Right Now, It's a Spectator Sport. Before Long It Could Become a Blood Sport.

Trump has people in Canada, Mexico, Japan and Europe a bit worried about how we'll fare in a trade war with the United States. We're told we could be heading toward a recession, a drop in GDP of perhaps 2 per cent.

Trump's abuse of America's traditional allies is small potatoes. The Big Show is the Clash of the Titans, Washington versus Beijing. There's the one to watch because it's possible that could end in fireworks.

It would be much less worrisome if America had a mentally sound president. It doesn't. It has Donald Trump.

Donald Trump is in the White House and the reasonable people, the boys in the long pants, are pretty much gone. Trump has now surrounded himself with some pretty sketchy types like Pompeo, Bolton, Navarro and Haspel. They're the sort who can play on Trump's worst instincts, his deranged sense of grievance, his fears and every base instinct - they are legion. Trump embodies a malignant narcissism. He's extremely sociopathic, utterly lacking in empathy. He's impulsive and more than a little sadistic. These are the foundational attributes that Donald Trump has consistently exhibited his entire life. They're also America's Achilles Heel.

Trump may be attempting to restore America's dominance in the world. He can't. America's days as the world's industrial powerhouse are over. Trump blames that on foreign predators. Not hardly. It was America's industrial giants that, unleashed by globalism, offshored their manufacturing operations to low-wage, minimal-regulation regimes abroad. The United States quite deliberately transitioned to a "fire" economy - finance/insurance/real estate.

A few years ago I read a fascinating analysis by an American labour economist about the state of industrialism in his homeland and why so much of it was gone for good. He pointed out that manufacturing generates stable albeit modest returns on investment. Typically it's something in the range of 3 per cent. At the same time, the fire economy, Wall Street, was generating returns of 9 to 12 per cent. To encourage financial investment the feds began cutting capital gains taxes. The Triumph of the Rentier Class. Trump has no appetite for undoing that.

Do we imagine Chairman-for-Life Xi hasn't taken the measure of Trump and the box he's in? Do we think only Trump will ruthlessly exploit every opportunity, every vulnerability?

Could Trump's trade war be the very opportunity Xi has been looking for? This could be China's opportunity to cement its ascdendancy. History tells us that most of these superpower transitions lead to warfare. That was predictable when ships were made of oak, cannon were cast iron and fired grape shot. This transition will be the first we've seen in the Nuclear Age.

I would bet that Xi has a critical advantage. He can probably weather the domestic reaction to a recessionary trade war much better than Trump. Trump's base will be hit. The Gullibillies are quite vulnerable. But it will be the Kochs, the Coors and the Adelson's who will be gunning for him if they see he's launched a ruinous trade war without much chance of success. They're already incensed with Trump's trade wars. They'll be unforgiving if Trump loses his war with China or winds up groveling for terms. And let's remember who owns America's "bought and paid for" Congress.

Trump is no Simon Bolivar but he may wind up as America's Don Quixote. He cannot endure humiliation and he's now surrounded with people like Bolton, Pompeo, Navarro and Haspel. With those people steering Trump, it's Xi's advantages that I find truly worrisome.

Remember, America is flying solo this time. It has viciously turned on its allies.

Let's hope this doesn't get out of control.

A Hooker is Just a Hooker - Provided, Of Course, She's Korean

This time they're using Japanese academics to dispute the reality of "comfort women" - women, mainly Korean, coerced into prostitution by the Japanese army during WWII.  A less genteel term would be "sex slaves."

A group of Japanese historians is urging McGraw-Hill, the American publisher, to “correct” a college textbook that they say contains “many erroneous expressions” about sex slaves used by Japanese soldiers during World War II.

Saying that the women were simply prostitutes, the group is taking up an official Japanese effort to win support for its perspective on the euphemistically known “comfort women,” a particularly sensitive part of its wartime legacy.

“There are women in Amsterdam who sit in windows displaying their services and in Japan we have Soapland, which is part of the sex trade,” said Ikuhiko Hata, a Harvard- and Columbia-educated emeritus professor at Nippon University, likening the comfort women to those working in the red light districts in the Dutch and Japanese capitals.

“Prostitutes have existed at every time in human history, so I do not believe that comfort women are a special category,” Hata told foreign journalists in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Yeah, those women were just ordinary Korean hookers, the Rape of Nanking never happened and the United States started the war with Japan.  We have this thing we like to use on rogue states.  It's called "sanctions."  Isn't it time we introduced Japan to the concept?

No, This Can't Be Possible. Could Japan Actually Rescind Its Apology to Wartime 'Comfort Women'?

One of several dark stains on the honour of Japan was its practice, during WWII, of impressing foreign women, mainly Korean, into sex slavery to serve Japanese soldiers.  They were called 'Comfort Women' or, in Japanese, Kanji.  Somewhere between 20,000 to 400,000 Korean, Chinese and Philippino women were subjected to sexual slavery.

For the past two decades, Japan has officially recognised its role in coercing the women into sexual slavery. But last week, the conservative administration of Shinzo Abe said it would re-examine an apology issued to former sex slaves in 1993 by the then chief cabinet secretary, Yohei Kono.
The findings could be reflected in a report Abe is expected to release next year to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war.

Japan's resurgent right wing, with Abe at its apex, says there was no official involvement by the wartime Japanese government or military in rounding up women and forcing them into sexual slavery. Instead, it claims the women were willing prostitutes, hired by brokers who took advantage of wartime demand to make easy money.

"The testimonies of comfort women were taken on the understanding that they would take place behind closed doors," the chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, said. "The government will consider whether there can be a revision."

Learning to Live Within Your Own Skin - Japan's Grand Experiment

The Japanese have become perhaps the greyest of the greying nations of the developed world.   This is discussed in The World Today, the public journal of Chatham House, perhaps the world's most venerable and certainly most prestigious think tank.

Everybody knows that Japan is ground zero for global ageing. The youngest of the developed countries as recently as the mid-1970s, it is now the oldest – and its age wave will continue to roll in for decades to come.

By 2050, the proportion of Japanese who are 65 or older is on track to reach 39 per cent, up from 23 per cent in 2010 and only 9 per cent in 1980, when Japan Inc seemed poised to conquer the global economy. Japan’s total population, which is already contracting, will enter a precipitous decline, shrinking by over a half by the end of the century.

To those of us from economies addicted to the growth model, Japan sounds like a ticking time bomb.

Yet Japan enjoys a number of enviable advantages that may better position it to cope with its ageing population than many western countries – at least for a while.

To begin with, its welfare state is not especially generous. All told, government benefits account for just under 40 per cent of the total income of the average Japanese elder. In most European countries, 50, 60, or even 70 per cent of elderly income arrives in the form of a government cheque.

The relatively low dependence of the elderly on benefits, together with a cultural tradition that stresses consensus and shared sacrifice, makes it easier for Japan to rewrite the social contract than it is for most western countries. 

The Japanese also benefit from their family factor.

Then there is the extended family. In Japan, nearly half of old people live with their grown children. This custom not only allows relatively poor Japanese elders to live with their more affluent children, but allows poor young adults to live with their more affluent parents. Multigenerational living not only mitigates the burden of oldage dependency by providing an extra source of support for the old, but also by providing a source of ‘trickle down’ support for the young. While the rate of multigenerational living remains high in southern Europe, it is less than 15 per cent in most western countries. In the Netherlands it is less than 10 per cent and in Sweden it is less than 5 per cent.

Another solution for the Japanese is to up their birth rates.

If Japan is to prosper in the long run – indeed if Japan is to survive – it must raise its fertility rate. Doing so will require the radical transformation of workplace and family cultures. In today’s rich world, it is no longer true that more working women means fewer babies. In fact just the opposite is true. Those countries that facilitate a dual role for women get more of both crucial inputs – workers and babies. Those that do not, get fewer of both. It is no accident that Japan has both one of the very lowest fertility rates in the OECD and one of the very lowest female labour-force participation rates.

In early January, the United Nations University published an intriguing report, Japan as the New Normal: Living in a Constrained Economy. 

...conventional wisdom would suggest that after two decades of recessionary tendencies, Japan should be an economic and societal wreck. But quite the opposite is the case. In many respects Japan seems to be doing fine.

The author noted that, from a GDP perspective, Japan's plight looks far worse than it is.   Here we find the new economics, that goes beyond financial capital to include both natural and social capital.

...the findings of the 2012 Inclusive Wealth Report from the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP).  Set up as an alternative to gross domestic product (GDP), the Inclusive Wealth Index reflects the state of natural resources, the economy and ecological conditions, the population’s health and productive capacity, and measures whether or not national policies are sustainable.

In the years ahead we are likely also to see more reflection upon what Japan’s transition to the “new normal” might actually look like. And remember, this “new normal” will be the future path for most industrialized and industrializing countries.

But the reality is that the new normal may not be as stark as we might expect. There are some who suggest that Japan has not lost anything at all — echoing the findings of the Inclusive Wealth Report. According to financial journalist Anthony Hilton, “Japanese exports increased by 73 percent during the ‘lost decade’ and electricity usage — a key indicator of economic activity — increased by 30 percent. By 2006, Japan’s exports were three times what they were in 1989. As in The Wizard of Oz, being ‘lost’ might not be so bad after all.”

Over at the New York Times, Eamonn Fingleton argues that in recent decades “Japan has succeeded in delivering an increasingly affluent lifestyle to its people despite the financial crash. In the fullness of time, it is likely that this era will be viewed as an outstanding success story.”

One strong proponent of an alternative viewpoint on how Japan is faring is Junko Edahiro, who set up the Institute of Studies in Happiness, Economy and Society (ISHES) in 2011.  She argues that:  “We live not for economic growth. We live for happiness in our daily lives and we hope generations to come can enjoy their happiness. Economies and societies should do something to serve this purpose and should take on different forms and structures if they fail to meet their goals.”

This begs the question: if we are witnessing the end of economic growth, not only in Japan but globally, what are the new forms and structures of economic and societal behaviour that we should be searching for? Surely some of the answers can be found in Japan. Heinberg perhaps captures this best when he states:

“A few nations and communities are already moving in the direction of a steady-state economy. Sweden, Denmark, Japan, and Germany have arguably reached a situation in which they do not depend on high rates of growth to provide for their people. This is not to say these countries have only smooth sailing ahead (Japan in particular is facing a painful adjustment, given its very high levels of government debt), but they are likely to fare better than other nations that have high domestic levels of economic inequality and that have gotten used to high growth rates.”

Like it or not, the growth paradigm is now dysfunctional.  Nations are gradually moving toward "steady state economics" marked by balance, not growth.   This Wiki summary is fairly apt:

The steady state economy is an entirely physical concept. Any non-physical components of an economy (e.g., knowledge) can grow indefinitely. But the physical components (e.g. supplies of natural resources, human populations, and stocks of human-built capital) are constrained and endogenously given. An economy could reach a steady state after a period of growth or after a period of downsizing or degrowth. The objective is to establish it at a sustainable scale that does not exceed ecological limits.

It is critical to realize that there's nothing radical about this concept of equilibrium.   It doesn't herald totalitarianism or any other form of mass servitude.   Indeed it is the final chapter in the theories of all the world's great economists from Adam Smith to John Stuart Mill to Keynes.

John Stuart Mill, a pioneer of economics and one of the most gifted philosophers and scholars of the 19th century,^[8] anticipated the transition from economic growth to a "stationary state." In his magnum opus, Principles of Political Economy, he wrote:

...the increase of wealth is not boundless. The end of growth leads to a stationary state. The stationary state of capital and wealth… would be a very considerable improvement on our present condition.

and

...a stationary condition of capital and population implies no stationary state of human improvement. There would be as much scope as ever for all kinds of mental culture, and moral and social progress; as much room for improving the art of living, and much more likelihood of it being improved, when minds ceased to be engrossed by the art of getting on."^[9]

John Maynard Keynes, one of the most influential economists of the twentieth century,^[10] also considered the day when society could focus on ends (happiness and wellbeing, for example) rather than means (economic growth and individual pursuit of profit). He wrote:

...that avarice is a vice, that the exaction of usury is a misdemeanour, and the love of money is detestable… We shall once more value ends above means and prefer the good to the useful.^[11]

and

The day is not far off when the economic problem will take the back seat where it belongs, and the arena of the heart and the head will be occupied or reoccupied, by our real problems - the problems of life and of human relations, of creation and behavior and religion.^[12]

 This is the path that Japan has embarked upon.  Eventually we Canadians too may find merit in living within our own skin.

It's Still Fossil Fuel

The Japanese have successfully tapped seabed methane clathrates, also known as "flammable ice."   Deposits of compressed and frozen methane are fairly common in northern waters.  British Columbia has looked at exploiting them.

The gas field is about 50km away from Japan's main island, in the Nankai Trough.

Researchers say it could provide an alternative energy source for Japan which imports all its energy needs.

Offshore deposits present a potentially enormous source of methane but also some environmental concern, because the underwater geology containing them is unstable in many places.

 A Japanese study estimated that at least 1.1tn cubic metres of methane hydrate exist in offshore deposits.

This is the equivalent of more than a decade of Japan's gas consumption.

Sea Shepherd Piratical? Hardly.

Japanese whale "researchers" have persuaded a U.S. judge to declare the Sea Shepherd organization piratical.

 The ruling was issued on Wednesday by chief judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th US circuit court of appeals.

In his 18-page opinion, he wrote: "You don't need a peg leg or an eye patch. When you ram ships; hurl containers of acid; drag metal-reinforced ropes in the water to damage propellers and rudders; launch smoke bombs and flares with hooks; and point high-powered lasers at other ships, you are, without a doubt, a pirate, no matter how high-minded you believe your purpose to be." 

Had this ruling come from a country whose justice system had a shred of integrity this ruling would be more worrisome but, it didn't, it was an American court.

Piracy, really?   What is piracy on the high seas after all but unsanctioned privateering?   That's certainly what was on everyone's mind when it was outlawed by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.  It's commerce raiding, pillaging.   There's no element of that whatsoever in the Sea Shepherd campaign against Japanese south ocean whaling masquerading as scientific research.

If anyone is doing any pillaging, it's the Japanese.   They're privateers operating under the sanction of their government that hasn't read the memo that privateering itself has been outlawed since 1856 under the Declaration of Paris.

And the Japanese aren't alone.  Other nations, including Norway, also support whaling.   Many other countries simply turn a blind eye as their commercial fleets destroy one fishery and then move on to the next.

Why did the American court get involved in this?   Because it now provides a vehicle to hunt down the Sea Shepherd ships and leave Japanese whalers to their bloody business, unwatched, unchallenged and unmolested.

Achieving a Steady State Economy for Canada

What if the way forward isn't?   What if it's time for us to turn around, to go back?

James Lovelock said the future of mankind, if there is to be one, will require that we accept, not sustainable growth, but sustainable retreat.   We need to grow smaller.  It's not a matter of choice either.

There are too damned many of us, each demanding an ever-greater amount of resources, and we're far exceeding our planet's ability to regenerate the natural resources we need.   According to research by the Global Footprint Network, we're already using up an annual supply of renewables in just under nine-months.   That means we're in "overshoot" for three months of the year, consuming resources faster than they're to be had.   To make good the difference we're depleting our stocks, eating our seed corn, draining our aquifers, exhausting our farmland, turning forests into cropland, cleaning out our fisheries, on and on and on.

So, how do we go about achieving sustainable retreat?   Do we all go live in caves and eat mud, guarding the entrance with sharpened sticks?   Not at all.   We may, however, need to follow Japan's lead.

"Japan may economically be the “new normal”. By “new normal” I mean a situation where the economy is in recession for prolonged periods of time, seeing only fleeting periods of growth. My struggle relates to the fact that conventional wisdom would suggest that after two decades of recessionary tendencies, Japan should be an economic and societal wreck. But quite the opposite is the case. In many respects Japan seems to be doing fine. 

"Now what leads me to this latter conclusion? I was struck in particular by the findings of the 2012 Inclusive Wealth Report from the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP).  Set up as an alternative to gross domestic product (GDP), the Inclusive Wealth Index reflects the state of natural resources, the economy and ecological conditions, the population’s health and productive capacity, and measures whether or not national policies are sustainable.

"In the report, the authors looked at various indicators in 20 countries, including Japan, over the period from 1990 to 2008, and I was surprised to read the following:

"'Japan depicts the most favorable situation, as it is experiencing wealth accumulation while at the same time increasing its natural capital stocks. This has been achieved primarily through investment in the forest sector. This position is also explained by a slower population growth rate in relation to other nations. This is to a large extent supported by the recent assessment of Japan’s ecosystem services…'

"Four years [after the crash of 2008], after a double-dip recession and with a potential triple dip on the horizon, the return to normality across the globe appears still a distant prospect. In this context, it is easy to understand how in recent years an increasing number of commentators suggest that we are witnessing the end of growth. There is Richard Heinberg, from the Post Carbon Institute and author of The End of Growth , who states that “economic growth as we have known it is over and done with”.

"Experts argue that we are facing the end of global growth and our institutions, policies and individual behaviours and aspirations are going to have to change.

"Jeff Rubin, former Chief Economist with CIBC World Markets, who also has a book with the title The End of Growth, argues that the real engine of economic growth has always been cheap, abundant fuel and resources. But that era is over.

"Energy and finance expert Nate Hagen in a recent lecture also argues that we now face the end of global growth and — although we in advanced economies are still incredibly rich — our institutions, policies and individual behaviours and aspirations are going to have to change.

"Both books and Nate Hagen’s lecture present a rather bleak and depressing assessment of our current situation. We are given three reasons as to why economic growth may be a thing of the past: over-consumption of resources, negative environmental impacts like climate change, and debt. We appear to have maxed out, or to be close to maxing out, the global economy and the biosphere.

"...In the years ahead we are likely also to see more reflection upon what Japan’s transition to the “new normal” might actually look like. And remember, this “new normal” will be the future path for most industrialized and industrializing countries, if people like Heinberg, Rubin, Nagen and Jackson are correct. 

"But the reality is that the new normal may not be as stark as we might expect. There are some who suggest that Japan has not lost anything at all — echoing the findings of the Inclusive Wealth Report.

"...Over at the New York Times, Eamonn Fingleton argues that in recent decades “Japan has succeeded in delivering an increasingly affluent lifestyle to its people despite the financial crash. In the fullness of time, it is likely that this era will be viewed as an outstanding success story.”

"He points out that average life expectancy grew by 4.2 years in the period from 1989 to 2009 while unemployment remains at 4.2 percent, about half that of the United States (US). He also states that the current account surplus has grown threefold since 1989, standing at US$196 billion in 2010.

"...it is important to recognize that Japan continues to invest in infrastructure, to maintain its facilities and to generally keep public places clean and safe. There is still a strong sense of civic pride and social cohesion in the face of economic difficulties. That is not to say that everybody is doing just fine and there are no problems, but the way that the Japanese people pull together in times of crisis is something to be admired.

"One strong proponent of an alternative viewpoint on how Japan is faring is Junko Edahiro, who set up the Institute of Studies in Happiness, Economy and Society (ISHES) in 2011.  She argues that:

"'We live not for economic growth. We live for happiness in our daily lives and we hope generations to come can enjoy their happiness. Economies and societies should do something to serve this purpose and should take on different forms and structures if they fail to meet their goals.”

"This begs the question: if we are witnessing the end of economic growth, not only in Japan but globally, what are the new forms and structures of economic and societal behaviour that we should be searching for? Surely some of the answers can be found in Japan. Heinberg perhaps captures this best when he states:

"'A few nations and communities are already moving in the direction of a steady-state economy. Sweden, Denmark, Japan, and Germany have arguably reached a situation in which they do not depend on high rates of growth to provide for their people. This is not to say these countries have only smooth sailing ahead (Japan in particular is facing a painful adjustment, given its very high levels of government debt), but they are likely to fare better than other nations that have high domestic levels of economic inequality and that have gotten used to high growth rates.”

Reaching a "steady state economy" will entail some measure of sustainable retreat, getting more out of less, undoing counterproductive inequality, breaking our addiction to growth for its own sake.   The forces of corporatism and globalization, within both the public and private sector, will have to be tamed but the writing is on the wall.   Their status quo, living beyond our means, no longer works.

Arms Race Update - India Warns Kashmiris to Prepare for Nuclear War

Indian officials are warning residents in their part of Kashmir to dig bomb shelters and gather a two week supply of food and water in preparation for a possible nuclear exchange.

The notice, published Monday by the Kashmir police in the Greater Kashmir newspaper, advised people to build toilet-equipped basements large enough to house the entire family for two weeks. If there is no basement, residents should construct bunkers in their front yards, the notice advised.

The shelters should be stocked with candles, battery-operated lights and radios and nonperishable food and water that is regularly replaced to ensure it is fresh, it said.

During an attack, it advises drivers to dive out of their cars toward the blast to save themselves from being crushed by their soon-to-be tumbling vehicles. It also warns residents to keep contaminated people out of their shelters.

“Expect some initial disorientation as the blast wave may blow down and carry away many prominent and familiar features,” it advises.

This is probably just sabre-rattling from the Indian side.  Let's hope so.  There's not much chance of world powers compelling India and Pakistan to eliminate their nuclear arsenals, not when those world powers are upgrading their own nuclear arsenals.


Asia, from the Kamchatka Peninsula to the Indian Ocean is becoming insanely bellicose today.    China, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Pakistan seem caught up, in various ways and degrees, in ultra-nationalistic belligerence.   The United States, meanwhile, has reacted like a moth to a candle and may inadvertently help destabilize the region.

Even the Harper government seems to want a piece of the Asian action.  It was just months ago that Peter MacKay, gushing after face-time with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, proclaimed that it was essential that Canada establish a permanent and substantial military presence in the region.

One Fish. One Point Seven Million Dollars. Adios, Blue Fin.

It's a record.  A 222kg blue fin tuna was sold for $1.7-million (155m yen) at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market.

 High bids traditionally mark the year's first auction at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market.

Even the buyer, sushi chain owner Kiyoshi Kimura, who also paid out the record price last year, said the cost was "a bit high".

The sale came amid continued warnings from environmentalists that tuna stocks are dwindling and overfished.
'Encourage Japan'
This year's record-breaking fish was caught off north-eastern Japan and weighed in at 222kg (489lbs), some 47kg lighter than last year's prize-winner, which fetched 56m yen.

Averaged out, that's $3,500 a pound.  Imagine what the last blue fin will fetch.  It's only a matter of time.

Now Will You Stop Killing Whales, You Bastards?

The Japanese supposedly go whaling for "scientific research" purposes.   Hard to tell what they're looking for.    Maybe they're exploring new ways to kill whales or the process by which they die when you explode stuff inside them.   But they were probably killing them for the same purpose they slaughter dolphins - for meat to throw on grocery store shelves at home.

Well it turns out the Japanese are losing their appetite for whale meat.   Of last year's 1,211 tonnes harvested, 908 went unsold despite 13-auctions.

The Institute of Cetacean Research blamed low demand on the complicated auction procedure and reluctance among food suppliers to attract criticism from anti-whaling groups such as Sea Shepherd.

"We could not achieve the results we had anticipated," an institute official told Kyodo.

Maybe it's time the Japanese just packed it in.

The Japanese Live Longest. Why?

A girl born in Japan today can expect to live to age 86.  Japanese life expectancy has increased 30-years since 1947.   A series of papers in the British medical journal, The Lancet, finds the Japanese success has  cultural, social and political roots.

The remarkable improvement in Japanese health began with the rapid economic growth of the late 1950s and 1960s. The government invested heavily in public health, introducing universal health insurance in 1961, free treatment for tuberculosis and cutting childhood deaths through vaccination and treatment of intestinal and respiratory infections.

Following the control of infectious diseases, Japan tackled its high death rate from stroke with salt reduction campaigns and the use of drugs to control blood pressure.
But beyond the government's initiatives, there are attitudes and cultural practices among the people of Japan that have also helped, says the article by Professor Kenji Shibuya, of the department of global health policy at the University of Tokyo, and colleagues.

"First, Japanese people give attention to hygiene in all aspects of their daily life," they write. "This attitude might partly be attributable to a complex interaction of culture, education, climate [eg humidity, temperature], environment [eg having plenty of water and being a rice-eating nation] and the old Shinto tradition of purifying the body and mind before meeting others."

"Second, they are health conscious. In Japan, regular check-ups are the norm. Mass screening is provided for everyone at school and work or in the community by local government authorities. A systematic check-up of the whole body, referred to as a human dry dock, is another type of health screening, which is popular amiong business people - they stay at clinics or hospitals for several days to undergo thorough physical examinations.

"Third, Japanese food has a balanced nutritional benefit and the diet of the Japanese population has improved in tandem with economic development over the past five decades."

Another aspect of Japan that contributes to the cohesiveness and prosperity of their society is income equality.  Japan has the narrowest gap between rich and poor in the industrialized world.

Typhoon Heading for Fukushima?

A major typhoon is barreling toward Japan.  Typhoon Ma-on is expected to make landfall around noon Sunday.   It's path, shown above, indicates it will hit Tokyo and, just past that along that path, lies Fukushima Prefecture.

According to the Saffir-Simpson damage scale the potential property damage and flooding from a storm ofMa-on'sstrength (category 4)at landfall includes:

• Storm surge generally 4.0-5.5 metres (13-18 feet) above normal.
• Curtainwall failures with some complete roof structure failures on small residences.
• Shrubs, trees, and all signs are blown down.
• Complete destruction of mobile homes.
• Extensive damage to doors and windows.
• Low-lying escape routes may be cut by rising water 3-5 hours before arrival of the centre of the storm.
• Major damage to lower floors of structures near the shore.
• Terrain lower than 3 metres (10 feet) above sea level may be flooded requiring massive evacuation of residential areas as far inland as 10 km (6 miles).

This is from reader Chuck's tip, Weather Underground

 

 

The map above is the predicted path of Ma-On next week.  It shows the typhoon could be at category 3 strength pretty much directly over Fukushima by Wednesday.

Japan Nuke Fiasco - Winners & Losers

Wow, throw "nuclear" into the mix and suddenly an enormous natural disaster is turned into an atomic Armageddon even if it's nothing of the sort.    There are thousands, possibly tens of thousands of dead folks in Japan right now.  How many of them died in the nuclear plant explosions?   Two thousand maybe?  Five thousand?   Ten?

Hey, Chicken Licken, how bout a little perspective?

It was a wall of sea water and debris that killed those thousands of Japanese, not their nuclear reactors.    It was that same tsunami that knocked out their reactors, not the earthquakes.   So, take a deep breath, grow up and unbunch those panties.

Besides, think about all the winners that are coming out of those nuclear plant failures -  Big Oil, Big Coal, Big Gas, Muammar Gaddafi among them.  Gaddafi, what does he have to gain from this?   Plenty.   While the world's mono-tasking attention is riveted to some remarkably disinteresting reactor buildings where no one is actually dying (inconvenient that, sort of), the democracy revolution that had been sweeping the Middle East is being swept under the carpet.

If it's the death of innocents that gets you all lathered up, how can a natural disaster in Japan that occured last Thursday compete with a mounting man-made disaster underway in the Muslim world?   We're not responsible for the tectonic plates that lie beneath Japan but we will be for the butchery about to spread through the oil lands of the Middle East while we look the other way.

As Gwynne Dyer argues, Muammar Gaddafi is about a week away from handing the world a massive, bloody fait accompli achieved while we sat around with our thumbs up our asses.

And Now They're Apologizing?

The Japanese waited until just about everyone was dead but how they've apologized for the "inhumane treatment" they doled out to U.S. POWs during WWII.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada met with six surviving former POWs on Monday.   Thousands of Americans died on the infamous Baatan Death March.   Many who survived were put to work as slave labour in plants owned by what are today some of Japan's major manufacturers, outfits like Mitsui, Mitsubishi and Kawasaki.

Some of the former POWs remain bitter that these Japanese industries have never offered them so much as an apology.   They're angry that these manufacturers denied them proper food or medical care and allowed employees to beat them for no reason.   Yeah, well, that's Japan and, besides, you did get to nuke them.

Arms Race Update - Boxing China

In yesterday's Arms Race Update report, India's drive to acquire US anti-missile battery systems was explored. The ostensible purpose is for India to have a safeguard against a nuclear missile strike from Pakistan - just in case the Pakistanis should suddenly go full-bore Islamist, I suppose.

Of course India's rival for emerging economic superpowerdom, China, would also be impacted especially as India moves to develop its own nuclear arsenals.

There's a report in today's Asia Times that Indian anti-missile batteries might merely be a western anchor of an American system stretching eastward through South Korea and into Japan. blanketing China.

Washington could argue that it is merely trying to help India, South Korea and Japan defend themselves against rogue missiles fired out of Pakistan or North Korea. That argument would be about as convincing to Beijing as claiming the Czech and Polish anti-missile system deployments to defend against rogue missiles out of Iran was to Moscow.

It would be naive not to expect China to take this as a clear provocation and a challenge to its own security. After all, if Chinese missiles are neutralized, it's nuclear deterrence capability is crippled and it then becomes enormously vulnerable to nuclear aggression from its rivals.

Unlike the United States or Russia, Chinese military affairs are typically kept very low key but it would be a dangerous mistake to confuse a lack of Chinese outrage with a willingness to tolerate this sort of thing.

China, like Russia, knows there are ways to counter these threats - new missile technologies, more and better warheads, alternate delivery systems including more missile subs - generally upping the ante and, in the process, lowering the nuclear threshold.

This is a high-risk game of brinksmanship that's underway well below the media's radar. Let's hope Obama slams the cork back into this little bottle before the genie is truly out.