JAL Announces New Routes For Nagoya

JAL will be launching two new daily routes, Nagoya (Chubu)–Bangkok and Osaka (Kansai)–Los Angeles, commencing December 20 and March 20 respectively.

These are JAL’s first international flights from Chubu Centrair International Airport in a decade and it’s first from Kansai International in six years. Following their launch, the airline becomes the only Japanese carrier to offer non-stop flights on these two routes.

The capital of Thailand is rapidly growing in significance for Japanese enterprises, with JALcurrently operating three daily Tokyo (Narita and Haneda)–Bangkok flights and one daily Osaka (Kansai)–Bangkok service.

The route will initially be operated with a B767-300ER, changing to a B787-8 from January.

 JAL’s upcoming B787-8 operated LA connection joins its existing daily service from Tokyo (Narita) and, thanks to its partnership with American Airlines, passengers can reach 37 additional US destinations from the West Coast city. 

To meet the robust travel demand to Japan, the carrier also plans to introduce larger aircraft on select routes from Tokyo (Narita)–Taipei (Taoyuan) and Tokyo (Haneda)–Taipei (Songshan).

Smaller aircraft are planned for introduction on select Nagoya (Chubu)–Shanghai, Tokyo (Narita)–Shanghai and Tokyo (Narita)–Beijing flights, with weekly frequency being decreased, from four to three, on its Tokyo (Narita)–Seoul (Incheon) route from December. 

Nippon Steel Nagoya Disabled From Wednesday Explosion

Nagoya facility Sept. 6

Japan's top steel maker Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp said on Saturday it hopes to restart its Nagoya steel plant as soon as possible after it was shutdown due to a fire on Wednesday, but it did not have a definite timetable.

The company received permission from local police and the prefectural government on Thursday to resume operations at the plant, except for a coke oven and its related facilities where the fire started, on condition it ensured safety and soundness of the facilities, a Nippon Steel spokeswoman said.

"We are checking all the facilities to ensure safety and soundness. We hope to resume operations as soon as possible, but we don't know when we can do that," she said.

A fire started on Wednesday at the plant's coal storage facility and conveyor belt, near the coke oven. Fifteen people were injured and the fire was extinguished early Thursday. It was the fifth accident at the plant this year.

The cause of the fire has not been determined, but the company assumes it broke out when coal reacted with oxygen during the process of charging it for the coke oven.

The main facilities such as blast furnaces, a rolling mill, and a heavy plates unit halted operations, while some processing facilities such as a pipe plant and a galvanizing plant are continuing to operate.

The Nagoya plant in central Japan, which produced 6.74 million tonnes of crude steel or about 15 percent of its total output in the business year to March 31, has suffered power failures and smoke releases four times from January to July.

The plant has stockpiles of most of its products, including semi-finished steel, worth about two weeks, but some products may run out as early as five days after the fire accident, the spokeswoman said.

"We plan to bring some products from our other plants if needed, the spokeswoman said.

If the suspension of the facilities lasts long, it may affect the supply of steel products to its major customers such as automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co Ltd and Suzuki Motor Corp.

Reuters

Torata Tanaka Flees To Nagoya With Children Illegally

Torata Tanaka, if you see this man call Aichi Prefectural Police: 052-241-0110

A domestic court dispute in Eugene has taken on an international flavor, as the father, who is being sought by Eugene police, flew to Japan last week with four of his children in tow, authorities said.

Torata Tanaka, 40, a Japanese citizen but a longtime Lane County resident, left Eugene with four of his children, ages 3, 6, 8, and 10, drove to Canada, and then flew to Japan, according to the FBI. A fifth child, a teen, refused to visit with Tanaka and is with the mother in Eugene, according to authorities.

Tanaka’s departure with his children violates a custody agreement between the father and mother issued by Lane County Circuit Court, authorities said.

The children’s mother called Eugene police Aug. 25 to report her estranged husband had not returned the children from his scheduled visitation. Both Tanaka and the mother are Japanese citizens who have lived in the United States for about 15 years.

In a newly filed report in Lane County Circuit Court, the FBI said Tanaka had driven with his children to Vancouver International Airport in Vancouver B.C., in a rental car Aug. 25, then boarded a Korean Air flight to Nagoya, Japan.

The report notes the Lane County Assistant District Attorney’s Office believes Tanaka could be extradited for his alleged actions.

Deputy District Attorney Patty Perlow said her office has made a request to the federal government to “help cause the return” of Tanaka so he can face charges.

He’s currently charged with four counts of first-degree custodial interference. The U.S. Attorney’s Office may soon review the case, Perlow said.

According to court records, the children’s mother filed for divorce from Tanaka last year. The divorce was approved Aug. 27, two days after Tanaka allegedly fled with the children. A restraining order has been in place since 2012, filed by the mother against Tanaka and renewed by the court periodically. In her petition, the mother alleged she had been a victim of domestic violence at the hands of Tanaka, occasionally in front of the children.

Meanwhile, Tanaka alleged his estranged wife had interfered with his relationship with his children, and he was granted visitation every other weekend and one weekday afternoon per week.

Tonaka was in the country on a student visa, for a time studying psychology at the University of Oregon, and most recently business at Lane Community College, according to court documents filed in January by his attorney, Lynn Shepard.

The mother’s visa is expired, the documents state, and she has a pending application for renewal. She is pursuing two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree, although the paperwork did not specify where she is enrolled. Shepard’s document stated, “the father is very concerned about mother’s immigration status and wants a provision that the children cannot be removed from the U.S.”

The documents also state neither parent had a job, both relying on Tanaka’s parents for financial support. The debt the former couple owed Tanaka’s parents was estimated at $200,000 and was the subject of debate in their divorce.

The Register Guard

Explosion At Nippon Steel Nagoya

Nippon Steel, Tokai Nagoya

At least 13 people were injured Wednesday after an explosion at a steel plant in central Japan, an official said, the latest in a series of accidents at the site.

Television pictures showed clouds of black smoke billowing from the Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal facility in Tokai, Aichi Prefecture, where 3,000 employees were engaged in producing steel sheets and pipes.

A spokesman for the Aichi prefectural police said the fire department had been alerted to a problem at the plant at 12:46 p.m.

A Tokyo-based spokeswoman for the world’s No. 2 steelmaker said 13 people were injured, “nine of them employees (of Nippon Steel) ...and four of them employees of its partner companies”.

At least six people were taken to hospital, private broadcaster Nippon TV reported, saying the injuries were not life-threatening.

Another local report said 15 people were injured, three of them severely.

“There was a small explosion that was caused by a fire at a coke oven,” a Tokai city official told AFP, adding he did not know about the severity of the injuries.

The explosion came after other fire troubles earlier this year. No one was hurt in separate incidents in January, June and July at the same plant

The incidents prompted the mayor of Tokai, a city of about 100,000 people, formally to ask the steelmaker to draw up a plan to deal with any safety problems.

Mayor Atsuo Suzuki submitted the request twice in the wake of separate incidents, according to local media.

Four incidents this year were related to power blackouts, the company spokeswoman said, adding that Wednesday’s problem was caused by another issue.

“The fire broke out during the process right before coal is thrown into a coke oven,” she said.

Last month, the plant announced preventive measures, including setting up a committee to investigate details of past incidents and overhauling the site’s power supply systems.

The plant manufactures a wide range of steel products, from high-quality steel sheets for vehicle bodies to products for canned food as well as various kinds of steel pipes. 

Jiji Press

Nagoya Oceans Win Futsal Championship

 

Wataru Kitahara’s dramatic winner in the last minute of extra-time saw Nagoya Oceans became the first ever two-time winners of the AFC Futsal Club Championship after a 5-4 win over defending champions Chonburi Bluewave in Saturday’s final following a 4-4 deadlock in regulation time at Shuangliu Sports Centre.

Having memorably won the 2011 edition, Nagoya emphatically crowned their return to the tournament’s finale after consecutive third-place finishes in 2012 and 2013. But the Japanese team were made to earn the right to Asia’s premiere futsal title in a rollercoaster tie that saw the lead change hands on multiple occasions.

Goals from Jirawat Sornwichian and Rudimar Venancio sandwiched Kitahara’s first of the night as the Thai side went into the interval 2-1 up.

But after Hidekazu Shirakata and Kaoru Morioko had flipped the score around Sarawut Jaipech twice pulled the Thai side level after Morioko netted a brace to see the sides tied at 4-4. And then it was all about Kitahara’s next contribution as he ended Chonburi’s dreams of back-to-back titles deep into extra time.

A tightly-fought opening period was mainly punctuated by tough tackling as the two sides battled to dictate the flow of the game early on, and although chances were at premium.

But with eight minutes played the holders broke the deadlock. Kritsada Wongkaeo picked up a loose Nagoya pass before surging up the pitch and playing in Suphawut Thueanklang on the left. The 2013 MVP checked inside and slid a pass across the area to a waiting Jirawat who buried the ball past Shinoda.

Nagoya were back level four minutes later, though, as Kitahara anticipated an opportunity in the area and slid on to Shirakata’s driven cross to bundle the ball past Mehr.

However, the Japanese club were on level terms for less than a minute as Kritsada took advantage of Yoshio Sakai’s hesitancy to again steal back possession before laying on a pass for Venancio to steer an angled shot into the bottom corner.

Chonburi’s physical style meant they were living dangerously, though, and Suphawut committed their sixth infringement to concede a penalty, although, to his relief, he saw Morioka put the resulting spot-kick wide as the score remained 2-1 at the half-time break.

Nagoya needed just under two minutes of the re-start to restore parity, however, as Shirakata surprised Mehr with an early shot from the right flank that beat the Iranian at his near post.

The Japanese champions continued to remain on top in the second period and they completed the turnaround after seven minutes of the half had been played with Morioka latching onto a long ball from captain Tomoki Yoshikawa and finishing convincingly.

The back-and-forth nature of the contest continued as Chonburi levelled with eight minutes to go as Nattavut Madyalan’s ball into the penalty area ricocheted off Apiwat into the path of Sarawut who stabbed home.

But the parity lasted just a minute as the bleach blonde-haired Morioko had his second and Nagoya’s fourth as he beat Mehr from close range.

With the clock ticking down, Chonburi went to the powerplay and it paid off in the most dramatic fashion possible as fifth outfielder Venancio’s pass was rammed into the goal by Sarawut with just 30 seconds remaining to take the game to extra-time.

It seemed as if neither team would make use of the additional ten minutes of time, until a minute from the end Morioko found Watanabe and his ball from left to right was turned in by Kitahara at the back post to give Nagoya a historic victory.

14 Year Old Anjo Girl Jumps To Her Death

A 14-year-old girl in Anjo, Aichi Prefecture, jumped from her family’s 12th-floor condo in an apparent suicide, police said Monday.

At around 9:10 p.m. Sunday, an emergency call was made for an ambulance by someone who saw the girl fall from the condo. The girl, whose name has been withheld, broke her neck and was confirmed dead.

According to the police, scribbling that looked like a suicide note was found in her room. It reportedly detailed difficulties she faced at school.

She had returned home from her “juku” cram school at around 6 p.m. Sunday, the police said.

Fukushima Town Resents Evacuees

Like many of her neighbors, Satomi Inokoshi worries that her gritty hometown is being spoiled by the newcomers and the money that have rolled into Iwaki since the Fukushima nuclear disaster almost three and a half years ago.

“Iwaki is changing - and not for the good,” said Inokoshi, 55, who echoes a sentiment widely heard in this town of almost 300,000 where the economic boom that followed the nuclear accident has brought its own disruption.

Property prices in Iwaki, about 60 km south of the wrecked nuclear plant, have jumped as evacuees forced from homes in more heavily contaminated areas snatch up apartments and land. Hundreds of workers, who have arrived to work in the nuclear clean-up, crowd downtown hotels.

But long-time residents have also come to resent evacuees and the government compensation that has made the newcomers relatively rich in a blue-collar town built on coal mining and access to a nearby port. Locals have stopped coming to the entertainment district where Inokoshi runs a bar, she says, scared off by the nuclear workers and their rowdy reputation.

“The situation around Iwaki is unsettled and unruly,” said Ryosuke Takaki, a professor of sociology at Iwaki Meisei University, who has studied the town’s developing divide. “There are many people who have evacuated to Iwaki, and there are all kinds of incidents caused by friction.”

Residents across Fukushima Prefecture hailed the first wave of workers who arrived to contain the nuclear disaster in 2011 as heroes. Cities like Iwaki also welcomed evacuees from towns closer to the meltdowns and explosions. At the time, Japan’s stoicism and sense of community were praised around the world for helping those who survived an earthquake and tsunami that killed nearly 19,000 and triggered explosions at the nuclear plant.

But that solidarity and sense of shared purpose has frayed, according to dozens of interviews. Many Iwaki residents say they have grown weary of hosting evacuees in temporary housing.

And the newcomers themselves are frightened, says Hideo Hasegawa, who heads a non-profit group looking after evacuees at the largest temporary housing complex in Iwaki.

“When they move in to an apartment, they don’t talk to neighbors and hide,” said Hasegawa, who works from a small office located between rows of grey, prefabricated shacks housing the evacuees. “You hear this hate talk everywhere you go: restaurants, shops, bars. It’s relentless.”

The 2011 nuclear crisis forced more than 160,000 people in Fukushima prefecture to evacuate and leave their homes. Half of them are still not allowed to return to the most badly contaminated townships within 20 kms of the destroyed plant known as the exclusion zone.

Since April, the government has allowed some residents to return to parts of the evacuation zone. But the area remains sparsely populated and riddled with hot spots where radiation is as much as four times the government’s target for public safety. Work crews in white decontamination suits have poured radiation-tainted topsoil and debris into black-plastic bags piled at improvised storage sites on roadsides and public parks awaiting a shift to a more permanent nuclear waste dump.

By contrast, Iwaki has prospered. On a recent Saturday, parking lots near downtown were packed - along with restaurants near Taira, the city’s downtown. Chuo-dai Kashima, a newly developed area in Iwaki where many of the temporary housing units have been built, saw an almost 12 percent rise in land prices in the past year, according to government data. That was among the highest increases across Japan and behind only Ishinomaki, Miyagi, a coastal city that was destroyed by the 2011 tsunami and has only just begun to rebuild.

At the heart of the tensions is an unresolved debate about how much people across Fukushima should be compensated for the suffering, dislocation and uncertainty that followed the nuclear accident.

Some Iwaki residents grumble they are being forced to shoulder the burden of hosting evacuees who receive far more compensation from the government and do not have to pay rent on their government-provided prefab temporary homes.

In January 2013, vandals threw paint and broke windows on cars parked in evacuee housing at multiple locations. Less than a month earlier, someone had painted graffiti reading, “Evacuees Go Home” at the entrance to a city office.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima plant, has paid almost 4 trillion yen in compensation as a result of the nuclear accident. Payments vary depending on the amount of radiation recorded in a particular area, a system that evacuees have complained appears arbitrary. A family of four in one part of an evacuated town might receive 10 million yen, while a similar family in a less contaminated part of the same evacuated town would get just over half of that amount, according to data from Japan’s trade ministry.

The radioactive plume that erupted after a partial meltdown at the Fukushima plant travelled northwest, missing Iwaki. Most of Iwaki’s residents evacuated for a while, but most then returned. Their compensation was also limited: the majority received about 120,000 yen each.

Many established residents in Iwaki complain government payouts to the newcomers have been frittered away on luxury cars and villas, locally dubbed “disaster relief mansions.”

“The food the evacuees eat and the clothes they wear are different,” said Hiroshi Watahiki, 56, a chiropractor in Iwaki. “They can afford it from their compensation funds. They have time and money to go gambling since they’re not working.”

A poll in January by Takaki showed residents had conflicting feelings about the evacuees. More than half of those surveyed expressed sympathy for them, but 67% also said they “feel envious of their compensation.”

The tensions are unlikely to be resolved any time soon.

The government is planning to build 3,700 permanent apartments to replace the temporary units for evacuees, most of them in Iwaki. The first 1,600 apartments, however, are nine months behind schedule and will not be ready until 2017, officials say.