When the earthquake struck, I was at the hot springs in Sakunami, about 15 miles from my home in Sendai. I was playing host to a couple from Britain, and as I soaked in an open-air bath with Ben, the husband, powdery snow began to shake off the surrounding boulders. The next moment, small pieces of broken stone came tumbling down.
“It’s an earthquake, a big one,” I said, urging Ben on to the changing room next door. Without bothering to dry off, I pulled on my bathrobe. As I struggled to keep my legs from buckling and tied my sash with trembling hands, I was struck by the terrifying realization that the great earthquake off Miyagi Prefecture, predicted for so long, had at last arrived.… Seguir leyendo »
Vale el título y por eso lo mantengo, pero se me ocurren otros, coincidentes, a condición de que también vayan entre signos de interrogación… El crepúsculo de Amaterasu, por ejemplo, o El ocaso.
Los dos aluden a la heliolatría aún vigente en uno de los países del mundo donde más llueve. El sol es un bien escaso en Japón. Amanece tarde y anochece pronto. Tres estaciones son húmedas a más no poder: nieve, nubes, chaparrones, calabobos… Sólo en otoño asoma, siempre discreto, el astro.
Sorprende que precisamente allí se atribuya a una diosa solar, como lo es la citada, la fundación del Mikado.… Seguir leyendo »
En estos momentos, a menudo uno tiene la impresión de estar asistiendo al fin del mundo en directo. Llegan hasta nuestras casas las imágenes del terremoto, del maremoto y de los incendios desbocados que están acabando con tantas vidas humanas en Japón. De pronto, ante la naturaleza -tan domesticada, atacada y explotada- nos sentimos como los liliputienses ante Gulliver. El cielo se incendia y las olas derriban enormes edificios como juguetes, mientras automóviles y trenes desaparecen como cohetes. Pero así es esta naturaleza a la que, a menudo, se enfrentan los hombres -unas veces con la arrogancia del dominador, otras con la angustia y la humildad del culpable despilfarrador-, como si ellos mismos no formasen parte de ella, como si no fuesen también ellos naturaleza.… Seguir leyendo »
On Aug. 9, 1945, my great-uncle was out fishing in the Pacific, far enough away from Nagasaki, Japan, that he missed the immediate impact of the atomic bomb dropped by the Americans that day. My great-aunt was in their new house outside Nagasaki; the entire family had only a few days earlier fled the city because my great-uncle feared a repeat of the bombing of Hiroshima.
I heard this story many times during my childhood. Back then, it made me feel that my great-uncle was a clever man. As an adult, I realized he was also very lucky, because cleverness alone cannot keep you safe.… Seguir leyendo »
In 1923, when a strong earthquake destroyed most of Tokyo, Japan suffered a crippling economic downturn that may have hastened the onset of military rule. Yet financial markets around the world barely shrugged.
Ninety years on, Japanese cash plays a crucial role in global bond and stock markets. Despite two decades of stagnant growth on home turf, Japan is the second largest foreign owner of US government securities, with nearly $900bn of America's public debt. This time it could be the rest of the world that takes a financial hit while the Japanese economy booms.
To understand how this could happen it is necessary to follow the Japanese money.… Seguir leyendo »
News of the disaster hit the nation like a bolt from the blue. At first 11 March had been one of those ordinary days. The issues that concerned Japan were relatively mundane: the economic problems of deflation and unemployment, the inertia of a government unable to improve people's lives a year and a half after being voted in on rosy pledges. The country's politics were gridlocked; there was the familiar sense of things going wrong.
Then the earthquake struck, devastating the northeastern coastal region of Japan's main island, Honshu, with an extraordinary toll of lives – possibly tens of thousands – and creating up to half a million refugees.… Seguir leyendo »
Una nación entera sufre ahora las graves consecuencias de un fenómeno natural incontrolable y destructivo, que ha supuesto la pérdida de vidas humanas y la destrucción de bienes materiales necesarios y valiosos; en este caso nos referimos a la generación y distribución de energía eléctrica. En el momento que se escriben estas líneas, miles de trabajadores están haciendo todo lo posible para mantener en estado seguro dos unidades nucleares en el emplazamiento de Fukushima Daiichi. Como consecuencia de esta situación anormal, cerca de 300.000 personas están sufriendo los inconvenientes y angustias propias de una evacuación prolongada. Nuestra más cordial consideración por el esfuerzo de unos y la paciencia de los otros.… Seguir leyendo »
The troubles of the Fukushima nuclear-power plant – and other reactors – in northeast Japan have dealt a severe blow to the global nuclear industry, a powerful cartel of less than a dozen major state-owned or state-guided firms that have been trumpeting a nuclear-power renaissance.
But the risks that seaside reactors like Fukushima face from natural disasters are well known. Indeed, they became evident six years ago, when the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004 inundated India’s second-largest nuclear complex, shutting down the Madras power station.
Many nuclear-power plants are located along coastlines, because they are highly water-intensive. Yet natural disasters like storms, hurricanes, and tsunamis are becoming more common, owing to climate change, which will also cause a rise in ocean levels, making seaside reactors even more vulnerable.… Seguir leyendo »
In an emergency press conference a day after an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami wrought devastation across northern Japan, Prime Minister Naoto Kan, looking exhausted but calm, told his countrymen that they faced together an unprecedented challenge, and that while the immediate priority would be saving lives, the nation could one day look back at this time as a moment that helped create a new Japan.
It is difficult — as the earth still trembles with aftershocks, the numbers of victims keep rising, and the risk of meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power facilities becomes frighteningly plausible — to draw any conclusive lessons from one of the greatest natural disasters ever to hit this country.… Seguir leyendo »
Le Japon est KO debout comme un boxeur sonné. Le séisme d'une intensité rarissime, le tsunami ravageur et maintenant l'alerte nucléaire. Toujours avides d'images stéréotypées, les commentateurs ont insisté sur le calme admirable des Japonais face à la tourmente. Dans les régions dévastées, ils sont surtout abattus et hagards.
Jamais comme ces derniers jours n'a résonné avec autant d'à propos le sentiment du mono no aware, l'impermanence des choses, ce sentiment dont s'est toujours nourrie la poésie japonaise, métaphore de la fragilité de l'existence. Dans un pays où la terre tremble si souvent, les puissants devaient autrefois redouter la colère du ciel ou de la terre.… Seguir leyendo »
As I sat down with my laptop that evening, some hours after the massive earthquake had struck Japan, my cellphone emitted a grating squeal. It was a signal from the National Meteorological Agency warning that a large aftershock was about to hit the Kanto area, which includes Tokyo. Luckily, I had made it back home and was sitting in my sturdy apartment building; my 12-year-old son nearby in our living room. There wasn’t much more I could do except wait for Mother Nature to take her course.
That particular temblor didn’t strike Tokyo hard, but the city shook intermittently throughout the night, prompting my son and me to cross our fingers and hope that the shaking wouldn’t grow stronger.… Seguir leyendo »
As many of us watched the coverage of the Sendai earthquake and tsunami in Japan on Friday, we were staggered and horrified by the images of death and destruction. The magnitude 8.9 quake is the largest to hit Japan in more than 150 years and the seventh largest in recorded history. The tsunami produced even greater damage and loss of life. The final figures won't be known for many days, yet it seems clear that hundreds and possibly thousands of people are dead, injured or missing, and the economic toll will be in the millions. The quake will have a severe effect on the Japanese economy, the third largest in the world, and it is already having a global effect.… Seguir leyendo »
Tema: Las nuevas Líneas Fundamentales del Programa de Defensa Nacional de Japón han hecho sonar la alarma en China y contribuido a deteriorar las ya delicadas relaciones mutuas.
Resumen: A mediados del pasado mes de diciembre Japón hizo público el nuevo documento de Líneas Fundamentales del Programa de Defensa Nacional. En él considera a Corea del Norte y la República Popular China como sus principales preocupaciones en materia de seguridad, al tiempo que apuesta por reemplazar el concepto de defensa estático vigente hasta la fecha por un concepto dinámico. La inclusión de tales cambios ha hecho sonar la voz de alarma en Pekín, que afirma ver con preocupación los incrementos de capacidades militares de Japón, contribuyendo al propio tiempo a agravar el deterioro de unas relaciones sino-japonesas que, desde el enfrentamiento del pasado mes de septiembre en las islas Senkaku/Diaoyu, pasan por un momento particularmente delicado.… Seguir leyendo »
“There’s a beautiful, beautiful goddess in the toilet. Clean it every day, and you’ll be beautiful like the goddess.”
So sings Kana Uemura, her rich, melodious voice soaring in the ode to her deceased grandmother. In a nearly 10-minute-long ballad, Uemura describes her regret over drifting apart from the old woman who encouraged her to overcome a reluctance to scrub the bowl.
Despite the scatological subject matter, that song was one of the biggest hits in Japan last year. Or perhaps I should say, because of the subject matter.
Toilets hold a special place for the Japanese. They are pinnacles of high technology, personal comfort and even national pride.… Seguir leyendo »
La primera década de este siglo comenzó con la llamada burbuja de las puntocom. Cuando estalló, los bancos centrales actuaron de manera agresiva para aliviar la política monetaria a fin de impedir un período prolongado de crecimiento lento al estilo japonés. Pero el período prolongado de bajas tasas de interés que siguió a la recesión de 2001 en cambio contribuyó al surgimiento de otra burbuja, esta vez inmobiliaria y de crédito.
Con el colapso de la segunda burbuja en una década, los bancos centrales otra vez actuaron rápidamente, reduciendo las tasas a cero (o cerca de cero) casi en todas partes.… Seguir leyendo »
Las actuales tensiones entre China y Japón han hecho que se vuelva a hablar de lo mucho que este último país ha caído desde sus años de gloria en la década de los ochenta. En 2010, la economía china superó a la de Japón en tamaño total, aunque solo es una sexta parte de su tamaño desde el punto de vista de la renta por habitante. En 1988, ocho de las 10 empresas más importantes del mundo por su capitalización en el mercado eran japonesas; hoy ninguna lo es.
Pero, pese a sus recientes resultados, Japón conserva unos recursos de poder impresionantes.… Seguir leyendo »
In Japan, anxiety over a lost decade has given way to fear that economic growth is never coming back. Japanese pundits warn that the country has “lost its animal spirits.”
A business leader I spoke with during a recent visit talked of relocating his company’s operations to Singapore. Another asked if I thought Japan “would still be around” in 20 years. I’m not sure what he meant, but I know it isn’t good.
Two decades ago, Japan’s gross government debt stood at 63 percent of the country’s G.D.P. Today, it’s at nearly 200 percent. Consumer prices have fallen in 9 of the past 20 years, depressing production.… Seguir leyendo »
In A.D. 804, a 30-year-old monk named Kukai set sail for China as part of a Japanese government delegation, making his way to the capital Chang-an (present day Xian), one of the world’s most prosperous cities at the time. Over the next two years Kukai would study Esoteric Buddhism and Sanskrit with the great master Hui-kuo, excel in the Chinese writing system, and observe firsthand the achievements of science and engineering of Tang dynasty China.
The voyage was to transform Kukai into one of Japan’s most influential historical figures. His achievements are staggering: Upon returning home he established the Shingon (“True Word”) Buddhist school, worked on refining and spreading the Japanese syllabary, founded the first private school for commoners and instructed his countrymen on temple construction and public work projects such as those he had seen in China.… Seguir leyendo »
I was blown away when my son told me he wanted to do his sixth grade research project on Japan’s human torpedoes, the manned missiles that crashed themselves into enemy ships toward the end of World War II.
Since then I’ve been watching to see if an 11-year-old boy growing up in an officially pacifist country — Japan’s Constitution renounces war and the country only has forces for defense — can fathom a time when thousands of frenzied young men signed up to ride torpedoes, or planes in the case of the better known kamikaze pilots, to meet certain death in the name of the emperor and their country.… Seguir leyendo »
Japan has recently been scandalized by the discovery that more than 230,000 of its citizens age 100 or older cannot be located. The Justice Ministry has suggested that many of these apparently missing centenarians are actually the result of poor recordkeeping, weakened family ties or outright pension fraud. These theories are, in fact, incorrect.
I have them.
That's right, Japan. I have them all, and you are not getting them back until you meet my demands, of which there are three.
First, I'd like a new Toyota. Surprise! That's not so hard for the world's third-largest national economy, is it? I'm not even demanding a Lexus.… Seguir leyendo »
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