[site fights] Civil society capacity or jobs?

Moved to Futaba Memorial Nuclear Energy Park blog, 2011-7-4.

[Miyagi Recovery Commission] Ria Coasts in Miyagi Reconstruction Proposal

The Yomiuri Shimbun* reports that fourteen municipalities in Miyagi Prefecture, jointly unveiled a reconstruction proposal that combines three kinds of redevelopment: flat land, urban and ria coast.

Mobility Robot Forum in Tsukuba

Note: Post moved to http://north-kanto-notes.blogspot.com/2011/12/mobility-robot-forum-in-tsukuba.html on 2 December 2011.

Ibaraki and Tohoku

One day last Summer, my Kansai-raised wife, 11-year-old son and I bicycled past a road crew in Tsukuba. My wife could not understand their conversation; my son did. Why? The crew was speaking Tohoku dialect, which my son heard spoken daily by classmates and teachers, but which my wife and I did not normally encounter.

While Ibaraki Prefecture is administratively part of Kanto, most of it is linguistically and culturally part of Tohoku. For a linguistic comparison of Ibaraki and its surroundings, see http://www1.tmtv.ne.jp/~kadoya-sogo/ibaraki15-map.html.

[Miyagi Recovery Commission] Parallel panel set up by Miyagi Prefecture

Source: Kahoku Online Network, http://www.kahoku.co.jp/news/2011/04/20110410t11041.htm, Viewed 2011 April 10

Miyagi Prefecture's Governor Yoshihiro Murai has set up a recovery panel that, at least initially, competes with Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Recovery Commission. For now I will call this parallel panel the Murai-Komiyama Recovery Panel. It's tentative Japanese name is "Shinsai Fukko Keikaku Sakutei Konwakai" (震災復興計画策定懇話会).

[Cabinet Recovery Commission] Japanese media reactions

These are summaries of Japanese media reactions to Prime Minister Kan's Recovery Commission (復興構想会議).

[Cabinet Recovery Commission] Recovery commission launch 2011 April 11

Precisely one month after the Great Tohoku Earthquake, Prime Minister Naoto Kan is set to launch his Cabinet Recovery Commission (復興構想会議). 
Note:Updated 2011 April 11 based on http://www.asahi.com/politics/update/0411/TKY201104110301.html.

Member	Occupation	Notes
IOKIBE Makoto, Chair 五百旗頭真	President, National Defense Academy	Age: 68, Good ties to Former PM Fukuda & LDP, Advised Hanshin Disaster recovery
ANDO Tadao 安藤忠雄	Architect, Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo
MIKURIYA Takashi 御厨貴	Professor, University of Tokyo, History	Age: 60
UMEHARA Takeshi, Special Advisor 梅原猛	Philosopher, Professor Emeritus, Kyoto City University of Arts	Age: 86
AKASAKA Norio 赤坂憲雄	Professor, Gakushuin University	Age: 57
ONISHI Takashi 大西隆	Professor, Urban Engineering, University of Tokyo Graduate School	Age: 62
KAWATA Yoshiaki 河田恵昭	Director, Research Center for Disaster Reduction Systems, Kyoto University	Age: 65
GENYU Sokyu 玄侑宗久	Priest, Rinzaishu Fukushuji Temple 臨済宗福聚寺住職	Age: 55
TAKANARITA Toru 高成田享	Professor, Sendai University	Age: 63, Veteran journalist with The Asahi Shimbun
CHUBACHI Ryoji 中鉢良治	Vice Chairman, Sony Corporation
HASHIMOTO Goro 橋本五郎	Special Editor, Yomiuri Shimbun 読売新聞特別編集委員	Age: 64
SEIKE Atsushi 清家篤	President, Keio University, Labor Economics
UCHIDATE Makiko 内館牧子	Scriptwriter	Akita native, writes monthly "Sendai Dayori" for Yomiuri Shimbun Miyagi Edition. Script credits include Watashi no Aozora, an NHK morning serial drama about an Aomori woman's move to Tokyo and life as single mother.
MURAI Yoshihiro 村井嘉浩	Governor, Miyagi Prefecture	Age: 50, JASDF helicopter pilot
SATO Yuhei 佐藤雄平	Governor, Fukushima Prefecture	Age: 63
TASSO Takuya 達増拓也	Governor, Iwate Prefecture	Age: 47, 8 years in Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Sources: 
1) Yomiuri Online, http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/news/20110410-OYT1T00296.htm, (English: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110409003341.htm) Viewed 2011 April 10
2) MSN/Sankei News, http://sankei.jp.msn.com/politics/news/110407/plc11040723220024-n1.htm, Viewed 2011 April 10

[site fights] Site Fights: Divisive Facilities and Civil Society in Japan and the West

Moved to  http://fukushima-energy-coast.blogspot.com/2011/07/site-fights-site-fights-divisive.html .

Kenichi Omae on Fukushima, TEPCO, Tohoku Revival

This Japanese video contains several very interesting points. For example, half of this disaster's losses are covered by private insurance policies so the uncovered portion of loss is about the same or less than from Hanshin-Awaji. Omae shows this in a graph from Bloomberg.

Ag product restrictions to be by city & town rather than by prefecture

At his 4 April press conference, Cabinet Secretary Edano announced that restrictions on agricultural products will be restructured to be by city and town rather than by prefecture. Currently, 5 April, shipments from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gumma Prefectures of spinach and other leafy vegetables are stopped. In Chiba Prefecture, spinach from Katori and Tago, as well as spinach, chrysanthemum greens, celery, parsley and other leafy vegetables from Asahi are stopped.

MAFF, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, has a clickable map of statistics by city, town and prefecture. This will allow us to estimate the economic effect of this change.

The effect on consumer perceptions will be harder to estimate. Consumers often identify foods by prefecture of origin rather than by city or town of origin.

Whose disaster is it, anyway?

The name for the disaster seemed innocuous enough - the Great Kanto Pacific Earthquake of 2011. But the main quakes did not occur in Kanto, the region of Japan centered in Tokyo; they occurred off the coast of Tohoku, Japan’s Northeast. At this writing, there are 28,000 dead or missing in Tohoku versus 58 in Kanto. When the creators of QuakeBook were made aware of the discrepancy, they rewrote, “the Japanese Earthquake at 2:46 on March 11, 2011.” No mention of Tohoku.

Blogging the Tohoku revival

With 28,000 victims dead or missing, and an estimated $235 billion in property damage, the Great East Japan Earthquake is Japan's greatest crisis since World War II. As with all disasters, the first post-disaster priority is rescuing victims and lives. The second is recovering and reconstructing basic infrastructure. The third is economic revival.

This blog will focus on economic revival, the third phase.

I will emphasize practical administration, including administrative bodies, and expenditures. This blog will, of course, not be comprehensive, but merely a collection of facts, reports, backgrounds and opinions.