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Japan 8.8 earthquake & Tsunami
- Thread starter Cestbon
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The UN's nuclear agency (IAEA) says there have been positive developments in Japan's efforts to tackle a nuclear emergency after the 11 March quake.
The IAEA said smoke or vapour rising from one of the overheating reactors at the damaged Fukushima power plant had become less intense.
But it said the overall situation remained very serious.
The confirmed death toll from the quake and tsunami has now risen to 8,450, with nearly 13,000 people missing.
Electricity has been restored to three reactors at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant - this should allow the use of on-site water pumps soon.
Engineers have been spraying fuel rods with salt water to try to cool them enough to avert radiation leakage.
Villagers living near the plant have been told not to drink tap water due to higher levels of radioactive iodine.
"There have been some positive developments in the last 24 hours but overall the situation remains very serious," said Graham Andrew, a senior IAEA official.
"We consider that now we have come to a situation where we are very close to getting the situation under control," Deputy Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama said.
However, bad weather forced the Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, to cancel a planned visit to emergency workers near the Fukushima plant.
Search-and-relief efforts in the prefecture of Miyagi, where the police chief believes the final quake-tsunami death toll could reach 15,000, have been delayed by driving rain.
"We basically cannot operate helicopters in the rain," Miyagi official Kiyohiro Tokairin said.
"We have been using helicopters to deliver relief goods to some places but for today we have to switch the delivery to places that we can reach by road," he said.
A Fukushima prefecture official said radiation levels tended to rise when rain fell, warning people to try to stay dry, or to dry off quickly after being in the rain.
Attention has also turned to contamination of food supplies.
"The contamination of food and water is a concern," said Gerhard Proehl of the IAEA.
One of the BBC's correspondents in Tokyo, Chris Hogg, says the government is expected to announce new measures later to try to prevent produce and goods containing radiation reaching the market.
Over the weekend spinach and milk produced near the Fukushima nuclear plant was found to contain levels of radioactive iodine far higher than the legal limits, although not at levels that would be a risk to human health.
Radioactive materials three times higher than the legal safety limit were detected in the water there.
There are still shortages of food, water, and medicine in some of the worst affected parts of the country, our correspondent says.
Crematoria are reported to be struggling because there are so many dead and not enough fuel.
Nearly 900,000 households are still without water.
More than 350,000 people are still living in evacuation centres.
"Even if certain things go smoothly, there would be twists and turns," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters.
"At the moment, we are not so optimistic that there will be a breakthrough."
In a rare piece of good news, an 80-year-old woman and her grandson were found alive in the rubble of their home in Ishinomaki city, where they were trapped for nine days.
The IAEA said smoke or vapour rising from one of the overheating reactors at the damaged Fukushima power plant had become less intense.
But it said the overall situation remained very serious.
The confirmed death toll from the quake and tsunami has now risen to 8,450, with nearly 13,000 people missing.
Electricity has been restored to three reactors at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant - this should allow the use of on-site water pumps soon.
Engineers have been spraying fuel rods with salt water to try to cool them enough to avert radiation leakage.
Villagers living near the plant have been told not to drink tap water due to higher levels of radioactive iodine.
"There have been some positive developments in the last 24 hours but overall the situation remains very serious," said Graham Andrew, a senior IAEA official.
"We consider that now we have come to a situation where we are very close to getting the situation under control," Deputy Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama said.
However, bad weather forced the Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, to cancel a planned visit to emergency workers near the Fukushima plant.
Search-and-relief efforts in the prefecture of Miyagi, where the police chief believes the final quake-tsunami death toll could reach 15,000, have been delayed by driving rain.
"We basically cannot operate helicopters in the rain," Miyagi official Kiyohiro Tokairin said.
"We have been using helicopters to deliver relief goods to some places but for today we have to switch the delivery to places that we can reach by road," he said.
A Fukushima prefecture official said radiation levels tended to rise when rain fell, warning people to try to stay dry, or to dry off quickly after being in the rain.
Attention has also turned to contamination of food supplies.
"The contamination of food and water is a concern," said Gerhard Proehl of the IAEA.
One of the BBC's correspondents in Tokyo, Chris Hogg, says the government is expected to announce new measures later to try to prevent produce and goods containing radiation reaching the market.
Over the weekend spinach and milk produced near the Fukushima nuclear plant was found to contain levels of radioactive iodine far higher than the legal limits, although not at levels that would be a risk to human health.
Radioactive materials three times higher than the legal safety limit were detected in the water there.
There are still shortages of food, water, and medicine in some of the worst affected parts of the country, our correspondent says.
Crematoria are reported to be struggling because there are so many dead and not enough fuel.
Nearly 900,000 households are still without water.
More than 350,000 people are still living in evacuation centres.
"Even if certain things go smoothly, there would be twists and turns," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters.
"At the moment, we are not so optimistic that there will be a breakthrough."
In a rare piece of good news, an 80-year-old woman and her grandson were found alive in the rubble of their home in Ishinomaki city, where they were trapped for nine days.
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PRC FT/FW in japan looting
Four days after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, a local newspaper in Sendai - the city closest to the quake's epicentre - reported there had been 40 incidents of theft and looting since the disaster.
When you think of the tsunami-devastated conditions, that number is pretty low. Many shops were left unattended. There was an almost total blackout, but there was hardly any crime reported.
There were shortages of essential supplies, but people in the city would queue calmly for up to two hours at a time rather than taking from the empty shops.
Machiko Konno, who works in the municipal office in Sendai, puts this down to the gentle nature of the Tohoku people in that part of Japan, whose main industries are farming and fisheries and for whom "endurance" is part of their character.
"Psychologically we had a common sense of not wanting any more confusion or panic, or any further peril, so we all helped keep public order," she says.
There were traffic jams after the quake in Sendai as everyone tried to get home, or get out of the city, but Ms Konno says there was no-one honking their horn, or trying to cut in: they were co-operating.
Sendai municipal worker
"Shortage of petrol is a major problem but otherwise our life has not changed much," she says.
But when pressed she admits that below the surface people are feeling more anxiety than they show to others.
"The queues at stores show that people are uneasy," she says. "They are trying not to say it out loud, because everyone is afraid that if someone vocalises their fear or anxiety, people around them will start to panic.
"That's the biggest fear they have, because if there is panic, the situation will become more frightening and public order could be disrupted."
In Japan the idea that you need to be considerate and defer to the interests of the group is instilled in you from a very early age.
But people are traumatised, and not just those in the worst-affected areas.
"In Japan people smile with their face and cry inside," says Professor Jeff Kingston from Temple University in Tokyo.
Independent spirit
They had always been told their country was the best prepared in the world to deal with natural disasters.
Now some are realising that even if that was true, the government could not protect them.
Company director
That said, there doesn't seem to be as much criticism of the government as you might expect.
The evacuees - crammed into rescue centres where there are shortages of everything from food and water to decent sanitation - are exhibiting the stoicism for which the Japanese are famous.
"The government is mobilising as fast as it can be expected to amid a complex catastrophe," says Prof Kingston. "The challenges are immense, unprecedented and in my view the Herculean efforts of the government deserve more praise than its critics allow."
Machiko Konno agrees. "It is understandable to some extent that the authorities can't operate smoothly after this sort of big incident," she says.
She believes that rather than criticising the government people in her area are fighting to change the situation they find themselves in, co-operating, not depending on anyone else but themselves.
And that spirit is shared by people outside the worst-affected areas too. In Tokyo, at the Shibuya crossing, one of the most instantly recognisable spots in the city for a foreign tourist, a group of students are collecting money for the earthquake victims.
Younger Japanese are also pitching in to the relief effort "Japan is quite a small country, so people tend to feel their neighbour's moment of need is also their moment of need," says Ai Ono.
Younger Japanese are often criticised by older generations for not understanding the values of "endurance" and "stoicism" that got Japan through the horrors of World War II, and for not exhibiting the traits that are valued in Japan.
But in Shibuya, the opposite is in evidence.
"I've always taken it for granted that people come together in times of need," says Ko Ito, a young "freeter" - or part-time worker.
He says that by saving electricity, not panic-buying in Tokyo, they can help those in the worst-affected areas.
"I think human beings survive because they help each other."
Yoshifusa Momma, a company director who is a little older, believes this crisis has changed Japan.
"It is a moment of great trial for the country," he says. "But we have to overcome it, whatever happens."
Again it is the stalwart exterior that is on show, but you have to wonder how much uncertainty there is behind the mask. As a foreigner in Japan, that is a question you'll almost never get an answer to.
Four days after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, a local newspaper in Sendai - the city closest to the quake's epicentre - reported there had been 40 incidents of theft and looting since the disaster.
When you think of the tsunami-devastated conditions, that number is pretty low. Many shops were left unattended. There was an almost total blackout, but there was hardly any crime reported.
There were shortages of essential supplies, but people in the city would queue calmly for up to two hours at a time rather than taking from the empty shops.
Machiko Konno, who works in the municipal office in Sendai, puts this down to the gentle nature of the Tohoku people in that part of Japan, whose main industries are farming and fisheries and for whom "endurance" is part of their character.
"Psychologically we had a common sense of not wanting any more confusion or panic, or any further peril, so we all helped keep public order," she says.
There were traffic jams after the quake in Sendai as everyone tried to get home, or get out of the city, but Ms Konno says there was no-one honking their horn, or trying to cut in: they were co-operating.
Sendai municipal worker
"Shortage of petrol is a major problem but otherwise our life has not changed much," she says.
But when pressed she admits that below the surface people are feeling more anxiety than they show to others.
"The queues at stores show that people are uneasy," she says. "They are trying not to say it out loud, because everyone is afraid that if someone vocalises their fear or anxiety, people around them will start to panic.
"That's the biggest fear they have, because if there is panic, the situation will become more frightening and public order could be disrupted."
In Japan the idea that you need to be considerate and defer to the interests of the group is instilled in you from a very early age.
But people are traumatised, and not just those in the worst-affected areas.
"In Japan people smile with their face and cry inside," says Professor Jeff Kingston from Temple University in Tokyo.
Independent spirit
They had always been told their country was the best prepared in the world to deal with natural disasters.
Now some are realising that even if that was true, the government could not protect them.
Company director
That said, there doesn't seem to be as much criticism of the government as you might expect.
The evacuees - crammed into rescue centres where there are shortages of everything from food and water to decent sanitation - are exhibiting the stoicism for which the Japanese are famous.
"The government is mobilising as fast as it can be expected to amid a complex catastrophe," says Prof Kingston. "The challenges are immense, unprecedented and in my view the Herculean efforts of the government deserve more praise than its critics allow."
Machiko Konno agrees. "It is understandable to some extent that the authorities can't operate smoothly after this sort of big incident," she says.
She believes that rather than criticising the government people in her area are fighting to change the situation they find themselves in, co-operating, not depending on anyone else but themselves.
And that spirit is shared by people outside the worst-affected areas too. In Tokyo, at the Shibuya crossing, one of the most instantly recognisable spots in the city for a foreign tourist, a group of students are collecting money for the earthquake victims.
Younger Japanese are also pitching in to the relief effort "Japan is quite a small country, so people tend to feel their neighbour's moment of need is also their moment of need," says Ai Ono.
Younger Japanese are often criticised by older generations for not understanding the values of "endurance" and "stoicism" that got Japan through the horrors of World War II, and for not exhibiting the traits that are valued in Japan.
But in Shibuya, the opposite is in evidence.
"I've always taken it for granted that people come together in times of need," says Ko Ito, a young "freeter" - or part-time worker.
He says that by saving electricity, not panic-buying in Tokyo, they can help those in the worst-affected areas.
"I think human beings survive because they help each other."
Yoshifusa Momma, a company director who is a little older, believes this crisis has changed Japan.
"It is a moment of great trial for the country," he says. "But we have to overcome it, whatever happens."
Again it is the stalwart exterior that is on show, but you have to wonder how much uncertainty there is behind the mask. As a foreigner in Japan, that is a question you'll almost never get an answer to.
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2008
- Messages
- 23,454
- Points
- 0
Japan quake death toll passes 18,000
The human and financial cost of the tsunami continues to rise, after police estimates showed more than 18,000 people have died in the disaster and the World Bank said it may cost Japan as much as £145bn to repair the damage.
The gloom was lifted slightly by news of further progress at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where engineers have connected power cables to three reactors and plan to test the pumps soon.
The electricity supply has been restored to another reactor, but the No 3 and No 4 units are still giving cause for concern. Engineers hope to connect those reactors to power supplies on Tuesday, the public broadcaster NHK said.
The nuclear emergency is far from over, however. On Monday, it was reported that the No 3 reactor had experienced a surge in pressure that may require workers to vent radioactive steam, a tactic that set off hydrogen gas explosions at the facility last week.
The government's chief spokesman, Yukio Edano, conceded that the buildup of pressure was unsettling. "We knew that even if things went smoothly, there would be twists and turns," he told reporters. "At the moment, we are not so optimistic that there will be a breakthrough."
That is causing concern because the reactor is the only one of the six that contains plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel – or MOX – and would release highly toxic plutonium in the event of a meltdown. The fuel in the other reactors is uranium.
The country's self-defence forces resumed work on Monday to cool down the No 4 and No 3 reactors with seawater. Japan's nuclear safety agency said it did not believe much water from the two reactors had seeped underground.
Radiation leaks from stricken reactors continued to spread through the region's food supply, though at levels too low to endanger health.
The agency acknowledged that workers at the site risked inhaling radioactive dust, but said it had so far found no evidence of that happening.
Radiation in excess of government standards was found in canola and chrysanthemum greens grown in the Fukushima area, a day after authorities reported that milk and spinach had been contaminated, as well as tap water in Tokyo, 150 miles away.
The health ministry advised 6,000 villagers in Iitate, 19 miles from the power plant, not to drink tap water after tests revealed it contained abnormal, though not harmful, amounts of iodine-131, a radioactive substance.
"We think we have arrived at the point where we are very close to getting the situation under control," the deputy cabinet secretary, Tetsuro Fukuyama, said.
Graham Andrew, a senior official of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said: "There have been some positive developments in the last 24 hours but overall the situation remains very serious."
The US health secretary, Steven Chu, told CNN that he believed the worst of the nuclear crisis was over, but added, "I don't want to make a blanket statement".
Attention is turning to the humanitarian crisis on Japan's north-east coast and the cost of the cleanup and reconstruction operations.
The World Bank said on Monday that it could take Japan five years, and cost between £75bn and £145bn – equivalent to 4% of Japan's GDP – to overcome the catastrophe, while private insurers face a combined bill of up to $33bn.
"Damage to housing and infrastructure has been unprecedented," the bank said. "Growth should pick up though in subsequent quarters as reconstruction efforts, which could last five years, accelerate." The bank said damage from the tsunami could also affect trade in the region.
The price of some Japanese-made memory chips have risen 20% because of disruption to production lines, while car plants in Asia face shortages of auto parts. "Disruption to production networks, especially in automotive and electronics industries, could continue to pose problems," the World Bank said. "Japan is a major producer of parts, components and capital goods which supply east Asia's production chains."
While hundreds of workers battle to render the nuclear plant safe, Japan continues to count its dead. Police estimates show more than about 18,400 died– 10,500 in Miyagi prefecture alone. A further 452,000 people are living in shelters. "It is very distressing as we recover more bodies day after day," said police spokesman Hitoshi Sugawara.
The human and financial cost of the tsunami continues to rise, after police estimates showed more than 18,000 people have died in the disaster and the World Bank said it may cost Japan as much as £145bn to repair the damage.
The gloom was lifted slightly by news of further progress at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where engineers have connected power cables to three reactors and plan to test the pumps soon.
The electricity supply has been restored to another reactor, but the No 3 and No 4 units are still giving cause for concern. Engineers hope to connect those reactors to power supplies on Tuesday, the public broadcaster NHK said.
The nuclear emergency is far from over, however. On Monday, it was reported that the No 3 reactor had experienced a surge in pressure that may require workers to vent radioactive steam, a tactic that set off hydrogen gas explosions at the facility last week.
The government's chief spokesman, Yukio Edano, conceded that the buildup of pressure was unsettling. "We knew that even if things went smoothly, there would be twists and turns," he told reporters. "At the moment, we are not so optimistic that there will be a breakthrough."
That is causing concern because the reactor is the only one of the six that contains plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel – or MOX – and would release highly toxic plutonium in the event of a meltdown. The fuel in the other reactors is uranium.
The country's self-defence forces resumed work on Monday to cool down the No 4 and No 3 reactors with seawater. Japan's nuclear safety agency said it did not believe much water from the two reactors had seeped underground.
Radiation leaks from stricken reactors continued to spread through the region's food supply, though at levels too low to endanger health.
The agency acknowledged that workers at the site risked inhaling radioactive dust, but said it had so far found no evidence of that happening.
Radiation in excess of government standards was found in canola and chrysanthemum greens grown in the Fukushima area, a day after authorities reported that milk and spinach had been contaminated, as well as tap water in Tokyo, 150 miles away.
The health ministry advised 6,000 villagers in Iitate, 19 miles from the power plant, not to drink tap water after tests revealed it contained abnormal, though not harmful, amounts of iodine-131, a radioactive substance.
"We think we have arrived at the point where we are very close to getting the situation under control," the deputy cabinet secretary, Tetsuro Fukuyama, said.
Graham Andrew, a senior official of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said: "There have been some positive developments in the last 24 hours but overall the situation remains very serious."
The US health secretary, Steven Chu, told CNN that he believed the worst of the nuclear crisis was over, but added, "I don't want to make a blanket statement".
Attention is turning to the humanitarian crisis on Japan's north-east coast and the cost of the cleanup and reconstruction operations.
The World Bank said on Monday that it could take Japan five years, and cost between £75bn and £145bn – equivalent to 4% of Japan's GDP – to overcome the catastrophe, while private insurers face a combined bill of up to $33bn.
"Damage to housing and infrastructure has been unprecedented," the bank said. "Growth should pick up though in subsequent quarters as reconstruction efforts, which could last five years, accelerate." The bank said damage from the tsunami could also affect trade in the region.
The price of some Japanese-made memory chips have risen 20% because of disruption to production lines, while car plants in Asia face shortages of auto parts. "Disruption to production networks, especially in automotive and electronics industries, could continue to pose problems," the World Bank said. "Japan is a major producer of parts, components and capital goods which supply east Asia's production chains."
While hundreds of workers battle to render the nuclear plant safe, Japan continues to count its dead. Police estimates show more than about 18,400 died– 10,500 in Miyagi prefecture alone. A further 452,000 people are living in shelters. "It is very distressing as we recover more bodies day after day," said police spokesman Hitoshi Sugawara.
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no new canon camera, problem for semi conductor to get new bare wafers
March 21 (Reuters) - Following is a roundup of the impact of
Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami on auto makers and
electronics makers.
Plant shutdowns in Japan threaten supplies to manufacturers
across the globe of everything from semiconductors to car parts.
AUTO MAKERS
* Toyota Motor Co has halted operations at its 12
main assembly plants in Japan. That closure has been extended to
Tuesday (March 22), and will result in lost production of 95,000
vehicles. From Monday (March 21), Toyota had said it would begin
making car parts at plants near its base in Toyota City, central
Japan, for overseas assembly facilities. It had said it would
resume this week making parts for service centres to repair
vehicles already on the road.
* Honda Motor Co is extending the production halt
in Japan to Wednesday (March 23) from March 20.
Honda's announcement came after the automaker distributed a memo
to U.S. dealers saying it would review each dealers' product
allotments for vehicles to be built after May.
Honda made 69,170 cars in January in Japan, which accounts for a
round a quarter of its production.
* Nissan Motor Co said Monday it resumed limited
operations at five of its plants in Japan with vehicle
production set to start Thursday. Nissan said production of
repair parts for overseas manufacturing restarted at its Oppama,
Tochigi, Yokohama, Kyushu and Nissan Shatai plants. Vehicle
production will start Thursday and will continue while supplies
last, the company said. Restoration of its Iwaki engine plant in
northern Japan will take longer than the other plants, the
company said. Nissan made 81,851 cars in January in Japan, where
it manufactures 23 percent of its vehicles. Goldman Sachs has
calculated that one day's lost production costs Nissan about 2
billion yen in profit.
* Mazda Motor Corp said it plans to suspend
production at two plants in southwestern Japan until Sunday
(March 20), but has not yet decided how to proceed after that.
* Fuji Heavy Industries Co said all five of its car
and parts-related plants for its Subaru-brand vehicles in Gunma
prefecture, north of Tokyo, will be shut at least until Sunday.
* Renault Samsung, the South Korean unit of French car maker
Renault SA , said it will cut back on weekend and
overtime production because of a potential parts shortage.
* General Motors , the largest U.S. automaker, said it
would temporarily idle its pick-up truck plant in Louisiana due
to a parts shortage. GM's South Korean unit said
it, too, was considering cutting back on weekend and overtime
production.
ELECTRONICS MAKERS:
* Sony Corp said on Monday it planned to partially
re-start a lithium ion battery factory in Tochigi prefecture on
Tuesday, leaving six plants, which make an array of devices from
IC cards to Blu-ray discs, closed. Sony is not sure when the
plants will resume operations. Some of the plants' output is
supplied to other manufacturers, including customers overseas.
* Toshiba said on Monday output was still halted at
a factory in Iwate prefecture making system LSI chips for
microprocessors and image sensors. It has begun work to bring
the factory back on-line, but has no timeframe to resume output.
Toshiba said an assembly line at a plant in Japan making small
liquid crystal displays for smartphones and other devices will
be closed for a month to repair damaged machinery.
* Canon said late on Friday production would be
halted at all three domestic camera factories on Tuesday and at
least two of them will remain closed on Wednesday. The world's
largest maker of digital cameras said it was having difficulty
securing necessary parts.
* Nikon Corp said four of its production facilities
were closed, including two of its precision-equipment plants,
but the effect on cameras and lenses is seen as minor, since
most output for those devices is in Thailand. Nikon does not
have a timetable to re-open the plants.
* Panasonic said none of its northern Japan
manufacturing facilities, including those making optical
pick-ups and other electronic parts, digital cameras and audio
equipment, were badly damaged, but it would take time to resume
operations as infrastructure needed to be restored.
* Renesas , the world's No.5 chipmaker, said it has
halted operations at 8 of its facilities and was unsure when it
would restart production there.
OTHERS
* Shin-Etsu Chemical , the world's leading maker of
silicon wafers, said two of its plants near the worst-hit areas
remain offline. The firm has not said when it will restart
operations. Some of the wafers made here are shipped to chip
companies overseas. Shin-Etsu is trying to boost production
elsewhere, particularly of 300-millimetre wafers, to make up the
shortfall.
* Jamco , a Japanese company making galleys for the
long-awaited Boeing 787 Dreamliner, said delivery of the
component could be delayed if gasoline becomes even more scarce.
March 21 (Reuters) - Following is a roundup of the impact of
Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami on auto makers and
electronics makers.
Plant shutdowns in Japan threaten supplies to manufacturers
across the globe of everything from semiconductors to car parts.
AUTO MAKERS
* Toyota Motor Co has halted operations at its 12
main assembly plants in Japan. That closure has been extended to
Tuesday (March 22), and will result in lost production of 95,000
vehicles. From Monday (March 21), Toyota had said it would begin
making car parts at plants near its base in Toyota City, central
Japan, for overseas assembly facilities. It had said it would
resume this week making parts for service centres to repair
vehicles already on the road.
* Honda Motor Co is extending the production halt
in Japan to Wednesday (March 23) from March 20.
Honda's announcement came after the automaker distributed a memo
to U.S. dealers saying it would review each dealers' product
allotments for vehicles to be built after May.
Honda made 69,170 cars in January in Japan, which accounts for a
round a quarter of its production.
* Nissan Motor Co said Monday it resumed limited
operations at five of its plants in Japan with vehicle
production set to start Thursday. Nissan said production of
repair parts for overseas manufacturing restarted at its Oppama,
Tochigi, Yokohama, Kyushu and Nissan Shatai plants. Vehicle
production will start Thursday and will continue while supplies
last, the company said. Restoration of its Iwaki engine plant in
northern Japan will take longer than the other plants, the
company said. Nissan made 81,851 cars in January in Japan, where
it manufactures 23 percent of its vehicles. Goldman Sachs has
calculated that one day's lost production costs Nissan about 2
billion yen in profit.
* Mazda Motor Corp said it plans to suspend
production at two plants in southwestern Japan until Sunday
(March 20), but has not yet decided how to proceed after that.
* Fuji Heavy Industries Co said all five of its car
and parts-related plants for its Subaru-brand vehicles in Gunma
prefecture, north of Tokyo, will be shut at least until Sunday.
* Renault Samsung, the South Korean unit of French car maker
Renault SA , said it will cut back on weekend and
overtime production because of a potential parts shortage.
* General Motors , the largest U.S. automaker, said it
would temporarily idle its pick-up truck plant in Louisiana due
to a parts shortage. GM's South Korean unit said
it, too, was considering cutting back on weekend and overtime
production.
ELECTRONICS MAKERS:
* Sony Corp said on Monday it planned to partially
re-start a lithium ion battery factory in Tochigi prefecture on
Tuesday, leaving six plants, which make an array of devices from
IC cards to Blu-ray discs, closed. Sony is not sure when the
plants will resume operations. Some of the plants' output is
supplied to other manufacturers, including customers overseas.
* Toshiba said on Monday output was still halted at
a factory in Iwate prefecture making system LSI chips for
microprocessors and image sensors. It has begun work to bring
the factory back on-line, but has no timeframe to resume output.
Toshiba said an assembly line at a plant in Japan making small
liquid crystal displays for smartphones and other devices will
be closed for a month to repair damaged machinery.
* Canon said late on Friday production would be
halted at all three domestic camera factories on Tuesday and at
least two of them will remain closed on Wednesday. The world's
largest maker of digital cameras said it was having difficulty
securing necessary parts.
* Nikon Corp said four of its production facilities
were closed, including two of its precision-equipment plants,
but the effect on cameras and lenses is seen as minor, since
most output for those devices is in Thailand. Nikon does not
have a timetable to re-open the plants.
* Panasonic said none of its northern Japan
manufacturing facilities, including those making optical
pick-ups and other electronic parts, digital cameras and audio
equipment, were badly damaged, but it would take time to resume
operations as infrastructure needed to be restored.
* Renesas , the world's No.5 chipmaker, said it has
halted operations at 8 of its facilities and was unsure when it
would restart production there.
OTHERS
* Shin-Etsu Chemical , the world's leading maker of
silicon wafers, said two of its plants near the worst-hit areas
remain offline. The firm has not said when it will restart
operations. Some of the wafers made here are shipped to chip
companies overseas. Shin-Etsu is trying to boost production
elsewhere, particularly of 300-millimetre wafers, to make up the
shortfall.
* Jamco , a Japanese company making galleys for the
long-awaited Boeing 787 Dreamliner, said delivery of the
component could be delayed if gasoline becomes even more scarce.
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2008
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Japan earthquake miracle - two survive after nine days trapped
THEY had been given up for dead by virtually everyone.
Everyone, that is, except for defiant dad Akira Abe. He clung stubbornly to the desperate hope that his frail mother and teenage son had somehow survived the devastating earthquake and tsunami that brought destruction to Japan.
And yesterday – NINE DAYS after the disaster – his faith was rewarded.
Now 80-year-old Sumi Abe and her 16-year-old grandson Jin have become symbols of hope for the entire nation.
And relieved Akira, who had begged police to keep searching, told the world: “I always believed they were alive.” The pair were rescued after Jin was spotted in the collapsed roof of a wooden house in the ravaged city of Ishinomaki.
As rescuers answered his cries for help he pointed them further down inside the rubble to where Sumi was trapped.
Both were weak and exhausted after surviving without water or power.
Elderly Sumi, who has trouble walking, and Jin, who had hypothermia and could not pull himself from the debris, were taken by helicopter to a hospital.
The official death toll stands so far at 8,400 – with a further 13,000 missing and almost half a million still living in temporary shelters.
THEY had been given up for dead by virtually everyone.
Everyone, that is, except for defiant dad Akira Abe. He clung stubbornly to the desperate hope that his frail mother and teenage son had somehow survived the devastating earthquake and tsunami that brought destruction to Japan.
And yesterday – NINE DAYS after the disaster – his faith was rewarded.
Now 80-year-old Sumi Abe and her 16-year-old grandson Jin have become symbols of hope for the entire nation.
And relieved Akira, who had begged police to keep searching, told the world: “I always believed they were alive.” The pair were rescued after Jin was spotted in the collapsed roof of a wooden house in the ravaged city of Ishinomaki.
As rescuers answered his cries for help he pointed them further down inside the rubble to where Sumi was trapped.
Both were weak and exhausted after surviving without water or power.
Elderly Sumi, who has trouble walking, and Jin, who had hypothermia and could not pull himself from the debris, were taken by helicopter to a hospital.
The official death toll stands so far at 8,400 – with a further 13,000 missing and almost half a million still living in temporary shelters.
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One week on from the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, the situation is still critical.
Most of Japan’s auto industry is on shutdown. Idled plants are costing companies hundreds of millions of dollars.
HONDA Motor Co
Damage was widespread in the Tochigi area, where Honda has a number of operations. Honda Motor Co., Ltd. has confirmed the fatality of a Honda R&D associate at the Tochigi R&D Center, when a wall collapsed in a cafeteria. The associate was male, 43 years old.
In addition, 17 Honda associates were injured in the Tochigi area from collapsing ceilings and other damage during the earthquake (initial reports put the number of injured at 30).
• The suspension of automobile production, which began March 14, was extended today for an additional three days– through March 23 — at the following locations: Sayama Plant at Saitama Factory (Sayama, Saitama); Suzuka Factory (Suzuka, Mie).
• The same March 23 timing applies at the Kumamoto Factory (Ozu-machi, Kikuchi-gun, Kumamoto), where motorcycles are produced.
There is no immediate impact on Honda’s operations in North America. More than 80% of Honda and Acura products sold in the U.S. are produced in North America, and the vast majority of automotive parts for Honda automobiles manufactured in North America are sourced in the region.
Toyota
The initial freeze in production, originally said to last until the past Tuesday, has not been extended for an additional week, until March 22. In an attempt to limit the financial losses that will come as a result of the production freeze, Toyota also announced its decision to resume the production of spare parts for vehicles already on the market beginning Thursday, March 17.
Toyota’s shutdown affects about 95,000 units of production, of which 60 percent is for shipment to markets, including the U.S., Steve Curtis, a spokesman for the carmaker’s sales unit in Torrance, California, said March 17. U.S. inventory levels remain “normal,” he said then.
Nissan Motor Co
Based on the currently available supply chain, Nissan Americas manufacturing operations plan to follow a normal production schedule for at least the next seven days. The supply chain is being continuously assessed and the next update will be provided on Friday, March 25.
Nissan Americas has visibility of more than 1,500 Nissan LEAF vehicles either in transit from Japan or at port in the U.S. This number includes the shipment of more than 600 Nissan LEAFs which left port in Japan on March 10, the day before the earthquake. Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. this week initiated the monitoring of vehicles made in Japan for any traces of radioactive material.
At this moment the company said output has been stopped at three of its four car assembly factories in Japan.
Nissan said all North American manufacturing plants will continue to operate on schedule. It does not expect any short-term impact on sales or availability of cars and trucks. In addition, the company has a 50 days’ supply of vehicle stock in North America or already in transit from Japanese ports.
Mazda Motor Corp
Mazda Motor Corporation previously announced the suspension of production at its Hiroshima and Hofu plants from the night shift on March 14, until March 21, in the wake of the disaster. Mazda has now decided to resume temporary production at both plants from March 22, producing replacement parts, parts for overseas production and vehicles utilizing “in-process” inventories.
A decision on the resumption of full-scale production of both parts and vehicles will be made at a later date.
Mitsubishi is running three plants on Wednesday and Thursday, using inventory parts.
Direct impact over other automakers:
The effects of shutdown plants are not limited to Japanese companies. For global car companies reliant on Japanese parts in production, setbacks in the supply chain can slow or even shut down manufacturing.
GM said Saturday it is cutting unnecessary spending companywide as it assesses the impact of production disruptions from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
The move will help the automaker preserve cash as it deals with the financial implications from shortages of parts made in Japan, a company spokesman said.
Also, General Motors Co. stopped work at two European factories and is mulling production cuts in Korea amid growing uncertainty over how its plants around the world will be affected by the crisis in Japan.
In the U.S., GM will shut down a plant in Shreveport, La., starting next week. Mr. Akerson said the shutdown was to ensure adequate supplies at all U.S. plants, and that the company is unsure how their supply chain will be affected.
Volvo Cars issued a warning yesterday stating that its inventory of some components was down to a week’s worth of production and that output could be disrupted unless it was able to replenish its stocks soon.Volvo is estimated to purchase around ten percent buys of all its auto components from Japan.
Renault said on Friday that its South Korean Renault Samsung Motors unit would defer overtime hours planned from March 19 through the following week at its plant in Busan.
The factory imports components from Japan, including a 6-cylinder engine for Samsung’s SM7 saloon car and transmissions for all of its vehicle range.
DAIMLER AG’S Japanese truck unit Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation will extend its production halt until Tuesday
BMW is still unsure whether the disaster in Japan will affect production of its models. The firm’s UK managing director Tim Abbott told Autoblog it was simply too early to tell what affect, if any, the disaster will have on production.
British parts maker GKN Plc said on Tuesday it may have to cut the number of components it makes because some of its Japanese customers, which include Mitsubishi Motor and Nissan Motor may be unable to take deliveries.
Autoliv Inc., the world’s biggest producer of car safety products like seatbelts and airbags, said production had been halted at one of its three Japanese plants, although all the plants were undamaged. The affected plant was shut due to damage to infrastructure, the company said.
Autoliv supplies Nissan Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp., Mitsubishi Motors Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. At $206 million, Japan accounted for 11 percent of Autoliv’s fourth-quarter sales.
Most of Japan’s auto industry is on shutdown. Idled plants are costing companies hundreds of millions of dollars.
HONDA Motor Co
Damage was widespread in the Tochigi area, where Honda has a number of operations. Honda Motor Co., Ltd. has confirmed the fatality of a Honda R&D associate at the Tochigi R&D Center, when a wall collapsed in a cafeteria. The associate was male, 43 years old.
In addition, 17 Honda associates were injured in the Tochigi area from collapsing ceilings and other damage during the earthquake (initial reports put the number of injured at 30).
• The suspension of automobile production, which began March 14, was extended today for an additional three days– through March 23 — at the following locations: Sayama Plant at Saitama Factory (Sayama, Saitama); Suzuka Factory (Suzuka, Mie).
• The same March 23 timing applies at the Kumamoto Factory (Ozu-machi, Kikuchi-gun, Kumamoto), where motorcycles are produced.
There is no immediate impact on Honda’s operations in North America. More than 80% of Honda and Acura products sold in the U.S. are produced in North America, and the vast majority of automotive parts for Honda automobiles manufactured in North America are sourced in the region.
Toyota
The initial freeze in production, originally said to last until the past Tuesday, has not been extended for an additional week, until March 22. In an attempt to limit the financial losses that will come as a result of the production freeze, Toyota also announced its decision to resume the production of spare parts for vehicles already on the market beginning Thursday, March 17.
Toyota’s shutdown affects about 95,000 units of production, of which 60 percent is for shipment to markets, including the U.S., Steve Curtis, a spokesman for the carmaker’s sales unit in Torrance, California, said March 17. U.S. inventory levels remain “normal,” he said then.
Nissan Motor Co
Based on the currently available supply chain, Nissan Americas manufacturing operations plan to follow a normal production schedule for at least the next seven days. The supply chain is being continuously assessed and the next update will be provided on Friday, March 25.
Nissan Americas has visibility of more than 1,500 Nissan LEAF vehicles either in transit from Japan or at port in the U.S. This number includes the shipment of more than 600 Nissan LEAFs which left port in Japan on March 10, the day before the earthquake. Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. this week initiated the monitoring of vehicles made in Japan for any traces of radioactive material.
At this moment the company said output has been stopped at three of its four car assembly factories in Japan.
Nissan said all North American manufacturing plants will continue to operate on schedule. It does not expect any short-term impact on sales or availability of cars and trucks. In addition, the company has a 50 days’ supply of vehicle stock in North America or already in transit from Japanese ports.
Mazda Motor Corp
Mazda Motor Corporation previously announced the suspension of production at its Hiroshima and Hofu plants from the night shift on March 14, until March 21, in the wake of the disaster. Mazda has now decided to resume temporary production at both plants from March 22, producing replacement parts, parts for overseas production and vehicles utilizing “in-process” inventories.
A decision on the resumption of full-scale production of both parts and vehicles will be made at a later date.
Mitsubishi is running three plants on Wednesday and Thursday, using inventory parts.
Direct impact over other automakers:
The effects of shutdown plants are not limited to Japanese companies. For global car companies reliant on Japanese parts in production, setbacks in the supply chain can slow or even shut down manufacturing.
GM said Saturday it is cutting unnecessary spending companywide as it assesses the impact of production disruptions from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
The move will help the automaker preserve cash as it deals with the financial implications from shortages of parts made in Japan, a company spokesman said.
Also, General Motors Co. stopped work at two European factories and is mulling production cuts in Korea amid growing uncertainty over how its plants around the world will be affected by the crisis in Japan.
In the U.S., GM will shut down a plant in Shreveport, La., starting next week. Mr. Akerson said the shutdown was to ensure adequate supplies at all U.S. plants, and that the company is unsure how their supply chain will be affected.
Volvo Cars issued a warning yesterday stating that its inventory of some components was down to a week’s worth of production and that output could be disrupted unless it was able to replenish its stocks soon.Volvo is estimated to purchase around ten percent buys of all its auto components from Japan.
Renault said on Friday that its South Korean Renault Samsung Motors unit would defer overtime hours planned from March 19 through the following week at its plant in Busan.
The factory imports components from Japan, including a 6-cylinder engine for Samsung’s SM7 saloon car and transmissions for all of its vehicle range.
DAIMLER AG’S Japanese truck unit Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation will extend its production halt until Tuesday
BMW is still unsure whether the disaster in Japan will affect production of its models. The firm’s UK managing director Tim Abbott told Autoblog it was simply too early to tell what affect, if any, the disaster will have on production.
British parts maker GKN Plc said on Tuesday it may have to cut the number of components it makes because some of its Japanese customers, which include Mitsubishi Motor and Nissan Motor may be unable to take deliveries.
Autoliv Inc., the world’s biggest producer of car safety products like seatbelts and airbags, said production had been halted at one of its three Japanese plants, although all the plants were undamaged. The affected plant was shut due to damage to infrastructure, the company said.
Autoliv supplies Nissan Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp., Mitsubishi Motors Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. At $206 million, Japan accounted for 11 percent of Autoliv’s fourth-quarter sales.
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Foreign aid promised for Japan quake zone, but where is it?
KAMAISHI, Japan, March 20 (Reuters) - Scores of countries have pledged aid to the victims of Japan's massive earthquake and tsunami, but little of it is visible in many towns and villages devastated by the disaster. In some areas, as victims return to what remains of their homes, an unorganised and often chaotic array of help awaits them -- from boxes of donated clothes to free pet food, almost all donated by fellow Japanese.
Roads are wrecked in many areas, and there are acute shortages of fuel. And sometimes, people face problems in finding aid shipments.
"Word of mouth seems to work best," said Machiko Kawahata as she, her daughter and granddaughter looked for clothes at a drop-off point in Kamaishi, a coastal town in northeastern Japan.
No guards were around, no city officials on hand as victims took what they wanted from hundreds of boxes.
"All we have had is the clothes on our backs. But they are good enough. They've kept us warm through all of this," Kawahata said.
"We will make do and we will make it through this. If one place offers us half a rice ball to eat, then that is all we will eat."
Offers of aid and support have poured in from scores of countries, including search and rescue teams, and clothes and blankets to ward off near-freezing temperatures in the quake zone. Over $10 million in financial help has been promised.
While generous, it's a far cry from the aid that poured in immediately after a tsunami in 2004 battered large swathes of South and Southeast Asia. Within eight weeks of that disaster, governments, aid groups, businesses and individuals had pledged $8 billion to $9 billion for tsunami relief.
But that disaster affected developing countries, while Japan is rich. Its $5 trillion economy is the world's third-largest.
There's also a sense that Japan's traditional pride in self-reliance doesn't adapt easily to accepting foreign aid. Some aid workers recalled that rescue dogs brought in after the 1995 Kobe earthquake were put in quarantine for two weeks, although no such issues have been reported in the past week.
Many officials signal that Japan can look after itself.
"Disaster relief requires a huge amount of money, but Japan's private sector has plenty of funds," Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano told Reuters last week.
"Household assets amount to 1,400 trillion yen and half of it is high-liquid cash and bank deposits. Of course there are uncertainties. But my gut feeling is that the Japanese people, with their efforts, can overcome them."
Yosano said he estimated economic damage from the disaster would exceed 20 trillion yen ($248 billion).
Japan's foreign ministry has said rescue teams from 14 countries have started operating. But a ministry spokesman declined specific comment on aid reaching the country.
International aid groups say they have distributed blankets and medicine, but given Japan's capacity for dealing with major catastrophes, most non-governmental organisations are focusing on getting to especially remote areas or on providing specialist help to the elderly or young children.
QUITE DIFFERENT
Francis Markus, a spokesman for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said aid efforts in Japan would be quite different from those after the 2004 tsunami.
"There will be useful and significant amounts of financial support from outside, but there isn't likely to be the same kind of set-up as after the tsunami when many organisations set up operations in a more or less autonomous way in those countries," he said.
"The message we are hearing (from Japanese authorities) is: This is a very big task and there are ways in which you can help us."
Asked if the crisis over radiation leaks from a damaged nuclear plant was diverting attention from aid, Markus said: "Obviously the nuclear crisis has been a complicating factor in the human situation, but I wouldn't say the government has been distracted."
U.S. forces, many of them based in Japan, have mounted the biggest of the foreign aid efforts. A total of 110 tonnes of relief goods have been taken by helicopter to distribution points, a U.S. Navy statement said.
But the statement added: "Helicopter crews reported that three sites visited yesterday (Saturday) required no assistance -- a positive sign that ground-based relief efforts are starting to meet the needs of displaced persons.
"They also report an increased presence of Japan Ground Self Defense Force and medium to heavy equipment at such sites."
In places like Kamaishi, many people were finding things on their own. A Buddhist temple offers drinking water and rice, a fish market has clothes and there is a Japanese Red Cross distribution centre just behind the bank.
For many in the town, their minds were fixed on salvaging what they could from devastated homes and restoring some semblance of normality.
"There is no electricity and water, but asked which we want more, I'd say water. We want to clean up our house, recover what's left," said Kimio Arai, 66, a truck driver in the town of Ofunato, to the south along the coast.
His mother's house in the town was still standing, but the ground floor was completely submerged and all their belongings -- tatami mats, dishes, chairs -- were brought out into the yard.
Asked if he wanted more help from abroad, Arai said: "What could they do?"
"Where would they take all of this stuff?" he said, pointing to what used to be a quiet stretch of homes and houses now a pile of overturned trucks and cars, twisted metal, wood pieces from houses and logs washed up from the shore.
KAMAISHI, Japan, March 20 (Reuters) - Scores of countries have pledged aid to the victims of Japan's massive earthquake and tsunami, but little of it is visible in many towns and villages devastated by the disaster. In some areas, as victims return to what remains of their homes, an unorganised and often chaotic array of help awaits them -- from boxes of donated clothes to free pet food, almost all donated by fellow Japanese.
Roads are wrecked in many areas, and there are acute shortages of fuel. And sometimes, people face problems in finding aid shipments.
"Word of mouth seems to work best," said Machiko Kawahata as she, her daughter and granddaughter looked for clothes at a drop-off point in Kamaishi, a coastal town in northeastern Japan.
No guards were around, no city officials on hand as victims took what they wanted from hundreds of boxes.
"All we have had is the clothes on our backs. But they are good enough. They've kept us warm through all of this," Kawahata said.
"We will make do and we will make it through this. If one place offers us half a rice ball to eat, then that is all we will eat."
Offers of aid and support have poured in from scores of countries, including search and rescue teams, and clothes and blankets to ward off near-freezing temperatures in the quake zone. Over $10 million in financial help has been promised.
While generous, it's a far cry from the aid that poured in immediately after a tsunami in 2004 battered large swathes of South and Southeast Asia. Within eight weeks of that disaster, governments, aid groups, businesses and individuals had pledged $8 billion to $9 billion for tsunami relief.
But that disaster affected developing countries, while Japan is rich. Its $5 trillion economy is the world's third-largest.
There's also a sense that Japan's traditional pride in self-reliance doesn't adapt easily to accepting foreign aid. Some aid workers recalled that rescue dogs brought in after the 1995 Kobe earthquake were put in quarantine for two weeks, although no such issues have been reported in the past week.
Many officials signal that Japan can look after itself.
"Disaster relief requires a huge amount of money, but Japan's private sector has plenty of funds," Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano told Reuters last week.
"Household assets amount to 1,400 trillion yen and half of it is high-liquid cash and bank deposits. Of course there are uncertainties. But my gut feeling is that the Japanese people, with their efforts, can overcome them."
Yosano said he estimated economic damage from the disaster would exceed 20 trillion yen ($248 billion).
Japan's foreign ministry has said rescue teams from 14 countries have started operating. But a ministry spokesman declined specific comment on aid reaching the country.
International aid groups say they have distributed blankets and medicine, but given Japan's capacity for dealing with major catastrophes, most non-governmental organisations are focusing on getting to especially remote areas or on providing specialist help to the elderly or young children.
QUITE DIFFERENT
Francis Markus, a spokesman for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said aid efforts in Japan would be quite different from those after the 2004 tsunami.
"There will be useful and significant amounts of financial support from outside, but there isn't likely to be the same kind of set-up as after the tsunami when many organisations set up operations in a more or less autonomous way in those countries," he said.
"The message we are hearing (from Japanese authorities) is: This is a very big task and there are ways in which you can help us."
Asked if the crisis over radiation leaks from a damaged nuclear plant was diverting attention from aid, Markus said: "Obviously the nuclear crisis has been a complicating factor in the human situation, but I wouldn't say the government has been distracted."
U.S. forces, many of them based in Japan, have mounted the biggest of the foreign aid efforts. A total of 110 tonnes of relief goods have been taken by helicopter to distribution points, a U.S. Navy statement said.
But the statement added: "Helicopter crews reported that three sites visited yesterday (Saturday) required no assistance -- a positive sign that ground-based relief efforts are starting to meet the needs of displaced persons.
"They also report an increased presence of Japan Ground Self Defense Force and medium to heavy equipment at such sites."
In places like Kamaishi, many people were finding things on their own. A Buddhist temple offers drinking water and rice, a fish market has clothes and there is a Japanese Red Cross distribution centre just behind the bank.
For many in the town, their minds were fixed on salvaging what they could from devastated homes and restoring some semblance of normality.
"There is no electricity and water, but asked which we want more, I'd say water. We want to clean up our house, recover what's left," said Kimio Arai, 66, a truck driver in the town of Ofunato, to the south along the coast.
His mother's house in the town was still standing, but the ground floor was completely submerged and all their belongings -- tatami mats, dishes, chairs -- were brought out into the yard.
Asked if he wanted more help from abroad, Arai said: "What could they do?"
"Where would they take all of this stuff?" he said, pointing to what used to be a quiet stretch of homes and houses now a pile of overturned trucks and cars, twisted metal, wood pieces from houses and logs washed up from the shore.
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two figure skating event in japan cancelled
ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2011 – ISU World Team Trophy 2011
21 Mar 2011 07:04
Since the outbreak of the crisis, the ISU was and remains in close contact with the Japan Skating Federation (JSF) who in turn did likewise with the competent Japanese authorities. After having explored all possible options to maintain the 2011 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Japan, the JSF has now informed the ISU that regretfully and reluctantly they must decline hosting the Championships in Japan. Also, the JSF agreed to the postponement of the ISU World Team Trophy initially scheduled to be held in April 2011 to be held instead in April 2012 in Japan at a place and exact dates to be agreed upon. The ISU agrees with this conclusion.
While the ISU gave priority to find a solution to keep the 2011 ISU World Figure Skating Championship in Japan, the ISU fully understands the JSF decision. As we all struggle to come to terms with the unimaginable tragedies following the monstrous earthquake of March 11, the ISU reiterates its expressions of grief and sympathy to all those affected by loss of life, injury and loss of homes. The ISU admires the resilience, strength of character and faith of the Japanese people in recovering from this tragedy.
In light of this catastrophe, the consequences on sports events and in particular the ISU World Figure Skating Championships and ISU World Team Trophy become relatively secondary. Nevertheless, it is the ISU’s duty to find the best possible solution for a possible rescheduling and relocation of the Events taking into account all points of view.
Based on spontaneous proposals from ISU Member federations received to host the Championships and possibly additional Members who might be interested and available, the ISU Council is evaluating the different options taking into account all relevant aspects and points of view. This primarily involves the tremendous logistical challenge to organize and conduct such major Event on short notice. Also, the Council cannot ignore legal and contractual constraints as well as timing conflicts with other skating or sporting events.
Considering the scope and complexity of the situation, quick evaluations and decisions were and remain extremely difficult to make and the ISU counts on the understanding of the Figure Skating community for taking a minimum but reasonable amount of time to reach conclusions in cooperation with the concerned ISU Members and entities.
The ISU Council is conscious that a solution satisfying all points of view is probably difficult to be achieved and begs all involved for their understanding and cooperation in these truly exceptional circumstances.
An update of the situation will be communicated in the coming days.
ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2011 – ISU World Team Trophy 2011
21 Mar 2011 07:04
Since the outbreak of the crisis, the ISU was and remains in close contact with the Japan Skating Federation (JSF) who in turn did likewise with the competent Japanese authorities. After having explored all possible options to maintain the 2011 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Japan, the JSF has now informed the ISU that regretfully and reluctantly they must decline hosting the Championships in Japan. Also, the JSF agreed to the postponement of the ISU World Team Trophy initially scheduled to be held in April 2011 to be held instead in April 2012 in Japan at a place and exact dates to be agreed upon. The ISU agrees with this conclusion.
While the ISU gave priority to find a solution to keep the 2011 ISU World Figure Skating Championship in Japan, the ISU fully understands the JSF decision. As we all struggle to come to terms with the unimaginable tragedies following the monstrous earthquake of March 11, the ISU reiterates its expressions of grief and sympathy to all those affected by loss of life, injury and loss of homes. The ISU admires the resilience, strength of character and faith of the Japanese people in recovering from this tragedy.
In light of this catastrophe, the consequences on sports events and in particular the ISU World Figure Skating Championships and ISU World Team Trophy become relatively secondary. Nevertheless, it is the ISU’s duty to find the best possible solution for a possible rescheduling and relocation of the Events taking into account all points of view.
Based on spontaneous proposals from ISU Member federations received to host the Championships and possibly additional Members who might be interested and available, the ISU Council is evaluating the different options taking into account all relevant aspects and points of view. This primarily involves the tremendous logistical challenge to organize and conduct such major Event on short notice. Also, the Council cannot ignore legal and contractual constraints as well as timing conflicts with other skating or sporting events.
Considering the scope and complexity of the situation, quick evaluations and decisions were and remain extremely difficult to make and the ISU counts on the understanding of the Figure Skating community for taking a minimum but reasonable amount of time to reach conclusions in cooperation with the concerned ISU Members and entities.
The ISU Council is conscious that a solution satisfying all points of view is probably difficult to be achieved and begs all involved for their understanding and cooperation in these truly exceptional circumstances.
An update of the situation will be communicated in the coming days.
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PRC FT are disgusting
Japan earthquake: Looting reported by desperate survivors
Isolated incidents of looting have been reported as survivors of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami become increasingly desperate.
Police in the devastated Miyagi region said 250 thefts had been reported in the 10 days since the disaster and around £75,000 worth of goods had been reported stolen. The authorities said they are determined to cut down on the growing number of petty offences and would put an extra 100 officers on patrol.
Reported incidents have included men trying to break into cash machines, siphoning petrol from cars and taking items from damaged stores and homes.
Hironori Kodashima, vice chief of police in the hard hit fishing port of Kamaishi, in Iwate province, said: "We have just begun receiving reports about this and making arrests. But we are concerned about it and want it stopped.
"Thieves break in and loot homes because they have been abandoned and nobody is living there anymore."
The vast majority of Japanese have remained calm and stoical, putting up with tough conditions at evacuation shelters, and waiting patiently in line for hours at petrol stations and outside supermarkets running low on supplies.
Japan earthquake: Looting reported by desperate survivors
Isolated incidents of looting have been reported as survivors of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami become increasingly desperate.
Police in the devastated Miyagi region said 250 thefts had been reported in the 10 days since the disaster and around £75,000 worth of goods had been reported stolen. The authorities said they are determined to cut down on the growing number of petty offences and would put an extra 100 officers on patrol.
Reported incidents have included men trying to break into cash machines, siphoning petrol from cars and taking items from damaged stores and homes.
Hironori Kodashima, vice chief of police in the hard hit fishing port of Kamaishi, in Iwate province, said: "We have just begun receiving reports about this and making arrests. But we are concerned about it and want it stopped.
"Thieves break in and loot homes because they have been abandoned and nobody is living there anymore."
The vast majority of Japanese have remained calm and stoical, putting up with tough conditions at evacuation shelters, and waiting patiently in line for hours at petrol stations and outside supermarkets running low on supplies.
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From a website of Kyodo News, Japan’s version of CNN, headlined, in Japanese:
“In Miyagi, police report 40 robberies by those taking advantage of the earthquake.”
The text, translated, reads:
“According to police on the night of the 13th the morning of the 14, approximately 1 million yen in cash was taken from the Miyagi City Home Center. There were robberies at a convenience store and a food store, and robberies at approximately 40 other stores by those taking advantage of the earthquake amounting to 1.65 million yen.”
A City Home Center is a store like a Target. And, at 80 yen to the dollar, the loss isn’t great — $12,500 in cash; $20,000 in theft. In this one report. But here was some looting, and there is no reason to think there wasn’t a lot more.
Certain stories such as this scratch such a nasty itch that few repeating them seem to care whether they’re true or not. Condescending racial grievance just doesn’t get the chance to strut its stuff in polite society the way it used to. That’s why some marvel over a claim that an ounce of reflection would have cast doubt upon and a minute’s investigation would reveal as false. (The suggestion that there was perhaps LESS looting in Japan than we’d find here, well that would make sense, given how important social cohesion is there — again, for good and ill. But that’s a different claim entirely.)
I’m not expecting these facts to change anybody’s mind. Because bigotry isn’t about fitting your worldview around reality, it’s about finding examples of reality that fit your worldview, and if the looting-in-Japan claims stop doing the trick, it’s on to something else.
“In Miyagi, police report 40 robberies by those taking advantage of the earthquake.”
The text, translated, reads:
“According to police on the night of the 13th the morning of the 14, approximately 1 million yen in cash was taken from the Miyagi City Home Center. There were robberies at a convenience store and a food store, and robberies at approximately 40 other stores by those taking advantage of the earthquake amounting to 1.65 million yen.”
A City Home Center is a store like a Target. And, at 80 yen to the dollar, the loss isn’t great — $12,500 in cash; $20,000 in theft. In this one report. But here was some looting, and there is no reason to think there wasn’t a lot more.
Certain stories such as this scratch such a nasty itch that few repeating them seem to care whether they’re true or not. Condescending racial grievance just doesn’t get the chance to strut its stuff in polite society the way it used to. That’s why some marvel over a claim that an ounce of reflection would have cast doubt upon and a minute’s investigation would reveal as false. (The suggestion that there was perhaps LESS looting in Japan than we’d find here, well that would make sense, given how important social cohesion is there — again, for good and ill. But that’s a different claim entirely.)
I’m not expecting these facts to change anybody’s mind. Because bigotry isn’t about fitting your worldview around reality, it’s about finding examples of reality that fit your worldview, and if the looting-in-Japan claims stop doing the trick, it’s on to something else.
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Re: PRC FT/FW in japan looting
japanese is very PC. They dun mention this kind of things, but we know there are lots of PRC FT/FW in Japan. That goes without saying that the looters are PRC. World top looters, arabs, africans, latino and prc, japanese rather starve to death than loot.
japanese is very PC. They dun mention this kind of things, but we know there are lots of PRC FT/FW in Japan. That goes without saying that the looters are PRC. World top looters, arabs, africans, latino and prc, japanese rather starve to death than loot.
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so sad, i want to cry for these young children, sob
Sitting silent in their classroom, the 30 children whose parents have not come to collect them after tsunami swept away their town
Even amid the carnage and despair of Japan's tsunami victims, the plight of the 30 children at Kama Elementary School is heartbreaking.
They sit quietly in the corner of a third-floor classroom where they have waited each day since the tsunami swept into the town of Ishinomaki for their parents to collect them. So far, no one has come and few at the school now believe they will.
Teachers think that some of the boys and girls, aged between eight and 12, know their fathers and mothers are among the missing and will never again turn up at the gates of the school on the eastern outskirts of the town, but they are saying nothing.
Instead, they wait patiently reading books or playing card games watched over by relatives and teachers, who prevent anyone from speaking to them.
Officials fear that even the sound of the door sliding back might raise false hope that a parent has come to collect them. Their silence is in marked contrast to other children playing in the corridors of the four-storey building, whose parents survived due to a complete fluke.
Sports teacher Masami Hoshi said: 'The tsunami came just when the parents of the middle age group were starting to arrive to collect their children so we managed to get them inside and to safety.
'The younger ones had left with their parents a little earlier. The ones who went to homes behind the school probably survived, the ones who went the other way probably didn't.'
The school, where children's paintings still line the walls, has no running water, electricity or heating but is home to 657 people living among corridors and rooms filled by m&d and debris. It is a mile from the sea wall that was meant to protect Ishinomaki.
When the tsunami struck, 160,000 people were living in the town, which is about 50 miles north-east of Sendai. So far 425 have been confirmed dead with another 1,693, including the parents of the 30 pupils, listed as missing.
The terrible toll of Japan's double disaster became clearer as it emerged as many as 25,000 people could be dead after Ishinomaki officials confirmed that 10,000 of their citizens were missing.
The estimated 10,000 people missing in Ishinamaki is the same figure given as in the town of Minamisanriku, also in Miyagi state, which lost around half its population when it was razed to the ground by the 20 foot high wall of water.
So far the official death tool has hit 5,692 with another 9,522 people missing, according to The National Police Agency. But there were very real fears today that the statistics were a terrible underestimate of those who perished in the tsunami.
Across the country some 434,000 people have been made homeless and are living in shelters.
Ken Joseph, an associate professor at Chiba University, is in Ishinomaki with the Japan Emergency Team.
He told the Evening Standard: 'I think the death toll is going to be closer to 100,000 than 10,000.
Difficult work: Red Cross medical staff grab a few hours sleep on the floor as they work 20 hour shifts to provide help and support to patients at the Ishinomaki hospital
'Why is there no food? I have been to every disaster zone in the last 20 years and I have never seen anything remotely like this. I think we’re on the brink of chaos.'
He said the Prime Minister was 'a wonderful man in many ways' but indecisive as a leader: 'In yesterday’s press conference on the nuclear reactor, he looked like he was going to cry, like a man having a nervous breakdown.
'Where is the sense of urgency? We need somebody to take charge. We’ve had an earthquake followed by fire, then a tsunami, then radiation, and now snow. It’s everything.
'There is nothing left. The world needs to step in. Where are the Americans? The Japanese are too proud to ask, but we need help and we need it now.'
Warner Entertainment Japan official Satoru Otani confirmed cinemas would no longer screen the film.
He said that the terrifying tsunami scenes in the movie were "not appropriate" at this time.
Hereafter opened in Japan in late February at around 180 cinemas.
Warner Entertainment initially planned to show it until late March.
In one of the shelters for the evacuated, Motoko was worried for her daughter Yukiko, a teacher missing with her class of children.
She told the Standard there is still no official list of those who have been evacuated: 'For all I know my daughter thinks I’m dead and I have no way of knowing if she is alive because mobile phones here don’t work here.
'This is day five, day five! Why is there still no list for people to track their relatives?'
France has urged its citizens with no reason to stay in Tokyo to return to France or head to southern Japan, while the UK's Foreign & Commonwealth Office advises against all non-essential travel to Tokyo and northeastern Japan.
This afternoon, Australia became the latest country to advise its citizens to consider leaving Tokyo and earthquake-affected areas.
But the scale of the destruction has been highlighted by the heart-breaking individual stories of heroism and tragedy, such as that of Katsutaro Hamada, 79, who fled to safety with his wife after the quake.
But then he went back home to retrieve a photo album of his granddaughter, 14-year-old Saori, and grandson, 10-year-old Hikaru
Then the tsunami came and swept away his home. Rescuers found his body, crushed by the first-floor bathroom walls.
He was holding the album to his chest, Kyodo news agency reported.
'He really loved the grandchildren. But it is stupid,' said his son, Hironobu Hamada. 'He loved the grandchildren so dearly. He has no pictures of me!'
Teenager Minami Sato grabbed her grandmother when she spotted the huge wave, and ran to the tsunami shelter, only to see dozens there starting to run.
She reached the bottom of a mobile phone tower, and watched the surging sea sweep over the refuge below them, picking up 16 cars which had been parked neatly in a row and cramming them chaotically together into a corner of the car park.
It had breached the the 20ft-high walls along the harbour - hundreds of feet of thick concrete slabs - which had been designed to stop it.
Below, the ocean had swallowed all of Shizugawa, part of Minamisanriku, rising above a four-storey shopping centre and the town's hospital, two of the few buildings still standing - but totally gutted - when the wave receded.
She said the colossal wave which slammed into Shizugawa last week 'was beyond imagination.
'There was nothing we could do, but run.'
Sitting silent in their classroom, the 30 children whose parents have not come to collect them after tsunami swept away their town
Even amid the carnage and despair of Japan's tsunami victims, the plight of the 30 children at Kama Elementary School is heartbreaking.
They sit quietly in the corner of a third-floor classroom where they have waited each day since the tsunami swept into the town of Ishinomaki for their parents to collect them. So far, no one has come and few at the school now believe they will.
Teachers think that some of the boys and girls, aged between eight and 12, know their fathers and mothers are among the missing and will never again turn up at the gates of the school on the eastern outskirts of the town, but they are saying nothing.
Instead, they wait patiently reading books or playing card games watched over by relatives and teachers, who prevent anyone from speaking to them.
Officials fear that even the sound of the door sliding back might raise false hope that a parent has come to collect them. Their silence is in marked contrast to other children playing in the corridors of the four-storey building, whose parents survived due to a complete fluke.
Sports teacher Masami Hoshi said: 'The tsunami came just when the parents of the middle age group were starting to arrive to collect their children so we managed to get them inside and to safety.
'The younger ones had left with their parents a little earlier. The ones who went to homes behind the school probably survived, the ones who went the other way probably didn't.'
The school, where children's paintings still line the walls, has no running water, electricity or heating but is home to 657 people living among corridors and rooms filled by m&d and debris. It is a mile from the sea wall that was meant to protect Ishinomaki.
When the tsunami struck, 160,000 people were living in the town, which is about 50 miles north-east of Sendai. So far 425 have been confirmed dead with another 1,693, including the parents of the 30 pupils, listed as missing.
The terrible toll of Japan's double disaster became clearer as it emerged as many as 25,000 people could be dead after Ishinomaki officials confirmed that 10,000 of their citizens were missing.
The estimated 10,000 people missing in Ishinamaki is the same figure given as in the town of Minamisanriku, also in Miyagi state, which lost around half its population when it was razed to the ground by the 20 foot high wall of water.
So far the official death tool has hit 5,692 with another 9,522 people missing, according to The National Police Agency. But there were very real fears today that the statistics were a terrible underestimate of those who perished in the tsunami.
Across the country some 434,000 people have been made homeless and are living in shelters.
Ken Joseph, an associate professor at Chiba University, is in Ishinomaki with the Japan Emergency Team.
He told the Evening Standard: 'I think the death toll is going to be closer to 100,000 than 10,000.
Difficult work: Red Cross medical staff grab a few hours sleep on the floor as they work 20 hour shifts to provide help and support to patients at the Ishinomaki hospital
'Why is there no food? I have been to every disaster zone in the last 20 years and I have never seen anything remotely like this. I think we’re on the brink of chaos.'
He said the Prime Minister was 'a wonderful man in many ways' but indecisive as a leader: 'In yesterday’s press conference on the nuclear reactor, he looked like he was going to cry, like a man having a nervous breakdown.
'Where is the sense of urgency? We need somebody to take charge. We’ve had an earthquake followed by fire, then a tsunami, then radiation, and now snow. It’s everything.
'There is nothing left. The world needs to step in. Where are the Americans? The Japanese are too proud to ask, but we need help and we need it now.'
Warner Entertainment Japan official Satoru Otani confirmed cinemas would no longer screen the film.
He said that the terrifying tsunami scenes in the movie were "not appropriate" at this time.
Hereafter opened in Japan in late February at around 180 cinemas.
Warner Entertainment initially planned to show it until late March.
In one of the shelters for the evacuated, Motoko was worried for her daughter Yukiko, a teacher missing with her class of children.
She told the Standard there is still no official list of those who have been evacuated: 'For all I know my daughter thinks I’m dead and I have no way of knowing if she is alive because mobile phones here don’t work here.
'This is day five, day five! Why is there still no list for people to track their relatives?'
France has urged its citizens with no reason to stay in Tokyo to return to France or head to southern Japan, while the UK's Foreign & Commonwealth Office advises against all non-essential travel to Tokyo and northeastern Japan.
This afternoon, Australia became the latest country to advise its citizens to consider leaving Tokyo and earthquake-affected areas.
But the scale of the destruction has been highlighted by the heart-breaking individual stories of heroism and tragedy, such as that of Katsutaro Hamada, 79, who fled to safety with his wife after the quake.
But then he went back home to retrieve a photo album of his granddaughter, 14-year-old Saori, and grandson, 10-year-old Hikaru
Then the tsunami came and swept away his home. Rescuers found his body, crushed by the first-floor bathroom walls.
He was holding the album to his chest, Kyodo news agency reported.
'He really loved the grandchildren. But it is stupid,' said his son, Hironobu Hamada. 'He loved the grandchildren so dearly. He has no pictures of me!'
Teenager Minami Sato grabbed her grandmother when she spotted the huge wave, and ran to the tsunami shelter, only to see dozens there starting to run.
She reached the bottom of a mobile phone tower, and watched the surging sea sweep over the refuge below them, picking up 16 cars which had been parked neatly in a row and cramming them chaotically together into a corner of the car park.
It had breached the the 20ft-high walls along the harbour - hundreds of feet of thick concrete slabs - which had been designed to stop it.
Below, the ocean had swallowed all of Shizugawa, part of Minamisanriku, rising above a four-storey shopping centre and the town's hospital, two of the few buildings still standing - but totally gutted - when the wave receded.
She said the colossal wave which slammed into Shizugawa last week 'was beyond imagination.
'There was nothing we could do, but run.'
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Unimaginable toll: A replica Statue of Liberty stands next to tsunami damaged buildings in Ishinomaki, where officials confirmed that 10,000 of their citizens were missing
Ryo Abe, 10, and Kaho Abe, 7, rest on a rail track as they head to their relative's house with their parents for evacuation, in Ishinomaki
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