Ozawa resigns from leadership of Japanese parliament opposition

Opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa on Monday expressed his intention to step down following the indictment of his top secretary in a political funds scandal that has threatened his party's prospects of winning the next general election, according to a party executive.

When the scandal broke in early March, Ozawa said he would stay on as president of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, denying any wrongdoing despite criticism that the incident undermines public trust in politics.

His successor to be announced.

Tokyo bows to Bataan Death March POWs

And then the unexpected happened! Really?
I definitely will have to find more on this.

The Japanese government has extended an apology through its ambassador in the U.S. to former American prisoners of war who suffered in the "Bataan Death March" in the Philippines during World War II, it was learned May 9 [according to the Nikkei May 10, click the title to read the story]

It marked the first time for Japan to apologize specifically to those who survived the infamous march on the Bataan Peninsula, which resulted in numerous deaths. The commander of the group representing POWs said, "It took a long time, but I am glad to hear a formal apology from the Japanese government."

The POW group is called "American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor," and led by Commander Lester Tenney, 88, a professor emeritus at Arizona State University. The group is scheduled to disband by the end of this month due to aging of the members.


"It was pretty rough to watch," Tenney says of the brutal torture during the Bataan Death March (in a Japanese photo)

The apology was extended in the letter by Japan's ambassador to the U.S., Ichiro Fujisaki, based in Washington, D.C. Fujisaki said in the letter to Tenney last December, "We extend a heartfelt apology for our country having caused tremendous damage and suffering to many people, including those who have undergone tragic experiences in the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island in the Philippines." In February, Fujisaki sent another letter, which said, "What we informed you in the previous letter is the result of careful consideration, and it reflects fully the Government of Japan's position."

In 1999, Tenney sued Japanese companies that used him and other POWs as slave labor during the war. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 dismissed his case, noting that the U.S. waived the right to claims under the San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan. But, Tenney says, "Moral responsibility of those companies remains." He is still waiting to hear an apology from them.

"December 8 1941, Luzon, Philippines — Within hours of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the first waves of Japanese aircraft attack Clark Airfield north of Manila, the Philippine capital. They are met by fierce antiaircraft fire from New Mexico's 200th Coast Artillery (AA). The Guardsmen are credited with destroying at least two enemy aircraft in this attack. In April 1942, due to most of the troops suffering from illness plus a lack of food and ammunition, the unit, along with all remaining American and Filipino forces still fighting on the Bataan Peninsula, was compelled to surrender. The men were lead into captivity as part of the infamous "Bataan Death March." Those soldiers who survived the march remained prisoners of war for the next three years."

I met and accidentally worked a while with Hampton Sides in Tokyo while he was spending months in Japan to write his book on Bataan Death March helped by a very close person of mine at Foreign Press Center, in Kasumigaseki, Tokyo. Actually I introduced Hampton to Lester Tenney and his son at an event on Taiwanese comfort women that was organized in Tokyo early 2000s'. His resume on the publisher mentions Hampton Sides is a native of Memphis, worked as editor at large for Outside magazine and the author of the international best-seller, Ghost Soldiers (Doubleday), which was the basis for the 2005 Miramax film, The Great Raid. Ghost Soldiers won the 2002 PEN USA award for non-fiction and the 2002 Discover Award from Barnes & Noble, and his magazine work has been twice nominated for National Magazine Awards for feature writing. Hampton is also the author of Americana (Anchor) and Stomping Grounds (William Morrow). A graduate of Yale with a B.A. in history, he lives in New Mexico.


Hampton Sides

Ghost soldiers: the forgotten epic story of World War II's most dramatic mission
By Hampton Sides
ISBN 0385495641, 9780385495646

The Economist: "Jean-Baptiste Colbert règne de nouveau à Paris"

Fancy Frenchy Chic?

Si The Economist le dit, japonais, chinois et coréens
pourraient aussi s'en inspirer. "Revenge?" "Non, just
a fact!" European economies are better managed. Catch
a TGV hi-speed train, get medical and health service,
improve your demographics, enjoy " la joie de vivre".
This is "La revanche du modèle français" clame
l'hebdomadaire britannique The Economist dans son
édition datée du 7 Mai. En attendant le prochain coup
de griffe de la perfide Albion, un regard sur ce
papier made in London:

Citations

"For years leaders in continental Europe have been told by the Americans, the British and even this newspaper that their economies are sclerotic, overregulated and too state-dominated, and that to prosper in true Anglo-Saxon style they need a dose of free-market reform. But the global economic meltdown has given them the satisfying triple whammy of exposing the risks in deregulation, giving the state a more important role and (best of all) laying low les Anglo-Saxons.

At the April G20 summit in London, France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany’s Angela Merkel stood shoulder-to-shoulder to insist pointedly that this recession was not of their making. Ms Merkel has never been a particular fan of Wall Street. But the rhetorical lead has been grabbed by Mr Sarkozy. The man who once wanted to make Paris more like London now declares laissez-faire a broken system.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert once again reigns in Paris. Rather than challenge dirigisme, the British and Americans are busy following it: Gordon Brown is ushering in new financial rules and higher taxes, and Barack Obama is suggesting that America could copy some things from France, to the consternation of his more conservative countrymen. Indeed, a new European pecking order has emerged, with statist France on top, corporatist Germany in the middle and poor old liberal Britain" floored.

L'économie, performances des modèles étatiques

"The downturn has also confirmed that the continental model has some strengths. France has a comparatively efficient public sector, thanks in part to years of investment in better roads, more high-speed trains, nuclear energy and even the restoration of old cathedrals. Nor is it just a matter of pumping in ever more taxpayers’ cash. By any measure France’s health system delivers better value for money than America’s costlier one. Germany has not just looked after its public finances more prudently than others; its export-driven model has forced its companies to hold down costs, making them competitive not only in Europe but also globally."

La palme a Nicolas Sarkozy écrit The Economist

"... il a été en partie élu Président de la France en expliquant que le modèle français était moribond, et en vantant les louanges des modèles britannique et américain. C'est le même homme qui a pris la tête de croisade contre le laisser-faire capitaliste".

Demain, quels risques?

« Les points forts qui donnent plus de résistance à l'Europe continentale en temps de récession, pourraient se transformer en faiblesses dans le rebond. Car il y a un prix à payer pour plus de sécurité et plus de protection de l'emploi : moins de souplesse et d'innovation qui signifient, à plus long terme, moins de croissance. (…) Les Etats-Unis et la Grande-Bretagne pourraient sortir de la récession plus vite que la majeure partie de l'Europe continentale. »

Pragmatisme de rigueur

"Getting regulation right matters as much as freeing up markets; an efficient public sector may count as much as an efficient private one; public investment in transport, schools and health care, done well, can pay dividends. The pecking order may change, but pragmatism and efficiency will always count."

Click sur le titre pour accéder au papier de l'Economist de Londres.


Toujours dans des revues cet autre regard sur la crise économique et financière avec le Dr. Robert Madsen dans Foreign Affairs Mai Juin 2009. "Comparing Crises. Is the Current Economic Collapse Like Japan's in the 1990s?" [www.foreignaffairs.com]

Quotes:
"The extra capital generated in East Asia and the developing world was amplified by largely unregulated financial innovation and increases in leverage -- a pattern that recalls Japan's experience in the 1980s. The money poured into the most liberalized markets, including the real estate sectors in Australia, Spain, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Households in those countries then used the appreciation in the value of their homes to finance additional consumption, effectively absorbing the surplus liquidity and providing the demand necessary to propel global GDP growth.

In 2007-9, this ultimately unsustainable pattern started to unravel...

... What actually happened, however, was a more harmful resolution of the imbalances, one affecting exclusively the import side of the ledger. The adjustment started when trouble manifested in the U.S. subprime market, revealing that a range of financial institutions in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere had assumed dangerously large volumes of debt. Like their counterparts in Japan in the 1990s, these firms reacted by selling assets and calling in loans. As the value of market securities began to erode, other lenders saw their balance sheets deteriorate and decided that they, too, needed to raise cash. The resulting wave of asset sales has so far wiped out close to $15 trillion in U.S. wealth alone, which has caused consumers to expand their savings several fold..."

Robert MADSEN is a Senior Fellow at the MIT Center for International Studies.

La candidature de Tokyo aux JO 2016 tourne au vinaigre politique

Des médailles olympiques très désirées par Tokyo

Tokyo en manque d'idées pour convaincre le CIO? Après
les mauvais sondages vient l'affaire des dépenses
inutiles alors que Tokyo se disait motivée par un
budget serré. Eh bien c'est raté, on parle maintenant
de graves erreurs de communications et de cadeaux à
des politiciens proches du gouvernement (dans la série
gaffes et gabegie) commises par le comité de
candidature de Tokyo aux Jeux Olympiques d'Eté 2016.
Manip politicienne ou âpre réalité?

D'ores et déjà la bagarre politique fait rage
également au parlement japonais où les partis
d'opposition disent non au projet défendu par la
majorité conservatrice du PLD et de son allié du parti
bouddhiste (le Komei-to, une formation politique
présente dans les deux chambres de l'appareil
législatif Japonais née de l'organisation bouddhiste
laïque "Soka Gakkai" considérée comme une secte par
plusieurs rapports parlementaires français)

Motif: "Mieux vaudrait dépenser l'argent utilement au
profit du social" et des problèmes dictés par la crise
économique et financière née de la mondialisation. Le
parti communiste japonais en remet une louche en
dénonçant les prétendus "voyages d'inspections"
outre-mer qu'auraient effectués des parlementaires du
PLD (Jimin-to) et du PDJ (Minshu-to).

L'argent déclare le PCJ (Kyosan-to) devrait davantage
servir à l'amélioration des conditions de vie des
habitants de Tokyo mis à mal par la crise. Priorité
devrait être donnée non pas dans des dépenses
somptuaires permettant à des politiciens de se
"balader a l'oeil" dans des voyages luxueux à
l'étranger mais à investir dans la santé, action
sociale, soins, éducation et logement, l'aide des
personnes âgées et les pensions et assurances
vieillesses de la capitale japonaise.

Lobbying forcené

En compétition avec Chicago, Madrid et Rio de Janeiro
pour l'organisation des JO d'Eté 2016, Tokyo a
présenté un projet hi-tec et écologique voulant mettre
les Jeux au coeur de la métropole de 41,5 millions
d'habitants sur 7 préfectures, dont Tokyo la
démesurée, tentaculaire, jamais endormie (12,7
millions d'habitants), mais aussi Yokohama Kanagawa,
Saitama, Chiba. La région sise sur la plaine du Kanto
possède le plus fort PIB régional de l'archipel
japonais.

Le comité de candidature des JO 2016 prévoit
d'associer notamment "l'héritage et la modernité",
faisant usage de 21 des sites construits pour
l'édition des JO de 1964, premiers Jeux Olympiques
jamais organisés en Asie. Il y eut depuis Séoul en
1988 et Pékin en 2008. Pour 2016 Tokyo envisage de
construire seulement 10 sites. Le budget estimé de la
candidature est de 48 millions de dollars.

Tokyo et son énergique Gouverneur l'écrivain Ishihara
Shintaro estime que le principal atout des JO 2016 de
Tokyo est le caractère compact de son projet, avec des
sites olympiques éloignés au maximum de 8 km par
rapport au Village olympique. Le CIO donnera le nom
de l'organisateur en octobre 2009.

Tokyo a engagé une véritable course contre la montre
pour séduire le CIO, appuyé par de nombreuses
opérations de lobbying. "La candidate la plus redoutée
par Tokyo est Chicago" selon des sources critiques au
Japon de la méthode de gestion du TMG (Tokyo
Metropolitan Government) pour obtenir les JO 2016.

Au sein du comité de candidature des critiques vont
même jusqu'à dire que la municipalité de Tokyo "cours
vers la catastrophe, instaure une discipline de fer,
se montre incapable de déléguer, et rejette les
conseils des professionnels de la communication et de
l'image." Ces derniers se pressent pourtant au
portillon étant donné que les chiffres des budgets
consacrés à la candidature de Tokyo pour les JO 2016
dépassent "de très loin les déclarations officielles".

Le principal point de tension me déclare une de mes
sources est que "personne n'ose contredire
l'omniscient Gouverneur Ishihara" et son Etat-Major.
Vrai ou faux? La politique s'empare dès à présent du
dossier JO 2016 alors qu'approchent d'une part la date
des élections de l'assemblée du TMG, et plus sérieuse
encore, la date des élections législatives. "Un Eté
de tous les dangers à Tokyo" pour le Gouverneur
Ishihara mais aussi pour le parti majoritaire du PLD
de Taro Aso.

"Des médailles Olympiques trop convoitées par des gens
qui n'entendent rien à l'esprit olympique"
demandais-je à mes sources japonaises?

"C'est la même chose à Chicago ou Madrid, il y a trop
d'argent public en jeu et Tokyo fera le maximum pour convaincre!"

Ce qui nécessite des idées et de l'imagination.

If crimes, Japan will fly Somali pirates to Tokyo.

The presence of dozens of international warships off
the Somali coast and in the Gulf of Aden is not
deterring Somali pirates, whose attacks appear to be
getting bolder and more frequent. Again a new
hostage, the 2,575-tonne Dutch ship "Marathon" was
just captured in the Gulf of Aden.

Somali & Gulf of Aden pirates to stand trials in Japan via
Djibouti, medias write. To be confirmed.


Quotes of the Nikkei

Tokyo government, in its measures to be taken to deal
with pirates in waters off the eastern African coast
of Somalia, has decided to move pirates to Japan after
detaining them in such serious cases as their killing
Japanese nationals and there to enter criminal
procedures. The government presumes that detaining
armed pirates could bring about a state of war, so it
will take careful action. However, the government
will prioritize judicial procedures in Japan for
crimes that mar the rights and interests of Japanese
nationals.

The government anticipates the case in which a
Japanese national is either injured or killed by
pirates in their attacks on a commercial ship. When a
Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer arrives there,
and if Japan Coast Guard rangers onboard the MSDF
destroyer can capture the pirates, the perpetrators
will be airlifted to Djibouti Airport in the eastern
part of Africa, using a patrol helicopter mounted on
the destroyer. They will be flown to Japan on a
commercial airliner.

The government entered into a status of forces
agreement with Djibouti on April 3, stipulating the
legal status of Self-Defense Forces personnel and
others. At the time, the government obtained
Djibouti’s permission to use seaports and airports for
MSDF destroyers and P-3C patrol aircraft and also
obtained its concurrence on flying pirates to Japan
via that country.




Amateur pirates?

"Somali pirates were arrested when they accidentally
attacked a French warship, the frigate Le Nivose,
after mistaking it for a merchant vessel, on Sunday.

The pirates were traveling in three boats, two small
skiffs and a nine metre ‘mother ship’. The gang was
armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, a grenade
launcher and five grenades. They pursued the French
naval vessel after failing to recognise it as such
after the captain of the frigate, Lieutenant Commander
Jean-Marc le Quilliec, decided to head towards the sun
to camouflage the ship’s identity.

As the pirates approached they were astonished to see
the ‘merchant vessel’ launch an attack helicopter and
two assault dinghies full of highly trained and
heavily armed French commandos. The pirates
immediately surrendered after the helicopter fired a
volley of warning shots.

The 11 pirates, some of whom are believed to be very
young, were arrested, searched and taken aboard the
Nivose, a French spokesman said. It is unclear what
is going to happen to them.

The Nivose is part of the European Union anti-piracy
mission Atalanta. It has had mixed results thus far
due to the pirates venturing further and further into
the Indian Ocean to launch their attacks on merchant
vessels and leisure craft. The biggest scalp the
Somali pirates have taken thus far is the VLCC MV
Siruis Star belonging to a subsidiary of the Saudi
Arabian state-owned energy giant Saudi Aramco. The
ship was hijacked in November 2008 and eventually
released in January after a ransom, believed to be in
the region of US$3 million was paid. "
(Medias quotes)


The three pirate boats captured by the French Frigate
Le Nivose.

Pandémie et médias "pestiférés"

L'information, maladie endémique... Les médias
dramatisent-ils la grippe AH1N1? L'OMS annonce ce
jour 2.371 cas dans 24 pays. 5 en France.


On peut dire ce que l'on veut sur le fait que les
médias dramatisent ou font leur travail ./ dans ce cas
de grippe porcine, mexicaine, californienne et
finalement a ce stade de virus AH1N1. Quitte a en
faire le top-news du moment et exagérer les contours
de l'affaire. Le même débat sur cette scénarisation
et dramatisation n'a-t-il pas existé avec la crise
financière, les salaires des patrons, le bonus des
banquiers, les ADM, la pipolisation des politiciens?

AH1N1

Véhiculer un mouvement d'humeur, le provoquer ou le
laisser hors contrôle ressemble a ces théories
"conspirationistes" qui inondent le web. Ici avec
AH1N1: Premier constat de gestion de crise: Il est
préférable de maintenir ouvert le robinet de la
communication et de l'information.

Menace, pandémie, intox, alarme excessive reprise en
boucle par les médias TV Radio. En revanche, pour les
labos ou les mécanismes de gestion des alertes et de
gestion des crises, y compris les marchands de caméras
thermiques, ce AH1N1 a été une très bonne opération
finalement. "Quid" des experts en sécurité?

Epidémie ou arme?

Il ne faut pas confondre épidémie - pandémie et armes
de guerre. Même si parfois il y a ressemblance.

Les enquêtes passionnantes que j'ai effectuées sur les
armes biologiques et chimiques dans les guérillas en
Asie du sud-est ont intéressé bien du monde en
France, aux Etats-Unis, au Canada, en Chine, Russie,
et au Japon. J'ai alors rencontré beaucoup de pro' et
ai gardé des sources fiables, souvent.

Ont suivi de nouvelles enquêtes en Asie de l'Est,
commanditées, sur des phénomènes décrits pompeusement
comme "du terrorisme urbain" tels que la secte d'Aum
Shin Rikkyo (rebaptisée Aleph depuis). Elles m'ont
enseigné une meilleure approche, doublant mes
observations de reporteur bien en équerre avec des
analyses de spécialistes, pharmaciens, biologistes,
militaires, policiers, juges, chercheurs de France et
ailleurs.

Leur conclusion: Le risque NRBC demeure plus que
jamais, et va croître avec le recours aux hi-tec,
entre autres par la panoplie du bio, et par un esprit
d'innovation oblige, motivé par des agents politiques
et commerciaux "intransigeants". J'aime l'euphémisme.
"L'arme chimique arme du pauvre". Remember?

Gérer la crise

On a vu que la phase de test "gestion de crise" en cas
de pandémie a été minutieusement observée au tout
début, voire avant. Il y a des gens très sérieux qui
travaillent sur toutes ces choses, sur différents
niveaux. Les conseillers en sécurité de B. Obama ou
l'USAMRIID aux Etats-Unis.

En France: DST - DCRG et la prochaine DCRI, et le
SGDN, et naturellement Bernard Bajolet, conseiller de
Nicolas Sarkozy; et puis tous les pharmaciens,
biologistes genre Pasteur en France et ses instituts
labos associés a l'étranger, et, enfin les firmes du
secteur.

"Rehearsal" (Répétition)

C'est le mot employé au Japon bien discipliné mais pas
toujours prêt a sauter sur l'occasion pour mettre en
place des contrôles effectifs et de l'esprit
d'initiative. Ici a peine les premières infos sur le
virus, les aéroports et les ports se sont mis en ordre
de combat pour débusquer le virus.

Pour la défense et les pompiers c'est "business as
usal." Le plan "Piratox" en France est une des
meilleures mesures de réponse au risque. Citation :
"Le Secrétariat Général de la Défense Nationale
travaille sur des scénarios plus importants, ce qui
l’a conduit à définir le risque NRBC comme
prioritaire."

Indeed! La France avec son plan "Biotox, Piratox,
Piratom" est l'un des pays les mieux préparés a réagir
face a une attaque NRBC, a une pandémie avec une
grippe tueuse ou a une attaque a l'anthrax. Depuis
pas mal de temps!

Le suivi de l'anthrax, au fait! Cela intéresse
beaucoup aujourd'hui le FBI et la Justice américaine,
comme on l'avait vu en 2001 dans l'étrange cas du
Dr.Ivins mais aussi plus récemment avec pas mal de
news qui concernent les laboratoires de Fort Detrick
ou Fort Meade. (Lire le New York Times sur toutes ces
affaires)

Enseignement

Il y a tout de même de l'agitation dans les milieux
concernés et cela va au-delà de la pharmacie et du
business des vaccins, ainsi que je l'expliquais ici
même précédemment.

Des documents et des enquêtes sortent d'un peu
partout. Puisque je pointais le projecteur sur les
Etats Unis ou l'Europe, voici un update des procédures
renforcées aux USA (en anglais dans le texte:
"Biological select agents and toxins (BSAT)". Cette
info de la FAS est datée de ce 6 Mai 2009. Le
document PDF est très intéressant a lire.

Extrait:

US Army SAFETY STANDARDS FOR MICROBIOLOGY LABS

The U.S. Army yesterday issued a revised and updated
safety policy for microbiology and biomedical
laboratories. The new policy "prescribes the
technical safety requirements for the use, handling,
transportation, transfer, storage, and disposal of
infectious agents and toxins (IAT) rated at biosafety
level 2 (BSL–2) and above." It applies to "all U.S.
Army activities and facilities in which IAT are used."

"Microbiological and biomedical activities are
conducted by the U.S. Army in developing measures to
identify, detect, diagnose, treat, and protect against
IAT," the 45 page document explains. See "Safety
Standards for Microbiological and Biomedical
Laboratories" (pdf), U.S. Army Pamphlet 385-69, May
6, 2009.

En biologie, une cellule souche est une cellule qui,
d'une part, peut donner des cellules spécialisées par
différenciation cellulaire et, d'autre part, peut
virtuellement se renouveler indéfiniment. Le
journalisme itou a tendance a se renouveler et a se
répéter...

✍ (certains accents sur les "a" ou "e" absents)

Change the World or look behind!

"Qui obtiendra le premier prix dans un concours de
circonstances*?" (Paul Claudel)

*NB: "Concours de circonstances": Définition
Internaute.com "Convergence de plusieurs événements,
coïncidence heureuse ou malheureuse de faits."


Costly human loss prior to negotiations around a table

Quotes

May 7, 1954

Battle of Dien Bien Phu

The 56-day siege of the fortress at Dien Bien Phu
ended on this day in 1954, with the surrender of
French forces to the Vietminh (Vietnamese
anti-colonial group). This decisive confrontation
capped the Indochina War and prompted the French to
withdraw from Vietnam. The border town of Dien Bien
Phu in northwestern Vietnam was the site of a garrison
of about 15,000 French soldiers when it was attacked
on March 13 by approximately 50,000 Vietminh troops.
The vastly outnumbered French quickly ran out of
supplies and could not be reinforced in time. They
held the fort for 56 days but were overrun by their
attackers. The era of French colonial rule in Vietnam
effectively ended with this disastrous defeat.

These historic facts can be found in any of a hundred
books recounting the history of post-World War II
Vietnam. What cannot be found in such books, however,
is the personal viewpoint of General Giap. To get
this perspective, one must look between the covers of
Dien Bien Phu. The first section of the 166-page
paperback contains a personal memoir written by Giap
in commemoration of the battle's 35th anniversary in
1989. The second section contains a detailed account
of the battle originally penned to celebrate the tenth
anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu victory. I could not
tell if Giap authored this section; the numerous
references to "U.S. imperialists and their stooges"
suggest the work of government propagandists. Three
fold-out maps of the battle zones, six pages of black
and white photos, a color portrait of General Giap in
his white dress uniform, and letters from President Ho
Chi Minh to the "fighters of the Dien Bien Phu
battlefront" supplement these two sections.

General Giap's memoirs comprise the most interesting
portion of the book. We learn details like the fact
that Giap traveled on horseback or in a captured army
jeep and that he had great affection for the natural
beauty of his country. And we learn that as commander
of the assault on Dien Bien Phu, Giap faced a
difficult decision. Should he follow a strategy of
"swift attack, swift victory," in which his troops
would make a lightning charge into the heart of the
enemy defenses? Or go for a "steady attack, steady
advance" strategy, in which his troops would patiently
and methodically grind down the French defenders?
Both options carried serious risks. After much
agonized deliberation, Giap chose the "steady attack,
steady advance" plan and fought on to victory. This
decision remains one of the most significant of the
entire conflict, for had Giap chosen the lightning
strike option, the French might well have defeated his
attack.

May 7, 1942

Battle of the Coral Sea


USS Lexington sinking harshly bombed

If Japan had won the Battle of the Coral Sea and had
then triumphed, a month later, in the Battle of
Midway, where they were decisively defeated, then the
Pacific War might well have had a very different
outcome.. Japanese and American naval forces clashed
on this day in the Battle of the Coral Sea. The
battle was most notable because the opposing warships
did not fire a single shot. Warplanes based on
aircraft carriers did all the fighting. The battle
was a stalemate, but was interpreted as a strategic
victory for the allies because it forestalled a
planned Japanese invasion of New Guinea.

I know, it's tough, so: "Change the World" and first
click the title... Clapton & Babyface.

For Japanese media, "it's charisma, stupid!"

What is best in a traffic-jam? Listening to a CD, to
your favorite radio program or reading the newspapers***.
For the folks who forgot during the Golden Week that
there is a political scene in Japan too.

Charismatic former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is
the lawmaker best suited to serve as prime minister,
according to latest Yomiuri Shimbun survey.


Junichiro Koizumi

14.8 percent of respondents to the nationwide survey,
conducted on April 25 and 26, believe Koizumi would be
the best person for the job, up from 12.9 percent in
the previous poll taken on March 14 and 15.


Yoichi Masuzoe

No surprise that the current politician in charge to
combat the A H1N1 flu rises in the polls. Health,
Labor and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe, Tokyo
University Professor and late former prime minister
Takeshita Noboru protégé, came in second rank again,
with 9 percent of respondents selecting him, down from
10.6 percent.

Prime Minister Taro Aso just reached the third rank in
the poll, almost doubling his vote from 3.5 percent to
7.1 percent since he gracefully offered 12.000 yen to
each Japanese citizen to "fight against the world
economical crisis."

Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa
collected 6.5 percent of the vote, up from 6 percent.
Ozawa moved up from fifth to take fourth spot, which
was previously occupied by DPJ Vice President Katsuya
Okada. In doing so, he became the DPJ lawmaker seen
as most suited to becoming prime minister.

Junichiro Koizumi is alike ex president Jacques Chirac in
France, the less you see them, the higher their
popularity are. It also is a reminder that "before was better",
according to the conservative, center-right Yomiuri
shimbun, world largest newspaper in circulation, over
13.8 millions a day.

*** There are seven major newspapers in Japan for a
total of 150 daily newspapers, news agencies and
broadcasters. Papers have two editions, morning and
evening, with a total daily circulation of 51,491,40 for
52,324,877 households and a rate of 94.60 % for home
delivery . The papers are: the Asahi Shimbun, the
Mainichi Shimbun, the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Sankei
Shimbun, the Hokkaido Shimbun, the Chunichi Shimbun
and the Nishinippon Shimbun.

Calculate your 2009 Golden Week car's tax CO2 emissions

In Japan, the "Golden Week" May holidays' car traffic
jams peaked this year. Thanks to an unexpected gift
from Prime Minister Aso's administration. Due to
massive amount of travellers on vacations or returning
home, national expressways were congested to a
historical level across the archipelago because of a
popular toll discount introduced in March for weekends
and holidays.

Calculation formula here. http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/ved/

The discount system sets a uniform toll of ¥1,000 for
cars and motorcycles using electronic toll collection
devices on expressways outside the Tokyo and Osaka
metropolitan areas, regardless of distance.

A tally of traffic jam forecasts by several expressway
companies shows that traffic jams of more than 30
kilometers long will happen 56 times between April 25
and Wednesday May 6th, while there will be 372 traffic
jams at least 10 kilometers long. Both these figures
are more than double the 2008 number!


More than 50 km of unbroken "jutai" [traffic jam] for
2 consecutive days were actually accounted by
authorities on a specific segment of the national road
as media reported on Tuesday, breaking the longest
ever traffic jam registered! A volume that has been
even greater than predicted. My last memory of road
Dante's Inferno was from Shimoda to Tokyo, 15 hours in
the car. Bubble economy's era.

"Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso's economic stimulus
measures are about to unleash the nation's worst
highway traffic jams, toll operators and police say.
Aso's 5 trillion yen ($51 billion) spending program
announced in October included discounted expressway
charges on holidays. As workers prepare for
tomorrow's start of Golden Week, Japan's biggest
spring break, police expect more than 70 million
people to travel within the country, creating traffic
jams of 60 kilometers (37 miles) or more" wrote April
28 Megumi Yamanaka and Yuji Okada in a Bloomberg
dispatch. Click the title to read the Bloomberg report.

Orwellian road-map strategies!

Orwellian strategies to avoid jams and traffic
headaches were put on the paper by complicated
bureaucratic minds such as this one. Tell me if you
understand:

"When traveling from Ginza, Tokyo to Sendai, on what
Yamamura called Route A, starting from the Shuto
Expressway, via the Misato Junction followed by the
Joban and Banetsu expressways, which join to the
Tohoku Expressway, it is 14 kilometers longer than
Route B, which uses the Kawaguchi Junction to quickly
enter the Tohoku Expressway. However, Route A has
fewer spots that are prone to traffic backups.
According to NEXCO's calculations, if one departs at 9
a.m. on May 2, the first day of the core five-day
holiday period, it would take six hours to reach
Sendai using Route A, one hour and 15 minutes faster
than Route B."

Mathematics or labyrinth? Vacations could become more
ever complicated. More, no-one has yet evaluated the
surplus of CO2 pollution during the Golden Week 2009
vintage, I mean, officially.



Some more reasonable minds opt for railways and air
planes, not a must for CO2 payload, but a relief for
drivers.

Almost all of the trains' reserved seats on the
Tokaido, Tohoku, Yamagata, Akita, Joetsu and Nagano
"shinkansen" --the Japanese TGV-- lines were booked on
the East Japan Railway Co. and Central Japan Railway
Co. Domestic flights departing Tokyo and Osaka were
also fully booked up on ANA All Nippon Airways and JAL
Japan Airlines.

Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture and
Kansai International Airport near Osaka said overseas
travel is peaking since Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
all fall on national holidays.

Fancy the ride?

"Tokyo Olympics 2016 endorsement dwindled" Who said what?

Tokyo people do not want the 2016 Olympic Games? Who
dared to say so? Better ask the whole country,
non-metropolis people included. Here is the story.

I noticed a quite surprising discrepancy in survey
evaluation about Tokyo 2016 Olympics by Japanese and
foreign mass media. Who mislead the flock? Western
press agencies report that according to an
International Olympic Committee (IOC) poll of Tokyo
residents, only 56 per cent supported Tokyo's bid for
the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. It was reportedly the
lowest rate of any of the four cities bidding for the
2016 Games.

The IOC's Evaluation Commission carried out surveys in
February simultaneously in Tokyo and its rival bid
cities (Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro) and will
submit the results in their final report. According to
AP press agency the rate of support was down slightly
from the 59 per cent of respondents that supported
Tokyo's bid last June, when the IOC cut the number of
candidate cities from event to four. A senior Tokyo
official confirmed the IOC figure to Reuters on
Saturday, while pointing to results of the bid
committee's own survey in January.

Tokyo bid leaders said 70 per cent of respondents
interviewed nation wide supported the bid, two per
cent more than the support from the city's residents.
A recent Yomiuri poll places support from Tokyo
residents at 76 per cent. Quite amazingly, no-one at
the IOC Evaluation Committee wanted to answer to the
question regarding this famous survey at the final
visit press conference I attended at the Okura mid
April.

Clarifications required, I say. IOC events, crisis,
flu, bids' gimmicks do not play by the book,
obviously.