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Manufacturers fear summer meltdown due to power cuts

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© 2012 AFP

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They should be entitled so sue TEPCO (or their own particular electricity provider) for their loss in business and extra costs.

After all it's the responsibility of the Utilities to provide stable power and many big companies have a contract with the electrical utilities stating as such.

Since the Utilities obviously failed to plan for contingencies, they should be held liable.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

The actual meltdowns have already occurred in Fukushima!

The 'fears' have been realized!

Ask the people that have had to flee Tohoku about it!

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Neccessity is the mother of invention. The new normal is that Japan is surviving without the much touted nuclear plants functioning. Japan has not stopped functioning! The world has not ended! The focus should now be on better ways to survive without electricity from nukes. It has proven expensive, dirty, unsustainable, environemtally suicidal and unethical.

6 ( +9 / -2 )

People survived last year, they'll adapt to it this year too. It was uncomfortable last year, and looks like being the same now too.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

“We may have to make more ice cream before” power shortages reach their peak, he added.

Won't it also require additional electricity for the freezers that will be storing this ice cream?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

When you total up all the costs involved in this disaster, from lost businesses, compensation, lost sales, disrupted production, production moved overseas, sick days lost due to stress-related illnesses, etc etc etc etc etc - just how much cheaper would it have been to have just built the correct bloody wall in the first place?!

2 ( +3 / -1 )

. The new normal is that Japan is surviving without the much touted nuclear plants functioning.

People survived last year, they'll adapt to it this year too. It was uncomfortable last year, and looks like being the same now too.

Interesting. Two posters in a row expressed the same sentiment -- that people in Japan are "surviving". How does one rationalize living in one of the most crowded and expensive places on earth, and life is simply about surviving, not actually flourishing or thriving? Japan has truly fallen a long way since the pre-bubble days. Can't even be sure your local combini will have a steady supply of ice or ice cream this summer.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Interesting that the exact same AFP-Jiji photo of kids chomping ice cream was featured inside the Japan Times today. I understand showing ice cream in a story about summer, but be different and go with the crayon angle. Show some kids crying because their outsourced crayons have too much wax, unpopular colors, etc.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The government are releasing fear propaganda into the news now.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

and life is simply about surviving, not actually flourishing or thriving? Japan has truly fallen a long way since the pre-bubble days

herefornow,

Japan has been is this state for DECADES now, even during the 80s(Japan just thought it was thriving but most peoples jobs & lives SUCKED, they just had few more $$ is all).

As I have been saying since forever, work/life balance for the majority is BAD BAD BAD for the 2nd now 3rd largest economy, the govt & J-inc have been pulling fast ones over the populace for MANY decades running.

This summer will be more of the same, perhaps a little tougher. I have no doubt Japanese will plow through it all.

But I wonder if they will ever have the nads to want a little more for themselves as far as quality of life goes, it can be done BUT it needs to be done for a hell of a lot more people, otherwise there aint much more point bothering with these isles!

2 ( +4 / -2 )

The government are releasing fear propaganda into the news now

gogo, you are correct indeed, we are now going to be hit with a FULL MEDIA onslaught of propaganda for re-starting nukes that is paid for by the tax payers but FULLY for govt & j-incs benefit, as usual the man/woman/children on the steet, be damned!

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Children eat ice creams during a hot spring day

Somebody think of the children! They wont be able to eat icecream!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

That's all Japanese are doing: fearing. Fear of losing AC, fear of losing jobs, fear of economic slump, fear of societal change, fear of foreigners, fear of strange baggage in trains, fear of dark, fear of neighbours, fear of absolutely everything. How can a whole nation be so naive?

2 ( +5 / -3 )

The Ice Cream famine of 2012.

5 ( +4 / -0 )

believe me temp will be very high this year and the public + corportes will beg the government to restart the reactors.

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

They need to invent ice cream that does not melt. If anyone can do that, it surely will be Japanese.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I wonder how many of you who keep saying that Japan will survive another summer of record heat and humidity, realize that last summer there were still more than 20 nuclear power plants operating. This summer the number will be zero. This will definitely be a much more difficult summer than last. As for the comments about Japanese people being afraid, is it any different from the people in Europe or North America who fear for their jobs on a daily basis. And as for the US without universal healthcare, once you lose your job, you are one illness away from bankruptcy, or death!

-2 ( +2 / -3 )

Hence the invention of astronaut ice cream many years back.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

It appears the same group is expressing their opinions, and as an open form I can understand.

I would like to again, suggest that instead of using this as a personal communication media such as facebook or twitter, contribute something useful for those reading to appreciate or to learn from. That includes those that made and are in the news, if the are reading it.

It is and has been some time since the nuclear disaster for everyone to think about alternative energy that can be produced from what we already have. That includes generating energy from the burning of waste which already exists.

What we could do is "introduce" those individuals and companies that may have those technologies or equipment or supplies to those who may need them. Who do you know?

I certainly would like to know if there is one that we can use in our homes or apartments...... other than rechargeable batteries for home using power during off peak hours.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Zichi has made a good contribution. Now, how do we get that information to those who can use it?.....

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Everything runs on electricity so unnecessarily. Motor operated automatic entrance doors use electricity everywhere and are in standby mode all day, big tenement houses entrance doors with microchip controlled touch sensors or electric relay locks, when a few decades ago it was no problem to manually open them with our keys, garage doors and TVs and simply everything are on remote control all day and night to save the owner of the exhausting maneuver of standing up take a few steps and switch on or off the TV set .

Everything and everywhere illuminated unnecessarily powerfully. In homes and dept stores and especially in convenience stores the illumination is extremely high and disturbingly bright. For a 4x4 meter apartment room a 120 W bulb would be enough and everywhere they use over 200W or bathrooms toilet seats are heated and are in standby mode all day etc. etc. and so many other useless and unreasonable electricity consummation. If only the stupid and excessive things could be shut down and people would be willing to do something manually, that could relieve at least two power plants in japan.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

The solution is simple. Move 20% of Japanese people from Japan to the rest of the world. Set up Japantowns around the world for them to settle. Now you don't need to start up Nuclear power plants. The population is decreasing naturally anyway, so no need to build new power plants of any kind. :) To make up for the declining population's production and to fight the yen. Make robots that build and make everything. Results in cheaper products that you can export while still be competitive with a super duper high powered Yen.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Quote: “We may have to make more ice cream before” power shortages reach their peak, he added.

Well, just do it and stop the whingeing.

But you won't make more ice cream in advance will you, until you know how hot the summer is going to be. You want the freedom to increase or decrease production on the spot, without getting stcuk with unsold stock.

Besides it has been shown over and over that as the temperature goes over 32, or is it 33 (?) people in Japan stop eating ice cream. When it's too hot, ice cream sales fall off. Sherbets and shaved ice become more popular.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

zichiMay. 15, 2012 - 02:42PM JST

Americans consume 4.5 times the energy of Japanese?

It is not about how how much energy the Americans consume, it is about how much energy the Japanese can produce, and how much it will cost the consumers, and about how many millions of superfluous power consumption gadgets, waiting in standby mode 24/7, can be simply switched off in general to save energy for more important things. :-D

Do you want a long list?

Millions of illuminated street vendors with working cooler/heater, millions of TVs etc. in standby mode, millions of street lamps forgotten on at daylight or switching on a good half an hour before darkness, illuminated highways, eyes stabbing brightness in convenience stores, and so on and so on. Parking lot automatic computerized gates that considering the purchase price, maintenance, and power consumption cost more than paying a part time pensioner parking lot attendant, by saving money and giving work to people that could make them possible to spend more and stimulate the economy. many of the high power consumption gadget could be replaced by human workforce for cheaper for the benefit of all of us. less power consumption, higher employment rate , better economy.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@zichi

Yes, it would and will if Japan wants to survive. There is always a good solution and a second alternative for everything and Japan will take her chances when the pain hits home, or die. They will not die, they are not stupid, just overly argumentative, Japan will always reborn, it is just that some people love to take the longer way home.

Our argument is theoretical, doesn't matter who wins, eventually the Japanese will do what I said, and will switch off their gadgets and start working.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

American scientis have just released the projection that this summer will be hotter than last year due to a global warming. while China and India are care less about their pollutions.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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