ItsMe comments

There is no such thing as a "Tier III plus" data center. If you don't meet the Tier IV specifications an every system, they you are a Tier III data center. Period.

I don't know, use of kizuna sounds more like wishful thinking for hope out of a disastrous year. Is it just me, or does Kizuna sound very "yakuza"-esque?

The complex transaction would be tax free because it would be done in a way not considered a sale.

Now this to me seems to be a problem. How is it that companies can sell off assets, make money off of these assets, but not have to pay any government any taxes on it? Big business along with their friends at Big Finance are at the magic again!

Love of government and love of country is completely different. I would bet most NK people are not actually pro-NK government.

...again, not an expert here, but I have heard there are multiple "benefits" to the NK population in Japan not to "integrate" fully with the population. Some are "soft" and some are "hard", but they all work in conjunction to keep this population separated. 1) Discrimination by the populace around where they live. Unfortunately, this is the hardest to correct, because discrimination (more in past, less in current) leads to isolation, which leads to more discrimination, etc. 2) NK Money helps fund the schools, which they need because of the discrimination listed in #1 above. 3) Due to this discrimination, I have heard the govt has actually given a number of fiscal benefits to the resident NK population. I do not know specifics, but from what I understand there is a monetary reason why they would not fully integrate (change name, registration, etc), as they would lose out on money. 4) Where you are from is part of your identity. Being from NK doesn't mean you believe/support the NK government, but a bad government doesn't mean you refuse to acknowledge your culture... I, for one, disagree with much of the American foreign policy, but I'm not about to "fully integrate" into the Japanese system...

I would suspect the majority of the NK population in Japan doesn't give a rats-ass about Kim Jung Il, but doesn't want to go on the record saying so because of possible financial repercussions to their family and/or schools...

I can only hope that the above calls for mass deportation are only poor attempts at humor. This is a population that has lived in Japan for generations, and has been discrimated against. Most of the people who are in Japan and called "Korean" speak Japanese, and are for most practical purposes culturally Japanese.

This would be akin to calling for all african americans to "return to africa"--- something I highly doubt anyone on this bb would suggest.

By the way, I heard most of SMAP are actually Korean, not sure if this is true.

You seriously must be kidding. The navy flag used to promote anime? This will go over just as well as the Mori building in Shanghai.

NetNinja--- Not sure your "Tax the Rich" mantra makes much sense here. In general I agree with the concept that the rich need to pay their fair share ("fair share" being the thing that causes this statement to be politically loaded!)... In the US, we definately need to start taxing the rich and the tax-dodging corporations... In Japan, However, the top tax bracket is 40% National Income tax (for over 18 million JPY), and I believe on top of that is a flat 4% for prefectural taxes and 6% Municipal taxes..... This is really quite high already. It is also my understanding that corporate taxes are already some of the highest around.... Not sure what the best solution would be, but I suspect it would involve raising the idiotically low retirement rate, and increasing productivity of the workforce--- both things which I really don't like at all....

Certainly don't want to support Tepco, but realistically there are some legal arguments that will certainly be made of the legality of the claims, who can claim, who can't claim, etc. Consider this: If the earthquake destroyed your home, and killed some members of your family, where would you go? Whose fault would it be? If this same thing happend within the 20 km zone, then whose fault is it? Not making an argument either way, just saying that these things will be complicated--- and yes, there will be people trying to cheat the system... There always is...

This is the kind of hero Japan needs. I wonder if he wants to be Prime Minister.

This is a highly needed move, and it is good to see Japan putting up some money for good causes. What critics of this just don't seem to understand, is that government is necessary to start up big initiatives such as space exploration, because no private company has the resources, or the ability to make such a long term plan... This will lead to innovation, inspiration and private businesses will get work from this also. ---and we do need to figure out how to get off this rock at some point to ensure our long-term continued existence!

...seems like a lot of people are suggesting a panic evacuation of Tokyo would have been a better choice. I completely disagree. Yes there is potential for a huge disaster, but the level of panic that would ensue is most likely a bigger risk to the overall wellbeing of the country and the citizens/residents. There is always, and will always be some level of risk wherever you live on this earth. We are probably still safer than people living in South Korea with their crazy neighbor buiding missles and nukes and blowing up their subs whever he wakes up with a bad hair day.

I still don't get how Kan has so little support... Is this just a politically motivated mass-media engineered move to push him out? Seems he was doing the right things, and given all the idiotic opposition he face, I don't think he did such a bad job.

Lets hope he has the ability to do so....

@Smorkian: yes, that is a good clarification, thanks. @It''S ME: yes, rather disconcerting to see we picked oddly close names--- I tried to see if I could change mine, but no such setting... :-(

This article seems to be missing some important facts. As far as I understand, animals DO know before the major shaking of an earthquake because the P-waves travel faster than the actual physical shaking. Its not that animals "SEEMS" to have the ability to sense earthquakes. I believe it is these p-wave sensors that have been installed around Japan that now give us our "pre-warnings", but of course, these are exactaly "predictions"...

I believe I also heard some information regarding the magnetic discharges that occur from the bedrock before a quake, and that sensor readings from the last big quake around the San Andreas show us that there are distinct changes in magnetic discharges up to a few weeks prior to some earthquakes... Furthermore, it is these pre-quake discharges that cause some odd cloud formations, known as "jishin-kumo"... The problem with relying on clouds, of course, is that winds will also break cloud formations, and I believe not all earthquakes will have this pre-quake magnetic discharge...

tideofiron, While I have not read the actual bill passed, I have read previous articles that suggested that the laws Kan was pushing for would do two things, 1) separate power distrubution and power generation, and 2) Fix the cost that the power companies would have to pay for energy from renewable source. I may be missing some of the details, but I think the intent was to force the electric companies to buy power from renewable sources from third parties, and to ensure this would be a desirable business to enter, they fix the per watt price that will be paid to these third parties. Therefore, if you are a company that wants to build a massive solar plant, you have guarentees that you have a buyer and you have a guarenteen price for x-years.

Of course it is good that they are finally separating the watchdogs from the industry they are expected to watch. It is still not set that we will not have nuclear power, and many of the existing plants will remain in operation. This is a good move, if belated.

I'm starting to like Kan. A politician that actually speaks his mind. Maybe he can only do this because he knows he is on his way out.

Yes, good luck with your FX trading. I'm not sure Japan can do much on its own for this, or they already would have... I think the yen will be stuck near the current rate for a while, and there is little change that America will ease up giving the current tea party policies to sinking your own ship back in America...

I really do not understand why Kan does not get more approval ratings. It seems to me that he is taking a very bold and VERY important stand on an issue as someone in his position is expected to do. He gets 70% support on this idea, but only 17% overall? What on earth is there making people not like him? Was Koizumi that much better, or did he just have better hair?

sillygirl: There may have been lax safety, but a nuclear power plant is a mission critical facility, and mission critical facilites are supposed to have multple safe-guards to protect against human error. When these are designed, the designers use the "worst case" scenarion and design to overcompensate for this... First there was a design flaw, then there was an operational flaw. As long as potential disasters can be as bad as this, we should not support this industry.

Unfortunately, making the "shareholders" pay is not the same thing as making Tepco pay. Most the "shareholders" today are probably not the shareholders before the accident--- I think most have dropped their shares since the accident.

No mention of the architect?

I'm not sure why they rebuilt the old one (perhaps code/structural problems?). This is really a terrible design, with keeping the old facade look-and-feel only having a giant structure that looks like a parking tower crushing it!

Sure everyone gets sick and we can't control when we may need to be hospitalized... BUT, think of the manner that this happend and how he dealt with it. He just stopped showing up, had no press release and the media actually had to ask about him before there was any mention... Then it was a bumbled response. He should have publically stated his regret for the situtation, and indicated who was properly briefed to take over his reposibilities... I don't think that happened, did it?

A commonly used piece of propaganda that attempts to fool the less intellegent viewers that the politicians have some sort of affinity with the working class. This is the same stunt Bush pulled when he showed up on the aircraft carrier in army fatigues. Can't blame them for doing this though, because unfortunately it is a subtle trick that does work on people that don't actually consider and debate the trickery they have been subjected to...

I'm starting to really like the idea of a total work re-balance. People had ideas of a 4-day workweek, but honestly companies will loose lots of efficiency with that. But how about each company to decide where the "weekend" is? Some companys have Sat-Sun, some companies have Sun-Mon, some have Mon-Tues, etc. Also, work hours should be re-evaluated, with factories shifting to evenings. Of course, this won't work for certain industries, like finance which needs to be operational when the markets are open...

Why is there no talk of shifting heavy factory power loads to night? That seems the easiest, most simple solution. Already factories have to shut-down in the middle of their shifts due to the planned power outages. Factories would benefit by (1) lower electrical rates, and (2) non-interrupted shifts. Of course employees have to have a temporary change in their shifts, but the savings in electric could be shifted to employee bonuses for work over this period. Seems like a win for everyone as long as this is seen as a temporary "gaman" period, and tepco will have some timeframe when workers can go back to their normal shifts...

Pamelot, your on to something! Why not promote long leaves of absense from work to allow people to take vacations so they can go someplace that does have power! 1-month Hawaii vacation for all! They will need to shorten the school year also to do this.

lovejapan21, dumb kids also need life lessons. People venting at them at public forums is the least they deserve. Sometimes public pressure (even if over-inflated) is a good thing.

If the question is about the Japanese government, I'd say they are doing a relatively poor job. A dry, flat speach by Kan added no new information, and didn't show any outrage towards problems by Tepco.

In terms of dealing with the Tsunami/Earthquake (not the Nuclear problem), I believe they actually have done a good job prior and immediately after the disaster. They accepted international help (unlike Kobe), and the new pre-warning system seems to be a good effective system. Dealing with the problems seem to be orderly, but the one thing that I question is why is it taking so long to find survivors? --I don't know if this is the governments problem, or if there really are no surviviors beyond the roof-floating guy and the two found after 90 hours the other day... Its looking pretty grim out there.