It's Just The Olympics

Japan's Olympics minister says organizers have not worked out where to place the ceremonial cauldron in Tokyo's new flagship stadium.

The wooden interior of the new design means installing an internal cauldron could violate Japanese fire codes.

The stadium has been hit by delays and controversy over the cost of an earlier design by Zaha Hadid.

A cheaper design, by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, was chosen in December last year.
The new design will cost 149bn yen ($1.2bn; £825m) to build.

Ms Hadid's plan would have cost 252bn yen, making it the world's most expensive sports venue.

The International Olympic Committee deadline for completion is January 2020, ahead of the Games' start in July that year.

"It appears things were proceeding under the old plans without much discussion [of where to put the cauldron,]" Olympics Minister Toshiaki Endo said.

"The lighting of the flame is the main event of the Olympics. As for exactly how it will be done and where the cauldron will be, that will be discussed at a later date," he added.

He said that he hoped a solution to the problem would be found before April.  Mr Endo will head a panel set up to review the situation of the cauldron.

The International Olympic Committee stipulates that the cauldron should be placed so that it is easy to see for spectators.

Designers had considered placing the cauldron outside the stadium, but this was met with opposition from Japan's Olympics committee.

The Olympic flame is lit in Olympia, Greece, before traveling across the world in a torch relay.  The lighting of the Olympic cauldron by the final torchbearer marks the start of the Games.

If all goes according to plan, visitors to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games will be awestruck before the sporting contests even begin. Attendees will be shuttled around the city by self-driving taxis. 

They’ll enter a newly built national stadium with the swipe of a pass, get verified by facial recognition software and be guided to their seats in one of 10 languages on a smartphone app. 

They may gaze up at the night sky from anywhere in Tokyo to see an artificial meteor shower show unfolding 50 miles above their heads.

Concerted efforts are under way to realize these and other innovations and emulate the enviable legacy of technological superiority and reputation rebuilding that emerged from the last Summer Games Japan hosted, in 1964. 

Olympic organizers, innovators, entrepreneurs and academics are working on ambitious projects that could enhance Japanese society and beyond long after the closing ceremony.

It's Just a Water Leak

A radioactive water leak has halted plans to re-start a reactor at a nuclear power plant in western Japan.  

This would have been the fourth to come online after a nationwide shutdown, its operator recently said.

Kansai Electric Power said some 34 litres (8.8 gallons) of cooling water containing radioactive substances leaked out from the reactor at its Takahama plant 380 kilometres (236 miles) west of Tokyo.

"Resumption procedures related to the incident have been suspended as we are still investigating the cause," a company spokesman said, adding that there was no impact on the environment outside the plant.

The government and utility firms have been pushing to get reactors back in operation nearly five years after a huge earthquake and tsunami caused a disastrous meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The accident forced all of Japan's dozens of reactors offline for about two years in the face of public worries over the safety of nuclear technology and fears about radiation exposure.

Last month, another reactor at Kansai Electric Power's Takahama plant was switched on, but the accident stalls plans to bring the next one online which have already met with stiff opposition from local residents.

The Fukui District Court in December overturned an injunction preventing a re-start of the two reactors which had been won by residents, who argued it was not proven to be safe despite a green light from the national Nuclear Regulation Authority.

Two reactors in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima, operated by Kyushu Electric Power, restarted in August and October 2015, ending the two-year hiatus in nuclear power generation.

But many Japanese remain wary and thousands of former residents have refused to return to areas hit by the Fukushima meltdown over fears of radiation exposure.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (福島第一原子力発電所事故 was an energy accident at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, initiated primarily by the tsunami of the Tōhoku earthquake on 11 March 2011. 

The damage caused by the tsunami produced equipment failures, and without this equipment a loss-of-coolant accident followed with three nuclear meltdowns and releases of radioactive materials beginning on 12 March. 

 It is the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 and the second disaster (after Chernobyl) to be given the Level 7 event classification of the International Nuclear Event Scale.

Everybody Wants to Sue

The defiant southern region of Okinawa counter sued Japan's government Friday over local resistance to a new US military base, the latest chapter in deepening mistrust between central authorities and the strategic island.

The lawsuit by Okinawa prefecture comes after the central government sued it last month amid a long-running drama between Tokyo, keen to satisfy security ally the United States, and Okinawa, where frustration over a seven-decade American military presence is rife.

Pacifist sentiments run high on the island that accounts for less than one percent of Japan's total land area but hosts about 75 percent of US military facilities in the country.

Earlier this week, Okinawa governor Takeshi Onaga renewed his pledge to prevent the central government from building a US Marine base in a remote part of the island to replace the existing Futenma facility in a heavily populated area.

"Taking every possible measure, I will not let (the central government) construct the base," Onaga said.

In October, Onaga cancelled a 2013 approval for the project by his predecessor, saying it was not legally sound, prompting Tokyo to seek court action.

Okinawa's suit, filed in the prefectural capital of Naha, asks the court to revive his cancellation order of a landfill permit, which is currently nullified by the central government, court and local officials said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga described the latest legal action as "extremely regrettable," insisting the initial approval was legal and formed a precedent that allows landfill work to continue.

Work in the Henoko district of Nago city in the island's north is only in the initial stages, with crews setting up sea floats and a makeshift bridge necessary for the landfill work.

Japan and the United States first proposed moving Futenma in 1996, though both insisted it must remain in Okinawa -- a key area from which US troops and aircraft can react to potential conflicts throughout Asia.

But residents have insisted Futenma should be closed and a replacement built elsewhere in another part of Japan or overseas, saying they can no longer live with the noise pollution, accidents and occasional crimes committed by US service members.

Japan Stops Whaling

(Reuters) Japan's whaling fleet set out for the Antarctic on Tuesday to resume a decades-old whale hunt, defying global outrage, after a year's hiatus due to an international court ruling.

Japan aims to take more than 300 whales in its "scientific whaling" programme before the hunt ends next year.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled last year that Japan's whaling in the Southern Ocean should stop and an International Whaling Commission (IWC) panel said in April that Japan had yet to demonstrate a need for "lethal sampling".

But Tokyo, which had vowed from the start to resume its "scientific whaling" programme from the 2015/2016 season, retooled its hunt plan to cut the number of minke whales it intends to take to 333, down by two-thirds from previous hunts.

"Last year, regrettably, the ICJ made its ruling and we were unable to take whales," said Tomoaki Nakao, the mayor of the western city of Shimonoseki that is home to much of Japan's whaling fleet and part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's election district.

"There's nothing as happy as this day," he told the fleet's crew at a ceremony prior to their departure.
Shortly before noon the ships sailed away under a clear blue sky, with family members and officials waving from shore. 

The hunt is expected to last until March.

Japan, which has long maintained that most whale species are not endangered and that eating whale is part of its food culture, began what it calls "scientific whaling" in 1987, a year after an international whaling moratorium took effect.

It says its whaling surveys are needed for information on how whales live, including what they eat, as well as population numbers. 

The meat ends up on store shelves, although most Japanese no longer eat it.

Officials, including Abe, have long said their ultimate goal is the resumption of commercial whaling - a pledge Abe repeated in a message read at the pre-departure ceremony.

Australian Environment Minister Greg Hunt said in a statement that his country strongly opposes Japan's decision.

"We do not accept in any way, shape or form the concept of killing whales for scientific research," he added. (Writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Michael Perry)

Lack of Evidence

A Japanese woman and her boyfriend were released after two decades of a life sentence Monday after a court agreed there were serious questions about their guilt in the arson murder of her 11-year-old daughter.

Keiko Aoki, 51, and her 49-year-old common-law husband Tatsuhiro Boku, emerged from separate jails as supporters cheered their release, television footage showed.

"After 20 years, I can finally return to the life that I deserve," Aoki told reporters.

"I can hear my daughter saying to me 'Mom, I'm happy for you'. I want to tell her 'thank you' for watching over me all this time." 

The couple had been found guilty of setting their house on fire by spraying gasoline in the garage -- a blaze that killed Aoki's daughter Megumi -- in an attempt to claim insurance money.

But a court in Osaka on Friday upheld a lower court's decision to order new trials in the case amid serious doubts about the couple's guilt.

It was not clear why there was a delay between Friday's decision and their release.

Defense lawyers had argued that subsequent tests suggested the fire was likely not arson, and there were questions about whether the boyfriend was forced into a false confession during his interrogation.  Read more: 

Japan's Boob Goddess

A Japanese woman known as the "Boob Goddess" hopes to rake in cash with a modified rake that she claims can firm a woman's bust and even enlarge it.

Takiko Shindo is known for something called "Oppai Taisou," which roughly translates into English as boob exercise massage."

Her latest advancement in the bustling field of bust enhancement is something called the "Oppai Taisou Hand," that is basically a pink rake for stroking and brushing one's breasts, according to Rocket News 24.

The rakish product sells online for between $41 and $54. A commercial suggests it can increase a woman's bust by three centimeters.

The so-called "science," according to Shindo, is that ligaments holding up breasts need to move. Otherwise fats in the same area settle down around the chest muscles, and causes breasts to sag, Rocket News 24 reports.

As titillating as it sounds, Shindo's theory flies in the face of modern medicine, according to Dr. Barry Handler, a board-certified cosmetic surgeon in San Diego.

"There are ligaments in breast tissue that stretch over time," he told HuffPost. "But once they stretch, they don't snap back. Ligaments aren't like muscles -- there's no contractible property."

But Shindo's mammary massage device may not be a complete bust, according to Dr. Bruce Lee, a Beverly Hills-based gynecologist.

"Usage of the breast rake upon oneself actually does accomplish several things that theoretically could alter the perception of breast size and shape," he told HuffPost by email. "When holding the rake in the right hand and massaging and lifting the left breast, one is actually exercising the right pectoral muscles, which lie beneath the breast."

Lee says these muscles, when exercised, will enlarge and tighten and add shape to the upper body. He also says mechanical breast stimulation can increase breast growth in both men and women.

"Certainly, the breast hand or rake is a novel stimulus for the manufacturer, who, no doubt, is smiling. And, pardon the pun, handily raking it in," he said.

Demise of Car Washes

Japanese giant Nissan has developed the world’s first  ‘self-cleaning car’ which it predicts will make car-washing ‘obsolete.’

Its UK engineers are testing innovative ‘nano-paint technology’ which repels dirt before it gets a chance to take hold on the paintwork.

For drivers who would rather run a mile than wipe down their dirty vehicles with a sponge or wince at the high cost of a car-wash, it means salvation may soon be at hand.

It is set to be an option on future models but is being tested in Britain on the new Sunderland-built Nissan Note which went on sale in October priced from £12,100 to £17,100.

No price has yet been set but it is likely to be around £450 ($750) – or similar to a metallic paint option.

A Nissan spokesman said: ‘The Nissan Note is first car to trial paint which could make car washes obsolete.

‘Washing a car can be a chore - and a costly one at that. In response, Nissan has begun tests on innovative paint technology that repels mud, rain and everyday dirt, meaning drivers may never have to clean their car again.’

Scientists have developed ‘super-hydrophobic’ and ‘oleophobic’ paint, which repels water and oils. It has been applied to the all-new Nissan Note supermini  to create what it calls ‘the world's first self-cleaning car’.

Nissan says it is the first carmaker to apply the trade-marked technology called Ultra-Ever Dry® on automotive bodywork and will be testing it ‘in the real world’ over the coming months at its European Technical Centre at Cranfield in Bedfordshire.

Explaining how the dirt-repellent coating works, a Nissan spokesman said: ‘By creating a protective layer of air between the paint and environment, it effectively stops standing water and road spray from creating dirty marks on the car's surface.’

The Note already features a ‘wash and blow dry' function on its rear view camera. This uses water and compressed air to automatically keep the lens free of dirt and ensure the Notes' safety sensors work in all conditions.

A spokesman said: ‘So far, the coating has responded well to common use cases including rain, spray, frost, sleet and standing water.’

Chief marketing manager Geraldine Ingham said; ‘The Nissan Note has been carefully engineered to take the stress out of customer driving and Nissan's engineers are constantly thinking of new ways to make families' lives easier.

‘We are committed to addressing everyday problems our customers face and will always consider testing exciting, cutting edge technology like this incredible coating application.’

Nissan employs 8,500 people in Britain, including 7,300 at the Sunderland factory, 950 at the Cranfield Technical Centre and 50 at Nissan’s European design center at Paddington in London.

Solar Panel Belt

A Japanese construction firm is proposing to solve the well-documented energy problems facing Japan - and ultimately the entire planet - by turning the moon into a colossal solar power plant.

Tokyo-based Shimizu Corp. wants to lay a belt of solar panels 250 miles wide around the equator of our orbiting neighbor and then relay the constant supply of energy to “receiving stations” on Earth by way of lasers or microwave transmission.

The “Luna Ring” that is being proposed would be capable of sending 13,000 terawatts of power to Earth. Throughout the whole of 2011, it points out, the United States only generated 4,100 terawatts of power.

“A shift from economical use of limited resources to the unlimited use of clean energy is the ultimate dream of mankind,” Shimizu says in the proposal on its web site. “The Luna Ring ... translates this dream into reality through ingenious ideas coupled with advanced space technologies.”

Public opposition to atomic energy has hardened in the intervening years, as the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. struggle to bring the stricken plant’s reactors under control.

There is a general acceptance that Japan, which shut down its last functioning nuclear reactor in September, will need to restart its nuclear plants in the short term, but the disaster has focused new attention on alternative - and safer - forms of energy.

Shimizu first came up with its Luna Ring proposal before the accident at Fukushima, but the ongoing crisis means it is attracting renewed interest.

Shimizu is reluctant to put a price tag on the construction costs involved but, given adequate funding, the company believes construction work could get under way as early as 2035.

Robots and automated equipment would be developed to mine the moon’s natural resources and produce concrete and the solar cells required for the scheme.

Once completed, the belt would stretch 6,800 miles around the equator and ensure constant exposure to the sun - without the interference of cloud cover - and an equally constant transfer of energy to the Earth.

Shimizu believes that “virtually inexhaustible, non-polluting solar energy is the ultimate source of green energy”.

The Yakuza Connection

Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) will inspect three major banks, including giant Mitsubishi, over possible transactions involving yakuza (above) organized crime gangs.

One of them, Mizuho Financial, has already admitted senior managers knew three years ago it had lent 200m yen ($2m; £1.28m) to Japanese criminal gangs, but did not take action.

The bank had previously denied knowing about the loans to yakuza gangsters.

Yasuhiro Sato, the group's president, said an internal investigation showed former president Satoru Nishibori was made aware of the loans when they first came to light in 2010.

Meanwhile, Japan's Financial Services Agency has asked the group to submit a business improvement plan, which includes a "workable and concrete policy to prevent any recurrence" of such incidents in the future.

It has also asked it to implement a compliance structure and enhance its internal auditing functions.

Sumitomo Mitsui is the third involved.

The yakuza gangs are not actually illegal. But like the Italian mafia or the Chinese triads, they are involved in unsavory activities such as gambling, drugs and prostitution, as well as operating protection rackets.

The origin of the yakuza is a matter of some debate.  Some feel that its members are descendants of the 17th-century kabuki-mono (crazy ones), outlandish samurai who reveled in outlandish clothing and hair styles, spoke in elaborate slang, and carried unusually long swords in their belts. 

The kabuki-mono were also known as hatamoto-yakko (servants of the shogun).  During the Tokugawa era, an extended period of peace in Japan, the services of these samurai were no longer needed, and so they became leaderless ronin (wave men). 

Without the guidance of a strong hand, they eventually shifted their focus from community service to theft and mayhem.

Modern yakuza members refute this theory and instead proclaim themselves to be the descendants of the machi-yokko (servants of the town) who protected their villages from the wayward hatamoto-yakko. 

The official yakuza history portrays the group's ancestors as underdog folk heroes who stood up for the poor and the defenseless, just as Robin Hood helped the peasants of medieval England.

Lawyers hired by Mizuho to look into the transactions said "many officials and board members were aware of, or were in a position to be aware of, the issue".

But the lawyers' report also said that Mizuho failed to recognize it as a problem, believing that the compliance division "was taking care of it".

The company said 54 former and current executives would be punished, including Mizuho bank chairman, Takashi Tsukamoto, who is resigning his position but will remain as head of the parent company.

Stop Having Sex

Ai Aoyama is a sex and relationship counselor who works out of her narrow three level home on a Tokyo back street. Her first name means "love" in Japanese, and is a keepsake from her earlier days as a professional dominatrix. Back then, about 15 years ago, she was Queen Ai, or Queen Love, and she did "all the usual things" like tying people up and dripping hot wax on their nipples. Her work today, she says, is far more challenging.

Aoyama, 52, is trying to cure what Japan's media callssekkusu shinai shokogun, or "celibacy syndrome".

Japan's under-40s appear to be losing interest in conventional relationships. Millions aren't even dating, and increasing numbers can't be bothered with sex. For their government, "celibacy syndrome" is part of a looming national catastrophe. Japan already has one of the world's lowest birth rates. Its population of 126 million, which has been shrinking for the past decade, is projected to plunge a further one-third by 2060. Aoyama believes the country is experiencing "a flight from human intimacy" – and it's partly the government's fault.

The sign outside her building says "Clinic". She greets me in yoga pants and fluffy animal slippers, cradling a Pekingese dog whom she introduces as Marilyn Monroe. In her business pamphlet, she offers up the gloriously random confidence that she visited North Korea in the 1990s' and squeezed the testicles of a top army general. It doesn't say whether she was invited there specifically for that purpose, but the message to her clients is clear: she doesn't judge.

Inside, she takes me upstairs to her "relaxation room" – a bedroom with no furniture except a double futon. "It will be quiet in here," she says. Aoyama's first task with most of her clients is encouraging them "to stop apologizing for their own physical existence".

The number of single people has reached a record high. A survey in 2011 found that 61% of unmarried men and 49% of women aged 18-34were not in any kind of romantic relationship, a rise of almost 10% from five years earlier. Another study found that a third of people under 30 had never dated at all. (There are no figures for same-sex relationships). 

Although there has long been a pragmatic separation of love and sex in Japan – a country mostly free of religious morals – sex fares no better. A survey earlier this year by the Japan Family Planning Association (JFPA) found that 45% of women aged 16-24 "were not interested in or despised sexual contact". 

More than a quarter of men felt the same way.

Don't You Do

China and Japan are both worried about the current upcoming fight over the U.S. debt limit.

According to the Independent:

The Chinese Vice Foreign Minister, Zhu Guangyao, told America's deadlocked politicians on Monday that "the clock is ticking" and called on them to approve an extension of the national borrowing limit before the federal government is projected to run out of cash on 17 October.

"We ask that the United States earnestly takes steps to resolve in a timely way the political issues around the debt ceiling and prevent a US debt default to ensure the safety of Chinese investments in the United States," Mr Zhu told reporters in Beijing. "This is the United States' responsibility," he added.

If the United States doesn't, what would happen?

China might have to give up its mercantile strategy of holding the yuan far below its market rate while keeping out American products in order to steal American industry. 

China might lose money on some of the loans that it made to the United States government as a byproduct of this mercantile strategy.

Japan is also concerned. It is threatening to slow or stop its purchases of U.S. Securities. 

Financial Times reports:  

On Tuesday Japan's finance minister Taro Aso called on "the United States to resolve its debt ceiling stand-off without delay."  

The absolute value of US bonds held by the Japanese government could decline if the situation was not brought to a swift end, he added.

Over the last year, Japan has bought dollars and invested them in U.S. bonds in order to lower the exchange rate of the yen versus the dollar by about 25% (from 1.28 cents per yen on October 8, 2012 to 1.02 cents per yen on October 8, 2013).

They wanted Japanese automobile and electronics companies to earn huge profits in their competition with American car companies and electronics companies.

These Japanese companies will likely invest some of their increased profits in new products, which should enable them to gain market share in their competition with American companies.

If Japan and China stop buying dollars with their currencies to keep their currencies at an artificially low value, they may have to let their currencies rise in foreign exchange markets.

They might even have to take down their trade barriers and let their people buy American products with the dollars that their exporters are earning from selling to the United States.