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cool biz - クールビズ - wearing light cloths in offices - will start one month earlier and last until October, to save energy in the region.
Now we can see government spokesman Edano san without a necktie in the press conference.
see sample below
Cool Biz campaign
While Cool Biz spread energy savings to all businesses, the necktie business suffered.
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !
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Gabi reports:
A busy day with visitors.
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Bulletins from NHK Online
source : www3.nhk.or.jp
source : NHK World News
Tuesday, May 03, 2011 12:09
Shareholders call for nuclear plant closures
NHK has learned that shareholders of five electric power companies in Japan are calling for the utilities to decommission their nuclear power plants in the wake of the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
About 400 stockholders of the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the Fukushima plant, submitted official documents in support of the proposal.
Shareholders of at least four other power companies --- Kansai Electric, Chugoku Electric, Kyushu Electric and Tohoku Electric -- have made similar proposals.
On Monday, a group of 232 stockholders of Tohoku Electric submitted documents calling for the company to abolish its nuclear power plants.
The group says the potential risks of nuclear power generation are too great for any single company to afford.
The group urged the utility to decommission its nuclear power plants and to end its investment in the spent nuclear fuel reprocessing businesses.
The power companies are expected to examine the proposals and submit them to a vote at their annual shareholders' meeting. The meetings are typically held by the end of June.
Attention is now focused on what decisions will be made at the meetings amid growing public concern about nuclear power generation.
.
68 top bureaucrats assume exec posts at utilities
Japan's industry ministry says a total of 68 former top bureaucrats have assumed executive posts at electric power companies after retiring from the ministry over the past 50 years.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which oversees electric companies, surveyed 12 firms on the number of former career-track bureaucrats that the companies have employed as executives or advisors.
Tuesday, May 03, 2011 16:06
Radiation forecast data released
The Japanese government has released data projecting the spread of radioactive substances from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The science ministry uses a computer system called SPEEDI to predict how radiation will spread depending on weather and geographical conditions.
On Tuesday, the government released about 5,000 bits of data showing hourly predictions from March 11th. The information appears on the websites of the Nuclear Safety Commission and other entities.
The data was calculated on the assumption that radioactive substances are being released at a rate of one becquerel per hour.
The data for 10 p.m. on March 15th, when an explosion occurred at the No.2 reactor, shows radiation flowing out of the screen to the northeast.
Such data had been withheld for fear of causing panic.
Goshi Hosono, secretary general of the joint task force set up by the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company, apologized on Monday for the delay in releasing the data.
He said that he now believes that panic can be avoided if proper explanations are offered. Hosono promised to release data promptly in the future.
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Voices from around
. Daily Radiation Levels .
. . . . .
Japan Times :
Power cut doomed fallout computer
The nation's system for predicting the volume of radioactive materials to be released into the environment failed amid the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant due to the power supply cut following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, sources say.
The Emergency Response Support System is designed to collect data about the state of a plant's nuclear reactors, such as pressures and temperatures, from remote locations and to analyze the suspected development of a nuclear accident to predict how much radioactive material will be released.
The malfunction of the ERSS, coupled with "insufficiencies" attribued to SPEEDI, the System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information, which projects the dispersal of radioactive fallout based on ERSS forecasts, is likely to have delayed the evacuation of Fukushima residents. Japan sent SPEEDI data to the U.N. but withheld it from the public.
[MORE] ->
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110503a3.html
U.S. doctors hit Tokyo radiation limit for kids
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110503a1.html
Protesters urge rethink of child radiation limit
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110503a5.html
Diet budgets yen 4 trillion for rebuilding
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110503a2.html
Traffic jams worsened tsunami toll
Traffic jams that formed after the devastating March 11 mega-quake increased the death toll in the Tohoku region by stranding hundreds of cars that ended up being swallowed up by the tsunami, survivors said Sunday.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110503a6.html
Tight-lipped Tepco lays bare exclusivity of press clubs
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110503f1.html
March saw first decline in monthly wage in 13 months; blackouts blamed
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nb20110503a1.html
Iitate 'wagyu' beef farmers blast evacuation order
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nb20110503n1.html
Domestic disaster, overseas losses put pressure on Nomura's profits
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nb20110503n3.html
What to do with the debris
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/ed20110503a2.html
Better to be branded a 'flyjin' than a man of the 'sheeple'
DEBITO ARUDOU
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/fl20110503ad.html
. . . . .
quote
Drumbeat of Nuclear Fallout Fear Doesn’t Resound With Experts
The nuclear disaster in Japan has sent waves of radiation and dread around the globe, prompting so many people to buy radiation detectors and potassium iodide to fend off thyroid cancer that supplies quickly sold out.
The fear is unwarranted, experts say. People in Japan near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may have reason to worry about the consequences of radiation leaks, scientists say, and some reactor workers, in particular, may suffer illness. But outside of Japan, the increase is tiny, compared with numerous other sources of radiation, past and present.
Experts say that humans are bombarded by so much radiation from so many other sources, including many natural ones, that the uptick from Japan disappears as a cause of concern the big picture is considered.
source : www.nytimes.com
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Cool Biz Daruma Slip - crepe shirt
三ツ桃クレープ ダルマ スリップ(前あき)
all cotton
source : e-wear.jp
ladies underwear, called "Daruma type" slip
Darumagata slip ダルマ型スリップ
Daruma peeks
through the underwear -
cool biz starts
. Setsuden - Energy Saving
cool biz
super cool biz
smart cool biz ... coming up this summer !
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[ . BACK to DARUMA MUSEUM TOP . ]
[ . BACK to TOP of this BLOG. ]
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/science/03radiation.html
ReplyDeleteDrumbeat of Nuclear Fallout Fear Doesn’t Resound With Experts (cont.)
Ethel S. Gilbert, a radiation epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, and colleagues used statistical methods to gauge the cancer risk to Americans from the global bomb fallout. The scientists projected that citizens over the course of their lifetimes would suffer 11,000 more deaths from solid cancers compared with the normal rate of 40 million cancer fatalities. “It’s a tiny proportion of the total cancers,” she said.
Dr. Gilbert added that it was too early to analyze the Japanese accident because of the incompleteness of the picture. But she said that given the relatively small size of the radiation release and the precautions Japanese officials have taken to evacuate the danger zone, the result would probably be a “tiny increase in cases” of cancer.
Additionally, many experts say, the threat to the Japanese people is probably low because — unlike the radioactive fallout from the cold war and the Chernobyl accident — most of the radiation is believed to have blown out to sea on the prevailing winds.
The ocean has received many radiological blows over the decades. From 1946 to 1994, when the practice was banned, governments around the globe dumped many thousands of drums of radioactive waste into the abyss, as well as reactors and derelict submarines.
Scientists estimate the dumping in total involved about four million curies of radioactive materials, with the Soviet Union doing a vast majority of the disposal. Decay has lowered the level of that radiological threat over the decades, even as the rotting of drums and barrels has raised the risk of environmental contamination.
At a nuclear dump site near the Farallon Islands off San Francisco, surveys have revealed many fractured drums and evidence that some radioactive materials have spread to sea life. The Environmental Protection Agency found that sponges bore “readily measurable” amounts of plutonium 239 and plutonium 240 — types of man-made radioactive materials that seldom exist in nature. The former has a half-life of 24,360 years, and the latter 6,560 years.
But people, rather than sea creatures, are by far the biggest recipients of artificial radiation, and most of the exposure is intentional. According to the United Nations reports, from1988 to 2008, the number of examinations worldwide in diagnostic radiology more than doubled, to 3.1 billion from 1.4 billion.
For several countries, the United Nations said in a recent report, the doses from X-rays and CT scans “for the first time in history” have exceeded the natural background radiation.
END
.Carp streamers flown at shelter in Kesennuma
ReplyDeleteMore than 220 carp streamers bearing messages of encouragement are on display at an evacuation center in one of the areas worst-hit by the March 11th disaster.
The streamers were designed by Masae Hatakeyama, who used to live in the coastal city of Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture.
They were flown on Tuesday over a junior high school in the city where more than 270 people are taking shelter.
Carp streamers are traditionally displayed in Japan around Children's Day on May 5th to pray for the healthy growth of children -- just like carp in the rivers.
A teenage girl in the shelter said she was greatly encouraged by the messages from people across Japan, and that she hopes to serve as a volunteer to help Kesennuma rebuild itself.
Hatakeyama said she was moved by the compassion expressed by everyone who sent well-wishes over the Internet.
She said that although her parents' house was affected by the disaster, she hopes to do whatever she can to help her hometown get back on its feet.
NKH World News
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/03_19.html