Kobe City Mayoral Election

Today is the election day in Kobe City of 1.5 million people

with budget deficit of

2.7trillion yen or

$245.7trillion.

For 60 years deputy mayor has been elected mayor because of the organized vote of the city employees' labor union and the support of both the ruling and the opposition parties in the city assembly and the national Diet,
with both the citizens who traditionally not interested in politics and the nonvoters complaining all the time.

Therefore, none had been to blame for any mismanagement.
For example Kobe Airport was constructed amid the public and media criticism despite the 3 airports including the new one within a 25 kilometer radius.

And it has given up free elderly transportation pass.

This time, it matters whether a reformist candidate is elected over the incumbent mayor, who is supported by Japan's ruling Democtatic Party.

I don't know why the party recommends the incumbent reling on bureaucracy-oriented politics and public-works projects because it has promised initiative by politicians to reform vices of bureaucracy in the general election for the Lower House in this summer.

Hurricane Felicia Approaches Hawaii Island

According to West Hawaii Today, Jim Weyman, director of the Central Pacific Hurricane Center said, "West Hawaii is just as likely to see HEAVY RAIN and HIGH WINDS as is East Hawaii."

He said, "Many people on the Big Island think they are protected by the mountains and that is NOT true.

Because the storm has a vertical height of more than 40,000 feet, Hawaii Island's 13,796-foot Mauna Kea and 13,679-foot Mauna Loa will NOT have much impact on the storm as it crosses from east to west.

The Reality of Schools in Kailua-kona

State considers taking over failing schools

Nurture and good manners maketh man, but there might be some officials who need to be more self-aware of it.

The Reality of Kailua-Kona

You need to make a Living Trust in Hawaii ?

St Michael's Catholic Church

Reduction of workplace bullying

NEW ACQUISITIONSNCCU SCHOOL OF LAW LIBRARYOCTOBER 2007

Kona hospital ER operating beyond capacity

Doctor Shortage in Kona Already At Crisis Level

More statewide cuts could follow Kona hospital layoffs

Money, stress push more Kona doctors to close practices

The price of practice


Hawaii Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care

Living Will

Evident Errors reportedly Found in the New European Pressurised Reactor

Safety threat to planned nuclear power stations

Finnish nuclear watchdog stops welding at Olkiluoto site

Unknown Radioactive Leak

Even in Japan, the only country to have ever experienced nuclear devastation, the following were Never reported:

'It feels like a sci-fi film' - accidents tarnish nuclear dream

French nuclear plant leak head sacked

Uranium : le scandale de la France contaminée

Finds of Radioactive Steel on the Rise in Germany

Myth or Reality?

Why We Need a Green Revolution

Brain Machine Interface

Bottled or Tap

Although you often see "Bottled or Tap" articles, as my mother always said in my childhood, I have avoided some unboiled tap water. Although Kobe city water has been famous for its non-degradation among foreign ships. For a few years I have been using, not so reasonable, BRITA water filters, as I read the two articles:

Back to the tap

Fiji Government Repeals Tax on Bottled Water

I think when it comes to apartments and condominiums, it matters whether their water tanks are in the hygienic environment.

Bar Exam in Japan

There are old and new bar examinations in Japan.

For details, the following website explains:

Japan's push to add lawyers fraught with troubles

"Passing the bar exam entitles the successful applicants to enter the Japanese Supreme Court's Legal Research and Training Institute (LRTI). Completion of a training course at this government-run institution is a requirement for qualifying to practice law in Japan. ...The old system produced attorneys who were scarily intelligent, very good at taking standardized tests or both. ..."

And the leading newspaper also said,

"Students must also pass the bar, and then work as legal apprentices at the Supreme Court's Legal Research and Training Institute, the nation's training center. Previously, apprentices received grants of about 3 million yen annually to attend the institute. The state-paid salaries played an important role for opening legal careers to lower-income students."

However, these English-language articles didn't point out the fact:
it came to light in 2001 that the promising legal trainees had conventionally drived a deadhead train with pro train drivers as one of the programs in the legal training center for a long time.

A lawyer admitted it in a Japanese book. Sorry, it is written in Japanese.

Any accident like the 2005 train crash might have occurred. But no then legal trainees, even those who have subsequently become veteran members of the Bar, had never disclosed the truth for a long time.

In 2005 Japan's train crash: Your reaction A train derailed and hit a building in Japan, killing 73 people and injuring 450.

Any leading judges, public prosecutors, and attorneys/barristers accepted/experienced the dangerous adventure as legal trainees in the past as if nothing had happened.

It is shocking. Why haven't there been any member of the bar like Mr. Kushioka in the transportation world? He had been forced to pull up the weeds during the working hours as a retaliation from the company until the retirement age.

Whistle-blower's just desserts?

Speaking Out Has High Cost

And as you visit in an exam site, there is no total "nonsmoking" campus. Therefore, like the previously cited steel company and the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry, you will see lots of intoxicated examinees with their frowning faces, coughing out phlegm, reading prep books or leaning against or facing the walls around the entrance of all the buildings there.

It is an inferno. I doubt if they could judge properly in court while resisting their strong urge to smoke, even if they pass the exam.
Although the Justice Ministry didn't make any comment on it,
the proctors or those who supervise the test takers are thought to be university officials at the site.

I made sure that they had represented some tit-for-tat response to the examinee making a complaint about its sad state of affairs as an anonymous caller beforhand. The university have been infamous for ....

Muramatsu Vehicle, world's best welding technology

MURAMATSU VEHICLE(Map No.64) has manufactured Japanese traditional two-wheeled carts for transporting heavy loads called "Rear-car" in Japan. Its welding technology is applied to manufacturing golf carts.

See The Products of Arakawa Meisters
Map No62 D4 in the following site:

http://www.arakawa-unet.jp/sightseeing/history/craftman/images/arakawa_meister.pdf

"Over the Air" means "by Syncing Up on the Desktop"?

RSA Security February 14 press release

See the fourth paragraph from the bottom:

But the latest ... provision RSA's SecurID credentials "over the air" or even by syncing up on the desktop...

Its Japanese-version

"or" here is translated into "more specifically" in Japapnese.

That means "over the air" and "by syncing up on the desktop" express the same thing.

RSA　Security's February 14 press release





And its Japanese version



The fourth paragraph from the bottom:



But the last... or even by



The "or"here is translated into "more specifically" in its Japanese version.



That means that "over the air" and "by syncing up on the desktop"

Machiya, ultimate traditional Kyoto eco-house

Machiya, ultimate traditional Kyoto eco-house, naturally cool in summer, naturally warm in winter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztYYY-Ig-ks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOf816xoYUk

Furoshiki, Kyoto

http://furoshiki.homepage.jp/english/

It Sells Health or Hells?

A HONDA CANOPY, a 3-wheel roofed scooter really meets the emission
standard?

The three wheeler emits choking smog!

Yakult sells door-to-door lactobacillary milk, or a kind of yogurt drink, called "Yakult" popularly.

Its hourly employees(mainly housewives) deliver its products by the HONDA CANOPY in the residential blocks with narrow streets.

As an inevitable consequence, the exhaust fumes hit all over the area for more than 30 seconds,

not only choking people relaxing in the living room with the windows open

but polluting clothes hung out to dry in the homes or likes.

It sells health or hells door to door everyday?

Yakult USA
http://www.yakultusa.com/
its store is located in 71 Broadway, New York, too.

Kobe citizens' Group's Objections

According to Japanese-versioned Asahi Shinbun, a Japan's leading newspaper,

Kobe Saisei Forum, a Kobe citizens' group, asked Kobe Steel to withdraw from the construction plan of a new Kobe General Municipal Hospital building, one of the Kobe City Private Finance Initiative(PFI )projects because the disclosure of the company's illigal donation to an association of supporters for a local assembly member. And the group also asked the city assembly and the mayor to advise it accordingly. The civic group pointed out that the company has been tarnished by a variety of misconducts involving the Feburuary-disclosed scandal for the past decade. The group said it was unsuitable for public work projects. The group also opposes the relocation plan of the hospital because it could lead to deterioration of the medical level.

Kobe Steel was awarded the project with ITOCHU Corporation in August, 2007.

Tobias Harris' Ovserving Japan

If you read Observing Japan , you can know what is happening in the Japanese politics.

Tobias Harris is a Ph.D. student in political science at MIT, appearing as a commentator on CNBC Asia's "Asia Squawkbox."

Gray Sky: Smoke from Centrally-located Coal-fired Plant & Nicotine-addicted

I want to tell about the article I posted again.

Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage

The controversial coal-fired heat power plant by the world-famous steelwork company is just about south of a quake-stricken redeveloped zone, forested with condominium buildings including including two 30-story ones and a municipal office.

When you get off a train at the Rokkomichi Station, what will surely jump to the eye might be the blue sky half-covered with that dark smoke from the stack, although the local people seem to be walking
as if nothing had happened. A city worker says irresponsibly, "Don't worry. They say 'It's a mere steam plume'. "

Ignorance is bliss?

There is the company's head office building in south of the next station. On the way from the station to the office, you might also meet desperate smokes from its employees trooping along the sidewalk, while overlooking a brown foxed poster starting to peel off the power pole, saying "no smoking while walking."

And in front of the entrance of the office building, you will surely see hopeless smokes from its office workers, both genders immediately before the working hours.

As you see Coal industry tries to hide dirty facts behind 'clean' claims, the climate of opinion shows increasing skepticism even toward 'clean coal' . Nevertheless, why the above mentioned plant look locally accepted without suspicion?

Environmental Articles Again

These environmental articles are taken up for my Japanese blog.

Microbe economics

UK announces world's largest algal biofuel project

Alberta Tar Sands: A North American Overview

Graphic Of The Day: Worldwide Unconventional Liquid Fuel Production

Peak Oil comes in 2011, IEA Chief Economist said

When will the oil run out?