Random Japan

SIC TRANSIT
ANA unveiled a passenger jet festooned with images of the Pokemon character Pikachu at Sendai Airport. The aircraft, dubbed the “Peace Jet,” is intended as a pick-me-up to the victims of the March 11 disaster.

Authorities in Thailand deported a Japanese man who is accused of bilking an insurance company out of ¥11 million in an arson scheme in Sapporo.

JR West was ordered to pay ¥6.2 million in compensation to 61 employees for “psychological distress” caused during a disciplinary program. The staff were forced to “clean toilets and cut weeds” as punishment for bad behavior.

A visually impaired man from Yokohama was killed after being hit by a Den-en-toshi line train at Tsukushino station in Machida. The man, who was seen “walking unsteadily” before the accident, fell onto the tracks and was trying to climb back up when he was pinned between the train and the platform.

Police from Hokkaido raided the offices of an aviation school in Miyazaki in connection with the crash of a light plane that killed two people and injured a third during a training session in Obihiro.

Stats

80
Percent of Japanese manufacturers whose production has returned to pre-quake levels, according to the trade ministry

4.7 years
Average time it takes pharmaceutical drugs released overseas to become available in Japan, according to the Office of Pharmaceutical Industry Research

1.2 years
Average time it takes for drugs from abroad to become available in the US

17 years, 11 months
Age of high school wrestler Kanako Murata, who captured the gold medal in the women’s 55kg division at last month’s world junior championships in Buchares

GETTING THE HELL OUT OF DODGE
A group of 23 victims of the March 11 disaster arrived in Taiwan for a free two-week vacation sponsored by the local tourism board. The program, which runs through mid-November, will eventually host 1,000 people from the affected regions.

Meanwhile, a group of 35 children aged 5-12, mostly from Fukushima, arrived in Rome for a five-week visit sponsored by an Italian NPO.

The SDF concluded its 144-day relief operations in Miyagi Prefecture. Its mission there included rescue operations, debris removal and pest control.

According to the justice ministry, the population of areas directly affected by the earthquake and tsunami dropped by 10.5 percent from March 11 to March 31.
JTB says it has invited 100 Chinese journalists and travel agents on a six-day jaunt to Tohoku next week.

It's Not Fake

It Just Seems That Way

The Camera In The Toilet

And The Policeman

TEPCO to add more than 4,000 radiation experts

2011/08/19
The government and TEPCO plan to bring in more than 4,000 experts to measure radiation levels and manage workers' exposure to radioactivity to end the crisis at the quake-crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it will need more experts to measure radiation levels not only at the Fukushima plant, but in municipalities around the plant where residents will return once evacuation orders are lifted.

Under the plan to bring the nuclear crisis to an end, which was revised on Aug. 17, about 4,000 experts will be trained in radiation measurements and about 250 in exposure management.