FIRE-EARTH Report: Japan 02

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How Do You Say ‘Duck-n-Cover’ in Japanese?

Japanese authorities teach schoolkids how to “Duck-n-Cover” —Reports

[Prepared by an affiliated team of political scientists.]

• Report is available from FIRE-EARTH PULSARS.

Related Links:

• “Duck and Cover” Routine to Continue
• Japan holds first-ever evacuation drill simulating North Korean missile strike into waters nearby

Japanese Govt Increasingly Intimidating the Journalists

“In Japan today, rather than the media watching the authorities, the government watches the media”—senior journalist

“Five of Japan’s most respected journalists have accused Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government of pressuring broadcasters to reduce criticism of its policies,” said a report.

In a press conference, held at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan earlier this week, they denounced PM Shinzo Abe’s government for its recent clampdown on press freedom after a minister threatened to revoke their licenses for “biased coverage.”

The Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Sanae Takaichi had warned the broadcasters last month that their licenses would be revoked if they failed to be “impartial” in political coverage.

“In Japan today, rather than the media watching the authorities, the government watches the media,” said Shuntaro Torigoe, a former news anchor on Japanese TV Asahi, adding that the Abe government “is most nervously checking what the media say, because what’s said on television affects his support ratings.”

“It sounds as if the government can suspend the activities of broadcasters or remove newscasters just because they criticized the government,” said Soichiro Okuno, an MP for the Democratic Party of Japan.

“Of all ruling Liberal Democratic Party governments, the Abe administration is most nervously checking what the media say, because what’s said on television affects his support ratings,” Shuntaro Torigoe, a former Mainichi newspaper journalist and news anchor on TV Asahi, said. “In Japan today, rather than the media watching the authorities, the government watches the media.”

The journalists also criticize the MSM for not fighting hard enough for press freedom.

“It’s not so much about political pressure, it’s about deterioration in the media,” said Soichiro Tahara, one of Japan’s most respected journalists, who is known for asking politicians tough questions. “To me, the most serious problem is self-restraint by higher-ups at broadcast stations.”

Reuters News Police Removes Comment on Japan’s Corrupt Politics

A comment concerning the corrupt state of politics in Japan, posted at reuters.com by one of our readers, was disallowed/ removed by Reuters news police.

The reader contended, and we’ve confirmed, that the comment contained original quotes from a book written by a prominent Japanese businessman, humanitarian and author, Toshihiko Abe, who was a former Director of European and American Operations at Casio Ltd.

The book, titled “Japan’s Hidden Face: A Call for Radical Change In Japanese Society & Commerce,” published by BainBridge Books, Philadelphia, is available in the United States  and Japan.

Freedom of press in Japan (!)

“Japanese govt forced Mainichi to remove thousands of articles. My blog had links to about 20,000 reports of rape and other acts of sexual violence perpetrated against woman by Japanese police officers, teachers and other civil servants over a period of four years.”

Related Links

• Japanese journalists feeling increasingly intimidated by government
• Foreign media feels the heat from prickly government minders
• Reuters “Charlie Hebdo” all of my comments after I wrote about systemic corruption in Japan

Global Disasters/ Significant Events – Nov. 23, 2013

4.24 Million Displaced in Super Typhoon HAIYAN

Super Typhoon HAIYAN left 6,848 dead or missing, and affected up to 13.5 million [U.N. estimate] others, while destroying or damaging 1,112,731 houses, and leaving more than 4.24 million Filipinos homeless.

See today’s full entry at 4.24 Million Displaced in Super Typhoon HAIYAN.

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Death Toll Rises in Latvia Store Collapse

Death toll has climbed to at least 51 in Latvia store collapse, said to be the country’s deadliest disaster since its  independence in 1991.

More than 500 square meters of the roof collapsed at the ‘Maxima’ building in Riga in two separate stages, with the second collapse killing several rescue workers, according to reports.

• Officials insists the soil from a garden being built on the roof of the shop was too heavy.
• At least 40 others were injured including 33 who were hospitalized.
• The government has declared three days of mourning, starting Saturday.

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Death toll from China’s oil pipeline blast rises to 47

Death toll in a Sinopec oil pipeline double explosion in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao has climbed to at least 48, said Xinhua.

• At least 138 other people have been injured in the explosions according to other news sources.
• More than 18,000 people have been evacuated from the district where the explosion

“The leaking pipeline, which has been in use since July 1986, measures 711 mm in diameter and runs 248.52 km, with an annual oil transfer capacity of 10 million tonnes, the company said,” according to the report .

Original caption: Photo taken with a mobile phone shows the site of a pipeline explosion in Qingdao, east China’s Shandong Province, Nov. 22, 2013. A fire broke out and the blast occurred around 10 a.m. in the Huangdao District when workers were repairing a petroleum pipeline which broke and resulted in an oil leakage around 3 a.m. Casualties remained unknown. (Xinhua)

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Criminal Imbeciles Desperate to Keep Their Dirty Secrets Hidden

UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression Frank La Rue  has expressed concern over a Japanese government-sponsored bill to protect state secrets.

In a statement released on Friday, La Rue asserted the proposed legislation would threat transparency, which is a core requirement for democratic governance, said reports.

La Rue is concerned that the proposed bill’s definition for protect information is “very broad” and “vague” and that it poses a threat to whistle-blowers and journalists reporting on the secrets.

Meantime, ARTICLE 19, a London-based organization concerned with freedom of expression, has also urged the Japanese National Diet (Japanese Parliament) to reject the pending Special Secret Protection Bill.

“The bill violates international standards on freedom of expression and the right to information. The definition of protected information is overly vague. It is being applied to anything relating to defense, diplomacy, ‘harmful activities’ and ‘terrorism’ and would allow the authorities to hide information about environmental hazards, human rights abuses, corruption and other areas protected by international law.” said the organization.

“Information could be classified as a ‘special secret’ indefinitely by allowing it to be repeatedly classified every five years. Whistleblowers face up to ten years imprisonment with no possibility of any public interest defense. Journalists can be prosecuted for revealing classified information even if they demonstrate that it is in the public interest.”

The bill was passed by the crooked cabinet in October and is currently being heard by the Diet.

Japanese Authorities Lie Again

Japan’s March 11 death-toll figures don’t add up: survivors

The ever-conspiring Japanese authorities say about 15,000 people died in the March 11 disasters and up to 8,000 are missing.  The survivors say count again!

In one fishing village alone about 9,000 are missing, the survivors say.

Bereaved family members of victims of the earthquake and tsunami watch as an excavator digs a temporary mass grave site in Higashi Matsushima, northern Japan March 23, 2011. Credit: Reuters/ Yuriko Nakao

The village of Otsuchi had a population of 15,277, according to the  October 2010 national census, a report said.

Three months after the fateful Megaquake, followed by 15-meter high tsunami waves struck the village,  the local officials can “verify that 6,466 people are living: 1,969 people in shelters and 4,497 in homes on higher ground.” A quick head count of the survivors reveals that 8,811 must have perished.

Understandably, the village officials say the government numbers don’t add up.

FIRE-EARTH estimates that a total of about 46,000 people perished or are missing as a result of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami disasters on March 11, 2011.

Unfortunately, the Japanese government is not alone in falsifying disaster records.

Haiti Earthquake 2010

A year earlier, the Haitian government, aided by the international charity mafia, and their News Network, claimed at least a third of a million people had died as a result of the 7.1Mw quake that struck the capital of Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010.

FIRE-EARTH believes that the number of deaths and serious  injuries from the quake could not have possibly exceeded 5,000 (FIVE THOUSAND).

Christchurch Earthquake

Earlier this year, the NZ government put the number of dead from the Christchurch earthquake at 181.

Reliable sources have informed FIRE-EARTH that many more  people [figure withheld by FIRE-EARTH] had actually lost their lives in that tragedy.

Joplin Tornado

Then, Joplin tornado struck: Tornado Dead to Haunt Missouri Officials

Related Links

• Another Strong Aftershock Strikes Chile
• New Zealand Earthquake UPDATE Feb 24
• Japan Earthquakes, Disasters: Recent History and FIRE-EARTH Forecasts
• The ever-conspiring Japanese nuke officials have doubled estimate for the radiation that escaped from the doomed Fukushima NPP after the March 11 mega quake and tsunami from 370,000 terabecquerels to 770,000 terabecquerels, a report said.