JO d'Eté de 2020, Tokyo, Madrid, Istanbul ?

Ces JO d'Eté 2020, je les espère à Tokyo mais ce n'est pas forcément le choix de tous les contribuables japonais. La question n'est pas seulement de savoir si Tokyo qui est gavée d'événements en tous genres est ou n'est pas mieux préparée que Madrid (Espagne) ou Istanbul (Turquie) pour accueillir les Jeux Olympiques en 2020. La compétition sera très bien organisée si les japonais la gèrent.

Cela dit, la question n'est pas seulement de se demander si l'enthousiasme très Zen des japonais pour tout événement dissuaderait tout organisateur de passer par la case Tokyo, mais bien de pouvoir garantir que d'ici 2020 le Japon ne connaîtra pas d'autres catastrophes dues aux accidents répétitifs de Fukushima et de l'Est du Japon devenu laboratoire de la gestion d'un accident nucléaire ou à tout autre catastrophe provoquée (conflits régionaux) ou naturelle (séisme, tsunami, explosion volcanique, pandémie). Cela peut arriver ailleurs, en Turquie aussi. L'Espagne est en Europe, quel avantage pour une importante couverture médiatique avec un plus grand nombre de pays participants. Mais bon, il y a les fameuses rotations.

De mémoire, en discutant avec quelques amis journalistes d'ici, je me suis souvent demandé pourquoi de nombreux journalistes, correspondants étrangers au Japon ou d'outre mer, francophones notamment mais également anglophones, de langue arabe, chinois ou hispanisants, ne se sont jamais rendus sur le site de la centrale nucléaire de Fukushima Dai Ichi alors que l'occasion leur était donnée. Prudence, encouragement à ne pas le faire, ou désintérêt? La distance de Fukushima à Tokyo est de 238 km, comme un Paris-Caen en France.

Le vote du Comité international olympique (CIO) qui va décider entre Tokyo, Madrid et Istanbul doit avoir lieu en Argentine ce samedi 7 Septembre.

Japan prime minister Shinzo Abe ignores the atrocities Imperial troops committed in Asia 

by the war criminals enshrined at the Yasukuni Shrine 靖国神社

68th Commemoration today of the defeat of Japan who surrendered to the World War 2 Allied Powers on 15 August 1945 with the "surrender documents" finally signed aboard the deck of the American battleship USS Missouri 2nd September 1945, ending the war in front of Douglas MacArthur, Commander in the Southwest Pacific and Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers and of, among other Allied generals, the Général d'Armée Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque for France.

Today's ceremony, in presence of the Emperor and the Empress, was set at the Nippon Budokan, in front of 6,000 people but Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe inflamed China and Korea for sending earlier a ritual offering to the neighbouring Yasukuni Shrine 靖国神社 while his ministers and lawmakers paid their respects in persons to the shrine.

Today, in his official speech in front of the Imperial couple and the crowds, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe broke with two decades of tradition by omitting any expression of remorse over Japan’s past aggression in Asia on the anniversary of Japan 1945 surrender.


This Shinto shrine is dedicated to the nation's 2.5 million war dead, including about 1,000 convicted war criminals. In Asia, and overseas in the west, it is seen as a symbol of Japan's past militarism. Japan’s former colonies of Imperial Japan find such repeated offering, since 1985, offensive because war criminals are enshrined at the Yasukuni. Questioned is the sincerity of Japan Prime Minister Abe in his quest to improve ties between China and Japan. Imagine German Chancellor Angela Merkel paying homage to Hitler and Nazi convicted war criminals in Berlin in front of the Reichstag...

During the ceremonies at Nippon Budokan thousands of Japanese visited the Yasukuni shrine. From what I could see, Japanese visiting the Yasukuni belong to all generations, from young to aged ones, their ranks growing years after years, to the point of filling the whole avenue from the first Tori to the shrine entrance. Less uniformed disguised nostalgics but a more vivid civilian presence, showing that Abe's nationalist message finds strong echo into the minds of the Japanese middle class. This is extremely significant and requires to be thoroughly watched for the future. Needless to say that I visited the Budokan and the Yasukuni shrine regularly in the last decade and see how its nationalistic popularity rises high in the sun of the archipelago.

The centre-left Asahi Shimbun writes today that Abe "broke ranks from his predecessors by making no mention of the damage inflicted by Japan on Asian nations in his August 15 speech commemorating those killed in World War II. Abe’s speech focused on the Japanese who died in the war. And his mention of other countries came only when he described how Japan helped them after the war ended. Abe also did not express any promise that Japan would never again enter into war, a pledge that had been the norm in previous speeches, even when Abe first served as prime minister… No parents of the war dead were among those scheduled to attend, marking the third straight year that has happened. Only 16 widows planned to attend, representing a record-low 0.3 percent of all participants. In his speech, Abe said, "I pray that there is peace for the spirits of the war dead, and that bereaved family members can remain in good health… One Abe's adviser said about the speech, "It reflects his intention that the ceremony should be about the war dead." Ignoring millions of war victims of Japanese Imperial armies memories.

In the Tokyo Yasukuni, among those honoured are 14 World War Two leaders convicted by an Allied tribunal as "Class A" war criminals, including prime minister Hideki Tojo. Seven of these were executed by hanging. The Class A criminals were listed as gods at Yasukuni in a secret ceremony in 1978. A museum in the shrine's grounds depicts the Pacific war as one Japan was forced to fight in self-defence. It has been criticised for ignoring the atrocities Imperial troops committed in Asia.

Near by the streets surrounding the Yasukuni shrine, violent right wing extremists in paramilitary uniforms tried to break the walls of protection enforced at several crossroads by the police dressed with anti riots battledress. Here in Jimbocho, near the Yasukuni dori-road, I witnessed a succession of physical assaults by the right-wingers who screamed in loudspeakers during several hours insulting the police for their "being of no use, for not acting as Japanese in blocking the paramilitary, and in using taxpayers' money."

Nationalists Japanese lawmakers say their visits are intended not to glorify war but to honour the war dead and pray for peace. And Chidorigafuchi Senbotsusha Boen 千鳥ケ淵戦没者墓苑 was quite abandoned as usual with rare visitors. Although it is the official national Japanese cemetery for more than 350,000 unidentified war dead in the Second World War, located on a beautiful Cherry lane, near the Imperial Palace moat and the Yasukuni Shrine.

"Aichi Triennale" 

When artworks express the hopes of the post-quake society

Contemporary artist Kenji Yanobe, 47, created the “Sun Child” statue hoping that the areas affected by the 2011 accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant will recover from the disaster.

 Katsuhiro Miyamoto

Fukushima Dai Ichi as a Japanese style roofing shrine 

to physically communicate the true scale of the nuclear plant by Miyamoto

August 2013 "Aichi Triennale". The 3 months festival started a few days ago reflecting on Arts in the wake of the 2011 East Japan Earthquake. Aichi Triennale's theme is: “Awakening, Where Are We Standing? Earth, Memory and Resurrection?”

2 years after the events shaking Japan and the planet, for the first time in Japan, artists and creators convey the emotional and creative impact of March 2011.

 Prestigious names from overseas and Japan gather in Nagoya and Okazaki in cutting edge contemporary arts, performing arts. I saw dance, theatre, architecture, paintings, photography, sculptures, modern art, operas in the program. I had a fascinating chat with Alfredo Jaar who expects no limitation in the way creators and audiences will spend these 3 months ahead.

Director Taro Igarashi, Professor of Architecture and Building Science, Tohoku University Graduate School of Engineering: "In the late nineteenth century Paul Gauguin produced a painting titled “Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?” In contrast, at the Triennale, Director Igarashi asks : “Where are we standing?"

http://aichitriennale.jp/english/index.html

http://aichitriennale.jp/index.html

-In Hiroshima 広島市, people believe denuclearization is still possible-

 Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, today August 6th 2013

 Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

 Children of Hiroshima call for Peace - Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

 Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

 View of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

 Shinzo Abe, prime minister of Japan - Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

Audience Visitors Hibakusha - Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

~~~~~

UPDATE: Au moment même où Hiroshima commémore ses victimes 68 ans après le bombardement atomique, le monde a les yeux tournés aussi vers Fukushima Dai Ichi et sur la situation d'urgence à la centrale nucléaire détruite par le séisme et le tsunami de mars 2011: Aujourd'hui l'eau hautement radioactive qui se déverse dans l'océan Pacifique et les nappes phréatiques à partir de la centrale nucléaire de Fukushima pour refroidir les réacteurs qui ont fondu il y a deux ans, crée d'ores et déjà une "situation d'urgence". RTL 1300 6 août 2013 .
http://tinyurl.com/fukushima-Joel-Legendre
http://www.rtl.fr/emission/rtl-midi/ecouter/rtl-midi-du-06-aout-2013-7763603482

~~~~~

I visited Hiroshima 広島市 several times since I live and work in Asia, and several times reported from there, and also worked on several scripts, stories, productions about Hiroshima 広島市 and Nagasaki 長崎市. The Hiroshima Peace museum gracefully offered our production team once to be the French narrating voice for the Francophone visitors who came to understand what happened in 1945 here, at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, located in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. I remember the emotion I had in voicing such a narration and what was to happen after in Japan, in the world. We had access to archives and stories I never had heard or imagined about Hiroshima.

I worked in depth about what really happened in Hiroshima Nagasaki and the rest of Japan and what is today's reality for the Hibakusha (被爆者), the surviving victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There are 210,830 Hibakusha recognised by the Japanese government, most living in Japan. But there are also others, Koreans for instance, 20,000 are said to have perished in the nuclear fire. The government of Japan recognises only a few of these as having illnesses caused by atomic radiation. Even the numbers of people killed in Hiroshima remains inexact with numbers from 99,000 to over 165,000.

Some people were said to be 被爆者 Nijū Hibakusha, tens and tens of them. They were amazingly victims of both atomic bombings! On March 24 2009, the Japanese government officially recognised Tsutomu Yamaguchi, born in 1916, as a double Hibakusha. Tsutomu Yamaguchi was confirmed to be 3 kilometers from ground zero in Hiroshima on a business trip when the bomb was detonated. He was seriously burnt on his left side and spent the night in Hiroshima. He got back to his home city of Nagasaki on August 8, a day before the bomb in Nagasaki was dropped, and was exposed to residual radiation while searching for his relatives. He was the first officially recognised survivor of both bombings. Tsutomu Yamaguchi died at the age of 93 on January 4, 2010 of stomach cancer.

Today Japan is "commemorating the 68th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima with pledges to seek to eliminate nuclear weapons. Some 50,000 people gathered Tuesday in Hiroshima's peace park near the epicentre of the 1945 blast. The bombing of Nagasaki three days later killed tens of thousands more, prompting Japan's surrender to the World War II Allies. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that as the sole country to face nuclear attack, Japan has the duty to seek to wipe out nuclear weapons. The anniversary comes as Japan is torn over restarting nuclear power plants shut down since a 2011 accident in Fukushima. More than 100,000 people remain displaced. Abe favours restarting plants under new safety guidelines, while many Japanese oppose such restarts."

Also these days in the middle of this Japan hot and humid weather, the General Conference of Mayors for Peace, which seeks to advance the abolition of nuclear weapons, started here in Hiroshima from August 3rd and will conclude 6th at the International Conference Centre. About 320 people from 190 cities from 23 countries and NGOs take part to the gathering to discuss a path forward for concluding a nuclear weapons convention and craft concrete plans for the organisation’s 2020 Vision Campaign, which aims to eliminate nuclear weapons from the earth by the year 2020. The theme of the general conference, held in Hiroshima for the first time in eight years, is "Toward a World without Nuclear Weapons - Conveying the ‘Spirit of Hiroshima and Nagasaki’ to the World."

Interesting coincidence, at the moment of the Hiroshima declaration, in Tokyo there was a huge thunder striking noisily above the capital and torrential rain fell all of a sudden. Astonishing shock.

- For those who never read the whole Hiroshima Peace Declaration, here is the full text of the Peace Declaration issued Tuesday August 6th 2013 by Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui at a ceremony to mark the 68th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

"We greet the morning of the 68th return of "that day." At 8:15 a.m., August 6, 1945, a single atomic bomb erased an entire family. "The baby boy was safely born. Just as the family was celebrating, the atomic bomb exploded. Showing no mercy, it took all that joy and hope along with the new life."

A little boy managed somehow to survive but the atomic bomb took his entire family. This A-bomb orphan lived through hardship, isolation, and illness, but was never able to have a family of his own. Today, he is a lonely old Hibakusha. "I have never once been glad I survived," he says, looking back. After all these years of terrible suffering, the deep hurt remains.

A woman who experienced the bombing at the age of eight months suffered discrimination and prejudice. She did manage to marry, but a month later, her mother-in-law, who had been so kind at first, learned about her A-bomb survivor's handbook. "'You're a Hibakusha,' she said, 'We don't need a bombed bride. Get out now.' And with that, I was divorced." At times, the fear of radiation elicited ugliness and cruelty. Groundless rumours caused many survivors to suffer in marriage, employment, childbirth -- at every stage of life.

Indiscriminately stealing the lives of innocent people, permanently altering the lives of survivors, and stalking their minds and bodies to the end of their days, the atomic bomb is the ultimate inhumane weapon and an absolute evil. The Hibakusha, who know the hell of an atomic bombing, have continuously fought that evil.

Under harsh, painful circumstances, the Hibakusha have struggled with anger, hatred, grief and other agonising emotions. Suffering with aftereffects, over and over they cried, "I want to be healthy. Can't I just lead a normal life?" But precisely because they had suffered such tragedy themselves, they came to believe that no one else "should ever have to experience this cruelty." A man who was 14 at the time of the bombing pleads, "If the people of the world could just share love for the Earth and love for all people, an end to war would be more than a dream."

Even as their average age surpasses 78, the Hibakusha continue to communicate their longing for peace. They still hope the people of the world will come to share that longing and choose the right path. In response to this desire of the many Hibakusha who have transcended such terrible pain and sorrow, the rest of us must become the force that drives the struggle to abolish nuclear weapons.

To that end, the city of Hiroshima and the more than 5,700 cities that comprise Mayors for Peace, in collaboration with the UN and like-minded NGOs, seek to abolish nuclear weapons by 2020 and throw our full weight behind the early achievement of a nuclear weapons convention.

Policymakers of the world, how long will you remain imprisoned by distrust and animosity? Do you honestly believe you can continue to maintain national security by rattling your sabres? Please come to Hiroshima. Encounter the spirit of the Hibakusha. Look squarely at the future of the human family without being trapped in the past, and make the decision to shift to a system of security based on trust and dialogue. Hiroshima is a place that embodies the grand pacifism of the Japanese constitution. At the same time, it points to the path the human family must walk. Moreover, for the peace and stability of our region, all countries involved must do more to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free North Korea in a Northeast Asia nuclear-weapon-free zone.

Today, a growing group of countries is focusing on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and calling for abolition. President Obama has demonstrated his commitment to nuclear disarmament by inviting Russia to start negotiating further reductions. In this context, even if the nuclear power agreement the Japanese government is negotiating with India promotes their economic relationship, it is likely to hinder nuclear weapons abolition. Hiroshima calls on the Japanese government to strengthen ties with the governments pursuing abolition. At the ministerial meeting of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative next spring in Hiroshima, we hope Japan will lead the way toward a stronger NPT regime. And, as the Hibakusha in Japan and overseas advance in age, we reiterate our demand for improved measures appropriate to their needs. As well, we demand measures for those exposed to the black rain and an expansion of the "black rain areas."

This summer, eastern Japan is still suffering the aftermath of the great earthquake and the nuclear accident. The desperate struggle to recover hometowns continues. The people of Hiroshima know well the ordeal of recovery. We extend our hearts to all those affected and will continue to offer our support. We urge the national government to rapidly develop and implement a responsible energy policy that places top priority on safety and the livelihoods of the people.

Recalling once again the trials of our predecessors through these 68 years, we offer heartfelt consolation to the souls of the atomic bomb victims by pledging to do everything in our power to eliminate the absolute evil of nuclear weapons and achieve a peaceful world.  

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui (script rewritten, delivered by the City of Hiroshima)

- Why Hiroshima? A video from BBC 50 minutes http://tinyurl.com/hiroshima-peace

Tepco's blatant deception compromises Japan Inc.

 Dale Klein (L) chair of the Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee, 

Barbara Judge (C) vice-chair and Naomi Hirose (R) president of Tepco

"You don't know what you're doing". Foreign nuclear experts blasted Tepco the operator of Fukushima nuclear plant, with one foreign expert saying its lack of transparency over toxic water leaks showed critical anger: "This action regarding the water contamination demonstrates a lack of conservative decision-making process," Dale Klein, former head of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), told a panel in Tokyo. "It also appears that you [Tepco] are not keeping the people of Japan informed. "These actions indicate that you don't know what you are doing, you do not have a plan and you are not doing all you can to protect the environment and the people." 


Tokyo Electric Power admitted for the first time this week that highly radioactive groundwater had leaked into the sea, confirming long-held suspicions of ocean contamination from the shattered reactors. Groundwater samples taken at the Fukushima plant showed that levels of radioactive caesium had increased by more than 100 times in just a few days... Tepco’s President Naomi Hirose apologised yesterday, saying the vast utility had failed to learn lessons in the aftermath of the March 2011 disasters. And no one at the Abe administration considered firing the man convinced and admitting that he is incompetent and cheated the public.

Now in Tokyo we are told that whatever 100 mSv or such low doses as 1 mSv are equally dangerous to human body and is seen as causes of potential lethal diseases such as cancer and leukaemia.

Fukushima Dai Ichi reactors

Now in Japan the word is that the administration, the scientific, and "the medical corporation", critics say, resort permanently to official guidelines to downgrade any risk due to Fukushima 311, silence alarming information from Tepco and affiliates staff, lower the medical risks on workers and population, risks for instance of body internal organs contaminations by radioactivity (as seen with the 2000 Fukushima workers contaminated and whose health is threatened), cardiovascular diseases, cysts, and more as seen in several cases. This is what foreign experts within Tepco have been trying to demonstrate these last days in Tokyo and abroad. But it does not work.

Tepco's pathological deception syndrome, untruth, concealing facts, seem to be the "raison d'être" as proven again even in Tokyo academics' fraud: "A group of biologists at a research institute of the prestigious University of Tokyo likely altered or forged materials in 43 published scientific articles" writes today the Asahi shimbun. Topics of concern: "Molecular and Cellular Biology papers"...

So the question is to know if the Shinzo Abe administration will keep on being entangled into Tepco's deception of the public, how long time and for what reason except avoiding what could impair Abe's appetite for a strong Japan, energy independent, and capable to acquire the nuclear weapons the day when Japan Inc wishes to as Yasuhiro Nakasone's doctrine had launched decades ago. It is proved now that the 2012 Parliament report of NAIIC * on the accident of Fukushima has not moved Japan 2 inches away from errant misleading behaviours and corporate habits in concealing evidences.



Notes: National Diet of Japan NAIIC report, summary http://tinyurl.com/naiic

"... The seismic tremors damaged electricity transmission facilities between the TEPCO Shinfukushima Transformer Substations and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in a total loss of off-site electricity. There was a back-up 66kV transmission line from the transmission network of Tohoku Electric Power Company, but the back-up line failed to feed Unit 1 via a metal-clad type circuit (M/C) of Unit 1 due to mismatched sockets..."

"... The TEPCO Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident was the result of collusion between the government, the regulators and TEPCO, and the lack of governance by said parties. They effectively betrayed the nation’s right to be safe from nuclear accidents. Therefore, we conclude that the accident was clearly “manmade.” We believe that the root causes were the organizational and regulatory systems that supported faulty rationales for decisions and actions, rather than issues relating to the competency of any specific individual..."

In "The National Diet of Japan: The official report of The Fukushima  Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission, Executive summary."


To be continued...

Sketch of Japan battle dress in nuclear accident situation

Where were the Japanese voters July 21st ?

Only one in four gave their support to Abe.

Turnout of upper house election at a record low 52.6% compared to the July 11 2010 with 57.9%. The third-lowest turnout since the end of World War II. Japanese have shown their veto or their disinterest for Abe's policy. But the NHK and other media won't tell you. Participation is even lower in regional prefecture such as Gumma (51.7%) with a massive disinterest for coming to the poll. 52 percent of voters went to the polls, it is therefore one of the worst result for an election in Japan history. While Sunday’s results gave his ruling coalition a comfortable majority in the upper house, it fell short of the two-thirds that the Liberal Democrats and allies would need to revise the Constitution, the 162 seats for a two-thirds majority.

Therefore, Abe Sori, how are you going to reform Japan? 

A Japan more competitive? What about consumption tax of 8% then 10% pledged in program which if imposed would create a burden in the middle of recovery policy? What about deregulations, future workforce of salary men and women, old generation, children, education, young workers, mothers willing to work again after maternity leave, what about pollution, crime, Tohoku, Fukushima? What about nuclear reactors? What about modernising an archipelago confronted with powerful neighbours who look down at his leaders with revisionist temper? What about setting Japan on the 21st century mode? What and when? For 52 %, an historical low participation to an election, the true clothes of salaryman look alike Shinzo Abe are not of the best pattern. A few ideas the day after.

1) Vested interests: who sponsored Abe since last year? Enhanced military and heavy industry of the ex Zaibatsu which grand father Kishi Nobusuke knew too well, bankers and hedge funds less agitated by the right wing and regional balance than by making quick profits and run out of Japan? Looks like the money machine will now asks for return of favours. Time will say if Shinzo Abe will inspire Japan and her partners into frenzy attacks on its concerned vital interests. What critics also should see is who did not come to vote, half of Japan basically. Japanese have shown their veto or their disinterest for Abe's policy. Period. But they saw that they rely on their purse to vote. To be continued?

2) No BBC! It is not unconditional support for Abe. It's the result of PR agencies and local elective machine with the return of money suitcases carriers. You saw the man behind Shinzo Abe on the night of the election result at Jiminto headquarters... Here we "encourage" people for voting not just ask people's money. Will Abe rush into revising the pacifist constitution, not sure, his priority will be to enhance the economy. Now if he does it, if he succeeds to inspire Japan Inc, Abe will be remembered as a great state-man. For my own interest as a foreign watcher and versed into political sciences I regret that a two-party democracy in Japan vanishes. 

3) How big Abe wants the Japanese military (JSDF Coast Guard) to become?  In terms of boosting defence, LDP already decided to raise Japan’s defence budget, first time in more than 10 years. One important victory is the alliance enforced by Komeito ( I know but...) who will cool down Abe's right wing nationalist mode. Although we remember the actions of Komeito and Soka Gakkai (創価学会) in the decades of LDP only rule when the religious organisation and its 8 millions followers patronised every chome of every town to secure seats. No change here. To be noted one noticeable interesting victory with the communists quite refreshed and appealing to the young Japanese. In Tokyo, winner Yoshiko Kira, is 30 years old, was elected on a concrete platform: improvement of working conditions and wages for youth. 

4) Priority is also to check how Mr Abe will be rebuilding all areas of Tohoku Fukushima. His appeal for nuclear power generation should be facing reality. Japan's annual growth for energy goes only, say, 3% to 4 %, 20 time less than China (US Dept of Energy stats). 

5) China... Beijing has an interest into keeping Tokyo under control. Beijing will monitor Abe's moves and those of the Americans. The international community that Abe and his right wing are so eager to confront vis a vis Japan history of defeat sourly embraced has not quite yet put up its mind about a politician who looks like "a doll for many PR agents dreaming of such "naiveté" I hear from a Tokyo resident well versed into society, economics and politics.

So, in a brief conclusion of what will take weeks to analyse, Abe's second chance and sanctuarization of his conservative forces do not mark the return to stability, it is the making of a "providential" team (I heard the words) willing to shake Japan. Some already fear the bad trade policies handled by very grey businesses and banking policies of Japan Inc seen as detrimental. The US EU France GB and others want to see proper course of development as seen with the TPP and EU Japan trade agreement plans. Well encouraged by international finance institutions and Abe was encouraged by Washington. OK, fine with me. 

Bottom line: will it benefit to the people or to the vested interests? LDP has genuine trends to favour its rulers prior to people.What is Abe going to do with his capital won last night? Already people close to him speak of a man who will stop running now that his peers are in charge. I'm not so sure. He believes it is his time. When the right wing decided to put its forces behind the man 2 years ago, they knew he would have to pay back.

But one missing element is the people way to control the politicians. Here in Japan, the invisible majority, and lobbies, always resorts to pre-emptive strikes moves to discourage politicians seen as unfit for the archipelago. Scandals are the best choice, ask Ozawa about it. The key issue here is to see if Shinzo Abe will show responsibility into respecting his campaign pledges, bringing Japan out of recession and deflation and boost the nation GDP while offering concessions abroad. There is no other expectation. Especially vis a vis the expectations of his right wing.

But in case of failures of Abenomics, there is an opened option that he will again play the nationalist hard game with China, Korea and on civil liberties, tolerate infamous hate-speech and other discriminations such as downgrading the life of Tohoku and Fukushima victims. Practically, "Government coalition partners Jimin and Komei are apart on how the constitution and on what in it, should be changed." So if "nothing really changes" as commentator Gerald Curtis stated 2 weeks ago, this is therefore the beginning of a political intifada for the ultra conservative who created Abe's destiny.

Not much to say about DPJ, it proves one more time that after having crushed the Iwate strong man, there was no more helmsman in the centre-left camp. People with motivations and clear policies are expected by the folks down here these days.

Those are my views, I was right Sunday morning when I predicted on TBS TV a poor turnout to the polls. Let's now give time to time to see where we will stand on all these questions. Anyway congrats to all the winners, they worked hard under the scorching sun.

I leave the last words to "Shisaku" of Michael Cucek in the somber question of voters worst turn out  and a map of the election from Debito org.

UPDATE:  My honourable and experienced "先輩 sempai" colleague Linda Sieg of Reuters draws the same conclusion about the Abe mandate and the lack of support of Japanese to his ultra conservative agenda: "Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's landslide election victory at the weekend was anything but a ringing endorsement from voters. The vast majority never voted for his coalition...only about one in four voters gave their support. Three-quarters of the electorate either did not vote at all or backed opposition parties." 
In http://lnk.nu/reuters.com/2i3y

Japan Upper House Election 21st July 2013

 Joël Legendre, Japan Correspondent of RTL France Broadcasting  on TBS 

"Sunday Morning Show 〜風をよむ〜" 

On You Tube, extract : http://youtu.be/HTpJgVjr9Rc

Japanese voters go to the polls Sunday. Half of the 242 seats in the upper legislative chamber at stake. The coalition LDP Komeito "Jiko" is expected to win majority. But the campaign was poor, the slogans did not move the crowds. Japanese that I observe since the last 20 years are more concerned by their present life, and how to maintain it than by promises of revengeful tomorrow. Social, economy, and labor issues perceived by ordinary Japanese were not clarified in this campaign. The hawkish prime minister Abe Shinzo ruling bloc asked for a blank check without disclosing the harsh reform agenda to be announced later in the year. The conservatives and their right wing associates are assured to get parliament majority, media repeatedly said, in a climate of societal uncertainty and weakness, sour regional disputes and waves of dangerous nationalism with a China rising and a tumultuous Korean peninsula. What is prevalent here is that Abe does not have, appear to have any clue to succeed in the economic reforms he pledges, except lowering Japan posture internationally. What is unfolded in front of us is a tactical power grab that will see the LDP/Komeito return to a neo-conservative agenda once Abe's camp has control over both houses of parliament. I was interviewed here on TBS TV one of the most popular Japan TV show, July 21st 2013 for "Sunday Morning Show 〜風をよむ〜". Extracts of the show.

On You Tube, extract : http://youtu.be/HTpJgVjr9Rc

Update Sunday Evening July 21st Monday 22nd 

Reading this election is a real complexity. Japanese who did not vote, and they are many, are practicing their right of veto. Thus they reject the system. So the legitimacy of the elected date class is questioned. It may therefore switch anytime. Already we see that the constitutional reform will not be that easy.

Tepco: "Around 2,000 Fukushima workers at risk of thyroid cancer due to radiation"  

Nuclear worker Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear power plant 

©Joel Legendre-Koizumi 2013/06

Tepco said 1,973 people are believed to have been exposed to enough radiation to cause potential health diseases "exposed to enough radiation to cause potential problems." Problems such as cancer, leukaemia, cardiovascular diseases, genetical consequences... This amazing confession from Tepco is a 10 fold increase on previous estimate of the number of possible thyroid cancer victims and comes after the utility was told its figures were too conservative. Each individual worker in this group was exposed to at least 100 millisieverts (mSv) of radiation. These are the first estimates in spite of the former denials of the Tepco industry and authorities  reassuring statements. This information reveals a possible development of increased cancer risk for the "Fukushima brave cleaners."

 Yury Bandazhevsky. Middle. FCCJ Tokyo

Dr. Yury Bandazhevsky was our guest yesterday at the press club to talk about the impacts of Fukushima nuclear accident on people of Japan, adults, workers, children and impacts for all social infrastructures, agriculture, and medical effects on the organism. There were concerned Press, TV and Radio reporters at the press club for the event as the subject is of prior importance. Japanese TVs were filming the event for the question of the day which is: "Will the Fukushima disaster ultimately take a terrible toll in the years ahead through cancer and genetic mutation?"

Amazing answer came from our Guest speaker Dr. Yury Bandazhevsky: "We don't know yet the exact situation on and around Fukushima!" Bandazhevsky confirmed yesterday what Japan watchers have doubted for months, there is no information and no definition of the risk at stake. Exit the AIEA, WHO, UNSCEAR reassuring statements. Facing the conservatives assessment on risk by Japan, Tepco was forced to admit the truth. Minimising the implications though according to nuclear specialists scientists.

Is it one reason why Luc Oursel the French president of Areva nuclear company just said in an interview with the Nikkei: "We have proposed (for the decommissioning of Fukushima) technology remote-controlled robots, technologies of fuel withdrawing, tools for measuring radioactivity and other equipments" (Interview in French http://lnk.nu/lepetitjournal.com/2i0c)

Dr. Yury Bandazhevsky is a well known scientist working on sanitary consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. He founded the Gomel State Medical Institute and published in 1999 the results of years worth of research on the clinical consequences of caesium-137, one of the most radioactive elements released by the disaster, and the impacts on human organism. He showed us all his researches and answered to our questions.

Children highly victims of Cs 137 concentration in the organism

His results showed that it leads to heart disease, cataract, early ageing and other maladies. But his research jeopardised the Belarusian authorities' intention to restart farming lands contaminated by Chernobyl. Bandazhevsky was arrested soon after his report was published under a presidential decree N21 "‘On Urgent Measures for the Combat of Terrorism". Just before his arrest in 1999, Bandazhevsky criticised official researches, sponsored by the Belarusian government. Prior to Bandazhevsky studies, increases of caesium-137 concentrations from 10 to 30 times in vital human organs were considered insignificant. He proved, however, that such concentrations lead to pathological abnormalities.

As a Corresponding Member of Belarusian Academy of Medical Sciences, Dr. Bandazhevsky has been awarded three prestigious international prizes, including the Albert Schweitzer Golden Medal. In February 2003 he was declared a honorary citizen of France. The European Parliament has issued him a Liberty Passport, entitling him to free entry to any of the European Union states.

Therefore if I understand the explanations of Dr. Yury Bandazhevsky and others, problems will start to appear 4 to 5 years after March 2011.


Notes
- Tepco statements:
Huffingtonpost/Afp http://lnk.nu/huffingtonpost.com/2i01.html
- Information about Dr. Yury Bandazhevsky:
http://lnk.nu/bellona.org/2i0b/
http://chernobyl-today.org
http://lnk.nu/chernobyl-today.org/2i0d.pdf (New Russian English translation, 2013)

Yury Bandazhevsky

Elections sénatoriales japonaises du 21 Juillet

Le retour en force des ultra-conservateurs de Shinzo Abe

Souhaitons que Shinzo Abe ne perde pas du terrain avec son Abenomics, souvenez vous au top du Nikkei à 39.000 points d'indices du début des années 90, l'inflation était de quoi ? 1 %? Comment faire pour garantir un 2% d'inflation sous peu? L'une des conditions "sine qua non" de cette reprise martelée par le chef du gouvernement Shinzo Abe, à quel coût social alors que 20 ans plus tard l'économie va de mal en pis malgré les projections optimistes du parti au pouvoir.

En cas d'échec, Shinzo Abe aura-t-il de quoi négocier sa survie dans moins de 2 ans, sinon en flattant l'extrême droite japonaise qui l'a installé au pouvoir? Les déclarations analysées et décryptées jadis d'Abe (rappel du programme de son 1er mandat de PM) et les querelles quotidiennes avec Chine et Corée qui dépriment les milieux industriels japonais, démontrent que le Japon joue avec le feu en Asie avec le retour en force des ultra-conservateurs de Shinzo Abe, après l'écrasante victoire du PLD aux législatives de 2012.

Chine et Corée se rapprochent, face au Japon qui s'enferme dans une logique du courroux territorial. Ce dernier inspiré par ce que les partisans d'Abe estiment être les mauvais traités limitrophes de l'après-guerre, et la Constitution, des scénarios écrits de la main même de Mac Arthur après 1945. 68 ans ont passé et le Japon s'enhardit.

L'Europe s'est embrasée pour des questions territoriales par 2 fois. En 1914 et en 1940. Et ce que je sais, en écoutant les nostalgiques de l'extrême droite japonaise, c'est que ceux des Japonais courroucés par le mal de vivre et la crise depuis 20 ans comptent aussi dans leurs rangs ceux qui méprisent la défaite de 1945 ceux même qui jouent maintenant sur plusieurs tableaux: La révision constitutionnelle, la défense collective, la revanche.

Quelle drôle d'idée de recourir aux cauchemars du passé avec cette haine attisée depuis 2 ans contre chinois et coréens et contre les pacifistes nippons, comme on le voit dans ces manifestations "hate speech" racistes incessantes de Tokyo Shin-Okubo et Osaka, encouragées ou tolérées par la politique et la police malgré les appels au crime, au fanatisme en termes violents qui y sont proférés contre les étrangers. Qui donc joue dans l'ombre de cette haine régionale? Qui a de gros intérêts dans ces querelles attisées au point de jouer les apprentis sorciers?

Toujours les mêmes. Objectif étant de faire du Japon un pays capable d'appuyer la politique, les ambitions et les intérêts de son puisant allié américain. Qui tire les ficelles dans l'ombre? L'Amérique ne peut intervenir dans le déroulé politique quotidien du Japon. Mais en privé, ses autorités déploreraient le climat confus qui règne dans les états majors du PLD, parti absent de tout projet de société profitant au plus grand nombre. Les japonais comme toujours sacrifiés sur l'autel du miracle économique tant attendu depuis 1991.

Une fois les élections du 21 Juillet passées, avec pour seul enjeu politique celui de la reprise économique, et non posées les questions de l'emploi, des retraites, du chômage des jeunes, du vieillissement, du nucléaire (plus de 58 % des japonais y sont hostiles dans les conditions actuelles depuis Fukushima) la victoire annoncée du PLD au Sénat japonais donnera au parti de monsieur Shinzo Abe le contrôle intégral de l'exécutif, du judiciaire et du législatif pour 3 ans.

Les 3 années qui viennent seront donc intéressantes, mouvementées aussi. La démocratie aura-t-elle le même droit de cité sous un régime de nationalistes éduqués par l'Amérique mais secrètement admiratifs des grands chefs militaires japonais et leurs victoires des années de guerre? Admiration douteuse, manipulatrice, mêlant l'admiration sans borne pour le culte impérial au désir de faire de l'Empereur un chef d'Etat, débat qui divise même au sein du PLD de monsieur Abe.

J'espère que la bureaucratie sera solide, mais audacieuse sans doute pas. Quant aux intellectuels nippons, on a bien du mal à les entendre, et la presse libre mais contenue dans ce système des kisha clubs n'est pas toujours à la hauteur. Je voudrais être plus optimiste. J'ai confiance dans le bon sens pratique et les sensibilités nippones, mais je connais hélas l'extrême droite japonaise, ses réactionnaires et ce qui les motive. Un doute persiste en ce début d'été japonais.

Japanese society sickened by anti foreigners "Hate speech"

The nationalist agenda

The Mainichi Shimbun national daily carries today, July 10th 2013, my views on Japanese society, with a focus on extremism and nationalism with the current anti foreigners, Koreans and Chinese, demonstrations held by Japanese extreme right organisations in "Hate speech". We had an event at the press club yesterday with Mr. Kunio Suzuki, a right-wing adviser to the nationalist Japanese political organisation Issuikai and Mr. Yoshifu Arita, Senator of the Democratic Party of Japan.

One is a nationalist the other is a centre-left Senator. Suzuki believes these Hate Speech groups are in close contact with the police and able to get permission to organise demonstrations: "These demonstrators are flying the Japanese flag at these marches. I feel that the 'Hinomaru' flag is crying at being used by these people in this way." Suzuki stated.

I explained in the interview by Mainichi Shimbun that Japanese appear indifferent to their world and often refuse to stand against discriminations. In other words, that Japan is non committed, indifferent and insensitive to others, but that such hate speech only is the fact of minority in desolation with economic hardship and that Japanese majority opts for very peaceful policies.

Such Hate Speech demonstrations happen during week-ends (Sunday mostly) in Tokyo Shin-Okubo, quarters of residency of many Koreans residents. 600,000 Koreans live in Japan, most descendants of labourers brought to Japan during colonial rule. A lot of Chinese reside in Japan and the territorial dispute added hostility steam between Japan and her neighbours.

The Mainichi Shimbun article:
http://mainichi.jp/select/news/20130710k0000m040122000c.html

Picture from a video footage at Shin-Okubo, Tokyo "Korea town"
http://youtu.be/CifcFrw62aE