JAPAN NOW

A one-mile cordon has been established around a volcano on Mount Kirishima after it erupted scattering rocks and ash across southern Japan and sending smoke billowing 5,000ft into the air.


The Meteorological Agency raised the volcanic alert to level 3 as ash today continued to spew from Shinmoedake on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu, and residents have been banned from going within a mile of the volcano following its worst eruption in 50 years.

Agency volcanologist Sei Iijima said the eruption did not pose a threat to nearby cities, and a major eruption was not imminent. But he added: 'You can never say never with a volcano, although the lack of magma movement beneath the surface leads us to believe that this activity won't lead to a large-scale eruption,' he told ABC News.

The volcano, one of 20 inside Mount Kirishima, began erupting around 7.30am yesterday morning and by 3pm heavy smoke had risen to nearly 5,000ft, prompting the meteorological agency to raise the alert level.

Volcanic activity is often reported at Kirishima, but this is the largest eruption recorded there since 1959.

February 4, 2011 – Tokyo – “Shinmoedake, a volcano on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, erupted again as the government said it will send officials to the area to help local authorities create an evacuation plan. The 1,421-meter (4,660 feet) volcano in the Kirishima range erupted at 9:42 a.m. local time following three eruptions yesterday, sending a plume of ash and smoke as high as 3,000 meters, a branch division of the agency said in a statement. The plume was drifting east-northeast toward Miyazaki Prefecture’s Pacific coastline, the statement said. The government plans to send a group of natural disaster officials to the area as early as Feb. 7, Shigeo Ochi, an official at the Cabinet Office, said in a telephone interview today. Japan’s Meteorological Agency is maintaining a level 3 alert for Shinmoedake, indicating an eruption “may seriously affect places near residential areas.” Evacuations are carried out when the alert reaches the maximum 5. “In the case of a major eruption, if the central and local governments have an evacuation plan ready, that can ensure there’s a smooth evacuation with no loss of life,” he said. Japan Airlines Corp., All Nippon Airways Co. and Skymark Airlines Inc., Japan’s biggest discount carrier, said flights to the region may be delayed or diverted because of the ash plume. Shinmoedake erupted for the first time in 52 years on Jan. 27 and has erupted more than 10 times since, according to the JMA. The agency says a lava dome in the crater is growing and may spill out, creating a lava flow. Authorities are maintaining a restricted zone of 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) around the volcano. The weather agency is also maintaining a level 3 alert for Sakurajima, 45 kilometers (28 miles) to the southwest. The volcano is among Japan’s most active, with 1,026 volcanic incidents in 2010, the most since at least 1982, according to Japan’s weather agency.”

Quakes in the last 24-48 hours around Japan

5.6 earthquake 45.2 km Ryuku Islands, Japan
4.8 earthquake 41.8 km Kyushu, Japan
5.4 earthquake 101 km Volcanic Islands, Japan
4.9 earthquake 11.9 km Bonin Islands, Japan
4.7 earthquake 10.0 km Bonin Islands, Japan

The volcanic firestorm erupting across Japan is one more sign, like Iceland’s recent volcanic unrest, that the planet is now tilting towards geological upheaval. The magnetic reversal is accelerating and the sea-floor under the Pacific Ocean is spreading. Earthquakes are increasing around Japan and in the Pacific Ring of Fire and the Pacific plate is now experiencing increasing amounts of seismic tension. The volcanic arcs are arming submarine volcanoes with magma swells. Sea-surface temperature in the South Pacific and surrounding Indonesia is rising. We are on the eve of witnessing destructive geological changes to this planet unknown in our lifetime. Japan is entering a new stage of geological upheaval. The rest of the planet will soon follow.

Japan Said to Consider Extension of Capital Gains Tax Break by One Year
By Kyoko Shimodoi and Toru Fujioka - Dec 12, 2010 10:50 PM GMT-1000

Japan may extend a capital-gains tax break by a year after the Financial Services Agency opposed ending it in 2011 as scheduled, according to two government officials familiar with the matter.

Vice Finance Minister Fumihiko Igarashi, who moderates the tax panel that will make policy recommendations to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, said last month he wanted to end the 10 percentage point break for levies on dividends and capital gains. Japan’s banking regulator has rejected the proposal, citing the potential effect on stocks, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were private.

The discussions reflect policy makers’ dual objectives of reining in the world’s largest public debt burden while sustaining confidence in a recovery from Japan’s deepest postwar recession. Igarashi has favored bringing the tax back to 20 percent from 10 percent, a step that might make it easier to avoid having to sell more deficit-financing bonds next year.

“This is good news for investors but it’s important to keep in mind is that it’s not clear the tax break has been encouraging people to buy stocks,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute in Tokyo. “Japan’s fiscal situation is so severe that they are going to need to end the tax break eventually.”

continued at link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-13/japan-said-to-consider-extension-of-capital-gains-tax-break-by-one-year.html

Japan Will Cut Corporate Income Tax Rate By HIROKO TABUCHI - Published: December 13, 2010

TOKYO — Japan will cut its corporate income tax rate by 5 percentage points in a bid to shore up its sluggish economy, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said here Monday evening. A port in Yokohama, south of Tokyo. The corporate tax cut in Japan is intended to encourage businesses to create more jobs. Companies have urged the government to lower the country’s effective corporate tax rate — which now stands at 40 percent, around the same rate as that in the United States — to stimulate investment in Japan and to encourage businesses to create more jobs. Lowering the corporate tax burden by 5 percentage points could increase Japan’s gross domestic product by 2.6 percentage points, or 14.4 trillion yen ($172 billion), over the next three years, according to estimates by Japan’s Trade Ministry.

It was unclear, however, how Japan would make up for the estimated 1.5 trillion yen ($18 billion) decline in tax revenue that a 5 percentage-point corporate tax cut would mean for government coffers. The Japanese government is already heavily indebted, with total public debt approaching twice the size of its $5 trillion economy.

Announcing the reduction to reporters outside his official residence after deliberations by a government tax panel, Mr. Kan stressed what he said were the benefits of such a cut. Japan’s corporate tax rate stood at around 50 percent in the 1990s, but has been gradually reduced.

continued at link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/business/global/14yen.html

February 9, 2011 – JAPAN - Two volcanoes on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu erupted on Tuesday. A volcano at Sakurajima, the Minamidake crater, erupted early Tuesday followed by an eruption at Shinmoedake in the afternoon. Shinmoedake erupted for the first time in 52 years last month and has erupted more than ten times since. Amid growing fears that a massive eruption could still be on its way, the latest eruptions covered nearby villages with rocks and ash. The two volcanoes spewed plumes of smoke and ash up to 2-thousand meters into the air resulting in multiple injuries and destroyed homes. According to Japan’s Meteorological Agency, a lava dome in the Shinmoedake crater is growing and could spill out creating a lava flow. Authorities therefore are maintaining a restricted zone of four kilometers around the volcano. A level 3 alert is being maintained for both regions with 5 being the highest level when evacuations are carried out. And volcanic experts are warning that the recent eruptions on Shinmoedake and other peaks in Japan resemble the highly destructive blasts that occurred 300 years ago which killed more than 30 people. –Arirang News

The Japanese Pacific Islands have been hit with 9 major earthquakes in a 24-hour period. See: Japan entering new period of geological upheaval

link: http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2011/02/09/fears-grow-in-japan-as-volanic-eruptions-intensify/

February 12, 2011 – KAGOSHIMA (Kyodo) — The Shinmoe Peak, a volcano on the border of Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures in southern Japan, erupted again Friday after a seven-day hiatus, marking its 10th eruption since late January. The latest eruption occurred at 11:36 a.m. at the 1,421-meter-high volcano in the Kirishima range, spewing columns of smoke up to about 2,500 meters. The previous eruption was observed on Feb. 3. The Kagoshima Local Meteorological Observatory said it measured 244.3 pascals of air pressure disturbance at an observatory point some 3 kilometers southwest of the volcanic crater, adding it observed some relatively large volcanic stones falling. During its fourth eruption on the morning of Feb. 1, the local observatory reported 458 pascals of air pressure disturbance which shattered window glasses of houses and buildings. The latest series of eruptions at the Shinmoe Peak began on Jan. 26. Researchers said that it had its first major eruption in 52 years and that they observed eruptions with magma for the first time in 189 years. -Mainichi Times

http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/japanese-volcano-erupts-for-the-10th-time/