New Year's Headlines from Japan: As If Hardly Anything Happened in 2011

It's already January 1, 2012 in Japan, and the headlines from the Japanese MSM (online) are here for your perusal.

First and foremost pro-nuke, Yomiuri Shinbun, with zero headline on the nuclear accident:

• Aum Shinrikyo's Hirata turns himself in

• Department of Defense develops weapon against cyber-attack

• Population decrease largest ever, at 204,000

• City employees cautioned for appropriating the large-size garbage [WTF...]
  

• Traffic accident deaths worst in Aichi Prefecture, followed by Tokyo

• Government to consider an imperial household headed by a female

Next, Asahi, which has one report on the nuke industry regulatory capture:

• Aum shinrikyo's Hirata turns himself in

• Japan's nuclear industry gave total 85 million yen to the members of the Nuclear Safety Commission

• Emperor's thoughts on the new year: "Together with people affected by the disaster"

• Shuto-ko highway to charge by the distance

Mainichi, which, other than SPEEDI's news, lists inane happy new year articles with a focus on people in disaster-affected Tohoku:

• SPEEDI system temporarily stopped

• A boat lost in Iwate found in Hyogo

• Villagers return to Iitate-mura for the new year

But the second news is notable. A boat lost in the March 11 tsunami in Iwate Prefecture on the Pacific Ocean was found on the Japan Sea side of the Hyogo Prefecture, 770 kilometers southwest of Iwate. If a boat could travel there...

Scanning Japanese tweets, many net citizens didn't bother watching the usual New Year programs but instead tuned in to a several-hour-long live talk show with journalists and nuclear experts debating the Fukushima accident and its "aftermath" now that the accident is "over". They were appalled by Professor Narabayashi, one of the "Three Plutonium Brothers" and former Toshiba employee, who said "We will build a nuclear power plant of the highest quality in the world". Apparently the studio audience booed him. That's highly unusual.

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