[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Monday, Aug. 10, 2009
DPJ vows civilian Afghanistan aid
Kyodo News
The Democratic Party of Japan has decided that if it wins the election it will focus on contributing personnel in Afghanistan after letting the refueling mission in the Indian Ocean run out in January, DPJ sources said Sunday.
If he becomes prime minister, party leader Yukio Hatoyama is planning to visit the United States to attend the U.N. General Assembly in September, where he would also meet with President Barack Obama to explain the new policy.
Hatoyama said last month the party would end the refueling mission by the Maritime Self-Defense Force in January, when the law for the mission expires.
The envisioned personnel contributions to Afghanistan would primarily consist of government and private-sector officials, with party policy chief Masayuki Naoshima saying, "While it will be difficult to have the Self-Defense Forces operate on the ground, we could provide support centering on civilian sectors."
Meanwhile, Hatoyama suggested Sunday the DPJ will consider turning Japan's stated three nonnuclear principles into law. These are not producing, possessing or allowing nuclear weapons on Japanese territory.
"It is important to follow the three principles, and I think legislation is one option," Hatoyama said during a meeting with hibakusha on the 64th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. "I promise that our party will consider it."
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Monday, Aug. 10, 2009
Court errors unavoidable, ex-judges tell poll
Kyodo News
More than 80 percent of former professional judges believe that miscarriages of justice are unavoidable, according to a survey by Forum 90, a group opposed to capital punishment.
The survey, conducted in July, also found that more than 60 percent of the former judges oppose the new lay judge system.
The group tried to poll 900 former judges who are now lawyers, college professors and notary publics, but only 106 responded.
Among those who did, 82.1 percent said they believe a miscarriage of justice is unavoidable. Many of them propose introducing audio and visual recordings of the interrogation process as a way to prevent such problems, as demanded by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. The former judges also stressed the need to end the overdependence on confessions.
"Criminal court judges seem to have a strong belief that they should not be cheated by the defendants," one respondent said. "Thus they are likely to follow the arguments of the prosecutors. It is necessary to promote change in their thinking."
On the lay judge system, in which six citizen judges and three professionals hear trials dealing with serious crimes, 61.3 percent of the respondents are against it, while 30.2 percent are for it.
"While judges are sometimes required to be involved in serious and heated discussions, it would be difficult for nonprofessionals to deliberate in a reasonable manner," one respondent said.
Another said the new system should be maintained "as it may curb the self-righteousness of professional judges."
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Monday, Aug. 10, 2009
Hanford cleanup chief has Nagasaki roots
By DAVID JEFFRIES
Kyodo News
HANFORD, Wash. (Kyodo) For Shirley Olinger, managing the cleanup of the Hanford nuclear site — where the plutonium was generated for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945 — is personal.
Nagasaki is her mother's hometown.
Established in 1943, the government-run Hanford Nuclear Reservation is in south-central Washington state along the Columbia River. Water from the river was used to cool the plutonium-producing nuclear reactors.
The facility was part of the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons during World War II. Once the plutonium was extracted from the uranium, chemical processes left large amounts of highly toxic waste at the site.
According to the Hanford Challenge, a Seattle-based watchdog group, the 1,517-sq.-km reservation is the most contaminated toxic waste site in the United States and among the top 10 in the world.
The Department of Energy, where Olinger, 52, works as manager at the Office of River Protection, is the lead federal agency in charge of physical cleanup at Hanford.
"The good news is we are all in it together," Olinger said of the department working alongside the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington state Ecology Department. "We all want to clean up Hanford in the most sustainable and best-quality way."
Many of the toxic chemicals from the contained nuclear waste at Hanford have now leaked into soil or the nearby Columbia, releasing several harmful chemicals such as carbon tetrachloride.
According to Dennis Faulk, EPA program manager for Hanford, about 96,000 kg of carbon tetrachloride has already been removed from the soil in Hanford since 1989, when the cleanup initiative began. In addition, 13,100 kg of carbon tetrachloride has been removed from the water.
Olinger pointed to the emptying of a large container of nuclear fuel known as the K-basin, and the stopping of the nine nuclear reactors at Hanford as evidence that the agencies together have made some headway in the cleanup.
Despite these signs of progress, Tom Carpenter, executive director of the Hanford Challenge, warns that the bulk of the work has yet to be done.
"I call this 'stopping the bleeding' because it was damaging the environment," Carpenter said. "But what can we really say about tank waste? Ninety percent of the Hanford cleanup is this waste. And I think they are stuck."
Tank waste refers to the 200 million liters of high-level toxic waste stored in 177 underground tanks at Hanford. Unable to be held any longer without leakage or decay, the waste must be transported to a new storage unit with as little impact on the environment and residents as possible.
Olinger, whose office specifically manages tank waste retrieval, is optimistic about the progress so far despite the concerns of the Hanford Challenge.
"There have been technical issues that we have been dealing with in the past," she said. "At this moment we are down to one. I'm hoping that the last technical issue . . . will be resolved by (September)."
The project is scheduled to be completed in 2019.
Liz Mattson of the Hanford Challenge said Olinger requested face-to-face meetings with activists starting last November. Mattson now refers to Olinger as the Hanford Challenge's "biggest advocate for reform."
With her Japanese mother and relatives surviving the impact of the Nagasaki bomb, Olinger's family history speaks to the legacy and trauma of nuclear warfare.
Olinger said that during a family trip last year to Nagasaki, she heard stories of relatives and other people who were not recognized as victims of the bomb's radioactive fallout by the Japanese government.
Members of Olinger's family had suffered from thyroid problems, infertility and cancer.
"I got to talk to a few of these people and today they are taken well care of," said Olinger, "but for decades they weren't. . . . The government didn't know how to deal with them."
Now representing the U.S. government and managing perhaps the largest nuclear cleanup in the Western Hemisphere, Olinger charges herself with both personal and professional responsibility to remember those affected by the cleanup as much as those relatives who were so negatively impacted by the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki during World War II.
"We want to do this cleanup in a robust way that's sustainable and respectful of stakeholders and the workers. If we don't do that on our watch, then who is going to? I have a lot of passion toward the health and safety of the workers."
One of Hanford's most vital community stakeholders, the Hanford Advisory Board, is another proponent of Olinger's mission to have a robust and sustainable clean up.
The board creates consensus-based, policy-level advice to the Department of Energy, the EPA and Washington state offices to consider the safety of the local community while making technical decisions about the cleanup.
Susan Leckband, chair of the board and a fourth-generation resident of the Hanford area, said the cleanup is important to Americans and Japanese alike.
"Not only is this (cleanup) honoring those Americans," Leckband said of the people who went to Hanford to help out with the war effort more than 50 years ago. "It is also honoring the lives of those people who were lost (in Japan). Something positive is coming out of this. There won't be any more bombs built here."
[SPORTS]
Monday, Aug. 10, 2009
Japan spikers rally to beat Russia
OSAKA (Kyodo) Japan rallied from a set down to beat Russia 3-1 Sunday in the World Grand Prix women's volleyball tournament.
Japan improved its record to 3-3 with a 20-25, 25-19, 25-15, 25-21 win at Osaka Municipal Gymnasium. Russia fell to 3-3.
After dropping the first set, the host went on a fierce blitz with the addition of 21-year-old Maiko Kano, who penetrated the Russian defense with back row spikes.
The Japanese women also did well in serving and blocking.
"The blocks that we have been going over in practice worked the best yet in this tournament today," said Japan coach Masayoshi Manabe. "We want to continue with this same level of intensity."
In the day's other Pool F match in Osaka, South Korea (1-5) defeated Puerto Rico (1-5) 25-18, 25-18, 24-26, 22-25, 15-13
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Monday, Aug. 10, 2009
DPJ vows civilian Afghanistan aid
Kyodo News
The Democratic Party of Japan has decided that if it wins the election it will focus on contributing personnel in Afghanistan after letting the refueling mission in the Indian Ocean run out in January, DPJ sources said Sunday.
If he becomes prime minister, party leader Yukio Hatoyama is planning to visit the United States to attend the U.N. General Assembly in September, where he would also meet with President Barack Obama to explain the new policy.
Hatoyama said last month the party would end the refueling mission by the Maritime Self-Defense Force in January, when the law for the mission expires.
The envisioned personnel contributions to Afghanistan would primarily consist of government and private-sector officials, with party policy chief Masayuki Naoshima saying, "While it will be difficult to have the Self-Defense Forces operate on the ground, we could provide support centering on civilian sectors."
Meanwhile, Hatoyama suggested Sunday the DPJ will consider turning Japan's stated three nonnuclear principles into law. These are not producing, possessing or allowing nuclear weapons on Japanese territory.
"It is important to follow the three principles, and I think legislation is one option," Hatoyama said during a meeting with hibakusha on the 64th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. "I promise that our party will consider it."
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Monday, Aug. 10, 2009
Court errors unavoidable, ex-judges tell poll
Kyodo News
More than 80 percent of former professional judges believe that miscarriages of justice are unavoidable, according to a survey by Forum 90, a group opposed to capital punishment.
The survey, conducted in July, also found that more than 60 percent of the former judges oppose the new lay judge system.
The group tried to poll 900 former judges who are now lawyers, college professors and notary publics, but only 106 responded.
Among those who did, 82.1 percent said they believe a miscarriage of justice is unavoidable. Many of them propose introducing audio and visual recordings of the interrogation process as a way to prevent such problems, as demanded by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. The former judges also stressed the need to end the overdependence on confessions.
"Criminal court judges seem to have a strong belief that they should not be cheated by the defendants," one respondent said. "Thus they are likely to follow the arguments of the prosecutors. It is necessary to promote change in their thinking."
On the lay judge system, in which six citizen judges and three professionals hear trials dealing with serious crimes, 61.3 percent of the respondents are against it, while 30.2 percent are for it.
"While judges are sometimes required to be involved in serious and heated discussions, it would be difficult for nonprofessionals to deliberate in a reasonable manner," one respondent said.
Another said the new system should be maintained "as it may curb the self-righteousness of professional judges."
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Monday, Aug. 10, 2009
Hanford cleanup chief has Nagasaki roots
By DAVID JEFFRIES
Kyodo News
HANFORD, Wash. (Kyodo) For Shirley Olinger, managing the cleanup of the Hanford nuclear site — where the plutonium was generated for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945 — is personal.
Nagasaki is her mother's hometown.
Established in 1943, the government-run Hanford Nuclear Reservation is in south-central Washington state along the Columbia River. Water from the river was used to cool the plutonium-producing nuclear reactors.
The facility was part of the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons during World War II. Once the plutonium was extracted from the uranium, chemical processes left large amounts of highly toxic waste at the site.
According to the Hanford Challenge, a Seattle-based watchdog group, the 1,517-sq.-km reservation is the most contaminated toxic waste site in the United States and among the top 10 in the world.
The Department of Energy, where Olinger, 52, works as manager at the Office of River Protection, is the lead federal agency in charge of physical cleanup at Hanford.
"The good news is we are all in it together," Olinger said of the department working alongside the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington state Ecology Department. "We all want to clean up Hanford in the most sustainable and best-quality way."
Many of the toxic chemicals from the contained nuclear waste at Hanford have now leaked into soil or the nearby Columbia, releasing several harmful chemicals such as carbon tetrachloride.
According to Dennis Faulk, EPA program manager for Hanford, about 96,000 kg of carbon tetrachloride has already been removed from the soil in Hanford since 1989, when the cleanup initiative began. In addition, 13,100 kg of carbon tetrachloride has been removed from the water.
Olinger pointed to the emptying of a large container of nuclear fuel known as the K-basin, and the stopping of the nine nuclear reactors at Hanford as evidence that the agencies together have made some headway in the cleanup.
Despite these signs of progress, Tom Carpenter, executive director of the Hanford Challenge, warns that the bulk of the work has yet to be done.
"I call this 'stopping the bleeding' because it was damaging the environment," Carpenter said. "But what can we really say about tank waste? Ninety percent of the Hanford cleanup is this waste. And I think they are stuck."
Tank waste refers to the 200 million liters of high-level toxic waste stored in 177 underground tanks at Hanford. Unable to be held any longer without leakage or decay, the waste must be transported to a new storage unit with as little impact on the environment and residents as possible.
Olinger, whose office specifically manages tank waste retrieval, is optimistic about the progress so far despite the concerns of the Hanford Challenge.
"There have been technical issues that we have been dealing with in the past," she said. "At this moment we are down to one. I'm hoping that the last technical issue . . . will be resolved by (September)."
The project is scheduled to be completed in 2019.
Liz Mattson of the Hanford Challenge said Olinger requested face-to-face meetings with activists starting last November. Mattson now refers to Olinger as the Hanford Challenge's "biggest advocate for reform."
With her Japanese mother and relatives surviving the impact of the Nagasaki bomb, Olinger's family history speaks to the legacy and trauma of nuclear warfare.
Olinger said that during a family trip last year to Nagasaki, she heard stories of relatives and other people who were not recognized as victims of the bomb's radioactive fallout by the Japanese government.
Members of Olinger's family had suffered from thyroid problems, infertility and cancer.
"I got to talk to a few of these people and today they are taken well care of," said Olinger, "but for decades they weren't. . . . The government didn't know how to deal with them."
Now representing the U.S. government and managing perhaps the largest nuclear cleanup in the Western Hemisphere, Olinger charges herself with both personal and professional responsibility to remember those affected by the cleanup as much as those relatives who were so negatively impacted by the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki during World War II.
"We want to do this cleanup in a robust way that's sustainable and respectful of stakeholders and the workers. If we don't do that on our watch, then who is going to? I have a lot of passion toward the health and safety of the workers."
One of Hanford's most vital community stakeholders, the Hanford Advisory Board, is another proponent of Olinger's mission to have a robust and sustainable clean up.
The board creates consensus-based, policy-level advice to the Department of Energy, the EPA and Washington state offices to consider the safety of the local community while making technical decisions about the cleanup.
Susan Leckband, chair of the board and a fourth-generation resident of the Hanford area, said the cleanup is important to Americans and Japanese alike.
"Not only is this (cleanup) honoring those Americans," Leckband said of the people who went to Hanford to help out with the war effort more than 50 years ago. "It is also honoring the lives of those people who were lost (in Japan). Something positive is coming out of this. There won't be any more bombs built here."
[SPORTS]
Monday, Aug. 10, 2009
Japan spikers rally to beat Russia
OSAKA (Kyodo) Japan rallied from a set down to beat Russia 3-1 Sunday in the World Grand Prix women's volleyball tournament.
Japan improved its record to 3-3 with a 20-25, 25-19, 25-15, 25-21 win at Osaka Municipal Gymnasium. Russia fell to 3-3.
After dropping the first set, the host went on a fierce blitz with the addition of 21-year-old Maiko Kano, who penetrated the Russian defense with back row spikes.
The Japanese women also did well in serving and blocking.
"The blocks that we have been going over in practice worked the best yet in this tournament today," said Japan coach Masayoshi Manabe. "We want to continue with this same level of intensity."
In the day's other Pool F match in Osaka, South Korea (1-5) defeated Puerto Rico (1-5) 25-18, 25-18, 24-26, 22-25, 15-13
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