Special Edition: Live From Japan
Blue Yeti ·
Mar 24, 2011 at 3:18pm
This week, Japan based Ricochet member Outstripp wrote a riveting post about conditions in the country and how he and his family were adjusting post quake/meltdown life there. We tracked him down and asked him if we could talk to him for a few minutes (28 to be precise) and he graciously said yes. It's a fascinating first hand account of what conditions are like right now in Japan.
The direct link to this podcast is here.
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Jun '10
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
Thank you, that was very good stuff. To some degree we in Vancouver are also holding our collective breath as this area sits on another fault line, and our concern is with the potential for a quake caused by the displacement of plates in the Pacific. This quake was so powerful that it tilted the earth's axis by some six degrees, so out fears in Vancouver may not be unjustified.
Mar '11
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
Cas careful with the units:
"Richard Gross, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, calculates that last week's earthquake off Japan's coast may have shortened the length of Earth's days by about 1.26 microseconds and shifted its axis by about 6.5 inches. Gross describes the findings and explains how changes in Earth's land masses affect the way it spins."
We would be talking a very different story if it was 6 degrees.
Jun '10
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
GLDIII: Cas careful with the units:
"Richard Gross, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, calculates that last week's earthquake off Japan's coast may have shortened the length of Earth's days by about 1.26 microseconds and shifted its axis by about 6.5 inches. Gross describes the findings and explains how changes in Earth's land masses affect the way it spins."
We would be talking a very different story if it was 6 degrees. · Mar 24 at 4:30pm
I humbly apologize as I did not check the units as you so well put it. All I can hope is that it does not happen again, but given my nature, it likely will. So thank you for taking the time to keep me honest, GLDIII.
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
This was fascinating, Outstripp, and as I listen to it again now, I realize I have a few follow-up questions for you about the building inspection process. You mentioned inspectors coming around with cameras. I wonder if you have any ideas for studying the building inspection process in Japan and the structure of bureaucratic oversight of building construction?
Second--this isn't a research question, just curious--obiter dicta you mention Japanese being "more emotional" than white people. (Did you mean white people or Westerners? Is this a genetic of a cultural observation? If the former, do you think this is unique to Japan or to the whole region?) How do you observe this? What emotions, does it seem to you, are Japanese more prone to feel? How do you know they're "more emotional" given that the manifest emotion is not obvious to those outside the culture?
May '10
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
I have no information about the building inspection process. I have only casually observed it from time to time and paid little attention.
When I say Japanese are more emotional I mean two things: 1. They are more nervous to the point of neurosis almost and they seem to cry more readily than white people. and 2. In their everyday language they express their emotions more directly. I was watching a western movie and noticed that when the actress said "That's nice." the Japanese subtitles said "I am happy." This is typical. Where English speakers say, "It was exciting." Japanese say "I was excited." English speakers describe the situation whereas Japanese describe their own feelings. Japanese are constantly describing their feelings. Every interview in Japan begins with "Please tell us how you are feeling." Whether this is DNA or culture I cannot say. When I was younger I leaned towards culture. Now I lean towards DNA.
May '10
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
I mentioned in the podcast that I thought about buying a house on the coast.
This is what it looks like now: http://e-land.on-rev.com/pix/formerHouse.png
plug this into Google Earth: 37° 42.226'N 141° 0.432'E
turn GeoEye featured imagery layer on and off.
Edited on Mar 25, 2011 at 2:16amMay '11
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
I know this is a very old subject, but I'm new here, and I'm in Tokyo Japan, and I was actually in country when the quake hit, I even put a video up on YouTube taking from our security cameras in our liquor shop.
I have to say respectfully, listening to the podcast I have a very different perspective than Outstrip on many points.
If this subject still has some interest I'd love to discuss it.
In the past 15 year my wife's family have had two buildings rebuilt, one is 6 stories and a basement and the other is 7 floors and a basement, both took nearly a year to build and I was deeply involved with the design and then the actual construction, as I checked stuff all the time, to stop a lot of cheating and corner cutting. I have a lot of experience in the construction trades, so I knew what to look for. Yes the standard here are much higher than most places, but the corruption, corner cutting and bad stuff is common place, I could go on and on...... :)
Still any interest ?
Cheers!
May '11
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
Actually I just listened to this one yesterday myself. I've lived in Tokyo about 9 years. I was here when the quake hit on 11 March and to be honest it scared the pants off me, mainly because I was in hospital looking over my wife who'd just come out of surgery an hour before.
I also wondered about Japan's building codes. From what I saw with my own eyes they held up extremely well, though with some scary cracks and chips here & there. Anyone who's been here a while will remember a huge scandal over building code cheating, mainly involving the architect Hidetsugu Aneha and his corner cutting on numerous apartment blocks. It all ended up rather nastily for him, with his wife committing suicide and him going to prison for 5 years. Seeing it all unfold made me wonder if it was a one-off case, or just the one they found.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidetsugu_Aneha
May '11
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
I live in Yokosuka, and have been here for about ten years. Japan has a reputation for quality, and that is its highest quality export. Most of what is made here is [uh, terms of service looming large in my mind], and people here just accept it. The building codes are good, and there is a lot of good science being done on this front. But as Stu pointed out, good luck trying to get it executed, with the endemic corruption. I think the corruption, more than anything else, has had this country on its backside for decades.
Looks like the VRWC-FE is alive and well.
May '11
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
While I have 24/7 criticism for Japanese methods of management, I think we have seen that the combined effects of Japanese mismanagement, a Magnitude 9.0 earthquake, a drop of the whole coastline eight feet straight down, and a thirty foot tsunami hitting a nuclear reactor are *still* not equal to the effects of Russian mismanagement alone.
So we got that going for us.
May '11
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
Thanks Haakon Dahl and JMarkSouth for the comments to continue the conversation.
Here is the video I pulled from our security cameras.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIo1333b5UM
..... now remember, everyone is talking about a 9.0M quake, well here in Tokyo it was a 6.4M quake, IIRC. That means the 9.0M quake was 389 TIMES larger than the 6.4M quake, in all honesty I wonder how well Tokyo would have handled that. In my area we had a large retaining wall for a cemetery give way blocking a road that ran beside it, if anyone had been on the sidewalk they would have been killed for sure. A house right behind us was damaged so badly they had to tear it down, it was deemed unsafe to live in. Lots of damaged roofs, as Outstrip said, the old style tile roofs fell apart. Other things like the oil refinery fire that burned for about a week, that certainly was NOT supposed to happen, but it did. The inspectors coming around with cameras is mostly just for public works stuff, for private buildings, the guys taking pictures work for the construction company......
May '11
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
..... the most important thing we did in contracting to build our buildings was to higher our own independent architect, this is not common, usually the construction company provides one, but I had been told by a Japanese friend who went through a very bad construction to higher our own. The architect worked for us, he got paid by us, and things could only be approved when he signed off on them, so the construction company had to do what he said. I was told that the size of the concrete pillars required by code were, in the opinion of the architect the absolute minimum required, but that he would not want to have his family live in such a building, so we had much more robust structure in our buildings. We found out about the cheating aspect when the plans called for a pillar size of say 65cm/25.6" square but when they were building the forms for the concrete I noticed they were more like 50cm/19.6" square. The construction company would bid the job on the plans but then change the plans as they went along to make more money. I caught them on that....
May '11
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
.... and many other things. On that one item our architect was ready to bring a lawyer along and make a big stink, but the construction company complied saying it was a calculation error.....
Other things like a bedroom in an apartment was supposed to have three wall plugs, they bid the job on that spec, but when I checked the roughed in wiring there was only one plug roughed in, again we got a "Whoops, sorry" excuse.
Other things, most people down in the trenches have little if any faith that in an event like this the government would be of any help for some time, they do NOT move quickly. We all understand in our neighbourhood association and volunteer fire dept that we will have to fend for ourselves for a week or more. We do NOT trust or rely on the central government, we will rely on our neighbours.
May '11
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
Claire Berlinski, Ed.: ....snip.....
Second--this isn't a research question, just curious--obiter dicta you mention Japanese being "more emotional" than white people. (Did you mean white people or Westerners? Is this a genetic of a cultural observation? If the former, do you think this is unique to Japan or to the whole region?) How do you observe this? What emotions, does it seem to you, are Japanese more prone to feel? How do you know they're "more emotional" given that the manifest emotion is not obvious to those outside the culture? · Mar 24 at 7:53pm
If I may take a stab at answering your question about emotions, let me give you an example or two.
We have this relay running race that is between the major universities here, they are very popular, fully televised, and have high ratings. At the end of each stage when a runner passes the baton, or in this case sash on to his team mate, often the runner then collapses into a heap weeping and writhing on the ground while the other team mates try to console him. Yet in the same race, some universities will get a ringer......
May '11
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
.... often a student from Kenya or some other African nation runner, these guys run as hard as anyone, and when they finish, yeah they are tired, but they don't burst into tears and become emotional wrecks.
Another example, they have a lot of variety shows on TV, anytime there is some sad story, all the stars or "Talents" as they are called her, in the studio, they all cry, and I mean at the drop of a hat.
People seem to forget that a short time ago, disputes were settled with a 2' long piece of razor sharp steel. Wearing of a Samurai sword was outlawed in 1876, not long ago at all, and I still see remarkable displays of emotion all the time on the street, now to be fair it very seldom leads to violence, but it sure can be heated.
3AM here, I have to sleep, thanks for having this conversation
Cheers!
May '11
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
Interesting observations all, thanks everyone for sharing them. One point that pricked up my ears in the podcast was Outstripp's comment that Japan is probably one of the best-administered countries in the world. While almost every service, public and private, is performed with a surface degree of smoothness & diligence surpassing that of any other country I've lived in (Australia, Canada) it can be surprisingly inefficient.
Just anecdotally, I've been through the two-hour and 7-station process of getting my driver's license renewed, waited in lines at three desks at my local city office to provide the same piece of information to three different people who all sit within 10 meters of each other, etc. Convenience stores have three staff serving and about five others rushing around doing... something. Every employee has their own rubber stamp, red pencil and receipt slip for you. It is all done immaculately, but it's five times the time & fuss and would make the average McKinsey time & motion consultant's head explode.
As an Australian, though, I'm still in awe of having so much bureaucracy with so few errors made.
May '11
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
I do know what you mean. Let me share a story that I use to give some insight trying to answer the question of "Why the Japanese economy has been stalled for so long".
A buddy of mine a DoD employee had lived with his Japanese wife and kids in Japan for about 18 years (Navy before he became DoD). About 2 years before they moved back to the US they needed a new car, well a new to them car. The found what they wanted, and they were paying cash, they went in on a Monday and paid for the car, then they had to wait a week for all the paper work to be done and stuff before they could take their car home. All the extra paper work that is demanded by government cost about an extra $1000 and like I said it took a week.
Next up my buddy is transferred to the US, he goes back about 3 months earlier than his wife and kids.......
May '11
Re: Special Edition: Live From Japan
.... so the kids can finish up school etc.
Something that he needs right away is a car, he gets off the plane around 10 AM, he asks the cabbie to take him to a used car lot he goes in. At about 11:30AM finds what he needs at a price he can afford, he then applies for the loan, the insurance, the transfer of ownership etc. The dealer tells him to go have some lunch and after lunch the car will be ready for him, he does, returning at 12:30PM and picks up his car.
Did you get that....? His plane lands at 10AM and just after lunch he has his new to him car on the road, and he paid for it not in cash, as in Japan, but via a car loan.
I say in a nutshell that is what is wrong with the Japanese economy.
Cheers!