Question: What am I doing outside my home at 6 a.m. with a gas can, a pump, and stalactites under my nose?Winter wonderland: The children thaw out after coming in from the cold in the “tactically heated” Simone household.
Answer: Im swearing.I know, this is only half the answer, but at zero degrees Celsius my brain has the tendency to freeze up. Give me a minute to thaw out and Ill elaborate later . . .
According to some people, Japan is already living in the future. I beg to differ. …

A man-made disaster triggered the worst of last year’s Forbes CEO screwups list, when BP chief Tony Hayward committed a series of public gaffes in the wake of the April 2010 Gulf oil spill, and then resigned the following October.
This year, forces of nature created the backdrop for the boss behavior we deem the worst: Masataka Shimizu, head of the Tokyo Electric Power Co., known as Tepco, largely disappeared from public view after the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami set off the worst radiation release since Chernobyl. Subsequently, reports …

The first comprehensive report on Japan (JGDTTOT)’s Fukushima nuclear crisis is 507 pages of the most sobering reading of the year.
The verdict by a government-appointed panel: Disarray among regulators, dismal safety preparations, operational blunders, amateurish communication breakdowns and institutional inertia led to the worst radiation leak since Chernobyl in 1986.
The findings, although damning, offer Japan the kind of opening that doesn’t come along very often short of war or the sort of natural disaster that struck last March. The report itself is an encouraging sign that the nation is willing …

By 2030, Japan is projected to go from today’s 5.9 persons in the working-age labor pool supporting each retiree, to 1.9 workers per retiree (see Figure 1). In essence, this translates to a three-fold increase of pressure on the workforce just to support the population base at that time. This issue for Japan, according to the United Nations World Population Prospects, the 2010 Revision study, is higher than most but is followed by Europe, and the US. Even China faces an increasing pressure as we approach 2050.
Read the rest of …

If you wonder what haunts Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s dreams, it’s Japan.
Japan has suffered more than two decades of subpar economic growth, made all the more miserable by falling consumer prices, a stagnant real estate market and a moribund stock market. The worry: that the U.S. economy devolves into something like Japan’s.
Some of the similarities between Japan’s economic woes and the U.S.’ are striking. Both countries have aging populations. Both have ultra-low interest rates, which don’t seem to be having much effect in stimulating the economy. And both countries …

Deutsche Bank AG’s Ajay Kapur says the U.S. is sliding into an economic malaise similar to Japan’s so-called lost-decade of the 1990s. The Hong Kong-based strategist draws the parallel using similarities in demographics and financial-market performance.
Binky Chadha, head of the bank’s U.S. equity strategy team in New York, and Michael Biggs, one of its London-based economists, disagree, citing variations in the nations’ growth rates and credit demands.
The researchers aired their differences in a 28-page report Deutsche Bank released October 17 and distributed to clients. The debate underscores the uncertainties facing …

The Occupy Wall Street protests spreading across the United States landed in Tokyo on Saturday, as hundreds of people gathered to protest against corporate greed and social inequality.
In addition to decrying the widening wealth gap between the nation’s haves and have-nots, demonstrators spoke out on a variety of unrelated topics ranging from nuclear power to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, a free-trade pact promoted by the U.S.
Marching behind a large "Occupy Tokyo" banner, about 300 protesters proceeded to the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Co., owner of the radiation-leaking Fukushima No. …

A team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency praised Japan on Friday for steps it has taken to reduce radiation exposure for the public, particularly children, near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
During a nine-day trip, the IAEA team visited schools, farms and government offices outside the 20-kilometre exclusion zone surrounding the power plant, which was damaged by the devastating 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
In a preliminary report submitted to the government, the 12-member team said Japan had developed "an efficient program for remediation — allocating …

On Sept. 2, Yoshihiko Noda was appointed the 95th prime minister of Japan, the sixth man and they have all been men to hold the job in five years. To mark this occasion and offer lessons to the new Democratic Party of Japan chief on how not to lead the country, the Community Page asked 10 writers to pick "Japans most useless postwar prime minister." Here, in chronological order, is the rogues gallery they came up with:
1. Nobusuke Kishi 1957-60
Nobusuke Kishi served as prime minister of Japan from February 1957 …

New census data released Thursday casts a shadow over the long-term impact of the recession on America’s youth. During the last decade, the unemployment rate for young people spiked to the highest levels since World War II–only 55 percent of Americans aged 16 to 29 have jobs, a 12 percent drop from the employment rate in 2000. Faced with a grim outlook, many young people aren’t leaving home until their 30s–the number of Americans aged 25 to 34 living with their parents jumped 25 percent during the recession. Last month, The New …