One Year After The Earthquake

Landscapes of then and now in Tohoku. 

Remember still on the way of recovery in Tohoku, and Fukushima nuclear plants. 

More photos, if you want to see, click here. And, here is an article by the Japanese prime minister. 

The New Japanese President

The above graph shows GDP growth rate of UK (red line), JPN (green line), and US (purple line as a bench mark for global economy) between 1961 and 2010. In addition, red and green arrows indicate the succession of both Britain's and Japan's prime minister, respectively.

As you can see, the Japanese prime ministers change more frequently than those of UK. According to research on the managerial succession, there are two things regarding top management's changes. One is that poor performance in a firm is more likely to lead a leader to change than good performance. The other is that the more often a manager and CEO in a firm change, the poorer the firm's performance is.

As long as I can see the above graph, I think those facts may apply to this case (though I have not conducted a statistical test to the relationship between the turnover and GDP growth). If the relationship is true, what I expect the new Japanese prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda,  is to be in office as long as possible.

Even as one of the Japanese, I cannot remember the name of the prime minister anymore.

Real Nokanshi

Photo: IMDb

Have you ever watched Departures, a Japanese movie? Basic story is the below:

"Daigo Kobayashi is a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved and now finds himself without a job. Daigo decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over. He answers a classified ad entitled "Departures" thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency only to discover that the job is actually for a "Nokanshi" or "encoffineer," a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While his wife and others despise the job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his work and begins to perfect the art of "Nokanshi," acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living."

Now Japan has faced with a tough situation since the huge earthquake and tsunami hit on March 11. Through the earthquake and tsunami, many people died. In that situation, there is a volunteer, Ms. Ruiko Sasahara who is a professional encoffineer helping the families of identified dead, sharing the sorrows, and making up the face of the dead with the families.

Photo: asahi.com

Until now, she has already taken care of over 300 bodies from a 10-day old baby to above 90 years old person, according to a radio program.

How Changed by the Quake and Tsunami

Day by day, the catastrophe by the quake and tsunami in Japan has been revealed. Whenever I see news on a TV and in a newspaper, I'm disappointed, but I'm relieved by good stories at the same time. I really hope that its situations will be getting better.

The New York Times has uploaded interesting photos. Check them out!!

The top of that photos is of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant I'm most concerned about now. Obviously, the radiation leak crisis is so serious. As long as I listened to comments by Mr. Goto, the former Toshiba Nuclear Plant Designer, it's already worse than the Three Mile Island accident. We should pay attention to what's going on the plants because radiation could have a bad affect on us not only directly but also through food chains for a long time. Hope quick recovery!

8.8 Earthquake Hit in Japan

Yesterday 8.8 magnitude earthquake hit in the eastern area of Japan with huge Tsunami. We are able to get information about Japanese situations from a Japanese Live TV program.

Photo by The Time

Hope the earthquake victims are safe and get a safe place! And, I offer my condolences to the families of those who were killed.