Sale gone through

Dear Friends

You're still munching Easter eggs but here we're hard at work. The Golden Week holiday starts on Friday 29th so only four days to go before the shutdown. And it's the end of the month so we're trying to pay our bills on a much reduced income. Mr Micawber was famously sixpence down and in misery - we're in a far worse state than that. Not a good way to repay Rengo Co. Ltd., our new owner as of today. The money came in (to the property company Tohoku Asset Management) as planned, and I am deeply relieved and grateful that the sale of the box business has gone through.

Not that that means I can chuck in the towel just yet. I'm still in charge until the AGM at the end of May and our new owners want a lot of information - right now- so we are very, very busy.

Yesterday I went to the cemetary to tidy up the grave as I'm expecting visitors on Friday. It's the anniversary of Naochika's death (23 years ago) and two of his close friends are coming to visit. One works for Mitsubishi Nuclear Power (Naochka used to work there for a while) so I'll be interested to hear what he has to say. Anyway, back to the grave. I always buy the flowers at the stonemason's and he was telling me his house has to be pulled down. He didn't have earthquake insurance (even though the government has been promoting it for several years making it tax deductible) and grants only cover the demolition costs. Two of our staff are in the same boat: old houses just not able to withstand the quake. 

By the way, the cherry blossoms at the cemetary were stunning. I have never seen so many cherry trees.

Bad news is that Sakubuta Park in Koriyama is closed. They've started monitoring radiation levels in parks now and this lovely little park famous for its cherry blossoms has for some reason a level of 3.9. (Remember, you're only allowed one hour outside in an area of 3.8.) And the headline in this morning's paper was that all the animals in the 20km no-go zone are to be slaughtered (including those roaming free you saw in that video a while back said to have been terrorising those residents returning to pick up their belongings!). But the 100 or so horses which feature in the samurai horse festival in Soma every summer are to be spared and moved to another area.

That's it from Koriyama tonight.
Love to you all.
Anne

Schools and Sunflowers

Dear Friends

I spoke too soon about the aftershocks. We had a biggish one (force 4) right after I signed off two nights ago followed by a sharp jolt at one in the morning. Then there was another force 4 just as I was going to bed late last night. Understandably it's the main topic of conversation round here.

The school lunch service has been resumed so Koriyama schools are back for the whole day. There was much confusion when they first went back as schools were left to make their own decisions concerning whether children should be kept inside but on Tuesday the government at last issued guidelines. The guideline is that up to 20 millisieverts/year is safe. If a child spends 16 hours a day inside at 1.52 microsieverts/hour and 8 hours outside at 3.6 microsieverts/hour that adds up to 20 millisieverts/year. So the advice is that if outside radiation is 3.8, then children should spend only one hour outside. (Forgive all this technospeak but this was taken from a letter to parents and we're all talking like this!) This has caused uproar as we were previously told that 20 millisieverts per year was the permissible level for workers in nuclear plants. The radiation levels at some schools in Koriyama are 3.9 and 4.0 (for your information, measurements are taken at a height of 50 cm and 1 m above ground, out in the playground, near the window and in the classroom), so most schools are keeping kids inside. We see pictures of them exercising - running up and down the stairs and along the corridors. Must be a teacher's nightmare.

The CEO of Tokyo Electric is out of hospital and back on the job and the Governor of Fukushima after snubbing him twice agreed to receive him. Tokyo Electric have said that reactors 1 to 4 at Fukushima Daiichi will be closed down but the governor let him know that reactors 5 and 6, and the four reactors at Fukushima Daini (undamaged by the tsunami but currently not in use) would not be reopened without the agreement of people here. He then asked him why he'd only come for the day. You should stay here 3 or 4 days, he said, then you'd know what the people of Fukushima are going through. Exactly.

The evacuation areas have been changed. We now have a 20 km no-go zone (keikai kuiki 警戒区域）with road blocks and fines for entry, a planned evacuation area (keikakuteki hinan kuiki 計画的避難区域）which includes the heavily contaminated Iitate village north west of the plant, while most of the 20 - 30 km shelter area has been renamed the 'prepare to evacuate in case of emergency' area (緊急時避難準備区域). It's all very well imposing these restrictions but as Tanigaki, leader of the opposition said, the government should first make arrangements for the people before announcing the measures. Things are done in the wrong order. Certainly there is much confusion. I was under the impression that arrangements had been made to move cattle but the TV showed one farmer pleading with a stony faced official to give him permission to feed his cows in the no-go zone. Incidentally, the Mayor of Minami Soma has been voted one of the 100 most influential people of the year by Time Magazine. Take a look at him on YouTube and you'll get a flavour of the tension around here.

The governor's advisor on the national recovery committee, a writer and Buddhist priest from Miharu, has had a good idea. Plant rapeseed and sunflowers (which we know don't absorb radiation in the soil) all over the prefecture. Pay the people in the evacuation centres to do the planting. Colour the prefecture yellow! And make oil, for fuel, from the seed. This man has vision.

And on that bright note, I'll leave you.
Good night.
Anne

News Round-up

Hi

There haven't been any big aftershocks for a while. I was woken two nights ago and there are two or three that you notice in a day, but only force 2 or 3. You stop for a moment, take stock, then carry on. Over a week ago now the prime minister called for an end to the period of restraint (jishuku mudo) as it was damaging the economy so people were out enjoying themselves in Koriyama last Friday night and generally there are more people out and about. Things are getting back to normal.

I haven't talked about the reactor for a while so here's a round-up of the news. Nothing special, just what's on the television. The main problem seems to be managing the very large quantites of heavily contaminated water. In Unit 2 the water is being moved to a waste disposal unit at the rate of 10 tons/hour (56 tons so far). The trouble is there is 67,000 tons to be moved from Units 1 to 3. They need to get the water out of the turbine halls so that the pumps and cooling systems can be restarted. A little robot has been sent in to photograph the inside of the turbine halls. There was also old footage of the turbine halls before the earthquake: several sets of double doors, lots of pipes and equipment, very complicated set up. Like our homes, the earthquake turned everything upside down so it's a mess inside. Not to mention the rubble from the damaged buildings. Very high levels of radiation within the plant are hampering repair work.

A new facility is to be set up by June to treat contaminated water courtesy of the French company Avera whose delightful lady CEO has visited twice and in between fielding questions at the airport in the most accessible and charming way has pulled off this deal. What a role model. The idea of the CEO of an energy company being a woman is incredible here.

Sorry for that aside. The other big news is that the government (Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano) has announced that from midnight tonight (in two hours time) the 20 km zone around the reactor will be a no-go zone with a 100,000 yen fine for illegal entry. 27,000 households are affected. The TV showed traffic jams of people returning to their homes to pick up belongings although there is also a plan to allow one member of each household to visit the area over the next few months under supervision.

We continue to follow the soil contamination issue closely. A colleague was telling me that there is lots of data on rice growing and it's been shown that only 1% of any radiation in the soil ends up in the finished rice. Rapeseed, for some reason, absorbs no radiation at all. But he was saying there is no data for other fruit and vegetables. Farmers will have to grow the crop and get it tested before deciding whether it can go to market. Which makes it very difficult for us to estimate our sales. Cartons for fruit and vegetables account for about 10% of our annual sales and are concentrated in the three months of June, July and August with another peak in October for fruit. The main crops are tomatoes, cucumbers and french beans, Fukushima being the top bean (ingen) producing region in the country. Then there is fruit. Fukushima peaches are second only to those of Yamanashi. Apples, nashi pears and cherries are important crops too. They are in flower at the moment. I hear growers are uncertain as to whether to hire people to do the time consuming work of  pinching out the flowers when they don't know if they'll be able to sell the fruit.

Another interesting piece on the news this morning was an answer to the question, 'Is radiation catching?' Apparently some children evacuated outside the prefecture are being teased. The answer, we are told, is that  if you get radiation on  your body or on your clothes you can wash it off. And even if it gets inside you, it's not catching! That's nice to know.

It's Easter this weekend, isn't it? This is a non-Christian country and I wouldn't have known except friend Joan in Hong Kong kindly sent me a box of English goodies which included some miniature eggs.

Happy holidays to you all.

Anne 

Trouble at Mill

Dear Friends

Sorry there was no new post last night. I was working late. More of that in a moment. I have good news about the shelter we went to in Ishinomaki. I've been told that some people were moved out into a nearby primary school. This will have made more space and improved living conditions. The partitions were erected, I was told, on Sunday. And the children started colouring away on Saturday when they came back from school. Someone I don't know 'Anonymous' has  left a comment on this blog saying he/she is in the area and can take photos. I'm trying to make contact. The power of the internet... 

At work we've been trying to piece together information about our customers, but it's still very difficult. The situation is changing everyday and the forecasts seem to be continually revised downward. Factories on the coast which have been damaged still have no plans for re-opening. The Mitsubishi factory in Koriyama is still closed. Growers and businesses in the 30 km evacuation area have left the area and are unlikely to resume any time soon. Because of soil contamination and consumer confidence it's very difficult to make forecasts for sales of boxes to the agricultural sector. On the bright side, Sony Energy Device battery factory has started production and will be working throughout Golden Week to catch up. And JA Shirakawa (south of the prefecture) has announced it will be shipping its cucumbers (in our boxes). But March sales finished 30% down on last year and forecasts for April and May are 15% down. This is a very bad situation, and we're pouring in cash at an alarming rate. We have savings but what about those companies that don't? One company unable to pay could easily set up a chain reaction. It's scary. 

As well as following up on sales and payments, we're cutting back on purchases of paper (we increased them after the earlier shortages), only making what will sell now (not creating extra stock), and I'm sorry to say cutting wages. I've taken a pay cut and tomorrow will explain why we need to cut wages. I hate doing it as we don't pay very much anyway. And of course it has to be done in consultation, following  the proper procedures. But since we don't have any unnecesary spending we can take the knife to, I'm afraid we have to trim the wage bill. The plan is that we close a couple of days a month and the staff receive 70% of the wage for those days. There will also be shortened hours on the same basis. There are grants to compensate us for four-fifths of the 70% paid but the money won't come in for several months.

So after the (dare I say it?) excitement of the aftermath of the earthquake with all its repercussions, we find ourselves in a new, more settled state. But only now is a new, grim reality beginning to unfold. We may not have suffered direct damage from the earthquake or tsumami but indirectly our business and many many like us are fighting for survival. So, if you'll excuse me, from now on this blog becomes intermittent. I think there will be many more late nights in the office in the coming weeks.

As if to match my mood, the weather today was cold with heavy rain. Bad news for the cherry blossoms. But then that's the thing about chery blossoms here. The fragile, single Somei Yoshino, lasts only a few days and a cold storm will finish it off. Like life, it's very short. Catch it while you can.

And to finish, a picture of perhaps the most dramatic earthquake damage in Koriyama!
Goodnight.
Anne

Cherry blossoms and cold shutdown

Hi

It's been a warm, sunny day in Koriyama and the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. No revellers, of course, but in the main park (Kaiseizan) quite a few people were picnicking and there were lots of people walking round, admiring the blossoms, taking photos of each other, the usual things. Radiation levels are down, we haven't had any big aftershocks for four or five days so people are feeling relaxed.

The morning news had residents in Iitate and Kawauchi complaining about the 'planned evacuation' which was announced last week due to fears of the long term effects of radiation. Understandably they wanted to know how long they were to be away. A month? Six months? A year?

The answer came tonight. Tokyo Electric announced it hopes to achieve cold shutdown in 6 - 9 months. Funny how this becomes nine months in the BBC headline whereas the same locals interviewed tonight were saying six months. A case of the glass being half empty or half full?

Anyway, the plan is in two steps. Step One (three months) is to stop the radiation leaking by filling the reactors with water and getting the water circulating to cool the reactors except for Unit 2 which they want to repair first. They're also going to cover the buildings. Step Two (six to nine months from now) is to stabilise the cooling system and get to cold shutdown (under 100 degrees).  In nine months they hope to encase the buildings in concrete.

So what does this mean for us? That in three months time, the air will be clean? But what about farm produce? Will cucumbers in July be free from radiation or has the damage to the soil already been done?

Just one more point before I go. I heard that the foreign press were reporting that people in Tokyo were wearing masks because of radiation. That's not the case. Most people are suffering from hayfever. The cryptomeria (sugi) are casting off their yellow pollen and it's  bad this year. One of the guys who went with us yesterday is a sufferer and he says his eyes are so swollen he can't open them in the mornings and his nose is blocked. But he'll be able to cast off the mask as soon as Golden Week ends as the pollen suddenly stops.

I've had some constructive feedback regarding yesterday's trip and I shall continue to follow up on our visit. I'll keep you informed.

Best wishes
Anne

Kaiseizan Park





Niho-ji. No cherry blossom viewing here ...





Ishinomaki

Dear  Friends

This is going to be a hard post to write. Things didn't turn out as we expected. Coincidentally, when I got home there was a programme filmed in exactly the same area we had been to with a few shots of the same evacuation shelter. NHK had followed up on some people in the town featured in a programme they made a few years ago. It was good television; they helped find the third member of a group of three lads who'd been separated and by the end of the programme the dejected fisherman is thinking about putting his one remaining boat out to sea. Good uplifting stuff. I wish I could be so positive about our experience today.

The expressway was busy, the road bumpy with temporary repairs in places, lots of army vehicles. People at the service station were on a mission, civil servants from Osaka, volunteers in wellies and masks.We passed many army camps: tents and vehicles. When we arrived at the centre we were expected but there was just one woman, one of the residents, running the place, and she was very busy. We unloaded the sheets and wanted to set them up but it didn't work out. Firstly, most of the residents were out, either at work or out searching for missing relatives. Secondly, the hall, a school gymnasium, was crammed full of stuff, blankets on the floor and low 'walls' of people's belongings. People had made little 'rooms' themselves ( all different shapes and sizes) and we couldn't section off an area without their permission. There was no spare space at all, just a narrow path around the outside. So we set one up just to show how it should be done but it had to be put back with the rest of the sheets in the entrance way - along with the boxes of crayons and pens. So we couldn't set it up ourselves and I didn't have the pleasure of seeing them set up and children using them. But I'm sure it will be done by the residents themselves when they're ready to do it.

I asked how many people were staying there and she said officially 270 but more people come in at night and she has no idea of the actual number. The atmosphere was not good. Maybe it was the time we visited but nothing seemed to be organised, a few people sitting around looking lost and dejected. It wasn't like the centres you see on television: smiley kids, shiny floors, buzzing with volunteers and organisors. Whilst we were there there was a delivery of relief goods and from the way people crowded round to see what had come in you didn't get the impression that the supply was adequate.

Someone told us that help was getting as far as Ishimaki city hall but no further. Why were there no officials? Why were there no organisors?

We took a detour through the town of Ishimaki on the way back. The damage is just like you see on televison and we were shocked. Houses destroyed, cars and boats all over the place.

The damage is so great, the scale so huge that as an individual one feels helpless. My conclusion is that perhaps the best thing for us to do is to give money and leave this mammoth task to organisational experts like the army and the Red Cross. There will be a time for smaller grassroot organisations but at least in the centre we saw today it seems like it's still early days. And here's a suggestion: the bureaucrats should get out of Kasumigasaki (Tokyo's Whitehall) and set up shop in Ishinomaki and get things moving.

So I'm a bit shell shocked this evening but I'm glad that I went and I know the things we took have got to where they're needed and will be well used. Thank you for your help.

Anne




Osaka City staff at the service station




Unloading



Ishinomaki town

Ishinomaki

Ishinomaki

Natori (Sendai airport area). The trees on the horizon are on the coast.
Two to three kilometres away?

Thank you!

Dear Friends,

The boxes kept arriving throughout the morning. I expected some from my friends but I didn't expect to get so many parcels from people I don't know. Thank you all so much. The power of the internet is amazing. I asked for crayons and felt tip pens, and you sent lots. There were brand new ones, ones gathered up from around the house, and one lady sent watercolours and brushes she must have used herself. Thank you to you all. They look so colourful and cheerful when they're all put together.

So the plan is that we meet at 6.30 am. We hope to get to Ishimaki (north of Sendai) by about 10:00 but we're told to expect traffic jams: there is a lot of traffic and some roads are still blocked and one lane only. Also it's police changeover weekend. I think it's the Osaka police who are leaving to be replaced by police from Kagawa-ken (Shikoku). We've been told to prepare red signs proclaiming that we are carrying relief supplies and stop off at the police station to get a permit so we don't have to pay tolls on the expressway. We're to wear wellies, headgear (helmet if possible), and a mask (there is a lot of dust).

There will be six of us:  our sales manager, two of our salesmen, a guy from the production office, the truck driver and me. The transport company we use has provided the truck free of charge and the driver has volunteered his services. It's a real group effort.

Meanwhile the weather in Koriyama has suddenly improved with day time temperatures in the low 20s. And the cherry blossom is in flower! On time, in spite of the long and snowy winter and the earthquake. I'm getting hot walking to and from work in my raincoat with hood and feeling a bit conspicous so I need to re-think the uniform for the spring.

But tonight it's to bed. I hope to report tomorrow night on my day in the disaster area.
Best wishes and thanks to you all
Anne

More stable for now

Hi

No big aftershocks yesterday or today but there were a worrying couple of hours the other night after the big aftershock when the electricity failed at one of the reactors. But cooling is now continuing. Diesel electricity generators have been moved to higher ground as has an electricity generating vehicle. Let's hope the cord is long enough this time. One of the farcical elements of the first few days was that the electric cord for this vehicle wouldn't reach the reactors! Underlines the importance of carrying out training exercises. For a reassuring assessment of the risks, here's an update from the UK Scientific Advisor on the British Embassy in Tokyo's website.

http://ukinjapan.fco.gov.uk/en/news/?view=News&id=581967082

So with the reactor under control and radiation levels in the air not causing serious risks, the problem for us is the economic damage, especially to farming, and to our business. Last week levels of caesium around here in Koriyama were high (2 to 3,000 bequerels per kg of soil) and tests were repeated. The results came out yesterday. Much the same as before but below the government's limit of 5,000 bq/kg. so preparations for rice planting are to go ahead. Whether the produce will be shipped is a different matter. If not, no boxes will be needed and we will suffer. (Vegetable seeds are to be sown and the seedlings tested again before they're planted out.) But on the same day that the new test results were announced the Ministry of Education announced that another radioactive element had been found in the soil.  In addition to iodine 131, caesium 134 and 137, :we have a new invisible enemy: Strontium 90 which accumulates in the bones. It has a high density and has been found over a wide area including near our shiitake packing factory.The announcement was made with the usual reassurance that it causes 'no risks to health' but as usual the facts alone are not reassuring. Not so much for us, but that it will make people think twice about buying food from here, thereby affecting the farmers and our sales.

The first meeting of the Recovery Committee took place today and the chairman is a man who was in charge of recovery after the Kobe earthquake. He certainly seems to have some positive ideas: build new houses on higher land; have offices and homes in apartment blocks with the homes on the upper floors out of reach of a tsumami; make artificial hills out of the debris which would serve as parks and evacuation points; and institute a national 'recovery tax' so all the nation can share the financial burden etc. There's also a plan to give (by the end of the month) 1 million yen to households which have lost their homes and to those who have been evacuated because of the reactor, up to and including the 30 km shelter area. This is good news indeed. But I wonder if our salesman, whose house is 30.5 km away will qualify?

Let me leave you with this. The Emporer and Empress are doing the rounds of the emergency shelters and will visit Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures soon. They're very sweet, the Empress in her slacks and white trainers. But Sadao was appalled that some people didn't sit up properly (seiza) when talking to the Emperor. What is the world coming to?

All the best

Anne

Crayons and pens please

Dear Friends in Japan
We're all set. The orders in. We're to make up partitions and take them to an evacuation centre in Ishinomaki on Saturday. The sheet will be corrugated with green paper on the outside and pale brown on the inside. We are told there are children in the centre so the idea is that they can draw on the inside of their new rooms and make them their own.

So I have a request. For those of you who can get a package to me by Friday night, I want crayons and felt tip pens to take up with me on Saturday. They don't have to be new. Any you have around the house would be fine. Anything that adults and children could use to write on the cardboard 'walls'. Please send by 'takkyubin' to me here at:

Tohoku Kogyo
1 - 12 - 5 Hohacho
Koriyama
Fukushima-ken
〒963-8583
Tel:  024-944-1480

〒963-8583
福島県郡山市方八町1 - 12 - 5
東北工業(株）

Thanks. It's good to be able to do something practical at last.
Love to you all
Anne

More shocks

Hi
More earthquakes today. But only one,  about 2 pm, when we felt the urge to run outside. No one gave an evacuation order. It was instinct, and all of us felt the same. What is it about human beings that you stay at your desk if it's a force 4 and rush for the exit if it's a five?

When there is an earthquake, everyone thinks first about the reactor. 'Genpatsu daijobu?' (Is the reactor alright?)  So far it's not been affected but the aftershocks are interrupting the repair work and removal of contaminated water from unit 2.

And now it's official. We're up there with Chernobyl, a level 7 disaster - though we're told it's more to do with the scale of the disaster with four reactors affected than high risks to health. More confusion.

In Koriyama the trains, including the shinkansen bullet trains, are running for the first time. It's great to see the station open. On TV saw lots of people queueing in Shinjuku station in Tokyo to buy tomatoes and strawberries from Fukushima, as well as a buyer from the Ito Yokado supermarket chain. Could the tide be turning? Are people beginning to wake up to the damage being caused to agriculture and industry by false rumours?

Tonight we had talks with the Union regarding their demand for a 'base up' in spring. it wasn't hard to convince them of the dire state of the business in the aftermath of the earthquake and they settled for a 'zero base up'. They also wanted to know how things will change when Rengo becomes owrner of the business.  The sale is going ahead. The contract was signed at the end of March and money is due to exchange hands on 25 April. There are still some last minute negotiaions going on. Fingers crossed. It's reported that Otsubo-shacho decided to honour all contracts made before 11 March. I am extremely grateful for this. It reminds me of another great business leader, Carlos Ghosn who visited the Nissan factory in Iwaki soon after the quake and pledged to reopen it as soon as possible.

Weather forecast for tomorrow is sunny with minimum temperature of minus 1' and high of 17'. There's also a strong westerley wind which is good news.
Goodnight
Anne