Posts tagged Japan
Tokyo tower becomes the world’s tallest
Mar 3rd
Tokyo’s Sky Tree, the world’s tallest communications tower and the second largest building after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, was completed Wedneday after a two month delay caused by the tsunami that pounded Japan’s coast last March.
The 2000-foot tower was originally scheduled to be completed in December but a shortage of building materials after the natural disaster wiped away factories on Japan’s east coast, slowed the project, reported The Age.
The tower began construction in July 2008 in the Asakusa traditional district in eastern the portion of the Japanese megalopolis.
The Sky Tree will top the 600-metre Canton Tower in China’s Guangzhou and the 553-metre CN Tower in downtown Toronto, formerly the two tallest free standing structures in the world.
The new communications tower was built because the city’s aging Sky Tower transmitter built in 1958 at just over 1000 feet, had trouble broadcoasting over the city’s growing skyline, causing problems for digital television signals, according to the New Scientist.
According to the Bangkok Post, tourist operators are also hoping that the tower becomes a draw for visitors to the capital whose numbers have decreased since Japan’s tsunami and nuclear scare.
Though the tower, which will have two observations decks and a restaurant, will open to the public at the beginning of summer, officials are expecting between two and three million visitors per year to the tower reported Voice of America.
According to News.au.com, nearly 580,000 workers were engaged in its construction and cost over 65 billion yen ($800 million) for the tower alone, a spokeswoman for the new tower said.
More than 42 million displaced by natural disasters in 2010
Jun 7th
OSLO, Norway — More than 42 million people were forced to flee their homes because of natural disasters around the world in 2010, more than double the number during the previous year, experts said Monday.
One reason for the increase could be climate change, and the international community should be doing more to contain it, the experts said.
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre said the increase from 17 million displaced people in 2009 was mainly due to the impact of “mega-disasters” such as the massive floods in China and Pakistan and the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti.
It said more than 90 per cent of the disaster displacements were caused by weather-related hazards such as floods and storms that were probably impacted by global warming, but it couldn’t say to what extent.
“The intensity and frequency of extreme weather events is increasing, and this trend is only set to continue. With all probability, the number of those affected and displaced will rise as human-induced climate change comes into full force,” said Elisabeth Rasmusson, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
The monitoring centre and refugee council presented the report at an international conference about climate change and displacement in Oslo.
Speaking there, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres called the issue of climate-related displacement “the defining challenge of our times” and criticized the international community for lacking the political will to reduce to pace of climate change.
“There is increasing evidence to suggest that natural disasters are growing in frequency and intensity and that this is linked to the longer-term process of climate change,” Guterres said.
Asia was the hardest hit region last year, with the largest number of displaced people seen in countries such as India, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia, China and Pakistan.
In China alone, more than 15 million people were forced to leave their homes following floods, while 11 million people were displaced in Pakistan, the report said. The large floods in India in 2009 also continued to force people to leave their homes in 2010.
“This report provides us with evidence of the extent and urgency of the problem that we cannot ignore. We must increase collaborative efforts to prevent displacement by natural disasters, and do a better job of protecting those displaced,” Rasmusson said
Japan minister visits stricken nuke plant
Apr 9th
Japan’s industry minister will on Saturday meet workers battling to cool overheating reactor cores and plug radioactive leaks in the first government visit to the country’s tsunami-crippled nuclear plant.
With Tokyo warning the crisis is far from over, Banri Kaieda will don full protective gear for his brief trip to the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant, his ministry said.
Kaieda, who has overall responsibility for all of Japan’s 50-plus nuclear reactors, will be the first government figure to step inside the compound since the giant tsunami of March 11 knocked out cooling systems. The visit comes 24 hours after it emerged small amounts of radioactive water spilled from spent fuel cooling pools at another nuclear plant as a powerful aftershock rocked northeast Japan.
The cooling systems at three plants were forced onto back-up power when the 7.1 magnitude tremor late Thursday shut down electricity generation across a swathe of the country.
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India offers all help to Japan facing nuclear crisis
Apr 9th
India today discussed with Japan various aspects related to atomic energy in the back drop of the worst nuclear crisis faced by the Island nation.
In the first high level visit to Japan after the March 11 devastation by earth quake and tsunami, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao offered India’s assistance in any way required. Japanese side expressed its appreciation for the help provided to it so far.
Rao held discussions with Japanese Vice-Foreign Minister Kenichiro Sasae and Deputy Foreign Minister Koro Bessho in Tokyo. She conveyed that India had not yet taken a decision on banning Japanese food imports.
Rain clouds optimism in Japan
Mar 21st
Power has been restored to several reactors at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, 250 kilometres east of Tokyo, but it is not yet clear if the effort to restart cooling systems will work.
“We are now checking if the cooling system and other facilities of the number two reactor are still intact before sending power to them,” Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesman Kenji Kawasaki said.
“It is unknown when we can restore them, as we need to see [the] results of our checks first. We are still trying to bring cables from outside power sources to the number three and number four reactors.”
Japan’s nuclear safety agency confirmed power has been restored to the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors from the grid, but warned pressure was rising in the No. 3 reactor.
As a result of the increased pressure, the agency was monitoring whether to take steps to release some pressure by “venting”.
The agency also confirmed there was a risk of radioactive dust being inhaled by workers at the Fukushima plant, but added that at this stage there were no indications that had happened.
Officials are optimistic that work from engineers may enable the control room of reactor No. 2 to regain some functions today.
Equipment likely to be switched back on includes temperature and pressure instruments as well as the air filtering system, which is designed to prevent radioactive substances entering the control room.
The cooling systems – designed to protect the Fukushima plant’s six reactors from a potentially disastrous meltdown – were knocked out by the March 11 tsunami that followed a 9.0-magnitude earthquake.
Engineers have been battling rising temperatures ever since.
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Chip prices jump as Japan disaster hits tech supplies
Mar 15th
SEOUL, March 15 (Reuters) – Prices for key technology components spiked and global supply disruptions were expected to last for months as the toll on Japan’s infrastructure mounted after Friday’s devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Research firm IHS iSuppli said on Tuesday the quake and its aftermath could result in significant shortages of some electronic parts and lead to big price hikes.
Spot prices of NAND flash chips had already jumped 20 percent on Monday, while DRAM memory chip prices rose 7 percent, iSuppli said.
Japan accounts for one-fifth of the world’s semiconductor production, including about 40 percent of flash memory chips used in everything from smartphones, tablets to computers.
“While there are few reports of actual damage at electronic production facilities, impacts on the transportation and power infrastructure will result in disruptions of supply, resulting in the short supply and rising prices,” iSuppli said.
“Components impacted will include NAND flash memory, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), microcontrollers, standard logic, liquid-crystal display (LCD) panels, and LCD parts and materials.”
Even if shipments of semiconductor parts affected by the quake were disrupted for only two weeks, shortages and their price impact were likely to linger until the third quarter, iSuppli said.
FLASH MEMORY DEMAND BOOMING
Demand for NAND flash memory chips has been surging, led by mobile devices and tablets such as Apple Inc’s iPad 2, which is estimated to have sold almost 1 million units during its weekend debut.
Toshiba Corp , which supplies about one-third of the world’s NAND flash memory chips, said it was still inspecting its System LSI factory in Iwate, the only one halted by the quake and tsunami and could not say when it might re-open.
Taiwan’s Wintek , which makes the touch module for the iPad 2 said it had more than two-weeks of inventory left and the short-term impact was limited. However, a source at the company said it was using Japanese components and was looking for secondary suppliers.
More than 45 nations ready to help quake-hit Japan: UN
Mar 12th
The United Nations said on Friday that search and rescue teams from more than 45 countries were ready to head to quake and tsunami-hit Japan if the Asian state needed help.
“More than 68 teams from more than 45 countries are on standby,” Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told AFP.
The search and rescue teams mobilised under a UN disaster response network are monitoring the situation and ready to help should Japan request aid, she explained.
“The UN stands ready to help,” said Ms. Byrs.
She told journalists that OCHA experts were in constant contact with their counterparts at Japan’s disaster relief authority.
Expressing its “deep sympathy and solicitude” to the Japanese people, China offered any “necessary assistance.”
Chinese Primer Wen Jiabao, in a message to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, from Beijing said, “China is willing to offer necessary assistance to Tokyo.”
Earlier, Chen Jianmin, head of the China Earthquake Administration, said Chinese earthquake rescuers are prepared to go to Japan to join earthquake relief work if needed.
China’s International Rescue Team has put its members, equipment, materials and medicines in place and are ready to depart for Japan at any time, Chen told the state-run Xinhua news agency.
The earthquake that rocked Japan was felt as far away as Beijing. China braced to face the ripple effect of the massive tsunami that hit the Japanese coast. Waves measuring up to one metre or less were expected to hit parts of the southern coast including the coast of Guangdong city.
But the Chinese Met officials said it was not expected to have any big impact as it was expected to be weakened by the time it reached the Chinese coast.
Meanwhile, China has stepped relief work by evacuating more than 127,100 people to nearby shelters at Yingjiang County in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, where a 5.8 magnitude earthquake on Thursday claimed 25 lives.
Over 80 per cent of the homes in Lameng village, the epicentre, collapsed in the quake. However, no serious casualties were reported in the village, Zhao Yunshan, director with the county government’s press office said.
OBAMA CALLS NAOTO
Meanwhile U.S. President Barack Obama called Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan to offer help.
Mr. Obama earlier delayed a scheduled press conference by 75 minutes so that he could get a briefing on the disaster, National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
SC calls black money plunder of nation, pulls up government
Jan 19th
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed displeasure over the government’s reluctance in coming forward with full information on the black money stashed by Indians in foreign banks, saying it as a theft of national wealth and amounted to “plunder” of the nation.
“It is a pure and simple theft of the national money. We are talking about mind-boggling crime. We are not on the niceties of various treaties,” remarked a bench comprising justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar, while hearing a petition by former Law Minister Ram Jethmalani and others for retrieving Indian black money stashed in foreign banks.
The remark by the bench came when Solicitor general Gopal Subramanium was explaining various steps taken by the government under the Double Taxation Avoidance Act.
The court was unhappy that the government filed an affidavit restricting information relating to the money deposited by 26 persons in Liechtenstein Bank in Germany.
“This is all the information you have or you have something more?,” the bench asked.
“We are talking about the huge money. That is the plunder of nation,” the bench remarked.
The government on Tuesday said it is at an “advanced stage” of inking tax information exchange treaties with some countries, a move that will help speed up its efforts to trace black money stashed in foreign banks and help check tax evasion.
India is inking the TIEAs with countries like the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Syria, China, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, South Korea and Vietnam. Read full story from the publisher
