Harry_Gatto comments

wallaceToday  09:34 am JST

Trump has said he won't be returning to Twitter, but can we believe anything Trump says?

Simple answer to that: No!

Seems that Casey Baseel neglected to ask if the service is for Japanese only or is available for foreigners too.

August 2022.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has pledged that up to nine nuclear reactors will be in operation amid power shortage concerns.

Question: There are many more nuclear reactors in Japan. Why nine?

Answer: After the meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Japan's nuclear power plants are not allowed to operate unless they meet the government's earthquake, tsunami, and anti-terrorism safety standards. There are 57 total reactors in the country, but only a handful meet these standards. Subtracting 24 reactors set to be decommissioned and those with incomplete safety updates leaves just nine available to run over the winter.

Kishida mentioned that these nine reactors will be put into operation, and all of them have been in operation at least once since the new standards were put in place after the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. In other words, none are new reactors.

Q: Which are those nine reactors?

A: They are the No. 3 and 4 units at the Oi nuclear power station, the No. 3 and 4 units at the Takahama nuclear plant, and the No. 3 reactor at the Mihama nuclear plant, all run by Kansai Electric Power Co. in Fukui Prefecture; the Sendai nuclear station's units 1 and 2 in Kagoshima Prefecture, and the Genkai power station's No. 3 reactor in Saga Prefecture; and the No. 3 unit at Shikoku Electric Power Co.'s Ikata power plant in Ehime Prefecture.

In addition, anti-terrorism facilities at the Genkai plant's No. 4 reactor are scheduled for completion in mid-February 2023, after which it will be ready for operation. However, all these reactors are in west Japan, and there are limits to how much they can supplement eastern Japan's electricity supply.

Q: What about the situation at other reactors?

A: Other than those mentioned above, seven reactors have passed the safety review. However, in addition to safety measure work, a review of the construction plan and the consent of the local government where the plant is located are also required before it can restart.

Q: We need a lot of electricity in the summer as well. Could any of these seven units be up and running next summer?

A: There are three reactors that have a projected restart date, but only the No. 1 and 2 units at Kansai Electric's Takahama plant will be ready by next summer. Those two will be operational in June and July 2023, respectively, after the completion of anti-terrorism facilities.

The No. 2 reactor at Chugoku Electric Power Co.'s Shimane nuclear station in Shimane Prefecture has not posted a restart date, but it plans to finish safety measure work this fiscal year, so it may be able to go online next summer.

SDCAToday  10:04 am JST

They could save so much on heating in the winter AND air conditioning if the summer if the buildings here were properly insulated. Warm air stays in during the winter, cool air stays in during the summer, instead of leaking out through the roof and walls. It’s not rocket science.

I wish the Japanese built homes like the old days with craftsmanship and design. These houses were build to last and had better aesthetic appeal. Add modern technology like solar roofing, fiber glass insulation, double or triple pane glass and I would buy it in a heartbeat. Instead we get a decorated shed for a home...

The Japan bashers never give up. Most modern Japanese homes are insulated whilst older ones certainly are not. Making sweeping generalisations with no actual facts or knowledge is rather ridiculous.

Most homes built in the "old days with craftsmanship and design" in Japan are badly insulated.

I bought a new house here in west Japan 7 years ago; it's properly insulated and double glazed and certainly not your decorated shed. Have a look at the specs of the homes being built by major house builders.

girl_in_tokyoToday  10:44 am JST

Speculating she banged her thigh on "anything" is downplaying what happened to her. 

So what exactly happened to her? You seem to have some information or, "speculating" is the only word you used which makes any sense unless you were there to witness what happened.

garypenToday  08:10 am JST

Restraining her hands. Bruising her thigh. Sounds like it was probably rape, not just sexual assault.

No it doesn't, get your mind out of the gutter, thighs have an outside as well as an inside.. The bruise on her thigh could be anywhere, for a myriad of reasons, I've got a bruise on my thigh right now from hitting the edge of a table after tripping over the cat. This poor lady probably got pushed around by her attacker and could have banged her thigh on anything.

Michael MachidaToday  08:19 am JST

"...a self-professed company employee."

What the H@LL does that mean?

Obviously, it means he said he is employed by a company.

@lucabrasi

Have a good one, omedetou!

lucabrasiOct. 30  04:32 pm JST

No Halloween in England in my day.

Anybody else remember “Mischief Night”?

Yes, very well indeed, night before Bonfire Night and the day after my birthday.

Halloween is over-commercialised nonsense; ask anyone "celebrating" just what exactly they are celebrating and what is the meaning of Halloween and see the blank stares.

All Saint's Day, a.k.a. Halloween. It is a day to remember those who have passed on.

Halloween is derived from All-Hallows Eve i.e. the evening before All Hallows or All Saints Day.

All Saints' Day

On May 13, A.D. 609, Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established in the Western church. Pope Gregory III later expanded the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1.

By the 9th century, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted older Celtic rites. In A.D. 1000, the church made November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It’s widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, church-sanctioned holiday.

All Souls’ Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints’ Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-Hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

There is no 13 o'clock, it's 1300h.

The vast majority of women who are sexually assaulted on public transport ('groper' diminishes the level of crime) never say anything or can't say anything (they have no idea who did it).

If so then that makes it impossible to quantify.

a global leader in gaming.

Is that really something to aspire to be, or to be proud of?

I'm inclined to agree with JeffLee's first paragraph above.

JTCOct. 25  06:16 pm JST

Foreigners have to carry around an ID card ("gaijin card"), Japanese have an equivalent version too - though it's a different color.

No Japanese person I know has such a card.

Sadly, often the girls do it willingly to get some cold, hard cash.

This is not exclusively a Japanese thing, happens the world over; the oldest profession.

It's rather obvious that the Russians are preparing to use a dirty bomb themselves and then blame the Ukraine for it; "we told you so".

YrralToday  01:13 am JST

Gatto,if you use a bank debit card to purchase the card,your bank data is attached to the suica card

Nonsense, show me some evidence please.

She should also be charged with assault (or something similar) by the police.

YrralToday  09:28 pm JST

Mark of the beast, LOL,you are already being tracked with subway card,they know where you go an often , Google Japan Subway Card Tracking

Wrong. Prepaid Suica and Pasmo cards are anonymous.

Demonstrators on a Los Angeles overpass Sunday unfurled banners praising west.

Shouldn't "west" in the sentence above be capitalised?

The time has come for the people of the UK to choose their leader and the leading party.

The same "people of the UK" who voted for Brexit? That result proved that those people are not qualified to make such important decisions.

The rear-side passenger door opens and closes on its own,

How about: "The near-side passenger door is opened and closed by the driver"?

Sad news, 32 is way too young to die. I wonder why he was hospitalized and needed surgery? Disease, or haemorrhage from taking too many headers, who knows?

If the UK citizens elect BJ again then I have no sympathy for them and the disaster that follows.

The UK citizens are not voting in this contest.

Headline is a little ambiguous in that it can be read in two possible ways.

First line:

"The body of a man wanted be police......."

by police perhaps?

Moderator: Yes, you are right. Thank you for pointing that out.

purple_depressed_baconOct. 19  02:00 pm JST

So he's clearly a repeat offender and the police are just what, letting him roam the streets pretty as he pleases? Says a lot about their attitude towards sexual harassment and sexual assault. Someone lock this fool up already.

Read the first line of the article again.

Truss resigns.

Like I said earlier this month:

I think both she and her Chancellor can look forward to having a quiet Xmas at home without the responsibilities of government weighing on their minds.

RealisticToday  08:31 am JST

Serial offender is repeating the same crime still roaming freely!?

Are we missing the some part of the story.

The only people missing some part of the story are you and your 6 supporters. Read the first and last paragraphs again, slowly.

Edwina Currie got it right:

Liz Truss is "charmless, graceless, brainless, and useless", a former Conservative minister has said.

Speaking on Tuesday Edwina Currie, an ex-health minister, said there was absolutely no way the prime minister would survive in office.

Elaborating, Ms Currie claimed that the Tory leader "doesn't have any of the skills" to put across her argument.

"You sack senior civil servants, you ignore all the systems that are there, and then you wonder why the markets really get freaked out?" she said.

The ex minister said the prime minister was "brainless" for not waiting to cut taxes when the economic conditions allowed.

Asked during an interview with the GB News channel whether Ms Truss could survive, Ms Currie said: “Oh, no, of course she can't survive. Oh my goodness. I'm going to put this on record. I think she is charmless, graceless, brainless and useless."

smithinjapanToday  09:33 am JST

Excellent post. Hits a couple of nails right on the head.

Sven AsaiToday  10:45 am JST

You don’t need any semiconductors or integrated circuits at all for such simple things like a traffic light. Conventional electronics parts like the ones already used in last century will just do fine.

No, most modern traffic signals are microprocessor controlled and have inputs from sensors under the road and pedestrian pushbuttons. They are often integrated with central traffic management computers.