Last time, I wrote about nuclear exposure due to collapse of the nuclear power plants.
This time, I am going to write about story that some people get out of that exposed area.
I'm in California, so I'm not so familiar with recent Japan, but I'm very concerning especially my home town 200 miles far from the plants because it is close to the nuclear plants and exposed with nuclear radiation more or less. It would be dangerous to live there considering accumulation of nuclear material in human body although the Japanese government says it is safe and it does not matter immediately. I strongly sure that it does not soon, but it will matter later as increasing rate of cancer later.
A few weeks before, I talked to my friend living in Tokyo about how this nightmare disaster affects on behavior of people living there. According to him, those who are older or do not have a child does not care about it so much, but those who have small children really concern how nuclear radiation does harmful effects on their children. Unfortunately the Japanese government does not announce and warn nothing about it while saying it does not matter immediately. However some experts who are very familiar with the Chernoby case strongly emphasis and warned to us that it is not preferable for small children to live even in Tokyo for long time if they judged by detected amount of nuclear radiation. The point we have to think about is that it takes a few years for some results to come out. But if we notice something and take action after that, it will be too late to improve and take care of something. The friend of mine are really really concerning about that, so he calculated the risk of caner and the risk of death by researching a lot of published papers and books by himself. According to his estimation, one of 100 children will die if they continue to live there for 10 years there which is based on the statistical results of Chernoby case. If calculated pessimistically, more than ten times children will die. Therefore he already decided to move to safe area in order to protect his family even though his home town is there and he likes the area very much.
According to him, a lot of people consider similarly that it is better to move somewhere it is safe, and some of them will move actually in the near future.
I have to seriously consider it because I have to go back some day.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
Life style changes since large earth quake hit Japan 1
Today I would like to write about how large earthquake affect life style in Japan.
I do not know how much percentage of people in the world know the large earthquake hit Japan March 3 2011, but let me tell you how large it is. The observed magnitude was 9 which is 810,000 times as large as atomic bomb which was dropped to Hiroshima in 1945. Japanese is used to middle class earthquakes because earthquakes like 5, 6 class occurs somewhere in Japan every year, but this is the largest one which has ever hit Japan. As a result, more than 20000 peoples unfortunately died because of Tsunami which was equivalent to 10 meters, although number of peoples who died due to breakdown of house and building was less which showed how strong Japanese house is against even large earthquakes.
In addition to that, worst thing happened at the same time. Nuclear power plants collapsed and became out of control, and consequently evacuated much nuclear material, like, Iodine, Cerium, etc, due to melt down. These nuclear material spread out in south direction from nuclear plants, which is called Kanto including Tokyo, the economic center of Japan, and accumulated there. As our world experienced similar nuclear accident of Chernoby nuclear power plant case which occurred in 1986 in Ukraine, we have already known how nuclear radiation is dangerous and how terrible it affect on human body, especially small children. According to reports, people exposed to be nuclear material are likely to suffer from cancers and some of them can die. As is easily predicted, the risk of cancer is much higher for small children than for adults. So a lot of people in Kanto are, especially those who have small kinds, have been concerning and afraid of its effect. Actually there are two kinds of exposures. One of them is called external exposure though skin, and another is called internal exposure by eating exposed food, like vegetables, fish, meet, chicken, pork etc which are harvested and caught in exposed area. Unfortunately, half life of accumulated nuclear material Cesium is 30 years, so Japanese people in Kanto area have to continue to worry about everything they eat and its effect, even though it will take more than a few years to be able to see its effects come out.
Next time, I would like to tell you about the story that fear for nuclear exposure drives people move to safe place.
I do not know how much percentage of people in the world know the large earthquake hit Japan March 3 2011, but let me tell you how large it is. The observed magnitude was 9 which is 810,000 times as large as atomic bomb which was dropped to Hiroshima in 1945. Japanese is used to middle class earthquakes because earthquakes like 5, 6 class occurs somewhere in Japan every year, but this is the largest one which has ever hit Japan. As a result, more than 20000 peoples unfortunately died because of Tsunami which was equivalent to 10 meters, although number of peoples who died due to breakdown of house and building was less which showed how strong Japanese house is against even large earthquakes.
In addition to that, worst thing happened at the same time. Nuclear power plants collapsed and became out of control, and consequently evacuated much nuclear material, like, Iodine, Cerium, etc, due to melt down. These nuclear material spread out in south direction from nuclear plants, which is called Kanto including Tokyo, the economic center of Japan, and accumulated there. As our world experienced similar nuclear accident of Chernoby nuclear power plant case which occurred in 1986 in Ukraine, we have already known how nuclear radiation is dangerous and how terrible it affect on human body, especially small children. According to reports, people exposed to be nuclear material are likely to suffer from cancers and some of them can die. As is easily predicted, the risk of cancer is much higher for small children than for adults. So a lot of people in Kanto are, especially those who have small kinds, have been concerning and afraid of its effect. Actually there are two kinds of exposures. One of them is called external exposure though skin, and another is called internal exposure by eating exposed food, like vegetables, fish, meet, chicken, pork etc which are harvested and caught in exposed area. Unfortunately, half life of accumulated nuclear material Cesium is 30 years, so Japanese people in Kanto area have to continue to worry about everything they eat and its effect, even though it will take more than a few years to be able to see its effects come out.
Next time, I would like to tell you about the story that fear for nuclear exposure drives people move to safe place.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Employment system of Japan
Hi, today I would like to tell you about employment system of Japan.
Last long time after the defeat of World war II, Japanese employment style is type of lifetime employment which is practice of continuing to employ hired employee up to a fixed retirement age. With this type of system, It is good both for employers and employees in a sense that it is pretty stable employment for employees and employees can see easily future promotion and salary increase if they work harder, so employees can keep motivation for work higher. "Stable" here means that employees are never fired unless they commit something bad, like crimes. This system worked well until late 80s because Japanese economic had been growing rapidly up to be becoming the second largest economic country even though Japan had lost everything in the World War II. However, economic value of Japan was overestimated and its imaginary economic finally collapsed as a large falling in stock market. After this tipping point, Japan has lost its competitive power in the world and entered into long recession period. As a consequence, lifetime employment have not worked well, but Japanese people still has a dream of that employment event though we admit partly that the system is over. So we still stick to it. Japanese companies also still have such idea, so they are not able to fire employees easily. And companies hesitate to hire new employees easily because company still have a idea that they have to employ new person up to a fixed age. This idea is one of reason of bad flexibility of employment and employee can not change their jobs easily.
My point is that Japanese people has to change a mind and forget lifetime employment because it works well only in the high growth of economic. And it does not work in the recession period.
I would appreciate if someone tell me your country employment systems.
Last long time after the defeat of World war II, Japanese employment style is type of lifetime employment which is practice of continuing to employ hired employee up to a fixed retirement age. With this type of system, It is good both for employers and employees in a sense that it is pretty stable employment for employees and employees can see easily future promotion and salary increase if they work harder, so employees can keep motivation for work higher. "Stable" here means that employees are never fired unless they commit something bad, like crimes. This system worked well until late 80s because Japanese economic had been growing rapidly up to be becoming the second largest economic country even though Japan had lost everything in the World War II. However, economic value of Japan was overestimated and its imaginary economic finally collapsed as a large falling in stock market. After this tipping point, Japan has lost its competitive power in the world and entered into long recession period. As a consequence, lifetime employment have not worked well, but Japanese people still has a dream of that employment event though we admit partly that the system is over. So we still stick to it. Japanese companies also still have such idea, so they are not able to fire employees easily. And companies hesitate to hire new employees easily because company still have a idea that they have to employ new person up to a fixed age. This idea is one of reason of bad flexibility of employment and employee can not change their jobs easily.
My point is that Japanese people has to change a mind and forget lifetime employment because it works well only in the high growth of economic. And it does not work in the recession period.
I would appreciate if someone tell me your country employment systems.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)