Random Japan

HITTING THE ROOF

The TMG discovered that opium poppies were being sold at home improvement centers in Tokyo and 18 other prefectures.

A tanker truck spilled 18 metric tons of milk after overturning in a single-vehicle accident in Shiga Prefecture late last month. The 32-year-old driver suffered minor injuries, mostly to his ego.

The education ministry announced that the number of Japanese studying abroad has declined every year since 2004.

A collection of drawings of coal miners by artist Sakubei Yamamoto (1892-1984) are the first Japanese works that UNESCO will list as a “Memory of the World.”

Two Japanese climbers were killed-likely by an avalanche-after summiting Mt. McKinley in Alaska.

Panasonic and eight other companies have banded together to build a “sustainable smart town” in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture. The village will feature, among other energy-saving devices, “a system for sharing electric vehicles.”

Stats

16.8

Percentage of Japanese women who have been sexually harassed in the workplace, according to a survey by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation

3.6

Percentage of Japanese men who have suffered sexual harassment, according to the same survey

15

Unwanted newborns left at the so-called “baby hatch” at Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto in fiscal 2009

18

Number of babies left behind

UPWARD AND ONWARD

A team of scientists at Osaka University has come up with a new way of producing stem cells that may make it easier to use the cells in regenerative medicine.

It was announced that if the planned free-trade agreement between Japan, China and South Korea takes effect, Japan’s GDP would rise by 0.3 percent.

A study by the European New Car Assessment Program declared that the Nissan Leaf “proves that electric vehicles can achieve the same safety levels as traditional cars.”

Mitsubishi Electric launched a communications satellite into orbit from a space center in French Guyana. The satellite, a joint venture between telecom firms in Singapore and Taiwan, will beam services to the Middle East, Central Asia, India and Southeast Asia.

It will take just 67 minutes to travel between Tokyo and Osaka on JR Tokai’s proposed maglev train line. Construction is due to begin in fiscal 2014.

Headline of the Week: “Potatoes May be More Dangerous than Other Vegetables” (via Asahi.com).

The government said that hospitals, nursing homes, semiconductor factories and railways will be exempt from the 15 percent power-reduction order that’s in effect for the rest of Kanto and Tohoku this summer.

Metaphor alert: “Flip-flopping Government Shoots Self in Foot” (via The Daily Yomiuri).

The family of a 23-year-old Japanese woman killed in the Christchurch earthquake in February announced that they would fund a hostel for international students about an hour outside the city.

The Diet passed legislation that will authorize welfare officials to temporarily suspend the parental rights of people who abuse their kids.

This Train

Isn’t Moving  

Through A  

Teenagers Eyes

That Wasn’t  

Meant For The Toilet

Tepco begins work to clean coolant water

Month needed to make reactor circulation safe

 By KAZUAKI NAGATA

Staff writer

Tokyo Electric Power Co. confirmed Friday that the treatment facility to clean highly radioactive water accumulating at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant started full-scale operations at 8 p.m.

Tepco also revealed its updated road map to bring the Fukushima nuclear crisis under control, saying it aims to cool the stricken reactors with a circulating coolant system through processed contaminated water in a month as well as to improve the medical care and mitigate the radiation exposure of its workers.