* * * * * * * * * T E R R I E 'S T A K E * * * * * * *<br>A weekly roundup of news & information from Terrie Lloyd.<br>(<a href="http://www.terrie.com">http://www.terrie.com</a>)<br><br>General Edition Sunday, March 20, 2011, Issue No. 606<br>
<br>+++ INDEX<br><br>- What's New -- Nuclear Near Miss<br>- News -- Radioactive contamination of food supplies<br>- Candidate Roundup/Vacancies<br>- Upcoming Events -- April Entrepreneur Seminar<br>- Corrections/Feedback -- Aggregating small farms<br>
- News Credits<br><br>SUBSCRIBE to, UNSUBSCRIBE from Terrie's Take at:<br><a href="http://mailman.japaninc.com/mailman/listinfo/terrie">http://mailman.japaninc.com/mailman/listinfo/terrie</a><br><br>BACK ISSUES<br><a href="http://www.japaninc.com/terries_take">http://www.japaninc.com/terries_take</a>, or,<br>
<a href="http://mailman.japaninc.com/pipermail/terrie/">http://mailman.japaninc.com/pipermail/terrie/</a><br><br><br>---------------- An Open Letter from PBXL -----------------<br><br>We hope that you, your family, friends and colleagues are <br>
safe from the tragic earthquake that struck last Friday.<br>For our part, we are pleased to report that the PBXL team <br>suffered no injuries, and has largely resumed normal <br>operations. I am also happy to report that our <br>
telecommunications and data infrastructure survived last <br>week’s earthquake with minimal impact to customer services.<br><br>As long time members of the community, we believe that <br>friends, neighbors and relatives help each other out in <br>
times of need, and encourage you to donate to the relief <br>efforts for the areas hit by the Tsunami.<br><br><a href="http://www.accj.or.jp/doclib/pr/ACCJ_Relief_Fund_E.pdf">http://www.accj.or.jp/doclib/pr/ACCJ_Relief_Fund_E.pdf</a> <br>
<br>This fund will have no charitable overhead attached to it, <br>so every yen you donate will go directly to a needy family.<br><br><a href="http://en.pbxl.jp">http://en.pbxl.jp</a><br><br>----------- PBXL is BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS ------------<br>
<br><br>+++ WHAT'S NEW<br><br>Well, what a week it has been. Most everyone we know has <br>had their eyes glued to the Internet news services during <br>the day and the TV news in the evening, wanting to know <br>about one thing: radiation and whether it's coming to <br>
Tokyo. We've been served information on a 24x7 basis on <br>everything you ever wanted to know about nuclear reactors <br>and meltdowns.<br><br>Now we know:<br>* What types of radiation to be worried about (Iodine-131 <br>
and Cesium-137 isotopes in this instance)<br>* How much will kill you outright (4-6 Sieverts per hour)<br>* How it affects people and the environment long-term (here<br>in Tokyo it's the airborne particulates we have to worry <br>
about not the radiation occurring in Fukushima itself)<br>* How much is being measured around the crippled Fukushima <br>Dai-ichi power plant (see below)<br>* How the weather, as capricious as it is, will either blow<br>a cloud of radiation down over the 35m people living in <br>
Tokyo -- or won't...<br><br>But the fact is that as of today, Sunday, the radiation <br>levels in Tokyo are still low, well within safe amounts, <br>and have been all week. So what we're living with here in <br>the big city is not radiation fall out, but the tangible, <br>
gut-gnawing fear of it. And what fear it has caused...<br><br>Over the last 5 days in particular, as we all started <br>realizing it was the nuclear power plant, not the <br>Tohoku/Kanto earthquake which would most threaten Tokyo, <br>
the fear levels of people living here have risen <br>dramatically. At the beginning the focus was on the lack <br>of information about the plant status, other than it was <br>dire, and whether we could trust the government and TEPCO <br>
to give us the truth. So here at our sister company <br>Metropolis, one of the technical staff, Steve Danieletto, <br>brought in his Geiger counter and started doing daily <br>readings. You can find the readings here, and what you'll <br>
find is that very little radiation has made its way to <br>Tokyo.<br><br><a href="http://metropolis.co.jp/quake/quake-2011-03/tokyo-atmospheric-radiation-levels/">http://metropolis.co.jp/quake/quake-2011-03/tokyo-atmospheric-radiation-levels/</a><br>
<br>You can see Steve take the readings here:<br><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rp2nqBt04A&feature=player_embedded">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rp2nqBt04A&feature=player_embedded</a><br><br>The following is an excellent map and links to Japanese radiation<br>
monitoring stations all over Honshu:<br><a href="http://bit.ly/gyZulQ">http://bit.ly/gyZulQ</a><br><br>[Continued below...]<br><br>-------- Bilingual Social Media Software Solutions --------<br><br>Social media and mobile applications development in both <br>
English and Japanese now available from MetroWorks Ltd., <br>here in Tokyo. We developed the major applications being<br>used by the Metropolis magazine, and are producing <br>solutions for foreign firms seeking to develop audiences in<br>
Japan. SNS, ranking engines, eCommerce, email marketing<br>tracking, and of course website front ends for the iPhone<br>and other mobile platforms. 650 engineers in Vietnam for<br>larger off-shored projects.<br><br>For inquiries, contact: <a href="mailto:sales@metroworks.jp">sales@metroworks.jp</a><br>
------------------------------------------------------------<br><br>[...Article continues]<br><br>So having established that the government is giving <br>reasonably reliable information, the focus shifted to the <br>competence and ability of TEPCO and authorities to get the <br>
reactors under control again. Here's where the real problem<br>started, because they (TEPCO et al) haven't been able to <br>tell us exactly what is going on -- partly because of the <br>intense radiation at the actual site, they can't get close <br>
enough to the reactors and so appear to be doing remote <br>guesswork. <br><br>Fear is not about actuals, as any good horror movie <br>director will tell you, it's about possibilities. And the <br>foreign media have been doing their best to feed that fear,<br>
since this is what sells. Reading some of the reports <br>abroad, Japan is already radioactive and Tokyo is doomed. <br>One locally-based expat got fed up with this, and produced <br>a media-tracking page called "Journalist Wall of Shame". <br>
You can see it at: <br><a href="http://jpquake.wikispaces.com/Journalist+Wall+of+Shame">http://jpquake.wikispaces.com/Journalist+Wall+of+Shame</a>.<br><br>Yes, the situation in Fukushima is volatile, and yes, the <br>reactors could still yet blow up. But Japan has its best <br>
and bravest up at the power station site, working on <br>dousing the fuel rods and restoring infrastructure so that<br>they can bring things under control, and so far they appear<br>to be making progress. <br><br>If you're wondering how much radiation we're talking about,<br>
here's something to put things into perspective:<br> * One banana: 0.0001 millisieverts (mSv)<br> * Mammogram: 5 mSv<br> * CAT Scan: 6 to 18 mSv<br> * Radiation Sickness: starts at around 500 mSv<br><br>
Actual readings from this incident:<br> * Reading March 15th at Fukushima Dai-ichi, right at <br>No. 2 reactor: 800 mSv/hour (Worst)<br> * Reading March 16th at Fukushima Dai-ichi plant front <br>gate: 10 mSv/hour<br>
* Reading March 19th at Fukushima Dai-ichi, right at <br>No. 2 reactor: 20 mSv/hour (Much reduced)<br> * Reading March 20th at Fukushima Dai-ichi: around 700 <br>microsieverts/hour (700 uSv) and falling<br> * Reading March 19th in Tokyo: around 0.17 uSv/hour and<br>
stable (normal)<br><br>Here's what a UK expert posted on the UK embassy website<br>says about a worst case scenario. In short he says the <br>impact on Tokyo will be limited:<br><a href="http://ukinjapan.fco.gov.uk/en/news/?view=News&id=566914282">http://ukinjapan.fco.gov.uk/en/news/?view=News&id=566914282</a><br>
<br>Back to the fear factor. Most Japanese living in Tokyo are <br>sticking close to home and the TV. They have been <br>stocking up on food -- causing Tokyo's stores to be <br>bare of bread, milk, eggs, natto, and a bunch of other <br>
things. Those going to work would by our guess be just <br>30%-50% of normal numbers, based on the paucity of people <br>on the trains and traffic in the streets. We imagine that <br>those who could will have already taken the opportunity to <br>
head back to their home towns. (See the news below about<br>full hotels in Osaka.)<br><br>Thursday and Friday were particularly fearful days for <br>foreigners in Tokyo when the U.S. embassy decided on <br>Thursday that after all, U.S. citizens who wanted to leave <br>
on a voluntary basis would be assisted to airlift out of <br>Tokyo. The next day, the same offer was extended to <br>families of armed forces. Until that time, many <br>foreigners here rationalized that if the U.S. government <br>
was staying put (and they have as much wherewithal as the <br>Japanese to monitor the situation), then things must be OK.<br>But for them to ratchet up the alert levels and start to <br>ship people out was definitely unnerving for many. <br>
<br>Yet, as the embassy itself said, the evacuation is <br>voluntary and the embassy remains open for business this <br>weekend to process documentation for departing Americans <br>and their immediate families. So they're staying put.<br>
<br>The effect of these fear levels is really hurting life and <br>commerce here in Tokyo. There have been various estimates <br>on what the cost of the earthquake will be, between <br>JPY100trn and JPY200trn -- which could be as much as 3% of <br>
GDP. But these estimates probably don't take into account <br>the fact that the Fukushima reactor crisis could last for <br>weeks, not to mention the associated power cuts due to <br>losing 20% of the nation's electricity supply for possibly <br>
3 months (until fossil fuel power stations come back on <br>line). As the situation drags on, large companies in the <br>nation's largest city will be unable to work normal hours, <br>small companies will go under due to customers staying <br>
home, and we think the economic impact will be much <br>higher.<br><br>Here at our own group companies we have had a taste of the <br>impact on business. Internally, about 30% of our staff, <br>both foreigners and Japanese, have decided to get out of <br>
Tokyo -- day-by-day a few more make the tough decision. We <br>can't blame people for leaving, especially those with <br>families abroad who are pressuring them to get out while <br>there is still time. We have been told of crying mothers <br>
and relatives on the phone from abroad, who after reading <br>the foreign press reports are fretting and begging their <br>sons and daughters to just "come home". It's hard to resist<br>that kind of pressure. Japanese staff also, with friends <br>
and family outside Tokyo are being urged to leave. <br><br>Normally a 30% drop in staff would be disastrous for us, <br>but the fact is that many of our clients have also either <br>substantially reduced their operations or in the case of <br>
some companies, have simply sent out email saying that they<br>will be closed indefinitely. As a result, demand for <br>services and the need to keep scheduled meetings has <br>dropped noticeably. <br><br>Usually after something bad happens, we try to find a <br>
silver lining, so that the event can be written down to <br>experience. But for this nuclear near-miss, the only good <br>thing we can think of is if the authorities either decide <br>to close down all the old nukes in Japan and impose a much <br>
stricter building code on those remaining, OR, better <br>still, make a wholesale move to green energy and make it a <br>national imperative. <br><br>Either way, we never again want to experience the fear of a<br>nuclear reactor melting down just 200km away, and not <br>
knowing whether to run or stay.<br><br>*******************************<br><br>For those of you wanting to donate or make contact with <br>loved ones here in Japan, go to the following website for a<br>list of links:<br><br>
<a href="http://metropolis.co.jp/">http://metropolis.co.jp/</a><br><br>...The information janitors/<br><br>***------------------------****-------------------------***<br><br>--------- BIOS - Bilingual IT Systems and Support ---------<br>
<br>BiOS full-service IT solutions has a new service.<br><br>Working with our fully licenced temporary dispatch group,<br>we are now able to provide Japan in-country workers<br>for companies not yet registered in Japan.<br>
<br>This innovative service is available for companies needing<br>to hire staff for Japanese customers, but who are unable<br>to commit to the expense and infrastructure of maintaining<br>an office in Japan. We take care of all aspects of the<br>
employment, contracting, and dispatch -- including <br>management of the employee.<br><br>Also, if you're thinking of Cloud office solutions, take a <br>look at Microsoft's new Business Productivity Online <br>Standard Suite. Terrie mentions Exchange Online in TT602, <br>
and we can do the implementations for you.<br><br>For more information on this and other SI and IT services,<br>in English or Japanese:<br><br>Phone: (03) 4588-2220, Email: <a href="mailto:solutions@biosjp.com">solutions@biosjp.com</a><br>
Web: <a href="http://www.biosjp.com">www.biosjp.com</a><br>-----------------------------------------------------------<br><br>+++ NEWS<br><br>- JPY10trn in loans for stressed companies<br>- Mizuho has major ATM disruption<br>
- Ichiro Suzuki donates JPY100m to earthquake victims <br>- Osaka hotels fully booked with refugees<br>- Fukushima food contamination fears<br><br><br>=> JPY10trn in loans for stressed companies<br><br>Taking a very pragmatic approach which won't help thousands<br>
of smaller companies, the government is expected to make a <br>special disaster relief fund of up to JPY10trn available <br>for medium-size and large businesses that have been <br>impacted by the Tohoku-Kanto earthquake of last week. The <br>
loans will be delivered primarily by the Development Bank <br>of Japan (DBJ) and Shoko Chukin Bank, and are expected to <br>come without a cap. Where will the money come from? <br>Probably from postal savings and government pension funds. <br>
(Source: TT commentary from <a href="http://e.nikkei.com">e.nikkei.com</a>, Mar 19, 2011)<br><br><a href="http://e.nikkei.com/e/ac/tnks/Nni20110318D18JFF01.htm">http://e.nikkei.com/e/ac/tnks/Nni20110318D18JFF01.htm</a><br>
<br>=> Mizuho has major ATM disruption<br><br>You have to wonder about the timing of their troubles, when<br>Mizuho Bank announced on Tuesday that their ATMs were not <br>working -- did one of their key programmers flee Tokyo <br>
along with many others? We may never know, but the result <br>is that by Friday, Mizuho had to reveal that they have <br>910,000 unprocessed transactions in their system, including<br>welfare and salary checks. The bank has made a temporary <br>
credit facility of up to JPY100,000 available to customers <br>to see them through until the system problem is fixed this <br>long weekend (their target anyway). (Source: TT commentary <br>from <a href="http://nikkei.com">nikkei.com</a>, Mar 18, 2011)<br>
<br><a href="http://e.nikkei.com/e/ac/tnks/Nni20110318D18JF362.htm">http://e.nikkei.com/e/ac/tnks/Nni20110318D18JF362.htm</a><br><br>=> Ichiro Suzuki donates JPY100m to earthquake victims <br><br>Everyone's favorite Japanese baseball player in the US big <br>
leagues, Ichiro Suzuki, has announced that he will donate <br>US$1.23m to the Japanese Red Cross to help victims of the <br>Tohoku-Kanto earthquake. Ichiro's generosity has apparently<br>spurred on efforts by the Seattle Mariners as a team to <br>
raise more cash for the relief effort. The club has said it<br>will match dollar for dollar up to a minimum US$100,000 any<br>donations made by fans for the clean up to come. (Source: <br>TT commentary from <a href="http://bleacherreport.com">bleacherreport.com</a>, Mar 18, 2011)<br>
<br><a href="http://bit.ly/dVg2IW">http://bit.ly/dVg2IW</a><br><br>=> Osaka hotels fully booked with refugees<br><br>Aftershocks and radiation fears by families in Tokyo are <br>leading to an exodus to Osaka and a corresponding spike in <br>
hotel occupancy there. Hotels at all price ranges are <br>apparently full. At the top end, the JPY70,000/room St. <br>Regis Osaka was fully booked this week, largely by families<br>with kids. Not just individual families, companies are also<br>
making arrangements to create a backup operation in Osaka. <br>Apparently ERP software company SAP has reserved 520 rooms <br>in both Osaka and Kobe for employees and their families. <br>(Source: TT commentary from <a href="http://japantimes.co.jp">japantimes.co.jp</a>, Mar 19, 2011)<br>
<br><a href="http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20110319n1.html">http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20110319n1.html</a><br><br>=> Fukushima food contamination fears<br><br>The UN-run International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has <br>
announced that the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare <br>has ordered a halt to the sales of food harvested in <br>Fukushima prefecture and certain types of vegetables such <br>as spinach, from the neighboring prefecture of Ibaraki. <br>
Apparently radioactive iodine is contaminating milk and <br>vegetables grown in Fukushima and was detected during <br>shipment scans on Wednesday and Thursday. So far only <br>iodine has been detected. (Source: TT commentary from <br>
<a href="http://reuters.com">reuters.com</a>, Mar 19, 2011)<br><br><a href="http://reut.rs/hLLy8x">http://reut.rs/hLLy8x</a><br><br><br>NOTE: Broken links<br>Many online news sources remove their articles after just a<br>
few days of posting them, thus breaking our links -- we<br>apologize for the inconvenience.<br><br>***------------------------****-------------------------***<br><br>-------- Essential Business Reference in English ----------<br>
<br>If you're a manager or director of a company in Japan, you<br>need these references with detailed explanations in <br>English!!!<br><br>- Japan Staff Employment Law Guide - 1st Edition<br>Published June, 2010 (JPY 21,000)<br>
<br>- Japan Master Tax Guide 2010/11<br>Published July, 2010 (JPY 18,375)<br><br>- Japan Corporation Law Guide - 2nd Edition<br>Published November, 2010 (JPY 22,050)<br><br>*Above prices include tax<br><br>For more details: <a href="mailto:support@cch.co.jp">support@cch.co.jp</a>, call 03-6234-3980.<br>
Web: <a href="https://www.cch-japan.jp/contents/register/form">https://www.cch-japan.jp/contents/register/form</a><br><br><a href="http://www.cch-japan.jp">www.cch-japan.jp</a><br>-----------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>+++ CANDIDATE ROUND UP/VACANCIES<br><br>=> BiOS, a Division of the LINC Media group, is actively <br>marketing the following positions for customers setting up <br>or expanding in Japan, as well as other employers of <br>
bilinguals.<br><br>** HIGHLIGHTED POSITION<br><br>We are currently looking for a Senior Network Engineer to <br>work onsite at a global investment bank in Tokyo through <br>one of the largest IT services company in Tokyo. Successful<br>
candidates should have experience in network system design <br>in or with financial/banking companies, with strong <br>knowledge and skill of market data system configuration. <br>CCIE holder preferred. The candidate will work as a <br>
contract employee for up to 6 months as a form of <br>probation, then will convert to a permanent employee.<br><br>Remuneration is JPY10m - JPY15m depending on your <br>experience and skill level.<br><br>** POSITIONS VACANT<br>
<br>- Junior PM/Team Leader (infra), Pharma, JPY5m – JPY6.5m<br>- Sales Mgr (Measurement Equip), Maker, JPY2m – JPY2.5m<br>- Procurement Officer x2, iBank JPY4.0m – JPY5.0m<br>- Multimedia Engineer, global IT co., JPY8m – JPY10m<br>
- Senior Linux Engineer, global IT co., JPY8m – JPY10m<br><br>Interested individuals may e-mail resumes to:<br><a href="mailto:kenji.sakota@biosjp.com">kenji.sakota@biosjp.com</a><br><br>** BiOS Job Mail<br><br>Every 2 weeks BiOS sends out a regular communication to its<br>
job seeking candidates, called BiOS Job Mail. Every edition<br>carries a list of BiOS's current and most up-to-date<br>vacancies, with each entry featuring a short job<br>description and a direct link to the main entry on the BiOS<br>
home page. Regardless of whether you are unemployed and<br>searching, thinking about a career change, or just curious<br>to know if there is something out there that might suit you<br>better, the BiOS Job Mail newsletter is an easy and<br>
convenient way for you to stay informed. If you would like<br>to register for the BiOS Job Mail, or to find out more,<br>please email <a href="mailto:kenji.sakota@biosjp.com">kenji.sakota@biosjp.com</a>.<br><br>Interested individuals may e-mail resumes to:<br>
<a href="mailto:kenji.sakota@biosjp.com">kenji.sakota@biosjp.com</a>.<br><br>-----------------------------------------------------------<br><br>***------------------------****-------------------------***<br><br>+++ UPCOMING EVENTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS<br>
<br>------------- Entrepreneur Seminar in Tokyo ---------------<br><br>Start a Company in Japan<br>Entrepreneur's Handbook Seminar 23rd of April, 2011<br><br>If you have been considering setting up your own company,<br>
find out what it takes to make it successful. Terrie Lloyd,<br>founder of over 13 start-up companies in Japan, will be <br>giving an English-language seminar and Q and A on starting <br>up a company in Japan. Over 450 people have taken this <br>
course so far.<br><br>This is an ideal opportunity to find out what is involved,<br>and to ask specific questions that are not normally answered<br>in business books.<br>All materials are in English and are Japan-focused.<br>
<br>For more details:<br><a href="http://www.japaninc.com/entrepreneur_handbook_seminar">http://www.japaninc.com/entrepreneur_handbook_seminar</a><br>-----------------------------------------------------------<br><br>***------------------------****-------------------------***<br>
<br>+++ CORRECTIONS/FEEDBACK<br><br>In this section we run comments and corrections submitted<br>by readers. We encourage you to spot our mistakes and<br>amplify our points, by email, to <a href="mailto:editors@terrie.com">editors@terrie.com</a>.<br>
<br>*** In TT604, we discussed the Farm Ministry's efforts to<br>throw up a smoke screen to stall the government signing<br>the TPP trade pact with other Asia-Pacific nations later<br>this year.<br><br>=> Our reader comments:<br>
<br>- Although Japan has, beyond any doubt, totally mismanaged <br>its overall agricultural sector horribly, it still might be<br>premature to dismiss the idea of promoting larger farm <br>sizes out of hand.<br> <br>The average farm size in the U.S. is 418 acres, or 169 ha <br>
(a watermelon).<br><a href="http://www.ers.usda.gov/StateFacts/US.htm#FC">http://www.ers.usda.gov/StateFacts/US.htm#FC</a><br> <br>The average farm size in the EU-15 is 19 ha (an orange).<br><a href="http://www.rlg.nl/cap/austria.html">http://www.rlg.nl/cap/austria.html</a><br>
<br>The average farm size in Japan is 1.27 ha (a raisin).<br> <br>What Japan is finally coming to grips with the fact that <br>they don't have farms, they have "micro-farms." There is <br>nothing wrong with micro-farms as part of a larger <br>
agricultural eco-system. Some of them can be real winners <br>and they are perfect for some people, such as a rural <br>couple in their 90's. But it's very hard to see how you can<br>have any kind of competitive overall agricultural economy <br>
with ONLY micro-farms. <br> <br>Because (although it is far from perfect) the EU model <br>seems to be relatively vibrant and sustainable, promoting <br>more EU-size farms in Japan would seem to make sense. For <br>obvious geographical reasons, striving for US-sized farms <br>
isn't realistic.<br> <br>It would be neither simple nor quick (nor immune to abuse <br>or bureaucratic incompetence), but turning many of Japan's <br>tiny farms into larger ones is actually not only rather <br>plausible, but it may present a last, best chance for <br>
Japan to reverse 60 years of mismanagement. <br> <br>The key would be NOT to "collectivize" or to "consolidate,"<br>but rather to perform thousands (or tens of thousands) of <br>"land swaps." <br>
<br>This is actually quite common in the U.S; for example, <br>when for whatever reason the federal (or state, or a local)<br>government finds itself with two pieces of property to <br>manage with a piece of private land separating them. <br>
Because it is many times more easy to manage one piece than<br>two, for any number of purposes such as fire mitigation, <br>water management, public access, wood harvesting, etc., <br>private owners and government(s) go over the issues and a <br>
map, and simply swap titles: giving the government the <br>land it needs and giving the private owner one of the two <br>pieces the government doesn't need. The parcels can be <br>located anywhere: all you need is willing owners with <br>
legitimate titles who agree to exchange. Where the value of<br>the two parcels is massively different, the difference is <br>made up for with cash or some other form of compensation. <br>And the real beauty of the system is that the ability to <br>
rationalize land use is almost infinite because, while <br>more complicated, you can do this with multiple owners.<br> <br>For example, a trail on a mountain in Colorado (the <br>mountain was in a National Forest) went over some private <br>
property (for reasons having to do with homesteading back <br>in the 1870's). The individual didn't like hikers walking <br>over his land every day and asked the Forest Service to <br>move the trail. There was no good place to move the trail <br>
and the Forest Service didn't have any money to buy off the<br>individual. The idea of a land swap came up. The U.S. <br>Forest Service didn't have any land to offer the individual<br>that was any good (flat, with close access to the <br>
electrical grid and a decent road)... but Rocky Mountain <br>National Park did -- a few miles away. The individual got a<br>few acres of beautiful land smack against RMNP, the Forest <br>Service took total control of the trail, and in exchange <br>
RMNP got compensated for the exact same amount of land it <br>lost by moving the line on a map in an area where the <br>National Park and the Forest Service shared a boundary. <br>Everyone was happy. Not a penny changed hands. (Yes, <br>
bureaucrats are usually stupid, but there are exceptions.)<br> <br>A micro-farm may make sense for some products or some <br>farmers, but basically Japan got where it is by default <br>(elderly couples) rather than by design. A more <br>
sustainable model is a family farm that can produce enough <br>income to support an entire family without the need for <br>another job -- in other words, a career (with enough income<br>to support an attractive lifestyle) good enough to lure <br>
younger people into farming. Almost by definition, this <br>will require farms with a kind of economic "critical mass" <br>larger than 1 ha, so I for one think the idea should at <br>least be tried out on a trial basis. The deal-breaker, I<br>
fear, will be the requirement that government(s) get VERY <br>flexible about redesignating farmland as non-farmland and <br>vice-versa to make it all work. But if you don't swing, <br>you don't hit, and I wish Japan the best.<br>
<br>-- A reader who grew up on family farms in the U.S. <br>midwest.<br><br>***********************************************************<br>END<br><br>SUBSCRIBERS: 8,790 members as of March 20th, 2011<br>(We purge our list regularly.)<br>
<br>+++ ABOUT US<br><br>STAFF<br>Written by: Terrie Lloyd (<a href="mailto:terrie.lloyd@japaninc.com">terrie.lloyd@japaninc.com</a>)<br><br>HELP: E-mail <a href="mailto:Terrie-request@mailman.japaninc.com">Terrie-request@mailman.japaninc.com</a><br>
with the word 'help' in the subject or body (don't include<br>the quotes), and you will get back a message with<br>instructions.<br><br>FEEDBACK<br>Send letters (Feedback, Inquiries & Information) to the<br>
editor to <a href="mailto:terrie.lloyd@japaninc.com">terrie.lloyd@japaninc.com</a>.<br><br>ADVERTISING INFORMATION<br>For more information on advertising in this newsletter,<br>Contact <a href="mailto:ads@japaninc.com">ads@japaninc.com</a>.<br>
<br>SUBSCRIBE<br>Get Terrie's Take by giving your name and email address at<br><a href="http://www.japaninc.com/newsletters/free_sign_up">http://www.japaninc.com/newsletters/free_sign_up</a>, or go<br>straight to Mailman at:<br>
<a href="http://mailman.japaninc.com/mailman/listinfo/terrie">http://mailman.japaninc.com/mailman/listinfo/terrie</a><br><br>BACK ISSUES<br><a href="http://www.japaninc.com/terries_take">http://www.japaninc.com/terries_take</a><br>
or, <a href="http://mailman.japaninc.com/pipermail/terrie/">http://mailman.japaninc.com/pipermail/terrie/</a><br><br>Copyright 2011 Japan Inc. Communications Inc.<br><br>----------------- Japan Inc opens up Japan ----------------<br>
<br>J@pan Inc is Japan's only independently published English-<br>language business website. Authoritatively chronicling <br>online the business trends in Japan, each posting brings <br>you in-depth analysis of business, people and technology in<br>
the world's second largest economy. <br><br>Visit <a href="http://www.japaninc.com">www.japaninc.com</a> for the best business insight on<br>Japan available.<br>-----------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>