squidinkling comments

It's a classic scenario for how censorship works. Once the govt has the threat of censorship and penalties in place, people just censor themselves. The higher ups in these organizations are frightened. Younger journalists don't know what a free press is, because as time goes by, more and more of them have never worked for one. They think they are in the advertising business. "Don't upset the interview subject"!

TEPCO was nationalized?

As far as I have read, the food sufficiency index is a scam. The premise is that it's what the average person needs to survive and it's based on calories required per capita. It doesn't take into account the enormous amount of food that's thrown away. Japan is far more self sufficient than the ministry would like us to think.

Flying is a pain in the arse wherever you do it, but nothing at Narita particularly annoys me, it's one of the best airports I've used. Immigration and customs have become a lot more sophisticated and relaxed in the past 15 years, and the baggage handling is respectful, not like the slaughterhouses for suitcases you get at many airports. Prices are fair at the stores and restaurants (Sydney is king of price gouging, everything from souvenirs to car parking -- you're even charged $4 to rent a luggage trolley), staff are mostly efficient and courteous (yeah there are a few rule-sticklers but I can live with it), the limo bus works, and on return you can cheaply courier your luggage home within a day so you don't have to carry it. Apart from the distance from the city, it's fine.

No complaints about the Tokyo metro. Compare it to commuting in London, where these kinds of problems are an everyday given. And where escalators remain broken for a year, and where some subway stations even CLOSE on public holidays! Tokyo will sort their problems within the next few days.