Two new policies have been introduced by TEPCO in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that struck the Tohoku region this month. Residents to be affected by the billing changes are understandably livid after enduring both planned and unplanned blackouts, in addition to cooperating with TEPCO and government requests to conserve as much energy…
Sometimes tweets from the government here in Japan send up red flags for me. Below is one of those tweets. A very suspicious way of looking at the statement below is that government officials are already rubbing their hands together thinking of things that they can do to make a “more stable” Japan… more stable…
Readers of the blog know that I’ve been tweeting information about the situation in Tohoku whenever I’ve been available and had something to add or emphasize from the conversation. One of the important ongoing discussions between the media, Japanese government, foreign embassies, and people of Kanto and Tohoku is just how far away is far…
I’ve been looking for some stories to write about that relay the seriousness of the situation while not being the same sensational images of houses and cars floating away or houses reduced to splinters. On the topic of international cooperation following the Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami in North-eastern Japan, there are several Japan bulletin board…
If you are a resident of Osaka and would like to read some opinion papers written by your governor, Toru Hashimoto, you now have the option of reading them at a bite-sized pace. New to twitter, it seems that Hashimoto (whose twitter profile shows he follows no one) jumped in feet first without testing the…
No sooner has Naoto Kan entered office and been hailed as a very different, very competent law maker and specialist in fixing financial crises, a youtube video of his first faux pas has also come out on the web. The video shows Kan waving to supporters happily and crossing the street… while the DO NOT…
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, whose last name literally translates as “Pigeon Mountain” showed a bit of his comedy stylings at a recent event in Tokyo. Hatoyama has always been a character with a penchant for dancing, eccentricity, and having fun however he’s been uncharacteristically low key so thus far in his tenure. A bit…
UPDATE: No surprise here that the Hatoyama Twitter Acct is a fake. Just one of those things campy enough that you wish they were true. I’ll leave the link and my initial article as it was. OK, I’m going to say first of all that it’s possible this is a fake account, but all I’ve…
In a nutshell, a 67 year old Japanese man is suing his country because the weekend and holiday reduced tolls are only applicable to cars that pay by ETC (the Japanese equivalent to EZPass or other automatic toll paying systems). He claims it’s unfair that he has to pay full price on weekends just because…
Note the poll on your right asking when you think Aso is going to announce that he’s stepping down and having elections. You can read a good insider story right here, “Prime Minister Aso on the Brink in Japan” at the Big in Japan blog for some background information on some of Aso’s recent gaffs….
As most people reading this blog know, Japanese officials usually carry out executions before informing the media or next of kin. What I didn’t know until reading this article in Mainichi Online was that Justice Minister Hatoyama has been carrying out executions at a pace of once every two months! Here is the article: Four…
If I have any readers from England or any other country with a prime minister, I have to ask!!! Would this fly? Wouldn’t there be a call for elections way before the approval had sunk this low. The government has already missed its own deadline for resolving the missing pensions debacle, is giving a one…