Japan Sci-Tech News

The signals have been developed by Taro Ochiai, a professor at Kyushu Sangyo University, with the first set of traffic lights installed in the southern city of Fukuoka. A second month-long test is to be started in Tokyo before the end of February. Prof Ochiai began researching the use of light-emitting diodes in 2003, when they first began to be used in traffic lights in preference to regular light bulbs. Drivers with colour-blindness quickly reported that the LED signals were more difficult for them to discern based only on brightness as the visual indicator. Working with lighting manufacturer Koito Electric Industries Ltd., Prof Ochiai incorporated blue LEDs with four times the brightness of the other diodes in the shape of a cross through the red lamp. (telegraph.co.uk)

The tsunami that hit Fukushima Prefecture on March 11 was particularly high--possibly up to 21 meters--along the coast in the center of the prefecture where the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is located, a survey has found. The height of the tsunami was previously assumed to have been about 15 meters at the nuclear plant, but this could not be confirmed because the area within a 20-kilometer radius of the plant is designated a no-entry zone. Researchers including Shinji Sato, a professor at the University of Tokyo, obtained permission from local governments to enter this zone, and for the first time since the tsunami, were able to survey coastal areas Monday and Tuesday. (Yomiuri)

The Forestry Agency will provide financial support for the construction of four biomass power plants to burn wood debris from the March 11 disasters, officials said. The plants to be built in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures are expected to burn a total of 200,000 tons of debris a year, generating 16,000 kw and covering the consumption needs of 30,000 households. Their operation to accelerate the disposal of debris while promoting renewable energy is expected to start by March 2014, the officials said Tuesday. (Japan Times)

It's been nearly a year after the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan. Now a Japanese architect is proposing a novel solution to the ongoing problem of how and where to rebuild villages destroyed by the disaster. Keiichiro Sako says the answer lies in what he calls "sky villages". Architect's "sky villages" to protect Japan from tsunamis. It's an idyllic scene set years into the future. The coastal plains of northern Japan, decimated by a tsunami in 2011, safely repopulated with communities sitting 20 metres above the ground. It may look like fantasy, but for Japanese architect Keiichiro Sako, it's a very real plan to protect the towns of northern Japan from tsunamis. He calls them sky villages. (china.org.cn)

Earthworms collected in Kawauchi, a village near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, have cesium levels averaging some 20,000 becquerels per kilogram, government researchers said. The finding indicates the radioactive substance "may accumulate in other animals through the food chain," Motohiro Hasegawa, senior researcher at the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, said Monday, noting earthworms are eaten by birds, boars and other wild animals. Last August and September, Hasegawa and other researchers collected earthworms in Kawauchi, 20 km from the crippled power plant; Otama, 60 km from the plant; and Tadami, 150 km away. (Japan Times)

Regular green tea drinkers have a lower risk of developing functional disability, researchers from Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Functional disability refers to problems with daily chores and activities, such as bathing or dressing. As background information, the authors explained that prior studies had found that consuming green tea reduced the risk of diseases associated with functional disability, such as osteoporosis, cognitive impairment and stroke. Although most experts believed the risk of incident functional disability would be lower for regular green tea drinkers, no direct studies to prove this had ever been carried out. Yasutake Tomata and team set out to determine whether regular green tea consumption might reduce incident functionality disability in older people. (medicalnewstoday.com)

Don't rely too much on a flu vaccine, but do wash your hands regularly. That's the advice from doctors at a time when a flu epidemic has infected an estimated 1.7 million people--mainly children--this season. Since late January, the number of patients suffering from fevers at Kiyosumi Shirakawa Kodomo Clinic in Koto Ward, Tokyo, has been on the rise. About 20 people per day have been diagnosed as having influenza. A 38-year-old woman visited the clinic as her 7-year-old son had a fever exceeding 38 C. "I have to be careful so that his 7-month-old sister doesn't get infected," she said. (Yomiuri)

An apparently new species of spider has been found in our woods, even though the creature has probably been around since long before humans came to Japan. To be specific, our spider researcher, Koji Arai, has found an arachnid on our Afan Woodland Trust property in Nagano Prefecture that he believes has never been documented before. It is a very small spider, about 4 mm long, and it is clearly of the genus Cybaeus - a free-hunter type of small spiders that live on the ground in forests. Both male (smaller abdomen) and female specimens have been found and are now undergoing peer assessment to confirm whether or not this is indeed a new species. (Japan Times)

Wildlife experts in Japan say Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins appear to have taken up permanent residence in Kagoshima Bay on the south coast of Kyushu. Experts at Kagoshima City Aquarium said several years of field studies have confirmed two schools of some 50 dolphins are residing in the bay, Kyodo News reported. There are young dolphins in both schools, meaning the animals are probably reproducing in the bay off Japan's southernmost island, they said. (UPI)

At least 1.3 million people in the Tokyo metropolitan area will likely have no place to take temporary refuge if the area is directly hit by a strong earthquake, according to projections by local governments concerned. There will only be space to accommodate 270,000 people, or more than 10 percent of the Tokyo residents whose houses are expected to be damaged in a major quake that has its epicenter in central Tokyo, the projections show. Combined with those who will be unable to return home due to the suspension of public transportation, local governments concerned will have to secure additional shelters for more than 1.3 million people. (Yomiuri)

Influenza reached the "alarm level" for the first time this season after an estimated 1.73 million flu cases were reported last week, an increase of more than 50 percent from the previous week, the health ministry said Friday. According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, about 5,000 medical institutions throughout the country reported an average of 35.95 flu cases in the week starting Jan. 23, exceeding the alarm level of 30, ministry officials said. The average has surged from 22.73 new flu cases per institution, which was the "alert level," the previous week. It also eclipsed last year's peak of 31.88. (Yomiuri)

Leaks of radioactive water have become more frequent at Japan's crippled nuclear power plant less than two months after it was declared basically stable. The problem underlines the continuing challenges facing Tokyo Electric Power Co. as it attempts to keep the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant under control. A massive earthquake and tsunami badly damaged the plant last March, resulting in the melting of three reactor cores. Workers spotted a leak Friday at a water reprocessing unit which released enough beta rays to cause radiation sickness, TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said. He said no one was injured and the leak stopped after bolts were tightened on a tank. (AP)

The massive radioactive fallout from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant has sparked fear in seafood lovers and commercial fishermen both at home and abroad, and some worry the contamination could pass through and even become more concentrated in the ocean food chain. But more than 10 months after the three reactor meltdowns, testing of thousands of fish, including tuna, bonito and "sanma" (Pacific saury), caught far from Tohoku's coast has turned up little contamination. Nevertheless, experts point out that consumer concern and uncertainty will remain regarding bottom fish from coastal areas near Fukushima Prefecture, including "hirame" (Japanese flounder), as well as freshwater fish from Fukushima and parts of Gunma and Tochigi prefectures. (Japan Times)

The nation experienced severe cold weather Friday with temperatures dropping to record lows at 38 locations in the morning, the Meteorological Agency said. From Tohoku to Kyushu, temperatures hit their lowest records in 16 prefectures, including the town of Kusu in Oita Prefecture, where temperature fell to minus 14.7 degrees. In Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture, it was minus 8.4. Of 927 observation points, over 90 percent, or 874 sites, marked temperatures below zero early Friday, the agency said. The lowest figure observed was minus 32.6 in Esashi, Hokkaido. The agency said the cold air mass that led to blizzards in several Sea of Japan coastal areas has now passed over the archipelago. (Japan Times)

Researchers working in the irradiated zone around the disabled Fukushima nuclear plant say bird populations there have begun to dwindle, in what may be a chilling harbinger of the impact of radioactive fallout on local life. In the first major study on the impact of the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years, the researchers from Japan, the US and Denmark say that analysis of 14 species of birds common to Fukushima and Chernobyl shows the effect on numbers is worse in the Japanese disaster zone. Published next week in the journal Environmental Pollution, the paper says its findings demonstrate "an immediate negative consequence of radiation for birds during the main breeding season March-July". Two of the study's authors have spent years working in the irradiated 2,850sq m zone around the Chernobyl plant, which exploded in 1986. A quarter of a century later, the zone is almost devoid of people. (irishtimes.com)

In its battle against a sluggish economy, Japan's government is gearing up to make cost savings through a root-and-branch reform of the country's science system, merging some of its most prominent research organizations. Plans approved by the government's cabinet on 20 January would consolidate the RIKEN network of basic-research laboratories with the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED) and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) - the national funding body. The policy would probably create an overarching body to supervise all five institutions, which would share more of their research and administrative resources, and lose some of their executive directors. But with few details about the timing, potential cost savings or full implications of the change, many researchers are concerned that it could be a recipe for harsh funding cuts and even greater bureaucracy. (nature.com)

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it has found radioactive coolant water leaking from a broken pipe in reactor 4 of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, but it hasn't flowed outside the building. The reactor's fuel rods are in the spent-fuel pool, as the reactor was offline for maintenance when the March 11 disaster struck. The leaked coolant water contains radioactive materials from the fuel pool. According to Tepco, about 8.5 tons of water leaked onto the floor of the reactor 4 building at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. The leak was stopped 13 minutes later by closing a valve, officials said. (Japan Times)

Japanese government officials last weeek gave the green light to Hayabusa 2, a robotic explorer due for launch in 2014 on a journey to retrieve and return rocks from a near-Earth asteroid. The Space Activities Commission, a board governing funding for the Japanese space program, formally approved the Hayabusa 2 mission last week. The decision came after a 2010 ruling that directed the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to continue preliminary design of the probe. Launch of Hayabusa 2 must occur in 2014 to reach asteroid 1999 JU3, the mission's 3,000-foot-diameter target. Asteroid 1999 JU3, which is still awaiting a name, is a C-type body, the most common form of asteroid in the solar system. Observations by telescopes on Earth indicate the asteroid is roughly spherical and has dark features. (spaceflightnow.com)

The number of flu-stricken patients reached about 1.11 million in the week ending last Friday, an increase of about 400,000 from the previous week, according to figures compiled by the health ministry. In the week starting Jan. 16, the number of patients suffering from influenza reported to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry from about 5,000 medical institutions was about triple that of a week earlier. The number of patients per medical institution during that period was 22.73 persons, up from 7.33 persons the week before, according to the ministry. (Yomiuri)

An active fault around 200 km long that is believed to have been a source of huge quakes in the past has been found off Honshu's Kii Peninsula, according to researchers at the University of Tokyo. If the fault on the Nankai Trough moves, it could trigger a magnitude 8.0 earthquake, the researchers said, adding they have found a seabed cliff several hundred meters high that was created by the fault's past movements. "There is a high probability that fault shifts have caused great tsunami," said Park Jin Oh, associate professor of marine geology. (Japan Times)