a negotiation meeting, sitting face to face.  He picked up one ailing person who became paralyzed because of his having eaten Minamata fish.  Kawamura tried to make the president recognize that this person with specific symptoms was a Minamara patient.  After taking recognition from the president, the Minamata activist pointed to many others showing the same symptoms so as to make the Chisso management recognize all these people  as Minamata patients who could claim compensation from the company.

Finally Kawamura and his group concluded with Chisso an agreement including payment of 18 million yen ($180,000) per person.  

The core of the Minamata disease scandal is negligence of health and human rights of local people and fishermen by a big enterprise which not only financially supports a local city by employing many residents but also is strongly linked with the government by contributing to national industrial policies.  Chisso was positioned as one of key manufacturers needed for economic growth of Japan even before and after WWII.  So, elite bureaucrats and influential politicians in Tokyo were determined from the beginning to protect Chisso from accusation by Minamata victims and burden of paying big damages.

Big enterprises, influential politicians, and elite bureaucrats built an iron triangle to sacrifice ordinary people, such as Teruo Kawamoto, in the name of industrial development of Japan.

So, in 1960s when Kawamoto started his own investigation on patients in Minamata City, he was often blackmailed by other citizens who probably worked in a factory of Chisso or by thugs hired by the company.   Chisso Corporation and citizens working there or living on business with Chisso hated the voluntary negotiation group, mostly consisting of patients not yet to be recognized as Minamata victims by the authorities.  So, Kawanato's house was actually set fire on at night.  But the Kawamoto family was not discouraged.  And he finally paved a new way for salvation of many patients in Minamata having been neglected and excluded out of a too restricted official scheme for compensation for Minamata disease victims.  

And the Emperor and the Empress of Japan finally visited Minamata City, Kumamoto Prefecture, yesterday to meet Minamata victims in person.

However before WWII, the then Emperor, the father of the present Emperor, visited the Chisso Minamata Factory in 1931.  After WWII, he also visited the Minamata Factory in 1949.  So, we can see how this chemical manufacturer was given great importance to by the Japanese Government.

http://spring5.blog.ocn.ne.jp/sakura/2007/05/post_13cc.html
Minamata City Facing Yatsushiro Sea (Shiranui Sea); the red letter indicates the Minamata River.

The number of Minamata patients officially recognized by local or central government is 2,265 as of 2006.  There are 10,353 patients who are not officially judged to be Minamata patients but have received compensation money of 2,600,000 yen from the Government following a 1995 accord.  And 7,890 patients who were not officially recognized as Minamata patients have been judged to be Minamata patients through various law suits.  But it is estimated that there are still 30,000 people suffering without official recognition or hiding due to social prejudice against the Minamata disease.

Incidentally Chisso means nitrogen in Japanese.  And the Crown Princess, the wife of the eldest son of the Emperor, has one of her ancestors among past top leaders of Chisso Corporation.




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Tokyo Suburbs

Takiji Kobayashi and the Tokko Police

Takiji Kobayashi and the Tokko Police

There was a unique author before WWII in Japan who was a member of the Japanese Communist Party.

Takiji Kobayashi (1903 – 1933) was a Japanese author of proletarian literature. He is best known for his short novel Kanikōsen. 

Kobayashi was born in Odate, Akita, Japan and was brought up in Otaru, Hokkaidō. After graduating from the Otaru School of Higher Learning, which is the current Otaru University of Commerce, he worked at the Otaru branch of Hokkaido Takushoku Bank. His most famous work is Kanikōsen, or Crab Cannery Ship, a short novel published in 1929. It tells the story of several different people and the beginning of organization into unions of fishing workers. He joined the Japanese Communist Party in 1931. The young writer apparently died due to torture after arrest by the Tokkō police two years later, at age 29.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takiji_Kobayashi

The Tokko police, which existed in Japan before WWII, was a kind of special elite police organization as "Tok" means special and "ko" means high.  The Tokko police did not belong to an ordinary chain of command which stretched from each police station in a prefecture to the head of the police in the prefecture subject to the administrative head or the governor of the prefecture. Tokko police units in local prefectures directly belonged to the Interior Minister of the imperial government in Tokyo.  They specialized in detecting and arresting political criminals or citizens who were against the imperial regime or who were socialists or members of the Japanese Communist Party.  After the Pearl Harbor Attack in 1941 which threw the Empire of Japan and the US into WWII, Tokko detectives started to clam down on pro-American citizens, too.

Takiji Kobayashi, after having graduated from a business college in Otaru City, worked in the Otaru branch office of Hokkaido Takusyoku Bank.  (Hokkaido Island faces the Okhotsk Sea where Japanese and Russians are engaged in netting crabs.)  He wrote a novel titled March 15, 1928 based on a large political crack down on socialists and communists the Imperial Government made by applying the Public Security Preservation Laws, a notorious law enacted to attack anti-government citizens.  In this novel, Kobayashi depicted how Tokko policemen tortured innocent citizens.

Then in 1929 Kobayashi issued the famous novel Kani-kosen.  It was a story of poor laborers hired by a fishing company which operated fishes to capture and process crabs.  Kani means crabs in Japanese.  Those workers, having been treated cruelly by the company management, went into strike on the sea, but the management asked help from a destroyer of the Imperial Navy whose sailors eventually defeated and arrested angry and revolutionary laborers.

After Kani-kosen was made public, Takiji Kobayashi was fired by the bank.  In 1931 he joined the Japanese Communist Party which was then outlawed in Japan.  Then a spy approached him to trap him in Tokyo.  Accordingly Kobayashi was arrested and put into a jail to be tortured.  The Tokko police had a grudge against the author of March 15, 1928 where Tokko policemen were depicted as cold-blooded and wretched guys indulging in barbaric torture.  They killed Kobayashi just like cold-blooded and wretched detectives would do.  

After WWII, the Japanese Communist Party became legitimate with introduction of the new Constitution in 1947.

But today Japan has come to have more and more irregular employees or cheap labor force for businesses.  The gap between the poor and the rich has been widening since global competition among businesses was intensified and Japan went into 15-year long deflation in late 1990s.  So, the general public of Japan and especially young people recently turned their eyes to Takiji Kobayashi.   In 2008, a half million copies of Kani-kosen were sold.  Even a movie titled Kani-kosen was made in 2009.  The media called it the Kani-Kosen Move.

http://www.shinshu-u.ac.jp/faculty/arts/prof/iioka_1/2008/12/25716.html
Kanikosen Movie Poster


Before and during WWII any Japanese who believed in a religion or philosophy or practiced political activities which were against the imperial regime or which did not show enough respect for the emperor were regraded as a kind of criminals.  Accordingly they were suppressed, imprisoned, tortured, or killed.  Therefore when the Empire of Japan fell in 1945 as it was defeated by the US in the war, many communists, socialists, and other citizens who had been held in prison by the Tokko police but were still alive were released and welcomed by the general public like heroes.  Indeed even ordinary Japanese citizens hated Tokko so much.  Today there is no such a special elite police unit in Japan.




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Around Tokyo Railroad Station

Drucker and Japanese Paintings

Drucker and Japanese Paintings

Peter Drucker (1909-2005), a prominent professor on business, wrote Toward the Next Economics and Other Essays in 1981. In the book there is a chapter concerning Japanese pictures: Chapter 12: A View of Japan Through Japanese Art.

A Japanese blogger introduced the contents:

Drucker found that Japanese  art is based on individualism though Japanese would sacrifice expression of their individual personality to achieve and maintain a group intention in their social life.  Accordingly there are various schools in the world of Japanese pictures.

Drucker thought that Japanese pictures are the best in the genre of animal paintings.  In Europe and America, not many painters and artists draw or paint a picture of an animal.  However, he found that most of Japanese painters make drawings of animals.  Especially, the notable American business professor paid attention to pictures of birds Japanese painters have made.  Those birds painted by Japanese artists symbolize a characteristic of Japanese people: expression of joy without doubt and irony.

Drucker also realized that Japanese artists have to live in society with full of restrictions like other Japanese citizens.  Society would protect them but it binds them to various complicated rules and custom.  Nonetheless Japanese artists have to compete based on individual talent and personality in their fields.  Japanese painters in the 18th century were very individualistic but most of them belonged to  any schools.  If they had been completely independent, they were regraded as real odd persons.

Drucker discovered that one Japanese painter paints an ornamental picture in one time but a simple picture in other time.  But it is not a matter of untrustworthy contradiction but of acceptable bipolarity in Japan.   Tension in this bipolarity without confrontation is a rare feature that is only observed in the Japanese art.  

Drucker cited an example of Japanese high priest in the 18th century Hakuin (1686-1769).   Monk Hakuin was good at painting an image of Bodhidharma.  Somebody asked him how long it took for Hakuin to draw one Bodhidharma.  He answered, "10 minutes and 80 years."  A European artist would say that it took 80 years for him to master skills.  But a Japanese artist would mean that it took 80 years for him to get through necessary spiritual training.

 http://www.ikedahayato.com/index.php/archives/9955

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakuin_Ekaku


Anyway Peter Drucker was not an ordinary American.  He was one of European Judaists who could narrowly escape the evil of Nazis and Hitler before WWII.

Peter Ferdinand Drucker was an Austrian-born American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation. He was also a leader in the development of management education, and he invented the concept known as management by objectives. 

Peter Drucker was of Jewish descent on both sides of his family,[6] but his parents converted to Christianity and lived in what he referred to as a "liberal" Lutheran Protestant household in Austria-Hungary.[7] His mother Caroline Bondi had studied medicine and his father Adolf Drucker was a lawyer and high-level civil servant.[8] Drucker was born in Vienna, Austria, in a small village named Kaasgraben (now part of the 19th district of Vienna-Döbling).[9] He grew up in a home where intellectuals, high government officials, and scientists would meet to discuss new ideas. 

In 1933, Drucker left Germany for England.[13] In London, he worked for an insurance company, then as the chief economist at a private bank.[14] He also reconnected with Doris Schmitz, an acquaintance from the University of Frankfurt, and they married in 1934.[15] The couple permanently relocated to the United States, where he became a university professor as well as a freelance writer and business consultant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker

As he was essentially a European intellect, he could appreciate quality of traditional Japanese paintings and drawings so plainly, though Japanese animations and manga works get highly popular in the world today.




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Tokyo Sky-Tree Tower

The Book Week of Japan

The Book Week of Japan

The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper of Japan has revealed a survey result on authors whose works are the most read by the general public as the book week of Japan will start from October 27.

1. Keigo Higashino

2. Ryotaro Shiba

3. Haruki Murakami

4. Seicho Matsumoto

5. Hiroyuki Itsuki

6. Miyuki Miyabe

7. Syotaro Ikenami

8. Kyotaro Nishimura

9. Naoki Uchida

10. Syuhei Fujisawa

11. Jun Ikeido

12. Jakucho Setouchi

13. Junichi Watanabe

14. Mariko Hayashi

15. Jiro Akagawa

16. Osamu Dazaiji

17. Kotaro Isaka

18. Soseki Natsume

19. Jiro Asada

20. Hiroshi Arikawa

21. Seiichi Morimura

22. Eiji Yoshikawa

However, according to the survey, those Japanese who read a book or more in a recent month account for 46%.  Since 1995, this ratio has been around 50%, but this time it shows the lowest level.  Japanese people have come to have less time for reading a book.  One of reasons is apparently an influence of wider and exhaustive use of smart phones, especially, among young people.

The genre Japanese male readers prefer the most is historical fictions or period novels.  The genre Japanese females like the most is cooking and dietary life.

In Japan total sales of published matters are estimated to be about $18 billion. (The US publishing trade records $23 billion of sales per year.)  There are 3,400 different magazines issued yearly, monthly, weekly or so on.  The number of books newly issued every year is about 75,000.  (In America more than 180,000 published matters are delivered every year.)

But do any foreigners read Japanese books?


The Number of Learners of the Japanese Language in the World: 

1.  China       1,046,490

2.  Indonesia     872,406

3.  S.Korea       840,187

4.  Australia      296,672

5.  Taiwan        232,967

6.  US              155,939

7.  Thailand      129,616

8.  Vietnam        46,762

9.  Malaysia       33,077

10. Philippine     32,418


Good or bad, it looks like Chinese that can understand Japanese minds and hearts more than any foreigners, since Japan and China share many kanji characters and knowledge of ancient Chinese classics.




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A Shinto Shrine around Tokyo

Latest Dose Levels within Fukushima Daiichi

Latest Dose Levels within Fukushima Daiichi

It is two years and seven months after the great natural disaster of an M9.0 earthquake and tsunamis of March 11, 2011.  But the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident is yet to be fully fixed since they cannot still find specifically where melted-down nuclear fuel is now under the three crippled nuclear reactors in the plant.

Cooling water is still being circulated through the crippled reactors.  But as those reactors and reactor buildings are broken radioactively contaminated water leaks into the ground under the reactor buildings.  They pumped out contaminated and leaked water into special tanks but some of it apparently flows into the sea.

Now let's see how much dosage people are now receiving in major cities north of Tokyo on Honsyu Island, since Fukushima Daiichi is situated 220 km northeast of Tokyo.    


Dose Levels as of October 18, 2013

City               Dose (uSv/hour)
--------------------------------------

Morioka          0.023

Sendai           0.048

Fukushima     0.31

Utsunomiya   0.044

Mito              0.044

Saitama        0.041

Ichihara (Chiba)            0.031

Shinjuku (Tokyo)          0.035

Chigasaki (Kanagawa)  0.040

http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/country/japan.html


Specifically within Fukushima Prefecture where the Fukushima Daiichi plant is situated:

Dose Levels as of October 18, 2013

City/Town/Village      Dose (uSv/hour)
--------------------------------------

Fukushima                  0.31

Iidate                         0.66

Minami-soma             0.14

Namie                       2.38

Koriyama                  0.16

Aizuwakamatsu         0.07

Iwaki                         0.08


For example, the dosage in Fukushima City 0.31 uSv means 2.7 mSv per year.  The Japanese Government sets the allowable radiation limit for primary school children at 20 mSv with a standard target of 1 mSv.  So, it is not very safe for children living around Fukushima City, some 70 km west of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Recently a Japanese reporter visited Chernobyl to measure a radiation level around the broken nuclear power plant covered by huge concrete walls and slabs.  A measurement device showed 5.24 uSv.  But at two special locations  in the Fukushima Daiichi plant, they measured 1800 mSv per hour in this summer.

So, Fukushima Daiichi is still the most dangerous place in Japan, though about 3000 workers are engaged in recover work every day in the premises of the plant.


Latest Dose Levels within Fukushima Daiichi Plant (by Tokyo Electric Power Co.)

 http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/f1/index-j.html

Measurement was done at eight locations named PM-1 to PM-8.




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  Shinjuku, Tokyo

Assistant Teacher-Turned Author

Assistant Teacher-Turned Author

There was a Japanese author who was highly made much of after WWII as he wrote some works which appealed to feeling of Japanese who were suffering severe conditions of living in the land half scorched by US air raids during the war.

He happened to become an assistant teacher of a branch school of a primary school in Tokyo in early 1920s.   The branch school was situated near Shimo-kitazawa, Setagaya Ward, Tokyo.  Shimo-kitazawa today is one of the most popular towns not only for young people but also for citizens who love unique culture of this commercial district close to an uptown residential area of Tokyo.  The district is full of shops, office buildings, apartments, and so on without no vacant space.

But 80 years ago, there were mostly paddy fields, farms, and forests in addition to some farm houses and a small commercial street around Shimo-kitazawa.

There the assistant teacher met and taught children mostly from poor farm households.  Though he just worked there for three years, he experienced various aspects of  humanity through communications with poor school boys and girls.

And the most impressive thing he wrote about his experience is that a boy or a girl could be unhappy because he or she was not loved.  For a child, receiving no love is the greatest cause for unhappiness.

Ango Sakaguchi (1906 – 1955) was a Japanese novelist and essayist. 

From Niigata, Sakaguchi was one of a group of young Japanese writers to rise to prominence in the years immediately following Japan's defeat in World War II. In 1946 he wrote his most famous essay, titled "Darakuron" ("On Decadence"), which examined the role of bushido during the war. It is widely argued that he saw postwar Japan as decadent, yet more truthful than a wartime Japan built on illusions like bushido. 

Works available in English:
“Sensô to hitori no onna” (1946). Transl. by Lane Dunlop as “One Woman and the War” in Autumn Wind and Other Stories. Rutland and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1994, 140-160. 

“Hakuchi” (1946). Transl. by George Saitô as “The Idiot” in Modern Japanese Stories, ed. by Ivan Morris. Rutland and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1962, 383-410. 

“Sakura no mori no mankai no shita” (1947). Trans. by Jay Rubin as “In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom” in The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories, ed. by Theodore W. Goossen. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 187~205.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ango_Sakaguchi   

Sakaguchi wrote that the Empire of Japan had the first-rate military power before WWII though the living standard of its people was of the fourth class in the global standard.  So, he thought it was not so strange that Japan exhausted and lost its military power through the wars against China, the US, and eventually the Soviet Union in WWII.  As with living standard of the people, the nation naturally came to have the fourth-rate or less military power due to the defeat.

This sentiment was probably shared by most of the Japanese people after WWII.  That is why Japan still sticks to the Pacifist Constitution enacted in 1947, though its contents were based on strong advice from General MacArthur who occupied and governed Japan after WWII till 1951.




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Tokyo Tower since 1958

A Granddaughter of Mitsubishi Founder

A Granddaughter of Mitsubishi Founder

The Mitsubishi company syndicate was established by Yataro Iwasaki (1835-1885).  His eldest son Hisaya Iwasaki (1865-1955) also led the Mitsubishi industrial conglomerate.

Before WWII, there were 10 or so zaibatsu (industrial conglomerate) groups in Japan.   Mitsubishi zaibatsu is one of them.  These business groups in total accounted for 35.2% in terms of a ratio of capital paid-in by all the businesses in the Empire of Japan.  So, the Iwasaki family was super rich.

Hisaya Iwasaki had a daughter called Miki (1901-1980).  She was expected marry a son of a super rich family or a prominent politician.  But she tried to be a Christian and married a Christian diplomat named Renzo Sawada in 1922.  Then Miki Sawada traveled and lived in various cities, such as Buenos Aires, Beijing, London, Paris, New York, etc. between 1923 and 1936. She got many friends abroad, including an African-American singer Josephine Baker.

During WWII, Miki was in Japan, but she was regraded as a pro-American Japanese to be put under scrutiny by the special police.   After the war ended in 1945, she started to take care of orphan children each of whom was born between a Japanese mother and a US soldier. She built a children's nursing home, called Elizabeth Saunders Home, in premises of her vacation house in Oiso Town, on Sagami Bay facing the Pacific Ocean.

What served as the catalyst of her action was her encounter with a dead baby with the black skin.  When she was in a crowded train running toward Tokyo one day after WWII, something fell on her from a rack of a car.  It was a dead infant wrapped in newspaper sheets.  Then police came to check the incident.  But they doubted whether Miki was the mother of the dead baby apparently from a Japanese woman and an Africa-American soldier.  Though it was later found that there was a Japanese woman in the train who was the mother of the dead baby, this happening moved Miki so deeply.  She thought it was a sign from Heaven.  Accordingly, she decided to take care of those unhappy infants who were born between Japanese women and American soldiers.

She used her won funds to build the Home, but she also asked contribution from people in various sectors not only in Japan but also in foreign countries.  Miki named the Home after one of British contributors: Elizabeth Saunders.  Miki nursed and brought up total 2,000 children who were abandoned by their parents.

However it is said that her House was not welcomed for some time after its establishment.  Both the Japanese Government and the US military authorities stationed in Japan after WWII did not like to recognize existence of orphans of mixed blood between Japanese women and US soldiers. So, in 1949 Miki and her husband traveled to the US to solicit for a contribution. Miki Sawada met an American actress Grace Patricia Kelly who became a friend of the Sawadas'.   In 1953 Miki founded a primary school and a junior-high school for children living in Elizabeth Saunders Home.

As time went by her humanitarian work came to be widely known to the Japanese public. Even a movie was made about children living in her facilities. Miki Sawada, a grand-daughter of the founder of the Mitsubishi company syndicate of Japan, died of a heart disease in Mallorca, Spain, in 1980 during her lecture tour in Spain.

http://www.mitsubishi.com/j/history/series/man/man23.html

It is estimated today that the Mitsubishi Group has total assets of $2 trillion while the Toyota Group $300 billion.  But it is unknown how much a granddaughter of the founder of Mitsubishi zaibatsu accumulated in Heaven.



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National Stadium, Tokyo, Venue of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics

Tokai No.2 Nuclear Plant

Tokai No.2 Nuclear Plant

The Tokai No.2 Power Station is situated 110km northeast of Tokyo as one of the closest nuclear power plants to Tokyo.

http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/shuin2012/all/CK2012120102100019.html
Tokai No.2 Power Station


This power plant also faced a grave crisis due to the M9.0 earthquake and big tsunamis on March 11, 2011, as with the Fukushima Daiichi (No.1) Power Station located 220 km northeast of Tokyo.  But this plant in Ibaraki Prefecture could get rid of an accident, thus causing no nuclear disaster to Tokyo.

http://image.search.yahoo.co.jp/search?ei=UTF-8&fr=top_ga1_sa&p=%E6%9D%B1%E6%B5%B7%E7%AC%AC%E4%BA%8C+%E5%8E%9F%E7%99%BA++%E8%B7%9D%E9%9B%A2+%E6%9D%B1%E4%BA%AC#mode%3Ddetail%26index%3D47%26st%3D1680
Locations of Nuclear Power Generation Plants in Japan


The plant has a BWR nuclear reactor made by GE and Hitachi with ability to provide 1.1 million kW of electricity.  It started operation in November 1978.  However its operation is now suspended due to periodic inspection without any plan to resume its operation in any near future like so many other nuclear reactors in Japan in the aftermath of the 3.11 Disaster and the Fukushima Daiichi accident.

The head of the Tokai No.2 Plant recently commented in a symposium on why they could prevent a nuclear accident on and after March 11, 2011.   The plant head Mochida pointed to three conditions for their success in managing the plant against the natural disaster of a scale which can be observed only once in 1000 years in Japan:

1.  They had already built protective walls around the Tokai No.2 Station standing on the North Pacific Ocean like the Fukushima Daiichi No.1 Plant.  They had studied a possibility of future tsunami hazards.  Accordingly, they built 6.1-meter high coast levees which could eventually stand against a 5.4 meter tsunami on March 11, 2011.  With these walls they could secure sea-water pumps which provided cooling water to the nuclear reactor after the tsunami.

2. They learnt a lesson from the 2004 Niigata Chuetsu earthquake which halted temporarily operation of the Kashiwazaki Nuclear Power Plant located on the Sea of Japan.  Following a review of the earthquake, they introduced gas turbine generators into  the Tokai No.2 Station.  This auxiliary generators could provide electricity for the Station after the M9.0 earthquake and tsunamis which knocked down external power supply to the Tokai facilities.  So, the Tokai Station could continue cooling of the nuclear reactor by operating pumps after the occurrence of the natural disaster.

3. They had good relationships with various providers and business partners.  Those companies helped the Tokai No.2 Station at the time of the great crisis on and after March 11, 2011.  In such emergency situations, the Station needed extra manpower, equipment, and services.  But those friendly businesses offered big aid and support despite danger of a possible nuclear accident.

Indeed, these three conditions were what was fatally lacked in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant which is located 100 km north of the Tokai No.2 Station.

Conversely, if the Tokai No.2 Station could not fulfill the above three conditions, it should have been crippled like Fukushima Daiichi.  And in this case the Tokyo Metropolitan Area must have suffered a very grave situation.

The following map shows possible radiation contamination in a case that the Tokai No.2 Station should be damaged to leak radioactive substance to the air like the Fukushima Daiichi Plant.

http://fkuoka.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-247.html
Possible Situation of Tokai No.2 Station Damaged like Fukushima Daiichi

In this case, radioactive hazards would cover Ibaraki, Chiba, Saitama Prefectures north and east of Tokyo Prefecture on Tokyo Bay.   So, most of businesses in Tokyo must have been affected badly, and tens of thousands of Tokyo residents must have evacuated.  Probably all the foreigners living in Tokyo would run away in a panic while the Narita International Airport should stop its service.  We were really very lucky to have good management in  the Tokai No.2 Station on March 2011.

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Tokyo toward North

Two Japanese Pirates

Two Japanese Pirates

One of the most prominent Europeans the Japanese people are taught in schools even today is  Francisco de Xavier

In August 1549, Francisco de Xavier (1506-1552) landed on Kagoshima, the most southern part of Kyusyu Island of mainland Japan.

Francis Xavier was a Roman Catholic missionary born in Xavier, Kingdom of Navarre (now part of Spain), and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. He was a student of Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits, dedicated at Montmartre in 1534.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Xavier

In January 1551 Xavier traveled to Kyoto where the emperor of Japan lived, though Japan was at the time in decades-long armed conflicts among feudal lords who occupied their own fiefs while the emperor had almost no territories except the palace in Kyoto.  What was worse, the samurai shogun, a kind of king for all the samurai clans, had also lost his authority and political power at the time.  So, Xavier stayed for only 11 days in Kyoto and returned to western Japan.

 However a feudal lord who ruled the Yamaguchi region, the most western part of Honsyu Island, the largest island of mainland Japan, was very compassionate to  Xavier.  So, mostly around this region, Xavier was engaged in preaching.  He could finally convert 700 Japanese to Christians.   Then he left Japan for India where he had preached the gospel before coming to Japan.  

Xavier thought that in order to succeed in missionary work in Japan it was necessary to succeed in China, since China had strong influential power on Japan in terms of culture.  (Buddhism was imported to Japan through China.)  But Xavier died in 1552 in an island off the Chinese Continent.  His dead body was sent to Goa, India, to be enshrined.  

Then Francisco Cabral (1529-1609) came to Japan as the head of Catholic missionaries in Japan in 1570.  He also preached in western Japan.  When he tried to travel to Kyoto from the Yamaguchi region, he became ill at a port town, called Iwakuni, facing the Inland Sea.  There was only one Christian family in the town, so that the Cabral band became at a loss.  But a pirate came to help him.  He took Cabral to his home and cared for the foreign priest for 20 days.

Cabral asked this kind pirate whether he would convert to Christianity. Then the pirate replied that when more and more Japanese came to believe in Christianity and the king of Japan permitted the religion, he would be a Christian. 

So, when he recovered, Cabral and his group left for Kyoto on a ship piloted by the pirate.  Cabral further traveled to the Gifu region where the then rising samurai lord Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) governed.  Nobunaga helped Western missionaries preach the gospel in Japan.  Nobunaga also loved to buy and get Western goods from Portuguese and Spanish merchants.

Then a decade later Oda Nobunaga conquered one third of Japan as he made the best use of matchlock guns Portuguese merchants had brought into Japan in 1543.  He even controlled the emperor who lived in Kyoto without military and administrative power.  Now it was expected that Nobunaga would soon rule entire Japan even if he could not replace the emperor.

In 1579, Nobunaga built a big castle, called Azuchi-jyo on Lake Biwa, 20 km north of Kyoto.  He allowed Christian missionaries to build a school in the town surrounding the castle. Nobunaga hated some factions of Buddhists and killed thousands of armed Buddhist monks in battles, which was one of reasons for his strong support for Western missionaries.

But in 1582 Nobunaga was assassinated at the Hon-no-ji Temple in Kyoto by one of his generals named Akechi Mitsuhide.  Nobunaga then had only 100 samurais in the Temple where he temporarily stayed, but Mitsughide was leading 13,000 troops as he had been ordered by Nobunaga to march to western Japan and join battles against anti-Nobunaga samurai lords.        This incident is called "Hon-no-ji no hen" in Japanese, since it is one of the biggest betrayal cases in the Japanese history.   Anyway citizens and samurais living in Azuchi got into a panic.  Samurai troops led by Mitsuhide were approaching Azuchi.

Christians and priests in the school of Azuchi were also driven by fear.  They decided to flee to a small island in Lake Biwa.  And conveniently a fisherman came to them offering help.  He said he would take them to the island with his boat.  But one priest found that this kind man was actually a pirate.  He planned to rob Christians of money and assets on the boat.

Still luckily, one of Japanese Christians working in the school had a relative who was a friend of samurai general Mitsuhide.  So, they asked help from samurais of the Akechi force coming into Azuchi.  The pirate ran away and they were saved, though the great castle and the town of Azuchi were burnt down.

Finally after various incidents, Christianity was banned by the Tokugawa samurai shogun in the early 17th century.  However it is estimated that those Western missionaries converted almost a million Japanese into Christianity in 60 years since Xavier landed on Kagoshima in 1549.  Nonetheless, in the middle of the 17th century the official number of Japanese Christians dropped to zero due to the law to prohibit Christianity.

In conclusion, whether or not Christianity prevailed in Japan, there were both a good pirate and a bad pirate.  The issue at point might not be on so-called religion.

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AE%89%E5%9C%9F%E5%9F%8E
Azuchi Castle of Nobunaga





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Mt. Fuji Today, 100 km Far

Emperor of the Empire of Japan

Emperor of the Empire of Japan

The big difference between Japan and the US is existence of the emperor in Japan.

The big difference between Japan and China is existence of the emperor in Japan.

But how have the Japanese people regraded the emperor?

Today generally speaking the existence of the emperor has no influence on Japanese individuals when they think of their life and death or their life styles or jobs.  But they think that showing respect for the emperor and imperial family members mean acting as respectable members of society.

But this attitude toward the emperor was only established after WWII and after enactment of the new Japanese Constitution in 1947.  However during the samurai era which continued till 1867 since the late 12th century, the emperor was deprived of real political power by samurai leaders.  Farmers in local villages paid customs or tax, namely mostly rice, not to officials sent by the emperor who lived in Kyoto but to samurai lords who governed or administered regions including their villages.  The emperor had no military forces in the 700-year-long Samurai Age.  Or essentially the samurai class had grown from soldiers who had once belonged to the emperor or noblemen.

Accordingly villagers and townsmen in the samurai era had neither enough knowledge  about the emperor nor appropriate chances to show respect for the emperor.

Then a big change happened in the history of Japan as western powers started to request by force opening of the nation Japan in the middle of the 19th century though the samurai regime had closed the country for almost 250 years.

But in the Empire of Japan, the political system that existed from 1868 to 1945, the emperor was a almost nominally autocratic ruler of Japan.  It is because politicians, military leaders and elite bureaucrats of the Empire needed such a super monarch in Japan so as to govern the Japanese people under the name of the emperor peremptorily.  As most of those elites in the Empire were ex-samurais or descendants of samurais, they thought they belonged to a class higher than ordinary people of the Empire who had belonged to the farmer class or the townsman class during the samurai era.  So, it is fit for them to set the emperor as a despot who presided at the highest position in the Japanese social stratum.

Nonetheless, there was a serious dispute about characteristics of the emperor as a (mostly nominal) despot.  Was he above the legal system of Japan like a kind of god, or was he just one function under the Imperial Constitution?

Dispute over "Emperor as an Organ of Government Theory" 

The theory of the Emperor as an organ of government (the theory of the nation state as a juridical body) that the Emperor is an organ of the state possessing no authority over and above the state, who exercised power only as the highest organ of the state was widely accepted as an academic construct legally underpinning the Meiji Constitution system. At a plenary session of the House of Peers on 18 February 1935 (Showa 10), however, KIKUCHI Takeo vehemently attacked the theory, criticizing the works of constitutional scholar MINOBE Tatsukichi and others. In response, MINOBE, who was also a member of the House of Peers, made a strong "personal defense" of the theory at the plenary session one week later, on 25 February 1935. Sensing opportunity, nationalist groups and others pounced on the issue and started a campaign to discredit the "Emperor as an Organ of Government Theory". The movement to denounce the theory grew in intensity when the Seiyukai, which wanted to overturn the Cabinet, was joined by large segments of the military and local government groups.
http://www.ndl.go.jp/modern/e/cha4/description04.html  

In 1912, Minobe published a work on constitutional interpretation, which came to be known as the “emperor organ theory”. Per Minobe, the “State”, or kokutai was supreme, and even the emperor was only an “organ of the State” as defined through the constitutional structure, rather than a sacred power beyond the state itself....

Minobe’s interpretation of the constitution was generally accepted by bureaucrats and even imperial household until the 1930s, although it had been challenged from the beginning by imperial absolutists such as Yatsuka Hoizumi and Shinkichi Uesugi, who held that the emperor was, by definition, the personification of the State itself, and therefore politically unaccountable for his actions, however arbitrary, as defined in Article 3 the Meiji Constitution.

In the increasingly militant environment of the 1930s, Minobe’s liberal interpretation of the role of the emperor came under attack from military officers and ultranationalists increasingly disillusioned by liberal democracy and corruption in government, which they felt could only be addressed through a Shōwa Restoration in which the emperor would take personal totalitarian control. On February 18, 1935, Baron Takeo Kikuchi, a retired general and member of the House of Peers, launched a public campaign to demand that Prime Minister Keisuke Okada ban Minobe’s works, which he termed to be “traitorous thoughts”.[3] Minobe addressed the Diet of Japan a week later in his own defense, while right-wing groups and Kōdōha officers held a demonstration in downtown Tokyo denouncing him. In early March, Major General Genkuro Eto charged in the lower house of the Diet of Japan that Minobe’s books, specifically Kenpo Satsuyo (Compendium of the Constitution) and Tsuiho kenpo seigi (Additional Commentaries on the Constitution) were works of lese-majeste, and that Minobe should be arrested.[4] Bowing to severe political pressure, Okada asked Minobe to resign from his posts later that month, banned some of his works, and initiated a government-sponsored campaign to discredit his works in favor of the tenets supporting the concept of the divine right of the emperor, which quickly merged with emperor worship and national chauvinism.[5]

Following the surrender of Japan after World War II, Minobe was active as an advisor in the creation of the post-war Constitution of Japan, as well as an advisor to the Privy Council.[6] He died in 1948.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatsukichi_Minobe

Nonetheless, Showa Emperor who presided over Japan through WWII once said that he did not think any part of his status had changed before and after  WWII.  The father of the present emperor stressed that he always acted in the same manner even despite the change of the Constitution after the defeat of the Empire in 1945.

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/j1bkk/31458438.html
Imperial Family of Showa Emperor in 1941





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Around Akihabara Railroad Station, Tokyo



 

Japanese Ability as a Civilized Nation

Japanese Ability as a Civilized Nation

It is often said in Japan that the literacy rate of villagers in mountains in Japan in the early 17th century was higher than that of citizens of London.

Around 1850 Japanese who could read and write accounted for about 80% of all the Japanese at the time, namely 32 million, but lower-class citizens of London who could read and write was just 10% while it was about 20% covering all the classes in London.

Italy and Spain come bottom of OECD's literacy and numeracy league tables 

Japan and Finland fare best in survey testing basic skills of people living in 24 industrial democracies

theguardian.com, Tuesday 8 October 2013 11.08 BST

(Ranking of nations in terms of basic ability as civilized people is as follows)

.................
Literacy for people aged 16-24 

1 Finland
2 Japan
3 South Korea
4 Netherlands
5 Estonia
6 Australia
7 Sweden
8 Poland
9 Czech Republic
10 Germany
11 Austria
12 Slovak Republic
13 Denmark
14 France
15 Canada
16 Norway
17 Ireland
18 Spain
19 England/N Ireland
20 United States
21 Italy
22 Cyprus

Literacy for all adults
1 Japan
2 Finland
3 Netherlands
4 Sweden
5 Australia
6 Norway
7 Estonia
8 Slovak Republic
9 Flanders (Belgium)
10 Canada
11 Czech Republic
12 Denmark
13 South Korea
14 England/N Ireland
15 Germany
16 United States
17 Austria
18 Poland
19 Ireland
20 France
21 Spain
22 Italy

Numeracy for people aged 16-24
1 Netherlands
2 Finland
3 Japan
4 Flanders (Belgium)
5 South Korea
6 Austria
7 Estonia
8 Sweden
9 Czech Republic
10 Slovak Republic
11 Germany
12 Denmark
13 Norway
14 Australia
15 Poland
16 Canada
17 Cyprus
18 Northern Ireland
19 France
20 Ireland
21 England
22 Spain
23 Italy
24 United States

Numeracy for all adults
1 Japan
2 Finland
3 Sweden
4 Netherlands
5 Norway
6 Denmark
7 Slovak Republic
8 Flanders (Belgium)
9 Czech Republic
10 Austria
11 Germany
12 Estonia
13 Australia
14 Canada
15 South Korea
16 England/N Ireland
17 Poland
18 France
19 Ireland
20 United States
21 Italy
22 Spain

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/oct/08/italy-spain-oecd-literacy-numeracy-league-table

As other example of Japanese ability, in 1681 when Japan was governed by the Tokugawa samurai regime, a samurai scientist Seki Takakazu calculated the circular constant till the 16th digits using a 131,072-sided polygon without communications with European scientists, since Japan closed the nation to foreign countries, except China and the Netherlands, at the time.  So, before the start of modernization and westernization of Japan in 1860s, samurai scientists and some intellectual townsmen developed a Japanese version of modern mathematics.  It was a key to success of Japan in science and technology from the late 19th century on.



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Poor Children and Poor Women in Japan

Poor Children and Poor Women in Japan

The poverty rate of Japanese children was about 10% in 1985.  But it rose to more than 15% in 2009.

The poverty rate of single-parent households has been over 50% in Japan in these decades.

So, in Japan the chain of poverty over generations has become a big issue.  Especially school social workers in Japan are posed difficult tasks to in handling those poor children.

In Japan traditionally children have been treated well by their parents no matter how poor their families are.  But as the gap between the poor and the rich has been widened through the 15-year-long deflation in Japan, many children in poor families have come to experience real poverty.

Young Japanese women also face grave poverty.  Women in their 20s or 30s who live alone show a poverty rate of more than 30%.  It is fairly higher than the poverty rate of men in the same conditions.

The rate of women who work under contracts of irregular employment is around 50% for those at their 30s and 60% at their 40s.  Moreover, the percentage of unmarried women between 25 and 29 years old is 50%, and for those between 30 and 34 years old the rate is about 35%.  These figures are 20% higher compared with situations observed 20 years ago.

So, even in Japan, young children and single women are suffering grave poverty while the gap between the poor and the rich has been expanding in the Japanese society through deflation.  Deflation is especially advantageous for rich people.  They can purchase various assets at lower costs.  They can even monopolize business in certain fields.  Their profits from business operation are increasing.  For example Japanese companies based on a capital of more than $10 million have accumulated internal reserves of total $2.5 trillion.  

Japanese businesses are thriving but Japanese children and women are not.

APPENDIX.　Gini Coefficients of G20

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-05-19-poverty-how-the-other-half-live/#.UlOix1BSiSo

The gap between the poor and the rich in Japan is in the middle among G20 countries as the above Gini graph shows.

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Tokyo Bay

   

How Much Good for Old Men

How Much Good for Old Men

UNFPA and HelpAge International made public the ranking of countries in terms of how well their ageing populations are faring:

No.     Country
--------------------------
1  Sweden

2  Norway

3  Germany

4  Netherlands

5  Canada

6  Switzerland

7  New Zealand

8  US

9  Iceland

10 JAPAN

11 Austria

12 Ireland

13 UK

14 Australia

15 Finland

16 Luxemburg

17 Denmark

18 France

19 Chile

20 Slovenia

21 Israel

22 Spain

23 Uruguay

24 Belgium

25 Czech

26 Argentina

27 Italy

28 Costa Rica

29 Estonia

30 Panama

31 Brazil

32 Ecuador

33 Maurititus

34 Portugal

35 China

http://www.helpage.org/global-agewatch/data/
--------------------------

Generally speaking countries in Europe and those dominated by the European race enjoy good conditions of living for the aged.

It is a simple result of global colonization by western powers.  Africa, Asia except Japan, and Central and South Americas were subject to European countries which colonized most of regions except Europe on the earth.

Japan fought in the past not to be colonized by western powers.  In this world only Japan could avoid status of colony by any western powers.  Even China and India experienced invasion by western colonialists.  Other nations such as Thailand that could escape the status of colony could not have ability and power to stand on even ground with European countries and European-dominant countries such as the US.

Accordingly Japan could be an object of study in terms of power of culture and quality of races.

Indeed without Japan on the earth and its industrial, financial, and even military success (to some extent) in the 20th century, most of non-European members of G20, including China, could not have been able to develop their economy at present levels.

But have people concerned in the world fully examined Japan in this context?

In early 1990s when Japan's GDP looked like reaching the level of the US soon, western journalists, pundits, and professors made some research on success of Japan.  But before they could understand particularities of Japan and Japanese, the bubble of Japanese economy blasted and the US took the lead again against Japan in key industries.  Subsequently Chinese growth won attention from western intellectuals as well as western businesses.  And people in the world have lost interest in the miracle of Japan's success.

But Japan still keeps its honorable position in the world as shown in the ranking of countries in terms of how well their ageing populations are faring.  

So, it is still important to study why the God prepared Japan for the world being dominated by western and Christian countries.



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Tokyo Streets

Japanese System and US Power Supply

Japanese System and US Power Supply

Shimazu Corporation delivered a bundle of chemical substance analysis systems to a certain US company in 1986.

But soon the Japanese maker of measuring instruments got a big claim from America.  They complained that the analysis systems, expected to run seven days a week, stopped their operation on every Monday morning without exceptions.

As the system was sold well globally, Shimazu had already experienced various problems and situations about operation of the system.  So, they promptly sent engineers of its subsidiary company in the US to the site of the client company.  They found that it was blowout of a fuse that halted the system.  So, they assured the US client that the analysis system would start to work well again by simply exchanging a fuse and connecting it to a power source again.   But in the morning of next Monday, the systems all halted.  It is a type of malfunction Shimazu never faced in Japan.

So, from the central office in Japan a project manager in charge flew to the site in America.  He attached an electricity monitoring device to the power source line of the building of the US company.  Then he discovered that the voltage of power supply in the building dropped by half on every week end.  It was due to some large-scale construction work being carried out in the area where the building was situated.  Shimazu's system had no function to give an alert to users about wrong voltage of external power supply.

Accordingly Shimazu redesigned related circuits of the machine and sent new parts with new circuits to the US client.  It took almost just one month till this problem was fixed.  They could prevent Shimazu from gaining a bad reputation in the US market.

But in this incident the project manager of Shimazu learnt that he could efficiently cope with the difficult problem since he thought that there must have been something wrong not only in the client but also on the Shimazu side.  It was a precious lesson for him.

This project manager later became President of Shimazu Corporation.

Shimazu is also well known to the Japanese public as a company where a Nobel Prize winner works.  Koichi Tanaka, an engineer of Shimazu, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002 as the first case in Japan that an ordinary employee in a private company won a Novel Prize.

(By reference to The Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper.)






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Tokyo Tramcar Line

China Admitted Senkakus as Japan's in 1958

China Admitted Senkakus as Japan's in 1958  

In 1958 a map-publishing company run by the Chinese Government issued an atlas which clearly showed that the Senkaku Islands belonged to Japan.

The Map Publishing Company (地図出版社) started to sell The World Atlas (世界地図集) after having been censored by the Chinese Communist Party.  Accordingly this Atlas is regraded as representing official views of the Chinese Government on its national territory.  Put simply then mighty Chinese leaders such as Chairman Mao Tse-tung and Premier Zhou Enlai believed that the Senkaku Islands were part of Japan.

In fact Taiwan is presented in the Atlas as part of the national land of People's Republic of China (which is however not).  But the Senkaku Islands, situated 170 km northeast of Taiwan Island, are clearly specified in this Atlas as part of Okinawa Prefecture of Japan.  It apparently contradicts the controversial claim by the Chinese Government that the Islands in the East China Sea belong to China, which China started to allege around 1970 when crude oil and natural gas fields were discovered by the UN under the sea near the Senkaku Islands.      

Specifically the Atlas indicates the Senkaku Islands (尖閣諸島) as the Senkaku Archipelago (尖閣群島) and names the main island of Senkakus Uotsuri-jima (魚釣島) very correctly using the same kanji letters Japanese use.  (By the way, Senkaku means a pinnacle, Uotsuri means fishing, and jima or shima means an island(s) in Japanese.)

So, this Atlas is well known to parties concerned as an official proof that the Chinese Government had acknowledged that the Senkaku Islands belonged to Japan before 1970.  It is also well known that Chinese authorities today are looking for copies of this map book to buy them and destroy them.  This book is still circulated in secondhand bookstores and antiquarian bookshops in Japan, China, Taiwan, etc.

Actually a Chinese professor teaching in a university in Japan recently found one copy of this Atlas in a bookshop in Beijing.  He tried to obtain it, but the owner of the shop said to him, "You are Chinese; I will not give it over to you.  I will rather sell this atlas to Japanese, since they will buy it at a higher price."

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%96%E9%96%A3%E8%AB%B8%E5%B3%B6%E5%95%8F%E9%A1%8C

http://hashishin.exblog.jp/20085680/


You had better refer to the following posting for detailed information about the Senkaku Islands and Chinese territorial aggression in the East China Sea.
http://eereporter.blogspot.jp/2010/10/yesterday-two-miracles-however-you.html







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Imperial Palace Plaza, Tokyo

At Crossing in Yokohama

At Crossing in Yokohama

People and cars were stopped at a railroad crossing in Yokohama City, Japan, as a train was approaching.

In a car a father at 60s and his daughter at 40 were sitting.  Then she suddenly noticed that an old man was in the track.  He was lying on the ballast with his head put on one rail.  The woman sitting on the passenger seat in the car her father  drove opened the door quickly  shouting, "The train will run over the man!" Then she dashed into the crossing.  But her father yelled, "Too late!  Stop it!"  And somebody pushed an emergency button installed on a fixed frame supporting a crossing bar so as to stop the incoming train.

The driver of the train spotted a human being before he found an emergency signal on the console.  He applied braking.  But it was too late.  The train hit both the woman and the old man trying to get out of the crossing.

The 73-year old man was only injured at the clavicle but the brave 40-year old woman, Ms. Murata, died while her father was watching.

This is one of big news stories in Japan this morning.

For your information, Japan records more than 300 accidents in railroad crossings per year.  And the yearly number of the dead due to crossing accidents is more than 110.

And compared with other cities, Tokyo has very many crossings.  For example, as of 2010, the Tokyo metropolitan area has  668 railroad crossings while New York has 109 crossings, Paris has 17 and London only 12.

http://www.jice.or.jp/jishu/t2/pdf/siryo20.pdf#search='%E8%B8%8F%E5%88%87%E4%BA%8B%E6%95%85+%E5%B9%B4%E9%96%93'
Crossings in Tokyo Metropolitan Area and Paris (X = crossing; the zones surrounded by blue lines are target areas for comparison.) (Tokyo on the right hand side and Paris on the left)

1937 War between Japan and China

1937 War between Japan and China

The most meaningful passages of  The Effects OF Strategic Bombing ON JAPAN'S War Economy, THE UNITED STATES STRATEGIC BOMBING SURVEY, which was written after WWII by US authorities, are as follows:

Thus, as was confirmed by many Japanese officials interrogated by the Survey, the 1937 thrust into northern China was not expected to develop into a major war. Those responsible for national policy at the time were fully confident that the Chinese government would yield quickly to Japan's demands and adjust itself readily to the position of a Japanese puppet. A full military conquest of China was considered to be neither necessary nor desirable. Troops were sent to China not to force a military decision but to serve as symbols of Japanese power. Negotiations—or rather intimidation—were to accomplish the rest.

While the motivations for the drive into China were similar to the ones which led Japan into Manchuria, the immediate interest of the army was even more pronounced. A large contingent of the army was anxious to secure foreign "grazing grounds" which would provide a lavish "master race' ' existence. Once more large numbers of petty merchants, importers, and exporters swarmed into the newly acquired territories, to form the political and economic machine of the high command. The control of northern China became, thus, the basis of continuous well-being of a large strata of politically influential and vociferous Japanese.

It should be noted first that "The United States Strategic Bombing Survey was a board of experts assembled to produce an impartial assessment of the effects of Anglo-American strategic bombing of Nazi Germany during the European war. After publishing its report, the Survey turned its attention to the efforts against Imperial Japan, including a separate section on the recent atomic bombing." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Strategic_Bombing_Survey)

Let's review incidents in the decisive year of 1937.

June 4 - Fumimaro Konoe becomes Prime Minister of Japan.

July 7 - Japanese troops  exchanges fire with Chinese military units by accident around the Marco Polo Bridge or Lugou Bridge located 15 km southwest of the Beijing city center.

July 28 - Imperial Army of Japan starts an all-out attack around Beijing and north part of China.

July 29 - Japanese civilians and troops are massacred by Chinese East Hopei Army in Tongzhou, near Beijing.

August 13 - The Kuomintang Government or the Nationalist Party-led Chinese Government starts the total offensive on Shanghai, an international city governed by the UK, France, the US, and Japan.   Accordingly Japanese marines stationed in Shanghai have to face 10-times larger Chinese troops in defensive battles.

August 14 - Chinese war planes start to bomb Japanese naval ships patrolling in the river running through Shanghai. They also bomb Shanghai streets, killing many Chinese and some Europeans and Americans.  The number of Chinese soldiers mobilized has reached 70,000.  The Imperial forces of Japan have only 6,300 marines of the Imperial Navy in Shanghai.

August 23 - Imperial military headquarters in Tokyo dispatched  two divisions to Shanghai.  Following this reinforcement, more troops and divisions are sent to Shanghai and inlands adjacent to the city in following months.

November 12 - The Imperial Army and Navy completely dispel Chinese troops out of Shanghai.

November 20 -  The Chinese Government office led by Chiang Kaishek runs away from Nanjing to Chongqing.

December 13 - The Imperial Army of Japan defeats Chinese troops around and in Nanjing.  The series of battles from Shanghai to Nanjing is finally over.

Put simply the Chinese Government and its president Chiang Kaishek sent 300,000 troops to the battle on Shanghai in July 1937.  But they were defeated by the Imperial Army/Navy, so that Chinese troops ran away back to the then Chinese capital Nanjing.  Japanese troops without taking a breather chased them to Nanjing 300 km west of Shanghai.  In the battle of Nanjing 120,000 Japanese troops crushed 90,000 Chinese soldiers.  This sever battle resulted in execution of many Chinese war prisoners by Japanese troops after occupation of Nanjing.  It is estimated that the number of those unlucky Chinese soldiers cruelly executed by Japanese troops is about 20,000.

This incident gave a great shock to Chinese leaders, since they had thought that their 300,000 troops could drive away or crush Japanese troops around Shanghai.  But China lost not only tens of thousands of soldiers around Shanghai but also the then capital Nanjing.  Accordingly to save their face and restore any honor, China started to blame Japan for the so-called Nanjing Atrocity after WWII.

Apart from the so-called Nanjing Atrocity, by looking back to the era around 1937, it is apparent that Chinese leaders tried to pull Japan into messy war.   It was partly because Chinese thought they could surely win the war against the Empire of Japan if they had fought Japanese troops inside China in 1937 (since Chinese military was helped strengthen its war preparation by Nazi Germany in preceding years), and partly because the Chinese Communist Party led by Mao Tse-tung thought that they could survive as long as their enemy, the Kuomintang Government led by Chiang Kaishek, continued to fight Japanese troops on the Chinese soil.

Chinese arrogance and conspiracies gave a chance to leaders of the Imperial Army of Japan who were beefing up defensive lines between northern China and Manchuria.  In order to make Manchukuo safer, those generals would gladly march troops to Beijing and surrounding areas.  And in order to keep Shanghai on the Japanese side, those generals would gladly march troops to Nanjing and surrounding areas.     　

The shallow judgment of Chinese leaders paved the way for the Imperial military of Japan to take the offensive around Beijing and Shanghai.

Nonetheless, then Prime Minister of Japan Konoe and other Japanese politicians were clearly against expansion of battle lines deep inside China.  But the Konoe Cabinet could not stop Imperial troops from further intensifying armed conflicts on the Chinese continent.  It is because the Imperial Army and Navy were directly subject to the Emperor.

The Constitution of the Empire of Japan defined the emperor as the holy supreme commander of the Imperial forces.  For this reason, though the ministers of army and navy were included in the Konoe Cabinet, Prime Minister Konoe could not interfere with military movements and operations of the Army and the Navy.  PM Konoe could not fire generals who were marching their troops deep into Chinese territories on their own initiatives in the name of "punishment of arrogant Chinese leaders and protection of Japanese citizens in China."

Therefore the Empire of Japan had no ambition for conquering and occupying whole China.  Even Japanese generals had no intention to kill Chinese as many as possible, which is often claimed by anti-Japanese Chinese today.  They happened to be drawn into the war or just took an opportunity given by Chinese leaders for their own merit.

In summary the Imperial Government led by Konoe in 1937 had no intention and plan to conquer China or even start a war against China, but samurai-spirited Japanese generals, from their bigotry and fight instinct, launched the war now called the Second Sino-Japanese War (July 7, 1937 – September 9, 1945).

This is truth of the 1937 war between Japan and China, to your surprise.

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Tokyo