Akira Kurebayashi comments

Posted in: After Fukushima, Japan gets green boom - and glut See in context

What surprises me most is the fact that after the government ordered electric companies to buy electricity from individuals and accodingly people began to set up generating facilities, such as solar energy plants, this same government decided to vastly subsidise corporations starting up renewable energy business. It looks almost like ”hey I can't afford paying people, so you corporations, generate electricity a lot and sell it to electric companies cheaply!” If you are aware that buying small amount of electricity from individuals can be costly, do not buy from them in the first place.

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Posted in: Yoyogi Park reopens after 57-day closure due to dengue fever See in context

I totally have no idea what it's like in Yoyogi Park but, to my surprise, I was bitten by mosquitoes in Waseda. I wonder how they made it till November, and if they are alive in the park. Either way, they'll die out soon, nothing to worry.

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Posted in: Japan consumer inflation slows; spending down in September See in context

Food prices have been expensive due to weak yen which increases petrol cost required for any machines in agriculture, fishery and etc. Of course purse strings are tightened.

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Posted in: Survey shows 2,860 public schools at risk from tsunami damage See in context

Near the coast: prone to tsunami. Near mountains: prone to volcanic eruption. Japan is apparantly doomed in the first place. Considering all risk factors and distributing limited funds in accordance with priority which is given based on the probability of each natural disaster to come seems painstaking to me. Certainly bunch of survey appear to be stupid but I guess the first thing we should do is to prioritise which disaster preventive measures should be taken.

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Posted in: Kyushu town approves nuclear reactor restart See in context

Sadly enough not a small number of people in towns with nuclear power plants tend to welcome their restart because, as this article points out, they are benefited from government subsidies, with which they build utilities, make roads, and etc.,; and a lot of job opportunities are generated around nuclear power plants, including engineers, utility cleaners, company restaurant stuff, guards, you name it. It occupies a huge part of their lives. I repeat that it is sad, but empirically saying this seems to have some truth. While advocating the abandonment of nuclear power plants, we might, at the same time, need to present people living in those towns the alternative way to make their living.

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Posted in: Abe's agenda challenged as scandals mount See in context

Now that Abe's administration has been throwing up these scandals, his “Japan is back!” sounds in a totally different meaning.

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Posted in: Disney pens love letter to Japan with robot film See in context

lostrune2 OK I admit I screw up. I thought they are not successful because not a word of mouth has been heard about thelr recent works around me, but obviously, as you point out, some people still love to watch them.

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Posted in: Canadian journalist in Japan tests negative for Ebola See in context

Thank you JT for providing us information other papers don't.

Not so fast. They all did and also most Japanese know about this because newsflash interrupted TV programs. Some people obviously love this whole ”Japanese people are blinded from truth because of the stupid governmental censorship” kind of thing. I would say some of it is true, but not all of them. Search through and speak out.

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Posted in: Disney pens love letter to Japan with robot film See in context

OK I watched the trailer and it seems really cool, and I've written movie debut date but, I personally think this is going to be a big flop in Japan for several reasons: first, it is certainly true that the Japanese do care "how they are perceived" by others almost to the point of obsession, but it's just like they, in real world, want to be flattered; it's not like they are pleased to see fictional pseudo-Japan being shown in a good way. I once heard when Back to the future 2 was on screen, in which a Japanese guy appears as a boss of Marty McFly, the Japanese people were flattered because they come to realise how far Japan could get from godforsaken loser country. Both are films, in which point they are in common, but what Big Hero 6 depicts is, after all, pseudo-Japan whereas BTTF2 followed the reality (at least at that point of age).

Second, if I borrow the "theory" shown by lostrune2 above, I guess the main target for Big Hero 6 in Japan would be Japanese boys. But as long as I'm concerned, I think my boy friends, when they were young, were not that into Disney movies. They certainly appeared to admit that Disney makes nice films, but more importantly they seemed to have regarded their works, for some reason, for girls. I guess that is because of prince-princess stuff. When it comes to frenzy for Japanese boys, Yo-kai Watch has been doing really good job and there seems to be no space for Big Hero 6.

Third, this is also empirical reason, but recent 3D films by Disney, except for Frozen, seem to have failed at least in Japanese market. Cars, Ratatouille, Brave, you name it: even pieces successful around the world can end up being flop in Japan. Frozen was a big surprise in this sense.

Let me clarify something just in case: I don't mean to bash this movie. Watching the trailer on youtube made me really feel like watching it on theatre asap. I had thought it would be heart-warming kind of story with little excitement when I first saw the poster on theatre but it's definitely not. This is going to be awesome instead!

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Posted in: Momentum building on TPP deal despite U.S.-Japan impasse See in context

I appreciate it if cheaper products get to be available more . Still considering how incompetitive companies shrink its bussiness, I'd feel terrible unable to support them. It occurs to me there's no chance for companies, yet to expand its bussiness overseas and make its efficiency to the extreme, to compete with global companies. I'd hate to see in the future wherever you go you taste the same food, wear the same clothes, live with same furniture, and etc, it's already happening though. I wanna see more diversity.

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Posted in: Fujifilm to boost supply of Ebola drug See in context

Avigan was made by Fujifilm's affiliated company if I remember correctly. In any cases as others point out Fujifilm has been expanding its bussiness to cosmetics and seems to spend a lot on advertisement, which shows us their confidence in this expansion I think.

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Posted in: Hospital director, wife found dead in apparent murder-suicide See in context

I hate to hear in this kind of incidents people saying 心中 (Shinju, euphemistic way to describe murder-suicide.) With the wording 心中 everything appears like it can't be helped as oftentimes the Japanese go, facing up difficult issues. But the fact is it's not Shoganai at all, it's murder after all. Leave the word 心中 for novels, never use it for news report. People without second thought choose to use this word unaware of its connotation.

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