Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Reportage: "Fukushima : comment le Japon abandonne peu à peu le nucléaire"

Voici mon reportage en pleine campagne présidentielle française: "Fukushima : comment le Japon abandonne peu à peu le nucléaire" et ce que m'a inspiré sur le Japon et la France le petit message sur Facebook que m'a envoyé mon ami journaliste Jacques Dufresne (ancien du journal Les Echos) a la suite de mon reportage sur RTL et RTL.fr a propos de la "dénucléarisation" par le Japon de ses centrales comme le disait dans le JP de 12:30 présenté par Laurent Bazin et Elizabeth Martichoux ma collègue de Paris qui "lançait" mon sujet.

"Jacques Dufresne: Merci Joël, tu es bien l'un des rares journalistes à donner ce genre d'info au public français, hélas..."

Etonné par cette phrase de Jacques, je lui réponds ici et expose quelques unes de mes préoccupations sur ce qui se passe dans le nucléaire nippon et dans la société Japonaise, suite a son commentaire.



"@ Jacques Dufresne, merci cher Jacques. Mais c'est parce que RTL est la meilleure station que j'en parle! Il est intéressant aussi de lire les commentaires sur la page du site RTL.fr. C'estvrai que cette façon japonaise de se passer du nucléaire concerne au plus haut point la politique intérieure française avec la proximité de la présidentielle. Mais cette couverture d'information sur la situation nucléaire vécue par la société japonaise et sur Fukushima c'est l'objet de reportages quasi quotidiens dans la presse anglo-saxonne, Angleterre, Etats Unis, Canada, Italie, Espagne, Allemagne, Hollande, en Asie, en Afrique, au Moyen Orient, en Israël, en Russie, Ukraine, Pays Baltes, Am Lat' car partout je lis des papiers sur le nucléaire et le post-tsunami au Japon.

A Fukushima, sur place, la situation est dangereuse, renforcée par les échecs du traitement contre la radioactivité, par de nouvelles découvertes sur l'ampleur de la radio-activité, par la contamination de la chaîne alimentaire, et le tout sur fond de "négationnisme écologique" du danger affiché par Tepco selon la formule "tout est normal". Sauf que les experts japonais disent qu'on ne peut pas vivre tout a fait normalement avec 53 microsievert / heure, comme c'est le cas dans des zones de la région proche de la centrale de Fukushima. Pourtant les autorités japonaises (qui irritent de + en + les "japonais-moyens") veulent ramener des populations sur place, et pratiquent le "permanent denial" comme on le dit en anglais.

Les conférences de presse de Tepco sont des monuments de mensonge institutionnalisé. Tout le monde le dit, mais le premier ministre Mr. Noda n'en a cure. Son parti, le PDJ, a tronqué la révision et le ré examen des centrales du Manifesto en 2009. Mais avec RTL nous suivons assez régulièrement depuis le 11 mars 2011 l'information sur le séisme et le tsunami, sur Fukushima comme les 10 et 11 mars 2012. Je précise que j'étais ce 11 mars 2011 un des rares sinon le seul journaliste français en direct avec la France depuis le début de la triple catastrophe car mon portable avait réussi "a passer" le mur imposé par les telecom nippones... Ensuite, je suis resté et ai travaillé au Japon depuis Tokyo ou le nord, pendant toute la période des explosions des réacteurs nucléaires de Fukushima et ai enquêté dans le Tohoku.

Quoi qu'il en soit, j'ai reçu le témoignage de personnalités japonaises et étrangères, françaises aussi, des médias et de la politique, et pas des moindres, nous implorant de témoigner, d'enquêter et de dire la vérité sur la situation au Japon. Donc, je dois en être a mon 150e ou 160e reportage sur le suivi du 11 mars 2011! Il y en aura pour des années. Tchernobyl, c'est le futur de Fukushima, peut-être pire a cause de la population japonaise agglutinée aux alentours, le Japon ce sont des îles, étroites recouvertes a 70% de vallées et de montagnes...

Mais le plus saisissant, et je l'ai dit en reportage ou en conférences, invité par des universités japonaises (Ritsumeikan APC), dans des "benkyou-kai" (groupes de recherches) ou par la Commission Européenne, le plus saisissant c'est le fait de la manipulation permanente de Tepco et de cette administration et de l' industrie japonaise du nucléaire unis en un " iron triangle" encore et toujours. Cette union sulfureuse qui joue sur les mots et les ambiguïtés alors que ce que l'on attend ce sont des faits. Tepco en ce sens me disait un ami japonais, c'est une secte comme le Japon en a créé, avec la secte d'Aum ou lors de la guerre avec les gouvernements militaires des années 30 40.

Danger a tous les échelons. La notion d'a peu près ou de mensonge de ces gens-la, leur réflexe de quasi enfant pris en flagrant délit de mensonges et d'irresponsabilité est hallucinante pour un esprit Cartésien. "Les japonais d'aujourd'hui ne sont plus ceux qui ont construit ou rebâti le Japon sous les Eres Meiji, Taisho, ou Showa" me déclarait récemment une japonaise très férue de politique et d'histoire. Dont acte! Je sais que les japonais de la rue eux vont tirer leurs conclusions de cette situation dangereuse pour le futur, pour les générations a venir. Cela semble devenir une obsession pour les japonais, savoir, et quand le Japon s'entête ou s'obsède sur une chose, cela fait craindre pour le futur.

Des politiciens de l'extrême droite japonaise ont commencé d'instrumentaliser la catastrophe du 3/11. Ishihara a Tokyo, Hashimoto a Osaka. D'autres encore. L'armée (Les JSDF) qui a repris du galon depuis les opérations de nettoyage du Tohoku se sent regonflée a bloc. Et avec cela, tous les nostalgiques du Japon d'avant guerre, avec ces puissances économiques sous terraines comme les fondations (Sasakawa par exemple) pour appuyer des politiques que nous réprouvons en France, toutes tendances confondues, sauf chez les gens du FN peut-être. Déséquilibre des japonais après une catastrophe qui a frappé le monde entier. Ils se sentent peinés, humiliés, blessés, et je crains leur réaction, je les sens nerveux, irrités, agressifs. En groupe les japonais deviennent bruyants et insensibles vis a vis des plus faibles. Que leur réserve l'avenir?

Même l'Empereur du Japon, Akihito est monté au créneau, lui-même, le 11 mars 2012, lors des cérémonies de commémoration un an après Fukushima en demandant de tout faire pour protéger les populations des contaminations et du danger des centrales nucléaire exposant la vie de millions de japonais désinformés. 80% sont contre le nucléaire, 16% en faveur, sondage du grand quotidien Tokyo Shimbun, et plus de la moitié des personnes sondées demandent une sortie progressive du nucléaire!

Vu du jardin, le Japon est enchanteur, mais ces arbres si bien coupés si bien ensemble, cette société déformée, docile, "bonzaiifiée" fait parfois peur. L'impression pour beaucoup de japonais est que l'archipel est malade depuis Fukushima comme il était malade depuis Hiroshima. Malade et impuissant car les hommes de 2012 ne sont pas ceux des années de guerre. La société est en quête de nouvelle direction, les marchands d'idées sont en panne, les camelots de tous horizons vendent leur prêt a penser idéologique. Le Japon s'interroge et adore être critiqué, il croit alors être jugé comme central, important et exister, mais au bout du compte, l'absence de réflexion collective n'égale que l'absence d'initiative individuelle. Le mal du Japon c'est son enfermement, son isolement. Ne rien voir ne rien dire ne rien entendre. On a vu ce que des années de négligence ont provoqué a Fukushima ou dans les régions victimes du tsunami. Le chaos! *

Ce sont les faits."

"Stay tuned!"


La couverture par RTL et RTL.fr du 3/11, la triple catastrophe au Japon du 11 mars 2011, séisme, tsunami, accident nucléaire de Fukushima.


* Blog updated 18th April 2012.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Japan's government reaction helpless facing DPRK rocket launch!



"3 North Koreans shot!" Japanese evening news tabloids said right after the first stage of the DPRK rocket Unha-3 blew up in a large fire-ball. Tabloids... who can say? Still after a decade of research and development and two prior test launches, the DPRK rocket engineers ("and anyone helping them" as Nightwatch writes) still have failed to master rocket's stage separation.

The day after, today, DPRK leader Kim Jong-un gave his first public speech since taking office, on the occasion of the centenary of its founder's birth, K.I.S., calling for a push to "final victory" at a mass military parade in Pyongyang.




In Japan, it's crisis again! This time about the 43 minutes delay in revealing the information to the public. 43 minutes! The US monitoring intelligence provided information to the Japanese MOD, which transfered to the Prime Minister, and, nothing came to the public! Question is what exactly were the Japanese authorities doing with their own Spy Satellites they already launched thanks to taxpayers money?

Since 2003, "prompted by concerns over North Korea's missile program" Japan (with Jaxa) currently has a few optical information-gathering satellites in orbit. 2 spy satellites were launched last year, last one in December 2011. It was expected to begin gathering intelligence in a few months. We are in April... Is it really for the defense of the archipelago or to help some companies to make money with other issues than defense. Monitoring oceans for economical interests, targeting populations, using the intel for private benefits interests? You know...

An other "spy sat" is to be launched later in this year 2012. Japan is to have 2 optical and 2 radar satellites to provide informations on any wanted target "at least once a day" Jaxa guys said. But what's the need to justify the public cash that it's for monitoring DPRK when it actually is NOT the case. More, it does not serve to reassure the public as Japan government and the MOD keep it for them. Worst is the lack of consideration for people living in Japan and especially the Okinawa people since the DPRK rocket second stage was to fly above the islands, above Ishigaki islands.

People in Okinawa have not even been warned right after the North Koran rocket missile launch even-though it takes a few minutes for the second stage to fall from the rocket cruising at 4 times the speed of sound!

How to proceed with crisis management in a country where communication and initiative are simply nonexistent? Again...

# 3.11
# Japan in crisis.
# Japan budget's cut.
# Japan facing new threats.
# New Space Law
# Type of satellites expected for such mission: Imagery Gathering satellite IMINT, Radio Wave IGS, Early warning surveillance, Positioning GPS, Meteorological observation etc.

More to come on Asian Gazette, stay tuned!

Saturday, March 31, 2012

絆 KIZUNA! A year has passed since 3/11



What is written on this picture is "Nihon Kizuna", it means "bond". In Japanese, it is written 日本絆 and it means: a bond of friendship with Japan. Picture designed by Tokyo based Japanese and foreign artists sent as symbol of 3/11. It is also an electronic-music compilation album which raised more than US $ 33.000 for victims of the triple catastrophe. Collected from Japan and Europe, the fund raised was then given to the Japanese Red Cross.

My honorable friend Konoe Tadateru is the president of the Japanese Red Cross Society, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The RC helped a lot. They spent a lot. Konoe himself criticized a lot the Japanese authorities since 3/11. His wife is of Imperial lineage. Watch out!

"Kizuna" is the word used by the Emperor of Japan Akihito in his courageous speech of March 11th 2012, during the morning ceremonies of commemoration where he briefly alluded to criticism of the nuclear people of Tepco and the governments, local regional and national. In the evening news of March 11 2012, the Emperor's words were discreetly censored by Japanese televisions. Japan is led by Shogun Tepco nowadays.

Facing or confronting at highest level this institutionalized collusion, "Kizuna" reigns with link, bond, tie, relation, and friendship. It seems to unite Japanese together, also foreigners with local islanders. Warm hearted, but one year after, question is to know if this beautiful expression of human generosity achieved more than a short time generosity? The story of 3/11 it is the story of Japan since World war II. I'll explain why it is changing the life of these islanders set on one of the wealthiest nation on earth.

Asian Gazette is back

I have not been blogging very much this past year since March 2011. I have personally gone through many changes, most of these changes have been good personally or professionally and a lot of new things happened, I also opened my eyes on many new situations. As you know Japan entered into many changes too in the last year due to the 2011 triple catastrophe, the quake, the tsunami and the nuclear accident.

The triple disaster has changed everyone's lives forever. Including the attention of journalists and observers such as myself. I have also immersed myself into the very heart of the Japanese (Asian) society. Because of the immediate need to communicate and receive informations I also opened pages on facebook or twitter or other networks and not necessary under my name as I do here.

I guess the future watching work is intrinsically linked to new media and to speed of information and communication. We all know that. But the working writing analyzing exercise remains the one blog page type. I learned with social networks how we loose concentration and sense of relativity, and also sense of effort to research. This is why the book paper or digital is and remains the instrument of power and knowledge. For a journalist as myself this is the weapon of mass attraction. I am aware of it.

So many reports for France especially for my favorite news-station of Paris ( RTL ) added to other world media and comments here and there took a lot of my time! I am thankful to the faithful readers.

Ok now what about future? Well, to make it simple, a lot has now to be analyzed in a rather large perspective about what happened in Japan and around and what has not been said. A lot remains to be clarified about how things work or do not work in Japan and around (sic). Yes, Japan changed since one year but the Japanese do not yet know about this fundamental change of paradigm. And the foreign world remains as anchored far away from these islands than ever, same was the world during the Dejima - Nagasaki containment of foreign eyes kept away from the maelstrom of agitated crowds and powers. Time to simply explain the fuzziness of the daily life of my favorite heirs of Mongols, Tungus, Bai Yue clans, etc.

In the months ahead, following a year of madness and deconstruction, "Asian Gazette" will talk about the Japanese psyche, helped by my extended years of residence. I'll talk about what life is and means for the non-Japanese world since and now. Economy won't be forgotten here. In non PR form. Needed to remind that today's Japan GDP is 5th rank with $4.389 trillion, before Germany (6th) UK (6th) or France (10th) South Korea (13th).

Of course I'll talk about Fukushima, about Tohoku, and also about Tokyo and the inner archipelago and what is being kept confidentially for a coming decade. Enough to boost my appetite and desire to point out at absurdities, errors, current or past, mine including. But I'll also talk to point out at what is to be a quite stunning adventure and future for those living here. Those who are working, in transit or deeply in love with this land surrounded by tumultuous seas and oceans, residing above powerful earth forces. Sometimes we, the media, show the Japanese as hard workers and diligent warm hearts, sometimes like dangerous opponents, in war or in trade.

Probably, the truth is not, repeat, not in the middle of it, the truth is even more extreme! Same as these natural and extreme forces which destroyed 600 km of Japan northern coast on March 11th 2011 and promise continuous hardship to these lands. "The Japanese are the happiest people of the world but who died fooled by life" as one of Albert Camus' s book character said. They, the Japanese, certainly will talk a lot about being the men and women of a land "led by exploiters" as one Tohoku resident told me while I was on a press assignment. Exploiters? Who, why? How come so many Japanese feel betrayed and start to open their eyes?

Time to focus closer. Stay tuned!



Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Japan March 11th 2011 - Tohoku Kanto Daishin Sai, the urgent call of reporting here about the catastrophe!


UPDATED (2011 and 2012) regularly with selection of my news reports about the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident of Fukushima. Over 130 live voice reports aired on RTL France http://www.rtl.fr since March 11th 2011.
I assumed my mission in Japan during the period of emergency and since...






Reporting on this terrible earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident since March 11 2011 in Japan, I want to express my sincere thanks to all those close to me, also my friends and my Paris colleagues, for their incommensurate support in my reporting about the 311, the triple catastrophe of the "Tohoku Kanto Daishin Sai" since March 2011.

This "Tohoku Kanto Daishin Sai," the name given in Japanese, a terrible earthquake and tsunami followed by this nuclear catastrophe have shaken not only Japan but also the whole planet. A tsunami as it had not happened since 400 years in Japan, historians say!

It is a lesson for those of us who might not think of the words of Marie Curie caught by Noriko Hama of Doshisha: "Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood..."

Information bombards us from screens to headlines, she writes, we still deserve to be given the ammunition to understand what is going on, and in spite of a poor communication.

Yes, this nation will start again with the proud courage of her people, the Japanese have been holding on in an admirable way, and I was here in Japan to witness this merit.

Now... my thoughts are to go for further action and to talk about those who are awaiting help, freezing, lost and abandoned. But also to the reconstruction of Japan! Reports, reports, reports let's carry on ! Lot to do!

Listen to some of my live reports with Paris:














RTL Belgique 14 Mars

RTL Belgique 15 Mars








AdTech Ad
Témoignage de ce que j'ai vécu lors des premières minutes du tremblement de terre:


Fukushima 8 months after, the nuclear power plant opened to a small group of journalists, I joined the pool organization for RTL. Here is my live report on RTL November 12th 2011:










Sources: Correspondent Reporter's notes, agencies, blogs, Internet.


Thursday, March 10, 2011

Akio Toyoda: Move on and Keep smiling!



"Toyota Global Vision: Rewarded with a Smile" TMA new philosophy & global strategy of its operations following last year's global cars' recalls as Chairman Akio Toyoda told the world press in Nihonbashi, Tokyo.

TMA cuts the Board of directors from 27 to 11, aims to double operating profit and global sales of 10 million cars by 2015, boosts sales in emerging markets (faster on China) and hybrids and bring in Gaijins. Watanabe-san, keep smiling! It's not you, it's the Rising Yen...

2 assets: 1) A Tree becomes a symbol of TMA renovation and 2) foreigners are given top executives jobs.


Reporter's notes

Friday, March 04, 2011

PR or Journalism in Japan? Departing from accepted standards in journalism.



"Toyokuni" by Ando Hiroshige

If you go beyond the line of common wishy-washy journalism in Japan, you enter into a lot of good stories. But you have to clean up. What to eliminate? The PR agents tours, study tours, field tours, fake specialists, corporations invitations who enrolled reporters, sometimes on the pay roll, propaganda departments. Often the target is the professional press, unless these invitations are built appropriately with informative content, and not only a pale postcard of an old Japan, press agents in Japan are out of course. A departing from usual or accepted standards in journalism.

Of course there are these organizers who do not have basic interest into what reporting is. Their line is: "to achieve real information dissemination (press reports)". Salesmen disguised as PR agents and feed reporters with the latest line of concepts or products.

How does it happen? We invite you for a visit somewhere, name it study tour, field tour etc. Basically nothing I can sell to my Editors. These are proposed and organized and often paid by PR and communication agencies, corporations or administration. An interview with a minister of the cabinet, an interview or a PR of a minister... an interview with an analyst, a foreign official invited in Japan and plenty of such scratching the head thing.

The good thing when you work with a big media is that you can always say "yes, I can (...) but I am not sure your candidate is worth more than 15 seconds on the network." There is a world outside and we need news, contents, information, not your boring PR.

Things is we have news, real news of what is happening. Insurrection, revolution, financial crisis, war and invasion, murders and air line accident, volcanoes explosion etc.

Naturally, in addition to what Japan seems frivolous to sell to foreign media, there are also really good stories.

And I have been working on excellent items lately. Japan and North Korea, Japan and China, Japan and the cornerstone friend (the US), Japan and the euro, Japan and the military industrial complex, Japan and the corruption, Japan and the discrimination. Japan and the underground world.

You can replace Japan with any other country name probably I suppose?

Now there are time when PR can become quite offensive, defensive. I'll explain later.

But my biggest happiness is when an official sent by Japan Inc. invites me for a coffee and chat.

Operation number 1: brainwash me on saying that what I said or wrote was incorrect and that they will feed me with new correct data and more.

Operation number 2: introduce me to specialists and invite me for a working week-end.

Operation number 3: Orchestrate a reputation destruction campaign.

Operation number 4: Departing from usual or accepted standards the spooks -- corporate, cops and related. For instance, one thing happened to me recently: "A source told me that I have been investigated by the Japanese secret services as a Foreign Correspondent in Japan, for having special information about China! Matters of interest: news, connections, friends in Beijing, Shanghai... Next time Mr... might call at the club, I'll buy him a drink and talk about journalism and freedom of press. Horrendous damages expected to the snitches and spooks (a 3 courses meal at Fccj) ☝(THis was posted on facebook and followed by a support or warning message: "Be a tad careful Joel. People who control other people with guns can be a pain sometimes.")

So it is a real thing.

Now what are the estrange tools of some extreme PR. Beyond Japan Inc (excluding the bureaucracy)

Operation number 5: start the harassing thing, never know how and where it will fall. You, your reputation, your friends, family, children, in laws etc (the mafia specialty)

Operation number 6: Sending women spooks, or, offering money. (Industry, spooks)

Operation number 7: the physical impediment (the kick, break the arm, burns with cigarettes, and in Japan, the cut. I am told it rarely ends into the bullet in the box. (common practice in politics and banking according to one of me honorable female colleague of the FT)

We repeat the moto: in Japan, sometimes, journalism clear purpose is: "to achieve real information dissemination (press reports)" not to inform the audiences. I wish these PR people move away from true journalism, although the worst is when they mix the functions ("le mélange des genres") and I have a couple of names in mind in Tokyo these days who live under the principle that "a lie is sometimes justifiable expedient."

Well, not, actually.

I know that Foreign Correspondents in Japan, China, Korea, everywhere, are targeted by little monomaniacs dictators of the communication, or monitored by spooks (phone, mails, emails) private or public just to manage the potentiality of the dissemination of an eventual information that would bring an added value to the society.

I often went through such things, the preventive monitoring... Sometimes reporting is already hell, war coverage being the worst with the underground work.

I can quote here the excellent Italian reporter who discovered the truth about the Aum sect who killed people in 1995 in the Tokyo subways or suggest to read my story about my Tibet first report in the late 80's and my recent encounter with the Dalai-Lama about it.

But

The worst being when you deal with obsessive behaviors such as North Korea for a Japanese cop, or islamist terrorism for a NSA agent, Falun Gong or Dalai Lama for a Chinese public security officer, immigration for a French home affairs minister, or Romanée-Conti (a Grand Cru of Burgundy wine in France) for a Californian wine exporter.

For these censurers, some might act with benevolence eventually, there is only one rule: information control to achieve real information dissemination.

Real information dissemination here is a metaphor, it actually means to tell a lie!

Fortunately, I know 2 or 3 Japanese Great Communicators who know how to put things back on tracks. They deal with international journalists for decades, one f them is very close. I'm told that these days, small and also major Japanese corporations, local governments ask for their valuable experience. So do I. No suspicion, no bullshit, just plain and clear work.

The good thing with journalism is that your quill pen is your weapon. A formidable instrument of power if you know how to use it and what for... right Mr... ?


Reporter's notes



Wednesday, February 23, 2011

"Mottanai!" Is Japan drowned by whaling international objections?



"Mottanai!": "Oh, what a waste!"

Who would not agree as far as environment protection and endangered living creatures are concerned? It's time to change the way we live and produce. I heard this from tens of major speakers (From Lester Brown to Nobel prices, from school kids to major corporation CEOs')

But in this whale, dolphin, sharks, seals thing, the current hypocrisy is to believe that only the Japanese do such depletion of our land and oceans. Others do, look at Korea, China, Russia, Norway... What is wrong is the moratorium capacity to be respected. So, when things do not work, how long time is it needed to adjust?

Now, and although the author here does not and would not agree to eat a single peace of whale meat, dolphin or shark and is heading to more vegetarianism, (oh, what a bizarre word!) the place where Japan could play "a leading role" among the developed and in development world is to practice realism and reduce the mass consumerism. This is what Prime Minister Koizumi (who does not disregard whale meat) had launched under the Mottanai principle" with Wangari Maathai...

Now the thing is not all Japanese media inform correctly their readers. And this is bad bad bad.

"Whether we eat whale meat is our business and nobody else's. And we tend to react with anger when foreign countries tell us we shouldn't eat it. But while refusing to bend to the tactics of Sea Shepherd, we do need to explore a new way of whaling.

Says who? The industry? No the Asahi shimbun!!

Quotes, it is worth 1 year of lectures at Todai:

" Violent acts of harassment must never be condoned, but the victims should not allow themselves to be pushed around and resort to knee-jerk reactions.

After repeated harassment of Japanese whalers by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the government last week called off a research whaling mission in the Antarctic Ocean.

Sea Shepherd's harassment tactics included bringing their vessels dangerously close to Japanese whalers and hurling bottles of hazardous chemicals at them. The international community must condemn such activities by this radical anti-whaling group.

That said, however, anti-whaling sentiments run high in the governments and societies of the West. Together with other whaling nations, Japan has for years asserted and defended its right to whaling before the International Whaling Commission (IWC), but there is no solution in sight.

The arguments of the opposing camps are fundamentally irreconcilable. The pro-whaling camp asserts that whales are a "utilizable resource," while the anti-whaling camp sees them as "wild animals that need to be protected."

The Japanese government makes a scientifically valid argument when it points out that there are species of "resource whales," such as Antarctic minkes, that whalers are allowed to hunt. However, the prevalent thinking around the world today is that there is no need to hunt and eat those whales just because of their large population."


To end , this mention of other comments as quoted by the SMH I quote here.

"... they differed on whether or how Japan should maintain its whaling program, which it continues using a loophole to a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling that allows lethal "scientific research" on the sea mammals.

The Nikkei business daily supported the whaling scheme and said that "it was regrettable that research was called off as a consequence of violence".

"It is undesirable to respond in a way that could make the international community think Japan would buckle to demands if they were pushed hard against all reason," it said in an editorial.

"Japan should take a firm stand and carry out investigation on repeated piracy acts in order to secure the safety of research whaling in the future," it said.

The liberal Mainichi Shimbun proposed Japan make "a drastic review [of its policy], including the possibility of freezing research whaling.

"Many Japanese people support continuation of research whaling as they are displeased with the idea of ending it due to 'foreign pressure'," the Mainichi said.

"But people are not consuming whale meat much, undermining the significance of continuing research whaling. A change in the Japanese eating habit poses a tougher problem to research whaling than Sea Shepherd," it said.

The conservative Yomiuri Shimbun said: "What causes worry is the possibility that the halt of the mission [this season] may give anti-whaling groups the impression that 'Japan succumbs to obstructions'."

Japan "needs to make a fresh appeal to the international community about the legitimacy of research whaling", it said in an editorial."

Legitimacy of what...?

End of quotes

Sources:
Reporter's notes


Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Japan Number 3: No need to panic!



Just adjust your target and your forces


Today, "there is no Japanese company in the top ten, the Toyota Motor Company is Japan's biggest, ranking Number 32... No one believes that Japan will ever again recapture the Number Two position that it held for so long, and most Japanese have become more concerned about simply maintaining their own families' prosperity... Most economists cite enduring problems with domestic consumption. People who are worried about salary cuts or unemployment tend to save their money, rather than spend and stimulate the overall economy."

Is the Kan administration trying to do something? Or has it bowed as many others to the markets and the central banks' instruction and pretending of the contrary?

"... there is a tremendous appetite for companies in China that are involved in consumer goods and consumer discretionary, as the standard of living of the Chinese consumer is thought to be going up at a fairly brisk rate.... Consequently, we are very positive on the Chinese market. We're also very positive on the Japanese market because, believe it or not, Japan actually supplies a lot to China. Japan has also spent a couple of decades really trying to get its economy moving again. China's growth might be a decent catalyst to help the Japanese economy as it deals with a very weak dollar and a very strong yen. Exporting into China versus the West could potentially help Japan." (Advisors Asset Management quotes by Wall Street Transcript)


Sources:
Reporters' notes
Shingetsu
Wall Street Transcript



Tuesday, February 15, 2011

"You learn to be a leader by acting," Carlos Ghosn.




It is everywhere on twitter and facebook : "Leadership is demonstrated at the moment of need. You learn to be a leader by acting, by doing." This is a famous comment from Carlos Ghosn Renault CEO & Chairman and Nissan President and CEO. Looks like his methods work pretty well:

EN: "Renault is aiming to nearly double operating margin to more than 5 percent of sales in 2013, as part of a new growth plan that targets Brazil and Russia as key markets. The French carmaker, partnered with Japan's Nissan, said on Thursday it wanted to sell more than 3 million vehicles in 2013 using overseas and emerging market growth to offset a flat European market. Renault achieved a 2010 margin of 2.8 percent on sales of 2.63 million cars and light vehicles."

FR: La crise est derrière nous, oui. Cela veut dire aussi que la construction automobile, du moins pour certains constructeurs, sera durablement profitable, et surtout durablement profitable à cause d'une croissance très forte des marchés mondiaux malheureusement à l'extérieur de l'Europe et du Japon.

This and more, including the alleged spy case story within Renault. The latest Carlos Ghosn interview on RTL here:


Reporter's notes
Sources: Agencies, RTL, Facebook.