Keyword: Japan

Japan's Part-Time Workers Forced to Live in Internet Cafes

Picture: Media Storm Video Internet café refugees started appearing in Japan in the late 1990's. They are temporary workers who live in Intenet café cubicles because their salaries are too low to rent apartments. Japan's temporary workers earn less than half the income of full time employees; a disparity that leads directly to poverty. “Net Café Refugees” is a short film by Shiho Fukada. It forms part of a trilogy of films that examine Japan's highly stressful work environment. From...

Nuclear Engineer: Japan's PM 'Lying to the Japanese People' about Safety of Fukushima

Picture: Emma Stoye Video “If you leave it to the Japanese government, we're never going to get transparency,” contends Arnie Gundersen a nuclear specialist. “Japanese researchers are afraid to tell the truth. We've got doctors calling us saying we know our patients have radiation illness and the hospital isn't allowing us to tell the patients that. We've got researchers talking about defects in animals, and they're not allowed to publish their data,” says Gundersen, in response to recent...

New Fukushima Leak Much Worse than Being Presented

Picture:  SandoCap/Flickr Video Last week Japan's nuclear watchdog said a toxic water leak at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant has been classified as a level 3 "serious incident" on an international scale. But, Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear argues that this rating is far too low. He explains what Fukushima really means for the planet. Presently there are large volumes of radioactive groundwater leaking into the Pacific Ocean from the site, bypassing an underground barrier built to contain it. Meanwhile there...

As Japan Says Fukushima Disaster 'Man-Made' & 'Preventable', Fears Grow for Nuclear Plants Worldwide

Picture: Abode of Chaos/Flickr Video A Japanese parliamentary inquiry has concluded that the 2011 nuclear meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was "a profoundly man-made disaster that could and should have been foreseen and prevented". The more than 600-page report urged greater safety around nuclear plants. It also urged the Japanese government to be more transparent about its relationship with the nuclear industry. In a surprise turn, the report also leveled criticism at the Japanese culture of...

Nuclear Power Will Lead to Economic Ruin

Picture: www.solarpower.evinger.com Glenn Ashton - The technocrats are on the ascent and nuclear power is yet again on the cards for South Africa. How has the moratorium of 2008 been reversed? How can nuclear power, which was then considered an unaffordable option, suddenly have become affordable again? This is a story with many twists and turns. The nuclear lobby is, like any major industry, well resourced. It has consistently managed to project positions, which appear logical and reasonable – that nuclear power is safe, reduces...

Fukushima's Suicide Squads

Picture: Kamran Sadaghiani Russell D. Hoffman - Glow Boys and Gamma Sponges They call them "gamma sponges" and "glow boys." The teams are called "suicide squads." Richard "Rich Rad" Meserve, former Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- and now head of a mindless Washington pro-nuclear lobbying think-tank -- calls them "jumpers" as if it were something fun to do. Or perhaps he considers the job healthy exercise. The suits are certainly very heavy, the work arduous, tedious,...