Japan has undergone significant changes in reliance on energy sources within the last five years. Unfortunately, these changes have often been sporadic and unpredictable for its government and citizens. Japan is the third largest oil importer and the second largest coal importing country today. Overall, Japan is the fifth largest consumer of global energy, yet imports almost all of its crude oil. Even more so, with a country that doubles its energy consumption every five years, its government is quickly searching for and implementing new solution to avoid a heavy reliance on importation. On March 11, 2001, Japan experienced a magnitude 9.0 earthquake followed by a large tsunami that caused disastrous damage to the Fukushima-Daiichi reactors. Before 2011, one of Japan’s major power sources came from nuclear generation. 27% of Japan’s power came from the Fukushima-Daiichi reactors in coastal Sendai. While the earthquake did not cause severe damage, the tsunami damaged the infrastructure and was forced to shut down, resulting in a loss of 10 gigawatts of electricity from nuclear generation. Other plants were shut down following these due to government concern for public safety. As a result, only two reactors ran in Japan for more than a year. Japan relied heavily on nuclear power, particularly because it was it’s least expensive resource. As a way to fill this gap of power, Japan began to import heavily on natural gas, crude oil, and coal. Unfortunately, importing oil was
China and Japan are too enormous and influential nations located in Eastern Asia. These two nations are almost always confused because of their similar culture and people, and they also happen to be right next to each other. Japan and China have never been allies and the two countries always seem to be in conflict. These two superpowers are very important to the world, and without them everything would be imbalanced in the global market. The rising superpower, China, is a nation that will continue to grow and improve their economy, while the fragile superpower, Japan, could fall apart at any moment and ruin the balance between all of the other countries.
This caused reactors 1 through 3 to go into a meltdown and it created a situation where Japan was on the brink of a major environmental disaster. To fully understand the different events there will be a focus on: factors that caused the meltdown, why this did not impact the other three reactors, the consequences, who is responsible and how these incidents can be prevented in the future. Together, these elements will highlight the underlying effects of this disaster and its impact on the region. ("Fukushima Accident")
Japan emerged from WWI feeling that Europe and the United States created the Treaty of Versailles to promote their own goals and leave Japan as a struggling power. In turn, Japan decided to pursue their own agenda to become stronger country. On September 1st, 1939 Germany when violated the Munich Conference by invading Poland and declaring the second world war, Japan saw potential in Hitler's views and joined Germany’s efforts in order to become a dominating world power. As Japan tried to expand they noticed that the United States would prevent the country's goal; so, on December 7th, 1941 the Japanese sent 408 airplanes to bomb the United States’ Navy in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor because Japan wanted to gain control of
In Japan, most of the Chinese influence was brought to Japan through Korea. Japan consists of four mountainous islands off the coast of Korea, and its early development reflected that of the mainland. There were several waves of immigrants that came to Japan. In about 10,000 B.C.E., the Jōmon people practiced hunting and fishing and made clay pots. People who immigrated from northeast Asia brought agriculture and Yayoi culture with them. Yayoi communities were distinguished by complex social organization containing rulers, soldier, artisans, and priests. Objects made in China and Korea could be found in Japan, which shows that people were traveling back and forth from Japan. More waves of immigrants came from Korea during the fourth through
The chapter by Manabu Shimizu focuses on Japan’s efforts in oil exploration and the country’s future goals in the oil industry. Since Japan imports all of its oil, the “challenge is to establish a long-term, sustainable oil supply” (Shimizu 113). Japan has begun to fund Central Asian oil exploration in the hopes of a big oil market being produced for that region. However, Japan does not intend to import oil from Central Asia, rather they want other regions to do import. By doing so, some of the production pressure is lifted from the Middle East, which is where most of Japan’s oil comes from. At the moment, the Middle East is the main producer of oil for many countries with great power over the market, and Japan hopes to create another market
China and Japan had similar but different experiences with the Western civilization. China and Japan reacted differently to the Western nations and it was China’s reactions to the West that would break the Chinese’s isolation leaving their traditions behind. The Industrial trade in Europe and the United States had created a gap between Asia and the West, This left china and Japan far behind technologically and they were not able to stand up against the western nations and although at different times China and Japan both ended up having to sign unequal treaties, and to open their ports for merchants.
When an 9.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Japan on March 11th, 2011, it was the first of a series of horrific events that Japan would be forced to endure. Many homes, families, properties, and belongings were lost on that day. And when the tsunami rolled over the island, many believed that it was over for them. Not only had people’s lives been put in disarray and desolation, but there had not even been simple necessities available. Food. Water. Communications. And electricity. When the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant had been hit by the earthquake and tsunami, the reactors were shut down and so was the electricity. Over the course of months the reactors suffered, extreme heat, fires, hydrogen explosions, and radiation exposures. At the time,
A huge earthquake with size of 8.9 has struck the northeastern coast of Japan on March 11, 2011. It was the fourth greatest in present recorded history. The few minutes of earthquake trigged massive tsunami, as high as thirty meters destroying 500 kilometers of Japan northeastern coast. Effect of the earthquake and tsunami incited a nuclear disaster in one of the few nuclear power plants along the eastern coast—Fukushima Daiichi, had and worked by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). The Fukushima Daiichi plant consolidated six nuclear reactors, three of which were in operation, with the rest encountering routine upkeep. All reactors close down successfully immediately imitating the
Japan started to change their attitude to Europeans, they welcomed them because they were satisfied by the glory they bring, they traded things like glasses, clocks, and artillery. However it also brought social changes, and Tokugawa rulers started to grow suspicious of the Portuguese and Spanish intention for Japan, so at last, they only trade with Dutch and Chinese in a fixed harbour. Through the trading with Dutch, they began to build up knowledge of Western ideology and world events, according to the knowledge of Western ideas, Japan's scientific, geographical and political knowledge began to grow. Due to the influences foreign countries brought to Japan, Japan become the country we see
After the Meiji restoration, the West was taken as a supreme ideal for nearly every aspect of Japanese life. In fact it has become alarmingly difficult to differentiate the original cultural Japanese life and the Westernised Japanese way of life (‘A History of Modern Japan’, p13). The assimilation of Western ideas has largely been a negative transition, through the establishment of unreasonable treaties. However, according to historical events and accounts, it is evident that continued Western influence and interference between 1853-1941, led Japan to become a more aggressive nation.
Western Influence on Japan Japan, as a nation, is a continually changing society. Ever since western nations became involved with Japan, its changes over recent times have increased at a substantial rate. Japan now faces cultural, economical and social differences as a result of the western involvement. The involvement was initiated by the Japanese themselves, beginning during the Meiji Period1 through current times.
Throughout the course of East Asian history, Japan has been largely influenced by the Asian mainland. From ancient times to the medieval period, significant contributions to Japan can be seen coming from both Korea and China. Both of these countries diffused elements of their cultures to form the basis of Japanese society – namely China. These foreigners would influence various aspects of society including technology, philosophy, politics, and religion.
On March 11th, 2011, the northern section of Japan was hit by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, followed by a 15 meter tsunami, causing the death of over 15000 people. (Spacey) Even though the earthquake and the tsunami caused a tremendous amount of deaths in the northern region of Japan, the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant caused a severe damage to northern Japan’s ecosystem that people still cannot go back to their homes; despite it is 4 years after the disaster. After the earthquake, the tsunami destroyed the power supply used by Fukushima’s three nuclear power stations, causing severe levels of meltdown to be occurred inside the reactors in the timespan of 3 days. It was not until 2 weeks after the tragedy, when the reactors were finally stabilized, and took several months to approach what is called a “cold shutdown condition”, in which the fission in the reactors are completely stopped.(Fukushima A)
had become a threat to the United States to the point that it had to
Globalisation has had a profound impact on the Japanese economy influencing levels of international trade, business operations, financial flows, government policy, labour markets and even environment. This movement has been driven primarily by numerous TNCs, trade liberalization, and the deregulation of the financial system, and numerous strategies adopted by the Government and Economy, resulting in the creation of a 'new' Japan.