TRAVEL

This winter's heavier snowfall has seen more than 500 people across seven prefectures die or become injured in snow-related accidents, including cases in which they had been trying to remove snow, it has been learned. People are trying to remove snow themselves using shovels and other tools because of delays in municipal-led snow removal. The delays have been caused by a shortage of dump trucks--many of which are being used in areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake for reconstruction work--to transport snow. According to data compiled by the Akita, Aomori, Ishikawa, Nagano, Niigata, Toyama and Yamagata prefectural governments, the death toll from such snow-related accidents had reached 31 as of Wednesday, while 479 people had sustained injuries. In Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture, 10 workers fell at a construction site while clearing snow on Thursday, six of them sustaining injuries. (Yomiuri)

An injured crested ibis found on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture was apparently injured by a bird of prey - the second case of its kind in a week, the Environment Ministry said. The ibis, released into the wild by the ministry in September 2009, is being treated at the Sado Japanese Crested Ibis Conservation Center but is not in critical condition, officials said Saturday. The 4-year-old male was found hurt in a lotus field about 200 meters from its roosting site early Saturday. (Japan Times)

A strong wintry pressure pattern caused heavy snowfall Thursday on the Sea of Japan coast, especially in the Hokuriku region. The Meteorological Agency issued advisories for traffic disruptions and possible avalanches. Some areas in Aomori, Niigata and Tottori prefectures had more than 2 meters of snow as of 9 a.m., 1.5 to 3.3 times the average. Other mountainous regions in eastern and central Japan recorded more than 50 cm of snow in the 24 hours through Thursday morning. (Japan Times)

The Meteorological Agency issued a warning Sunday for blizzards and high waves in northern Japan, and said heavy snow is expected to hit coastal areas along the Sea of Japan through Tuesday. It also warned of avalanches, lightning and tornadoes along the Sea of Japan coast. More than 50 cm of snow had fallen within 24 hours as of 4 p.m. in several areas facing the Sea of Japan, with the town of Tsunan, Niigata Prefecture, receiving 79 cm, the agency said. (Japan Times)

Japan is studying measures to respond to a potential refugee surge if North Korea undergoes a cataclysmic change as a result of dictator Kim Jong Il's death last week, sources said. The central government will consult prefectures along the Sea of Japan, such as Niigata, Ishikawa and Fukuoka, about helping refugees if the Stalinist country falters during the power transition, the sources said Saturday. Tokyo is also preparing to cooperate closely with Washington and call on the U.S. military for help rescuing Japanese living in South Korea if tensions on the Korean Peninsula reach the breaking point, the sources said. As of October 2009, there were about 28,320 Japanese residing there. (Japan Times)

Tokyo Electric Power Co., which has allegedly been overcharging consumers for possibly a decade, may "temporarily" raise power rates 10 percent starting next fall and push for restarting nuclear reactors under inspection in Niigata Prefecture in spring 2013, sources said. The plans are intended to restore the utility's finances, which will be dicey even if augmented by taxpayer funds as the fuel costs for boosting thermal power generation due to the Fukushima crisis continue to climb. (Japan Times)

Osamu Tamaki is one of the few rice farmers in Japan who see an Asia-Pacific free trade deal as a window of opportunity rather than the death knell for a highly cosseted industry. "The TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) will give us a great opportunity to go out into the world," said the 32-year-old, who has already exported rice to Taiwan and is now looking to markets in Hong Kong and the United States. "The TPP may damage domestic farmers, including me," said Tamaki, who harvests rice in Niigata, one of the nation's biggest rice-producing prefectures, north of Tokyo. But it could also be the much needed cue to reforming a sector that benefits from generous subsidies and jaw-dropping protectionism, he said. (China Post)

Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to ask the government for as much as 1 trillion yen in aid to cover compensation costs for damage caused by accidents at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, according to sources. TEPCO intends to include the request for the state aid in an emergency special operating plan to be formulated in early November by the utility and a government body, the sources said. Compensation payments are estimated to cost TEPCO 4.5 trillion yen over a two-year period. For the time being, the company plans to seek financial assistance of up to 1 trillion yen to focus on compensation that needs to be paid this fiscal year. To obtain financial support from the government, TEPCO is arranging to postpone significant increases in electricity rates, as well as to restart its Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture next fiscal year, the sources said. (Yomiuri)

Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to raise electricity charges 10 to 15 percent for three years starting next April in an attempt to turn around its business, which has been rocked by the Fukushima nuclear crisis, sources said Wednesday. The firm also intends to cut charges some 10 percent from the fourth year if it can eliminate an extra fee on fossil fuel power generation by resuming the reactors at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture, the sources said. (Japan Times)

"The beauty of shogi [Japanese chess] is you can climb higher, little by little, with continual effort, even if you don't have much talent," said Kaito Takahashi, 17, who became the 24th winner of the national Ryu-ou (dragon king) shogi title for high school students at a recent event held in Fukuoka. In last year's event, Takahashi, a second-year student at Niigata High School in Niigata Prefecture, could reach only as high as the top eight. Akira Watanabe, holder of shogi's supreme Ryu-ou title and the chief judge of the event, was impressed by the young champion, describing him as "playing the game coolly at all times," even when time was running out to take his turn. (Yomiuri)

The government on Tuesday announced it will move forward the lifting of its mandatory curb on electricity consumption for large-lot electricity users that has been in place since July 1. The removal of the restriction will be brought forward from Sept. 22 to Friday in areas devastated by the March 11 disaster, and those in Niigata and Fukushima prefectures that were hit with torrential rain in late July. These areas are covered by Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Tohoku Electric Power Co. In other areas served by the two utilities the curb will be lifted Sept. 9. (Yomiuri)

The seven nuclear reactors at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Kashiwazaki and Kariwamura, Niigata Prefecture, are a crucial part of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s power generating capacity. The plant's capacity, 8.21 million kilowatts, comprises 13 percent of TEPCO's 65 million kilowatts of total potential power generating capacity. The potential capacity includes TEPCO's thermal and hydraulic power plants. (Yomiuri)

The Japan Coast Guard on Saturday released two Chinese captains seized for alleged illegal fishing in the Sea of Japan the previous day, a Chinese consulate official in Niigata of Japan said. The two captains were sent back to their trawlers by Japan Coast Guard at around 4:30 p.m. local time, after negotiations between the consulate and the Japanese side, the official, who declined to be named, told Xinhua. (Xinhua)

Heavy rains continued to lash northeastern Japan on Sunday with the death toll rising to three in the hardest-hit region of Niigata, police and medical officials said. Three others were missing in Niigata and Fukushima, the latter of which was ravaged on March 11 by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami which knocked a nuclear power plant out of control. A strong 6.4-magnitude quake, which seismologists said was an aftershock of the massive tremor, struck off Fukushima's coast early Sunday, injuring seven people. (AFP)

Faced with the nation's worst disaster since World War II, Fuji Rock Festival founder Masahiro Hidaka had to make a choice back in March - whether to hold Japan's biggest summer music festival this year or not. He decided that the show must go on. "It may not be a very conservative Japanese way of thinking, but festivals are festivals, they create good things for people," Hidaka, president of Smash Corporation and chief producer of Fuji Rock, tells The Japan Times from his company's headquarters in Minato Ward, Tokyo. This year will mark the 15th installment of the annual gathering. Though the inaugural bash was held with the iconic Mount Fuji as its backdrop, the party has since moved to the valleys of Naeba, Niigata Prefecture, more than 150 km away. (Japan Times)

Oze National Park is normally awash with people this time of year but fears of radiation from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant--about 150 kilometers away--have sent tourism numbers plunging in the aftermath of the crisis triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake. With a total area of about 37,200 hectares, the national park straddles Fukushima and three other prefectures--Gunma, Tochigi and Niigata. About 90 percent of the park falls in Fukushima and Gunma prefectures and it has been designated as being of great significance by the Ramsar Convention, an intergovernmental treaty that covers wetlands of international importance. Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the impaired nuclear plant, owns 70 percent of the park's central wetlands. (Yomiuri)

A Mexican man was found guilty and given a suspended jail term Tuesday for forcibly taking his daughter from his separated Japanese wife last November by breaking into her home in Niigata and injuring her mother, who had tried to stop him. The Niigata District Court sentenced Nathanael Teutle Retamoza, 33, to two years in prison, suspended for four years, for his attempt to take the 1-year-old girl to the United States. The ruling comes at a time when the government is preparing legislation to help settle international child custody disputes. (Japan Times)