Kurashi - News From Japan

More money to efforts to get Japan more firmly on the track towards renewable energy? Green Gift is a project I really like. It encourages grandparents to give money to their children/grandchildren for use of renewable energy-based power. Specifically, when grandparents give money to their children/grandchildren for the installation of solar power generation facilities or fuel cell-based co-generation systems, such money is exempted from gift tax. I believe this is the first such project in the world. Green Gift means grandparents can make a gift that contributes to the global environment while their children/grandchildren can reduce utility costs and gain an income from selling solar electricity. Also, the installation of low-carbon-emission facilities and renovations for adding energy-saving facilities are expected to create business opportunities for local device/parts makers and contractors, energize local economies and revitalize local communities. This system...

Huge demonstration today in Yoyogi Park in central Tokyo with tens of thousands of people voicing their concern about nuclear power plants. Japan still manages fine with all of them shut down. No to restart! Consumers Union of Japan and many, many other NGOs supported this event. Photos from The Mainichi .

Remember these guys that looked like they were trying to bolt from my refrigerator? I planted them and 4 months later, they have given a steady, daily harvest of tasty green peas! Thanks to some of you who have been sending links. The solar energy boom continues in Japan, according to Rudolf ten Hoedt in my new favourite city, Kagoshima. Well researched article published by Energy Post and others, pointing out that the boom is not without issues: For Japan, solar obviously has priority over wind power. 6.7 GW of solar capacity was approved in Japan for the feed-in-tariff (FIT) scheme in 2013. Almost half of this was utility-scale solar. This year, Japan is even expected to install over 10 GW of solar power, with more than half of this being utility-scale solar. The boom in utility scale solar got started by an FIT- program introduced in 2012 by the Japanese government. Under this program, regional utilities have to buy power from solar and other renewable energy producers...

IPCC report warns that climate change could threaten food security, increase poverty and become an indirect cause of conflicts, says NHK World today as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting ends in Yokohama. At a press conference Monday, IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri emphasized the need to take the predictions seriously and make efforts to address problems related to global warming. No one would be immune from the impact of global warming, he said. The report mentioned frequent surges in food prices that took place after IPCC published a similar report in 2007. It stated that abnormal weather that frequently struck main food-producing areas, including heat waves, droughts and floods, were a principal factor behind the sharp rises in food prices. The report said a 2 C increase in temperature would cause a decrease in the harvest of rice, wheat and corn in temperate and tropical regions. An increase of 4 C or more would deal a serious blow to each nation’s ...

Kyushu is rather very far away from Tokyo, and has been that way since time immemorial when the good people in Satsuma (Kagoshima) refused to go along with/only reluctantly accepted the bakufu (Edo/Tokyo), and the rest is history. I had the pleasure of visiting these southern parts of Japan, staying at Kurokawa Onsen, and then I went further to Yakushima, an island with great cedar trees that are up to 7000 years old. Some 40% of the island is protected. Shiratani and Yakusugi Land provide the kind of hiking I had always dreamt of. But the local harbour and the main roads along the coast are being "developed"and there is a lot of construction going on. You can get a terrific cappuccino at the   Yakushima Island Environmental and Cultural Village Center 屋久島環境文化村センター (yakushima kankyou bunka mura senta) One helpful guide who had previously been in the Self Defense Forces but was now working at Shiratani told me that the busy road projects w...

February 9 is the date of the vote for a new mayor for Tokyo, and it has been called a "nuclear referendum" but I smell rat. The candidates may be for or against nuclear power. But the reality is that for Tokyo citizens, there is very little possibility of nuclear power plants to provide energy for the city's bright lights. Consumers, who vote, should know that only a handful of nuclear power plants that may provide energy to the metropolis are even candidates for restarts. A reminder: Currently, none of Japan's 48 nuclear power plants are online. Japan has completely gone off the nuclear "heroin" drug. But 16 are applying for restarts as of February 1, 2014 (pdf) . Of those, only two would be in any position to provide Tokyo with electricity. Those are reactors 6 and 7 in Kashiwasaki Kariwa in far away Niigata prefecture. Both were severely shaken by the earthquake back in 2007, so we know they are not yet confirmed to be safe as such. No other...

Get the latest Japanese newsletter from Consumers Union of Japan, in Japanese . CUJ was founded back in 1969 and has been an independent voice for a long time. Do check out the CUJ history, in English . I remember how proud we were when we got the NPO legislation status. Our main focus has been on the UN Convention of Biological Diversity, and the WTO, and the TPP. We also care about food labels and other cases of consumer fraud. Consumers Union of Japan (CUJ) is a politically and financially independent non-governmental organization (NGO). CUJ is funded by membership fees, sales of its publications and donations. CUJ was founded in April 1969 as Japan's first nationwide grassroots consumer organization. It was officially certified as a non-profit organization on May 1, 2006 by the new Japanese NPO legislation. NPO, NGO... these are the ways the government tries to keep people at bay. But Consumers Union of Japan and its many campaigns have managed to stay independent ov...

Do watch the TED talk video, I have to share this post from Ten Thousand Things : Alex Kerr's beautiful old/new Japanese country houses and the movement to save traditional Japan Great talk and breathtaking photos by author and historic preservationist Alex Kerr at TEDx in Kyoto on his mission to save Japanese country houses. Japan is so rich: the natural environment, the fantastic traditional culture, the wealth of beauty and materials and spirit of lifestyle that you find in these old places. It's there and it can be saved. Kerr uses double-paned windows for energy conservation. If his country houses were updated for solar, renewable energy, that would be even more modernizing, given 3/11's call to shift, downsize energy usage. The reason small towns in Japan (and elsewhere) are experiencing depopulation is because they were built around local (agricultural, fishing) economies that have been collapsing under the global food industry'...

Soil & Peace Festival 2013 There will be a Soil & Peace Festival in Hibiya Park, Tokyo on Sunday October 20, 2013. Starting at 10:00 hundreds of farmers and activists and artists will hold a great event until the evening. A great opportunity to meet your favourite NGOs and learn more about organic food, anti-nuclear campaigns and the future of Japan. Look forward to lots of inspiration! Music by Katou Tokiko and many others throughout the day, starting with a taiko performance by Gocco . Website with more info (J) here   International Film Festival on Organic Farming The 7th organic film festival will be held in Tokyo on November 23-24, 2013. This will be a great opportunity to catch up with recent trends and watch documentaries from Japan and abroad. The theme this year is “Holding on to the Soil” to refelct the hardships many farmers are experiencing, with special focus on Okinawa and Fukushima. Location: Hosei Unive...

Just as predicted, main stream media promotes fracking and goes to no extreme in publishing claims about other "future" solutions to energy issues. Now it is "Scientists in Japan and the U.S. say they are moving closer to tapping a new source of energy: methane hydrate, a crystalline form of natural gas found in Arctic permafrost and at the bottom of oceans." AP/Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal: Scientists Envision Fracking in Arctic and on Ocean Floor Commercial production of methane hydrate is expected to take at least a decade—if it comes at all. Different technologies to harvest the gas are being tested, but so far no single approach has been perfected, and it remains prohibitively expensive.  So, what are some of the concerns? The biggest concern is that the sediment that contains methane hydrate is inherently unstable, meaning a drilling accident could set off a landslide that sends massive amounts of methane—a potent greenhouse gas—bubbling up th...

Gasoline prices are hovering around 160 Yen per litre which is very high, and potentially "bad for the economy" except things aren't that simple. As readers of Kurashi know, we are in an era of post-peak oil where globally, we will never be able to return to the hey-days of cheap hydrocarbons easily pumped out of huge oil fields. And when energy gets too expensive, societies and countries enter into recession, which leads to lower demand for energy, so prices may again fall. Chaos is a mild term as this cycle continues to hurt consumers and local communities. Enter fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, a complicated process that has become increasingly popular in the United States over the past 5-10 years. Basically, deep drill holes are bored, then turned horizontally. Massive amounts of water, sand and chemicals are introduced to "fracture" the rock and get hydrocarbons (gas, oil, whatever) back up to the surface. These need to be transported by pipeline or t...

Oh, the irony. We had a perfectly good opportunity to get a breakup of the electricity company monopoly today, and the Upper House of the Japanese Parliament manages to screw it up on a technicality. Makes you think there are no coincidences, but nevertheless. There is still a chance later this year, and this is important. OK, so here are some links, in case you are interested. And you should be, because this is how we can wean this blessed country* away from singular relying on nuclear power. And yes, there are alternatives, if we, the consumers, get a chance to choose. And if this bill passes, we will be in a better position to do so (And yes, I know there is a lot of hydro power too in Japan, which is a perfectly good renewable energy resource, but it is not how we are going to solve the energy crisis if we ask for nuclear power plants to be stopped). So here are the links: 1) NHK World: Bill to revise electricity business scrapped (Not exactly true, since it will come back ...