An excellent question. The answer is, Japan has a religion, and that religion is Japan itself (nationalism). Yes, Shinto is there, but AFAIK, it's mostly ceremonial.

The Japanese have a very strong family-oriented culture with clearly defined roles and a nearly homogenous society. They also have a concept of honor unheard of in the West. Disgracing one's family name by stealing or rioting would be inexcusable.

Unfortunately, the Japanese are, IMO, still too trusting of authority in times of crisis.

I never claimed that Christianity is the only way to instill values, but because a tenet of generic Christianity is that it's the "ONLY" way, I can see why one might think so.

When God is "killed" the State becomes God, and a murderous one at that. The only majority atheist countries spared mass slaughter have traditionally religious cultures or strict cultural values. Right now England has neither, and because the population is unarmed, they are subjects of the crown, not citizens.


>> ^SDGundamX:

>> ^quantumushroom:
I agree with this guy 99%. He is not a cock. Of course, watching an atheist angered by a lack of morality in the populace is hilarious. People didn't regularly act this way 40 years ago. What changed?
Not everyone proclaiming to be a Christian follows Thou shalt not steal all the time, but more of them have values than the ones raised with....NOTHING.
Sorry Atheists, without those funny Bible stories/sermons/morality plays, you have no vehicle to deliver your values, which oddly mirror Christian values in so many ways.

Riots don't happen in Japan, either--a country where less than 1% of the population is Christian. Don't you think the Japanese have 1000 times more reasons to riot than these guys? Many people in the tsunami hit areas are still living in school gyms, without air conditioning in 90+ degree weather. They have no work, no homes, and not a whole lot of hope. Meanwhile, a 20km radius in Fukushima is uninhabitable and will likely remain that way for the foreseeable future. The people who used to live there are basically homeless--they can't claim insurance on their homes because technically their homes haven't been destroyed. And it's not just people in northern Japan that are being affected--radioactive food is "accidentally" getting through inspections and being consumed by the general populace.
Most have never heard of the ten commandments here. 80% of the population are atheist. Yet there are no riots, no looting, no violent demonstrations. People are angry, but they are working peacefully towards solutions to the problems through grassroots campaigns. So my question for you is, how do you reconcile these facts with your belief that only Christianity can instill morality in people?

>> ^quantumushroom:

I agree with this guy 99%. He is not a cock. Of course, watching an atheist angered by a lack of morality in the populace is hilarious. People didn't regularly act this way 40 years ago. What changed?
Not everyone proclaiming to be a Christian follows Thou shalt not steal all the time, but more of them have values than the ones raised with....NOTHING.
Sorry Atheists, without those funny Bible stories/sermons/morality plays, you have no vehicle to deliver your values, which oddly mirror Christian values in so many ways.


Riots don't happen in Japan, either--a country where less than 1% of the population is Christian. Don't you think the Japanese have 1000 times more reasons to riot than these guys? Many people in the tsunami hit areas are still living in school gyms, without air conditioning in 90+ degree weather. They have no work, no homes, and not a whole lot of hope. Meanwhile, a 20km radius in Fukushima is uninhabitable and will likely remain that way for the foreseeable future. The people who used to live there are basically homeless--they can't claim insurance on their homes because technically their homes haven't been destroyed. And it's not just people in northern Japan that are being affected--radioactive food is "accidentally" getting through inspections and being consumed by the general populace.

Most have never heard of the ten commandments here. 80% of the population are atheist. Yet there are no riots, no looting, no violent demonstrations. People are angry, but they are working peacefully towards solutions to the problems through grassroots campaigns. So my question for you is, how do you reconcile these facts with your belief that only Christianity can instill morality in people?

@goemon

I think you misread what I said. I wasn't praising them for showing up, I was praising them for their calm response to 2.5 hours of grandstanding by a bunch of groups that clearly showed up with the intent of trying to make the government look as bad as possible so they could make this misleading video and further promote their agendas. I was also praising the genuine compassion that several of the representatives showed in response to the few local people who actually stood up to tell their stories.

Do you have links to the statements you made above? Nothing in your post seems to be hyperlinked...and Japanese-only is fine. If you're up on current affairs in Japan, then you're aware of the scandal involving Kyushu Electric and its shady campaign to get the nuclear reactors down there started up again. I haven't seen anything credible yet though about the government covering things up.

Why should the meeting have been locals only? Well, the meeting was entitled "Negotiating the rights of Fukushima disaster victims" which implies that the people doing the speaking should have been the locals and not a bunch of anti-nuclear groups looking to make a name for themselves. The "outsiders" weren't there to negotiate, they were there to record themselves making speeches against these government representatives and then edit out the representatives' replies later on. That's what pissed me off about this clip.

Again, I'm not saying Fukushima people don't have anything to be angry about. But shady tactics like this by people who aren't even in the disaster area are not helping things at all.

>> ^goemon:

@SDGundamX Thanks for the additional background check on the video.
So, do you think the Japanese government is doing all it can to inform and protect their citizens?


I see little evidence of some big cover-up going on, as some have suggested. But there are clearly lots of mistakes being made. I would compare it to Katrina in the U.S. because it seems like the same kinds of difficulties are being faced--slow response times, bureaucratic management issues, lack of a clear plan, etc. The current political situation in Japan (Kan is currently a lame duck Prime Minister who refuses to step down) makes getting anything done extremely hard. Complicating matters even more is the fact that Tokyo Electric is a private company and not government-owned and they apparently aren't coordinating that well with the government in formulating a response, which sometimes results in press conferences where Tokyo Electric says one thing only to be completely contradicted by a Japanese government official in a subsequent press conference.

Certainly Fukushima residents have lots to complain about. For example, in the full version of the meeting, the government officials get asked if the government is taking into account internal radiation exposure (from inhaling or ingesting radioactive materials like Cesium) when determining "safe" radiation exposure levels (currently set at 20 mSv/year for Fukushima residents outside the mandatory evacuation zone). It's a great question. The government's response was along the lines that they are still investigating the issue, but that it is complicated by the fact that there's lots of research on "safe" external exposure levels but not nearly as much on internal exposure levels to the the types of materials (Cesium-137, for instance) that were released in the accident. That makes it difficult to determine a "safe" limit. Clearly that's not an answer that's going to put any Fukushima resident's mind at ease.

EDIT:

Just wanted to add that I give props to the government guys who showed up for this meeting. If you watch the 2.5 hour vid, you'll see they calmly put up with all of the interruptions and try their best to honestly answer the questions posed to them. Many of them show sincere sympathy to the people gathered there and express their understanding of the frustration they are facing. They look like they actually came expecting a dialogue rather than an inquisition. I probably would have walked out after the 1st hour but they remain until the very end of the meeting. The vid posted here makes it seem like they abruptly left but in the full version you can see the person who is chairing/MC'ing the meeting thanks them for coming and concludes the meeting. It was after the conclusion of the meeting that the urine-chasers appeared.

I'm still searching the Japanese news sites for the truth about what went down at this meeting, but according to some people on the Japanese YouTube version of this video, this may have been a setup. The reason for all the cameras and shouting was supposedly because the majority of the audience in attendance that day were members of "Green Action" and "Greenpeace" who weren't even residents of the affected area. They basically came to further their own anti-nuclear agenda and brought the urine with them knowing that it wasn't these guys jobs to test it. Again, I'm not sure of the truth of all that. If I find out more I'll post again.

EDIT: Did a bit more research and found children from the Fukushima area have had their urine tested back in June, but only trace amounts of Cesium were found--not at any levels that would affect health (0.41~1.13 becquerels per liter of urine).

EDIT2: Yeah, it was a total setup. The whole meeting was organized by an NGO called Friends of Earth Japan (FoE), who have a strong anti-nuclear agenda (the page I linked to is their public announcement of the meeting, including handouts that detailed their strategy for the meeting). They called out to other groups like No Nukes More Hearts who share similar goals. On the No Nukes More Hearts web page that I linked to they encourage all members of the group, whether they are residents or not, to attend the meeting. Other groups that seem to be involved were the Fukushima Protect Children from Radiation Association, Fukushima Fukuro Club (similar to Greenpeace) and Greenpeace Japan, further stacking the audience.

These groups apparently invited government representatives for "negotiations" about the rights of people living in the stricken areas. Realizing the groups were there to grandstand and not actually discuss anything, the government officials eventually withdrew from the meeting--after nearly 2.5 hours of patiently trying to answer questions! The NGO groups quickly edited down and translated the original video of the meeting to further their own purposes, deleting the two hours of the video in which the government members listen to speeches given by various group leaders and try to answer questions from the audience.

You can see the original unedited video of the meeting here. It looks like the attending government officials were only given copies of the questions they would be asked moments before the meeting started (although in fairness if they had gone to the websites I linked to above they would have known what they were walking in to). Before the meeting even begins, the Fukushima Protect Children from Radiation Association drops a petition demanding all children be evacuated from Fukushima. Throughout the meeting, as the government officials try to patiently answer questions from the audience they are routinely interrupted by others who stand up and give speeches (there's a lot of talk about "protecting the children" which always gets a lot of applause).

So yeah, these guys got ambushed. It was basically a successful troll for these NGO groups.

EDIT 3: In the link to the original (uncut) meeting video, you can go to 1:02:00 to see where this clip starts. Notice this clip has been heavily edited and the government officials actually stuck around for ANOTHER HOUR to answer questions before being accosted by the urine-wielding brigade.

"There's no way of knowing who will use it or what they will use it for" ...well that's convenient, gives Mossad/CIA/MI6 perfect cover.

Who here thinks Fukushima was sabotaged with a stuxnet like virus? *raises hand*

Fukushima Reactor No. 1 more radioactive than ever

Are Nuclear Reactions Still Occurring at Fukushima?

Update on the Japanese Nuclear Crisis: Not a Pretty Picture

Arnie Gundersen Interview: The Dangers Of Fukushima Are Worse And Longer-lived Than We Think

Fukushima reactor has a hole, leading to leakage: TOKYO/NEW YORK, May 12 (Reuters) - One of the reactors at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant has a hole in its main vessel following a meltdown of fuel rods, leading to a leakage of radioactive water, its operator said on Thursday.

Rapid meltdown in No.1 reactor: Tokyo Electric Power Company, the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, says most of the fuel rods in the No.1 reactor had dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel within 16 hours of the earthquake on March 11th.

TEPCO to change reactor cool down method: TEPCO also says the gauges at the No.2 and 3 reactors might not be showing the actual water levels and that both reactors are likely to have undergone meltdowns.

Expert: Despite Japanese Gov’t Claims of Decreasing Radiation, Fukushima a "Ticking Time Bomb"
13 April 2011

DR. MICHIO KAKU: Well, Tokyo Electric has been in denial, trying to downplay the full impact of this nuclear accident. However, there’s a formula, a mathematical formula, by which you can determine what level this accident is. This accident has already released something on the order of 50,000 trillion becquerels of radiation. You do the math. That puts it right smack in the middle of a level 7 nuclear accident. Still, less than Chernobyl. However, radiation is continuing to leak out of the reactors. The situation is not stable at all. So, you’re looking at basically a ticking time bomb. It appears stable, but the slightest disturbance—a secondary earthquake, a pipe break, evacuation of the crew at Fukushima—could set off a full-scale meltdown at three nuclear power stations, far beyond what we saw at Chernobyl.

...

So, when the utility says that things are stable, it’s only stable in the sense that you’re dangling from a cliff hanging by your fingernails. And as the time goes by, each fingernail starts to crack. That’s the situation now.

>> ^MaxWilder:

I'm concerned more about the title of the video seeming to indicate that this video is current. Whatever the magnitude of the crisis, the information shown in the video is out of date, and should be reflected as such in the title.
I'm now downvoting on the basis that the title of the post does not reflect the content of the video in any manner. Please stop misleading viewers and change the title to reflect when the video was made.


Good point. I admit when I posted the video I thought it was from May 16, not March 16.

>> ^MaxWilder:

Note this video is from Mar 16, 2011.
While still a terrible disaster, it is being ranked behind Chernobyl in terms of magnitude.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_I_nuclear_accidents


I've been seeing posts on reddit about meltdowns in 3 or 4 of the cores. A full on china syndrome in the 1st reactor. There's radioactive sludge in a city outside of the 20km exclusion zone. http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/hebf2/fukushima_nuclear_core_meltdown_confirmed/

At this point there's so much bullshit here that I have to put on my fucking hazmat suit.

At this point, just arguing about how it is or is not like Chernobyl is a bunch of bullshit. It just muddies the fucking waters so much that no one knows what the fucking truth is.

People are saying it melted right after the quake, people are saying it melted sometime after the quake, people are saying it could be in a runaway state right now.

In short, I wouldn't trust jack shit the government of Japan says, or TEPCO (They have a monetary interest in making things sound less dangerous).

http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/2011/prn201106.html

She talks with a slightly educated, yet authoritative voice on the subject.

Another way to put it....she knows enough to be dangerous. Ignore this woman, shes clearly not got enough info to be managing realistic expectations of fukushima.

How close was that farm to Fukushima Daiichi?




Holy shit, I just thought to myself, "OMFG, what if that's not Japanese?" then I thought, "No, she said that 'cowie mat sha' thing you keep hearing in all the Japanese vids, so you're probably ok."

Thanks for the quality.

In reply to this comment by jimnms:
*quality