The Oxford PhD governor of Shizuoka has found a strong ally in the 49-year-old mayor of Shizuoka City.
The tea that the French authorities seized at the airport in Paris for high cesium level exceeding the safety limit by more than 100% came from Shimizu-ku in Shizuoka City.
Undeterred, Mayor Nobuhiro Tanabe has gone on the offensive. He said on June 23 that he will launch a campaign titled "We Are Drinking 'Teas Made in Shizuoka City'". He intends to work closely with the city's tea industry and force, oops, promote the teas made in Shizuoka City to consumers.
Again, radiation is a rumor, baseless rumor in Shizuoka, and in many, many places. Why is it so hard to see that if, say 300 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium is found in the tea, even if the amount is below Japan's loose provisional standard of 500 becquerels/kg, the tea is radioactive by definition? In Shizuoka City's case, it was over 1000 becquerels/kg.
Drink away, mayor. But don't force others to drink with you and do study some science.
Mainichi Shinbun Regional (Shizuoka) Version (6/24/2011):
静岡市葵区と清水区内の製茶から、暫定規制値を超える放射性セシウムが検出されたことを受け、静岡市の田辺信宏市長は２３日、「私たちは、『静岡市 のお茶』を飲んでいます」プロジェクトを始めることを明らかにした。田辺市長は、「市産のお茶を積極的に飲むことで、風評被害を払しょくしていきたい」と 話した。 同プロジェクトでは、行政と市産業界が一体となって、市産のお茶の購入と飲用を推進する。また、賛同者の氏名をインターネット上で公表し、静岡茶の愛飲者の輪を広げていくという。
In response to radioactive cesium that was detected in the tea made in Aoi-ku and Shimizu-ku in Shizuoka City [in Shizuoka Prefecture], Nobuhiro Tanabe, major of Shizuoka City said he will launch a new project named "We Are Drinking 'Teas Made in Shizuoka City'". The mayor wants to "wipe out the baseless rumors by drinking the teas made in the City". In this project, the municipal government and the city's tea industry will promote the sales and consumption of the teas made in Shizuoka City to consumers. They will also publish the names of those who support the project on the internet as Shizuoka tea lovers.
30-Day free trial by following the link.
Tokyo Time
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9 comments:
Totally unrelated but did you read this:
Boric acid being added to No.3 reactor fuel pool
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/26_11.html
You are currently translating 風評被害 by "baseless rumor". But I am afraid the Japanese wording does not include the idea that there is no base.
"baseless rumor" in Japanese is 根拠のないうわさ : http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/srch/all/baseless/m0u/
The Shizuoka governor can do whatever he wants, I don't care. I will not buy japanese green tea anymore that is radioactive.
What a bunch of clowns there are in power in Shizuoka
10 years ago the Japanese government was having a 'cow' over beef imports from the US and Canada because a few cases of mad cow disease had been detected. It threatened to ban all beef imports from the US unless the US closed its border to Canadian beef.
Didn't help as mad cow disease showed up in Japanese cattle anyway probably as a result of cattle feed imported from Europe.
The point is the Japanese government can react swiftly and decisively to protect public health when it wants and when, by doing so, it furthers the interests of Japanese farmers. Now, other than in Britain, mad cow disease was quite rare, affecting just a handful of cattle out of millions of the beasts raised in North America but, as low as the risk was, the Japanese government became very strict over beef
imports ( wonder how strict they are going to be over Japanese BBQ restaurants that actually killed some people with contaminated beef?)
Unlike contaminated meat where the risk is limited to the single portion on a person's plate, radioactive contamination is both ubiquitous and cumulative. If one tea leaf from a farmers field is radioactive then every leaf in that field will be too and, just like mad cow
disease, the adverse effects will not show up for years.
We can all have sympathy for the poor farmer whose crop was contaminated through no fault of his own but that does not mean we should throw
caution and public health to the wind and consume his products. Shut the damn tea industry down just as the US had to shut down Gulf fishing last year when BP lost control of its oil well. Send the bill to Tepco just as US shrimp fisherman sent their losses to BP!
http://www.naturalnews.com/032804_TEPCO_containment_vessel.html
Well, there's nothing to stop *me* from going on the counter offensive and launch my own private campaign. I'm gonna call it "I'm Not Drinking Any RADIOACTIVE Teas Made/Blended in Shizuoka City".
Shizuoka Major San, just repackage the tea in a CUTE way using pastel colours and label it something snappy like "Carpe Caesium" and there you go. Double your Japanese sales.
Well, if he says it is safe, it is safe, so don't drink it. Japanese people would manage to avoid contaminated tea - paying some extra price to select good tea. Foreigners will have to rad-check each and every shipments of jap tea, whatever the labels, whatever the forms. Plenty of new "good" tea ready to send abroad, good price. But..."untrackable", according to the very words of Honorable Shizuoka Governor. He he. No trackability for Honorable Mister Gaikokujin.
It has been claimed since the end of march that Japan suffered "unfair trade" bashing for radioactivity of industrial products (!) or even... green tea from as far as Shizuoka. Well, some people sure must have had very fair rad counters and pretty good knowledge of the situation.
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