saru_au comments

local government is now eyeing rubber-tired trams with sensors to enable them to follow white lines or magnetic markers to be placed on the existing roads, eliminating the need to build a rail line.

Ok, good, but don't run them on hydrogen please, just use batteries (and let's call them what they are "autonomous electric buses")

Hydrogen is a bad way to do these "trams"...

Hydrogen cost to produce and store is way more. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle are way more to produce and maintain compared to battery electric.

The only ones to benefit from hydrogen are gas companies that produce it from methane ( check out who is running the few hydrogen fueling stations around Tokyo, they are mostly gas companies) and the companies building and maintaining these very expensive buses.

Better just to juice up cheaper battery buses for the trip up to #5 and partially regen charge the battery on the way back down.

Come live someplace where there are 240 kilometers or more between towns and no services in between

Do you think they will ever install a multimillion dollar hydrogen fueling station anywhere near most of these areas?

Produce hydrogen for this station (takes a lot of energy), transport the hydrogen to it (if not on site, takes energy) , store the hydrogen at -253°C -423°F (takes a lot of energy + tank is very expensive)

If it makes no economic sense, it will never get done on a large scale.

This van has a range of 250km , it's not going to cut it in this scenario either.

It's clearly designed for most city users, where BEV as you seem to agree is more suitable.

subfreezing winter temps and slogging along at 60 kph with snow chains fitted. The batteries use so much power just to power the warmers that the car runs out of power and dies in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes when it is really cold you batteries freeze even with the warmers

New battery tech can / will overcome these issues for this scenario way before any credible hydrogen based solution and it's associated infrastructure required is ready.

Until then it's probably better to keep these regions you mentioned on regular fuel but get the majority of vehicles in the majority of the world on to current BEV, which will be far cheaper and sooner than hydrogen based solutions.

Ocean going ships cannot cross oceans on battery power. Railroad locomotives can't cross continents on battery power. Airplanes can't cross continents and oceans on battery power.

Fair point. Hydrogen might be a solution for some of these sectors .

But there are still many big issues holding hydrogen back here too .(Production cost, distribution, energy density, tank storage....)

I don't know of Toyota's plans for hydrogen powered trains, planes and ships. But they are pushing for passenger cars and these vans to use it, and everything I've read on this says this is not going to work out well for them.

Yamanashi prefecture plans to use locally produced hydrogen to power the tram

Bad idea, just use electric trams, way cheaper, way simpler .

These hydrogen hybrid vans can't compete with 100% EV vans which have more range, lower price and can be charged at the depot.

Example: Japan post using 100% EV vans and scooters, charge at the PO, can't do that with hydrogen (hydrogen fueling stations cost millions, EV charging is way less)

To make hydrogen takes a lot of energy so costs are very high to produce and distribute and store is a cluster ... Why not skip these expensive steps and use the energy to charge the EV van.

Burning hydrogen to power a vehicle = a lot of energy is lost as heat, EV is a way more efficient use of energy and way simpler.

Many times i read and see videos showing clearly that hydrogen for transportation is a complete waste of energy and money. Why do you push hydrogen Mr Toyoda?

Eskimos didn't know how to swim, that's why they had kayaks.

so... nothing to do with the freezing cold water near the Eskimos ?

video here:

http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/08/09/nyregion/100000002380775/manhattan-paddle.html

1 rule : don't fall , keep your mouth closed !

HimajinJul. 15, 2013 - 11:27AM JST : And those taxes go where?

used to build all those "essential" bridges every 20m over the highways going to Nagano etc!

I remember two decades ago when these types of crimes were quite rare and felt shocking. As bad as they are, they seem almost commonplace nowadays. What is happening to Japan?!

15 ago I thought the same thing.. until a friend in the know told me they just didn't used to report them as often back in the day...

I don't see any problem with this :

"Japans new government says it hopes to stick to a three-year deadline to decide..."

plus

the countrys newly formed nuclear regulator saying the deadline was impossible to meet.

means the reactors can not get restarted legally and therefore should all be decommissioned starting right now, well don abe!

the cheap, safe alternative, with a lasting taste that lasts for generations to enjoy and pay for centuries to come!

Well though it's costly I'll stick to the two major airlines when flying to Okinawa because they are super comfortable and there are no extra charges / hassle.

Well, I got a return flight to Okinawa on Jetstar for about 2500 yen including all taxes etc and 20Kg luggage checked, they announce specials almost every week. Even without the specials, average cost is about 16000 yen return inc. taxes and 20kg luggage isn't too bad. Plus it's only a two and a half our flight, so for average body size people the so called "discomfort" is not too bad v's the savings for me.

basroilOct. 04, 2012 - 10:57AM JST

So how about the three dozen terrorist attacks on airliners BEFORE all the high profile ones now. Sure most are simply a knife or gun, but it's not like terrorist attacks haven't happened.

well, this is Japan.. so how about "dozens" of terrorist attacks using explosives on airliners departing or entering Japan... or is that number closer to zero ? just because US wants to disturb nutcase regimes and incite terrorist attacks does that mean every country must suffer this myth that we are all under attack ??

I hope they put these on the US bound flights only, why do the rest of the world have to follow up with all this mythical terrorist crap ?

so does this mean we will be able to use softbank frequency equipment on emobile networks at some time too ? (3G and/or LTE ?)

Will emobile network support 2100MHz in the future ?

the emobile equipment usually uses 1700MHz, while softbank 2100MHz... until now not a lot of equipment supports 1700MHz unless it's been made for emobile. (as apposed 2100MHz which is very common globally)

3) Having the police involved in wiretapping

well, that's been legal in Japan for many years already, no warrant required

Japan doesn't need trains..

Well done, you win the award for funniest comments of the week!

so the cargo vessel didn't notice the sound of hitting 119-ton tuna-fishing boat and kept on going, did not stop to help these fishermen ?

is there any kind of hit-and-run crime of the open sea ?

Cool, do away with it by the 2030's then :)

I think 90% of people posting here are not Japanese, and therefore will never be able to vote in Japan elections, so this is the only kind of place we can vent our opinion

i think they took down his auction, the link no longer works :)

Robert Dykes : 1 billion dollars is not enough to just completely build an entire new structure of power for Japan.

I agree with you there, but $1B investment would be a good chunk of "change" and cleaning up a "Fukushima" will cost a lot more than that !

Robert Dykes : It's not a lego kit you can just buy.

you are wrong, it's more like lego that you think, I have friends who install solar, they often say " any monkey can do it, just plug it in and it works " building a nuke or any large scale plant, now you are not dealing with lego...

alternatives : take solar example (there are many others) : solar install for new home = real cost, less than $10,000 (that's 3.5KW now, way less if you buy in larger volumes)

$1,000,000,000 = 100,000 new homes install solar

power bill for 100,000 new homes (average $70 / month power bill) = $84,000,000 per year

so maybe paid off within 20 - 24 years even with zero FIT and assume still pay for up to 50% of power with Japan having average 4 - 6 hrs per day of sunlight and still have to pay for power on cloudy days + night etc.

current solar panels are still quite efficient for about 15 years, and last for max about 25 years (yes, efficiency does drop as panels age)

but with FIT you could pay it off in way less than 15 years (even if power bill goes up because of FIT). (solar panels may be "hard" to recycle, but a "bit" easier than nuke waste I assume)

if all new homes have solar, then the need for some plants in peak times would decrease (especially if using FIT). (in the short term we could turn off or down some of the coal and oil plants)

obviously solar is not for most apartments and not every house either, but I'm sure there are way more than 100,000 homes that could use it. (I'm sure people living near nukes now would jump at the chance to get it installed)

solar efficiency gets better as the years go on, prices drop etc... and not to mention a lot of people getting jobs ...

gov. tariffs and subsidies could make alternatives more attractive. In Australia where they were so popular that some transformers in the street were failing due to the over load of customer generated power! (upgrade transformers costs money but creates more jobs)

but wait, tepco makes little money from alternatives like this.... why bother even trying alternatives when you can get endless free money from us suckers paying tax in Japan ? so in a tepco world, it's better to put your head in the sand and wait for the waves to come in - literally

if nuke is so " safe, healthy (and "cheap") " in the eyes of scum like this ... then why " The company had attempted some (renewable) diversification of its energy mix before the March 11, 2011 "

seems like they knew very well their nukes days were / are numbered..

surf's up, awesome morning waves in Shonan, especially Inamuragasaki ~ Shichirigahama

why do any military aircraft need to fly over any populated areas during peace times ? bosozoku of the air sure do drum up public support with all that noise..

SchopenhauerAug. 02, 2012 - 07:54AM JST

They welcomed the nuclear plant in Fukushima until the accident happened. Cities, towns and villages around the plant enjoyed the money the nuclear plant brought.

remember many people welcomed hitler in the beginning too, by the end his own "supporters" were trying to kill him.

All current nukes in Japan should be killed off asap.

the major "problem" with solar and similar alternatives : the power MONOPOLY CAN NOT MAKE MONEY if average Yamada installs and uses it, and they loose money if average Yamada sells it to them.

tepco ( aka JP gov buddy / partner) and every other power monopoly in JP will fight solar and any alternative every way they can - lies, false safety etc, and most nukes will be back on within a year, "never to be shut down".

the only way nukes will be shut down is when another one is put out of action by "natural" disasters ( aka : greedy nuke owner makes one too many mistakes and it takes out 1/2 a prefecture), I expect it will take at least one more Fukushima scale "accident" for 100% of JP people to reject them.

Man gunned down

That's sad

.... yakuza member...

Interesting , should have been in the title

Jonathan HuntJun. 25, 2012 - 08:28AM JST

Oh, get over yourselves. We've all been eating the stuff all year. It's fine.

thank you for helping clean up the radiation leaks, please keep it up !

Osprey sure would be handy when there are natural disasters, but I'm not sure I'd be happy with them right over my back fence either... this one's a hard call .

too many have died and will continue to die because greedy people smugglers continue to pack these boats with people for profit and send them to Australia

Clemens SimonJun. 22, 2012 - 11:35AM JST

They must have weighed about 200kg (together) so I can't see the scooter going at high speed.

two boys and two girls attempted to ride the 250cc scooter

never been to China or Thailand etc ? whole families and a dog ride scooters smaller than this one ...

http://tinyurl.com/scooterfamily

tmarieJun. 22, 2012 - 02:24PM JST

Thankfully they didn't hurt anyone else.

sad accident, but I agree