Japanese Location based service Coropura(Colopl.jp) makes a map of east Japan to show where its users checked in the day before [J].

The hex displayed on the map means there were at least one check in yesterday. The map has a choice of cellphone carriers, Docomo/au/Softbank. Docomo must have more users and good coverage.

The screen shot below is a check-in map around Fukushima nuclear power plant on Mar 16th.

Colopl, one of the most successful location based service in Japan, has more than 1.5 million users, many of who play location based game on Japanese cellphone and smartphone. The service really earn money and the company is expanding. (Asiajin 1, 2)

The map shows that even people on east coast of Tohoku, where massive tsunami hit, still are playing it. It may be possible to check in with fake location, but Colopl prevent it. It is good to see some people using cellphone there and living daily lives.

Both Google and MapFan provide a visualized map to show which roads were really used by collecting car navigation data helped by Honda and Pioneer. These are also good tools to see people's activities in the area.

Google
MapFan

Tags: Japan by Akky Akimoto
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Google built a dedicated page which is tailored for Japanese cellphone web browsers (i.e. i-mode and others) to help people suffering Tohoku earthquake/tsunami/nuclear crisis [J].

Compact web page for cellphone browser is in higher demand for many refugees at evacuation shelters. This is good move as well as other Google's latest help like Person Finder, Contacts Sharing Service, Road availability checker.

Tags: Japan, New Service by Akky Akimoto
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[Update] Volunteer-made chart [J] comes based on the MEXT data. (Fukushima line is not drawn. see below for why)

So far, some prefecture around the Fukushima plants show a bit higher numbers, but still very low, under 1μGy/h.

Japanese government has worked on another information disclosure to resolve people's free-floating anxiety. As traditional media, especially TV, many of which have been reporting on Fukushima nuclear plants fallout intensively and even people living outside of Fukushima are getting panic.

I went to buy some food with my daughter yesterday, an old gentleman behind us in the long line in a supermarket told me that I must let her wear mask, because TV had said that radioactive are flying in Tokyo... I don't think TV news really told that, but I can easily guess that they race how sensational they can be. @FrankieBit told me a funny news that Italian experts measured radiation levels in Rome and Tokyo, and Rome got higher number on that day.

There were some Geiger counter reports on the net provided by individuals and local governments, but their authority could be challenged. Now, Ministry of Educational, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology(MEXT) is measuring radiation level at 47 prefectures and published it on the web.

Like a new English Twitter account to update crisis info, government's IT usage becomes better now. They prepare mirror sites on Yahoo! Japan, Sakura Internet and WIDE Project, each of which has an English page or some English info.

To know how dangerous (or safe) the measured numbers are, students of Keio University translated an informational diagram to English [pdf].

[Update]

Fukushima, Miyagi and Ibaraki data were not included in it when I wrote this post. Probably because they are near the disastrous points. Miyagi and Ibaraki are added later.

For Fukushima, data around the nuclear plants are given here.

Another measurement by districts in Fukushima can be taken from here in English on Fukushima International Association site, which seems to be a translation of this original on Fukushima prefecture local government [J].

Ibaraki prefecture gives the latest radiation level in several points on its website [J]. At 18:30 on March 17, numbers are higher than regular level but still small enough.

Japan Atomic Energy Agency(JAEA) discloses a chart with radiation level at their research centers.

Tags: Japan by Akky Akimoto
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Prime Minister's Office of Japan has just annouced that they opened an official Twitter account @JPN_PMO in English.

This is the official English twitter account of Prime Minister’s Office of Japan. Most of the information provided here will be translation of @ Kantei_Saigai.
http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/index-e.html

The first tweet was "The Prime Minister's Office of Japan has launched an English twitter account from now on" at 21:16, Japan Standard Time.

As the second tweet says, the tweets are going to be about Tohoku-Pacific Ocean Earthquake and related disasters translated from @Kantei_Saigai. (Kantei = Prime Minister's Office, Saigai = disaster)

via @HYamaguchi

Tags: Japan by Akky Akimoto
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Drawn by shigeokahide.

Many Japanese artists drew Namazu-e(鯰絵) to encourage earthquake sufferers on Twitter.

What is Namazu-e? Namazu-e is a motif drawn in ukiyoe (Wikipedia) during Edo period (Wikipedia). "Namazu" means a catfish in Japanese. In old days, Japanese believed that the earthquake occurs because of a catfish behaves violently in underground. In 1855, earthquake of magnitude 6.9 attacked Kanto region(known as Ansei big earthquake - Wikipedia). In those days, many ukiyoe artists prayed for revive from a disaster and drew the ukiyoe of the heroes exterminate a catfish. Variations of full many Namazu-e increased one after another. For example, god of Shinto exterminates a catfish, catfish apologizes to the people etc...

The Namazu-e project rose from this earthquake is a modern version of ukiyoe of Namazu-e. Please search hashtag #namazue on Twitter. You can find various kind of hot artworks. 

* This project is not meant to harm or kill any real catfish.

Tags: Japan by Chiho Komoriya
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