Piglet comments

@Asagao The Channel and North Sea between UK and France/Netherlands is VERY busy too (probably more than between Japan and Korea/China). Fishing nets is not a problem (there is a lot of fishing too there). Technically there is nothing preventing a power cable being installed between Japan and South Korea or Russia (except the insular culture of Japanese power companies that has so far prevented the creation of a national grid).

Concerning the international links, I heard some Japanese saying it is "not possible" to connect the Japanese power grids to SK and Russia because "Japan is an island". Wrong! It is technically possible (the shortest distance between SK and Japan is about 200 km at the Korea strait, with Tsushima island in the middle, while the shortest distance between Russia and Japan is 40 km between Hokkaido and Sakhalin).

Most power grids are now interconnected, Japan should more than ever think connecting its power grid to the continental Asian power grid. UK is connected to the mainland European power grid to France (HVDC Cross-Channel, 70 km long) and the Netherlands (BritNed, 260 km long).

Only one solution to the electricity shortage problem: unifying the domestic power grid and connecting it to other power grids (South Korea / Russia) through marine cables. I was shocked to read that there are two power grids in Japan and that the country is not connected to neighboring countries. What were they thinking of?

It is stupid and almost criminal to rebuild cities in the same location.

Rebuilding on exactly the same locations is a recipe for disaster, unless they build huge tsunami walls (which would be prohibitively expensive and not even completely safe). These cities have seen tsunami very regularly along their history and had to be rebuild constantly.

Some portions of the Pacific coast should be declared hazardous (like they do in many places abroad) and infrastructure should not be build in these areas. People building houses in these areas should do this at their own risk and without beneficing full insurance and public infrastructure.

New infrastructure should be build more inland in a rational way (evacuation routes, etc...).

I was expecting something more original and unconventional, but I fail to see any irony or subversive message... Typical JP synth-pop with childish melodies. The imagery might be exuberant, but I don't see any self reflection or subversion.

@oberst

Some politicians might take you at your word!

Some additional interesting results from this survey (which can be downloaded on the above website) (there are two versions, because the results are not all released at the time time):

FIRST RELEASE:

The respondents are relatively pessimistic concerning the economic situation of the country (yet they are opposed to increased immigration).

The aging population is seen as a problem by a strong majority.

The respondents did not believe that in case of disaster the government could help them and they believed the leaders were not telling the truth about what happened.

Most people believed that the government should give more information to the public.

SECOND RELEASE:

Israel has the lowest support among all countries (even less than China). It seems that the Japanese population is strongly anti-Israel.

The respondents overwhelmingly support private ownership of companies and competition.

There is a large support for death penalty (unfortunately).

The number of people supporting no political party significantly increased, while the number of people supporting the main political parties decreased (both LDP and DPJ).

I have been both to Disneyland and DisneySea in Tokyo and both are perfectly fine for a nice family day. My son is still very young but he had a lot of fun there (even in DisneySea there are some attractions for young kids at the Mermaid Lagoon). Since we avoided the main attractions for young adults, there was not much line (you need to be organized though to avoid lines). My advice: come early before opening, leave at closing (9 or 10pm). During the rush hours (early afternoon), just relax in quiet areas and avoid popular rides. Most people leave after 6/7pm, so you can still do a lot between 7 and closing time.

As long as you keep a healthy balance between cultural/fun activities (museum, art, amusement parks, zoos, visiting farms and countryside, hikes in the mountain, opera, traditional/classical music concerts, etc...), there is nothing wrong with enjoying Disney parks. It is obviously not the most cultural or classy places (it is often corny and tasteless), but it makes for a good day with kids (in a clean, safe environment), once in a while. I am not sure though I would enjoy as much without my kid (except maybe some parts in DisneySea).

Congrats to Oriental Land and Walt Disney Company for a very professional entertainment resort, very well managed.

With ANA, if you use mobile check in, you don't need to print anything as you just need to show your mobile phone at each checkpoint / boarding.

You can do this for trains in some countries too, but I don't know in Japan (I usually print my own train tickets when traveling to France for example). I haven't found out yet whether you can do it with JR (buy online and print your ticket at home). Anybody knows?

I already thought most people check in online nowadays. I haven't done "manual" check in for years. I usually print my own boarding pass, but last time I just showed the barcode on my iphone to the machine (with ANA) and everything worked perfectly both ways (you can provide your passport information beforehand so that they just need to do a quick check and you drop off your luggage, everything takes 30 sec at the airport).

We use AC and an electric oil-filled radiator (best electric radiator type because it keeps warm for a while even after shutting down power), it is more than enough in our apartment and we don't spend that much compared to some other people we know. I often see people using heaters but keeping doors open or not protecting well enough their houses, so they end up having freezing houses with one over heated area. Not the best for health and energy spending.

Most of Japan (except for mountainous areas and Tohoku/Hokkaido) is warm in winter (it almost never freezes in Kanto), so it shouldn't be a problem. If the appartments had better insulation, we would need less heating, but even without, we can manage quite OK (close each door of the appartment, let the sun in during day time and use curtains at night, don't keep ventilation on at night during the coldest days in January, keep sweaters on). Keep your AC at 17°C and no more when you use it, it is perfect (actually 17-18ºC is often recommended by doctors as the best indoor temperature especially for kids).

@JesusLovesJapan Are you saying that the only way is government intervention? We should not deviate from THE truth: even though the Japanese government paid billions and billions in stimulus package for 20 years without any success, we should go further and pay even more? This is ideology.

What about trying something new and experiment with a different way? After all, the economic policies of Japan since 1990 were a complete failure, so we should be pragmatic and at least try giving more freedom to people (abolish the dangerous protectionist policies, curve the bureaucracy, deregulate the economy).

Governments have shown again and again their inefficiencies. The role of the government is not to be involved in economic life, as suggested by JesusLovesJapan, but to protect the natural rights of the residents (safety, property, protection from exploitation).

Let the private sector find innovative solutions. 5-year soviet-style planning won't be efficient because there is no way a group of bureaucrats now better (and in advance) what to do than the natural self-organization through the market.

Many of the destroyed cities were already in economic trouble before the disaster. Rebuilding infrastructures without even being sure people and business will come back is a waste of money. The government should instead provide a good framework for businesses to come and generate local life (maybe through free market "special economic zones" with low taxes and flexible laws, like Shenzhen in China for example, as suggested recently).

@JesusLovesJapan

check this: http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2011/02/14/487246/japans-savings-rate-about-to-go-negative-goldman-says/

It is a common mistake to believe that Japanese people still have a lot of savings. It used to be true until the end of bubble years. But during the last 20 years, the savings rate decreased dramatically (you can check on the internet) and reached the same level than the savings rate of American people. The savings rate is only a few percent now and might become negative in a few years: the huge savings are getting used by an increasingly old population for covering life expenses (retirement plans are quite low). In addition, younger generations cannot afford anymore to save as much as their parents did. Combined with a sharp increase in social spending, this does not sounds good for the long term sustainability of the debt.

Those people who pretend that Japan can keep increasing the debt level are delusional. One day or another, rates will climb and partial default will not be impossible anymore.

By doing so it can fund recovery from 3.11, stimulate the economy, increase government revenue, pay off the public debt, and achieve a reasonable amount of inflation

"excess" employees in Kyushu, for instance, can go to Tohoku to help out

JesusLovesJapan is daydreaming.

@JesusLovesJapan

What world are you living in?

"As the economy is stimulated through public works": for 20 years, Japan has seen the biggest and longest ever stimulus program. Billions and billions of money poured by the government. And guess what? It did not work at all. The ideological keynesianism of the last 20 years is fully responsible for the crisis we are living now, and yet these people are asking for ever more public investment? Blinds leading blinds...

"At any rate, for now the government can still afford to increase public debt and public spending": at the current low rates, maybe, but definitely not if the rates rise

The debt is not sustainable over the long term because the savings rate decreased dramatically over the last decade and might even become negative in the near future. The population get older and taps into their savings. Younger families cannot afford to save more than a few percent of their income (while it used to be up to 20% during bubble years). This indicates that inevitably, the demand for Japanese bonds will start decreasing (unless the obedient local banks keep buying en masse under pressure from the government) and rates will start rising... which would be a disaster because the debt service would rise to impossible levels.

Typical non-commital answer of irresponsible staff. They should answer that in the current state of knowledge, no health effects should be measured if necessary precautions are taken (avoid the most contaminated areas, diversify food sources, etc...). No cancer effects can be measured below exposures of 100 mSv, however better safe than sorry, so it is a good thing to limit exposures as much as possible. Since infants are more sensitive to radiation, you might want to avoid any risk, but we can tell you that as much as we know, the evacuation zones are in agreement with international consensus (ICRP). You should decide what to do as a personal decision (move away or stay).

Maybe strong tax incentives (no tax for 5 years for example) would help bringing businesses to the area.

I feel very sorry for the people. I wouldn't wait for governmental decisions though. Governments are unable to do the best choices for people. Rebuilding cities at the same location with no more business activity might be a waste of money. What these communities need is entrepreneurs and businesses to bring jobs and economic activity. Then the infrastructures will follow progressively.

FYI I am against "marching bands" in US, Japan or elsewhere. Pseudo-military imagery has nothing to do with education (the idea of sports teams for schools in US is also ridiculous). As a responsible father, I am in charge of my son's education (together with my wife) and this is not what we want for him.

As written above by cleo, the system is logical... for administrative purposes. It is definitely not intuitive for everyday use. If it was, people would use the official address system to give directions ("from 1-chome-5-ban 2-go turn to 5-ban 7-go until you reach 8-ban 1-go"). But nobody does. People give directions using landmarks and station names.

If you live in an older neighborhoods, then the "ban" and "go" numbers are definitely non consecutive when you walk through the streets. You definitely need a map, unlike other systems.

The Japanese system is based on the old East-Asian address system, but Japan is the last country (to my understanding) using it. All the places I have been in China use a street number system. And apparently Korea is switching now.

Sapporo has a much better system than other places in Japan, because blocks are numbered based on their coordinates relative to a central point in the city. So addresses in Sapporo are written like N5W8 (five blocks north, 8 blocks west).

I am not saying that it is impossible to master it, just that it is definitely less intuitive and logical than a system based on consecutively numbered buildings. No wonder no other country kept using the same system (all the countries colonized by Japan including Korea reverted to a street number system).

I will definitely win a Godwin point with this one but the last time I saw similar stuff was on a TV program about Hitler Youth.

Absolutely no way my son would participate in any of these pseudo-military exercises during sports day or graduation ceremonies.

But I don't expect the bureaucracy to change this anytime soon in Japan (after all this is "how we Japanese do things", even if it is not rational or logical).

This is simple logic: consecutively numbered buildings is much more intuitive to people than any administrative registration-based system. This system might be good for the bureaucracy but it definitely isn't designed for the population (like many things in Japan).