Kurashi - News From Japan

What kind of harmful chemicals are lurking in my PC or mobile phone? I think most of us are just hoping the companies are being responsible, and avoiding polluting the environment. Right? Greenpeace has launched its Guide to Greener Electronics (pdf). It ranks companies on their use of harmful chemicals and electronic waste recycling. The guide should create demand for toxic-free electronics which can be safely recycled, by informing consumers. The scorecard ranks the 14 top mobile and PC producers and currently all fail to get a green ranking. I use a Dell, and hey, they share the top spot with Nokia in the Greenpeace ranking! I'm rather surprised that most Japanese makers are doing so poorly in this survey, and glad to see that South Korean companies are doing better. Third place goes to HP, followed by Sony Ericsson (4th), Samsung (5th), Sony (6th), LG Electronics (7th), Panasonic (8th), Toshiba (9th), Fujitsu Siemens Computers (10th), Apple (11th), Acer (12th) and Motorola (13...

The International Labour Organization is holding an important meeting in Busan, South Korea this week. Director-General Juan Somavia writes about "underemployment, insecurity, poor working conditions and a shortage of marketable skills" in The Korea Times op-ed article Realizing Decent Work in Asia : The lack of social protection, especially among workers in agriculture and the urban informal economy is serious. And despite significant progress in reducing poverty, some 1 billion people are still “working poor” _ working very hard and long hours but unable to lift themselves or their families above the $2 per person per day poverty line. All this creates underlying tensions that demand our attention. I have no doubt that Asian countries have the capacity to address and solve these problems. This is a region of initiative and entrepreneurship of opportunity and challenge. It is a place where resilience, energy and dynamism abound.

Reuters reports that rice farmers in Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and California have sued Bayer CropScience, as Bayer's genetically modified rice has contaminated the crop: The farmers alleged that the unit of Germany's Bayer AG failed to prevent its genetically modified rice, which has not been approved for human consumption, from entering the food chain. As a result, they said, Japan and the European Union have placed strict limits on US rice imports and US rice prices have dropped dramatically. For a longer analysis, check Reuter's US Oversight of Biotech Crops Seen Lacking . The NGO called Center for Food Safety has a great website with updates and background research. You can sign up to get their action alerts and things you can do to make a difference. Genetically modified rice is not approved in Japan, but there are field trials that could potentially contaminate domestic crops through cross-breeding or mixups, as noted here . GMO crops & ...

Worldmapper , a project at Sheffield University, has published over 170 maps that really bend perceptions about the world we live in. They draw nations based on statistical data and morphs the size according to the variable being mapped. The maps presented on their website are equal area cartograms, otherwise known as density-equalising maps. In a New Scientist article, cartographers Danny Dorling and Anna Barford said, "At first glance, people are shocked by them: the shapes look familiar, yet everything is absurdly distorted. Without even thinking, they have learned something about the world they live in." More Worldmapper in the news here . Above is the map of wealth growth. Click to enlarge.

What will your hometown look like as the oceans start to rise? Alex Tingle has used google maps and added flood information. You can scroll and change the elevation. Terrific educational tool and rather scary. Give it a try and play God here . The image here is a screen shot of Tokyo at elevation set to 7 meters. Click to enlarge. Discussion here .

Korean consumers and their advocacy groups are up in arms over the discovery of alien substances in baby formulas despite the government's assurances that they didn't pose health hazards, according to The Korea Times : Consumers have complained that black and metallic fragments have been found in the baby formulas of both domestic and foreign baby formulas. Consumer Korea cited the Korea Environment & Merchandise Testing Institute, which claims that impurities were found in 10 of the 33 baby formula cans tested in a random sampling. Consumer Korea can be accessed on www.cacpk.com : Similac, PediaSure, Ildong Foodis, Namyang Dairy and Maeil Dairy were among the 10 brands whose products were found with impurities, the consumer advocacy group claimed. Eight of the 10 tested products were imported. It is impossible to understand how the Korean government can ignore the worried parents' concern and just say that it has no further plans to investigate the allegations of taint...

The Mainichi had this story about Kanagawa Governor Shigefumi Matsuzawa who helped collecting trash from the beach in Hayama, Kanagawa Prefecture: Matsuzawa joined about 100 people to pick up cigarette butts and other trash from the beach on Aug. 5, the same day that temperatures in the prefecture soared to 36.8 degrees in Ebina and 35.3 degrees in Yokohama. About 30 people, including Matsuzawa, prefectural government employees and officials from the joint public and private sector organization, Kanagawa Coastal Beautification Foundation, wore Mottainai T-shirts on the day. "Just getting the government to do things is not enough," Matsuzawa said. "We want everybody who lives near or comes to play in coastal areas to realize how important it is to have a campaign like this that keeps these places clean." Matsuzawa used a parasol while walking along the beach and throwing trash into his Mottainai garbage bag. When people saw the governor picking up trash, they joined...