Inemuri

A couple years' back, one of the interns at my company was found sleeping on the job. And not just once or twice, but regularly. Needless to say, he didn't stay long. But, perhaps that wouldn't have been the case if he'd done it in another country...

...like Japan!

That's right, ladies and gentlemen. Inemuri is the art of "sleeping while present" aka sleeping on the job to show how committed you are to it. 

The logic is that the worker's so exhausted from working so hard, practically 24/7, so he/she can't help but fall asleep at work. Some people even fake it, to impress the others. 

However, things aren't that easy, because there are certain rules to follow as well (which isn't too surprising). So before you decide to try it out, know that only those on the higher rungs of the corporate structure or organization can do it, and you must do it while remaining as straight as possible in your seat.

So, who's napping for real or faking it?

Sources:

Wikipedia

Wise Geek

Now I Am Become Death, The Destroyer Of Worlds

Three years ago, a horrible disaster hit the coast of beautiful Japan, the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl (which took place in 1986).

What some may not know, however, is that the Fukushima plant was not the closest plant to the epicenter of the earthquake.  No, that title goes to the plant at Onagawa which, like its fallen brethren, had to endure the brunt of the Tohoku earthquake and following tsunami, but is a much more populous city to boot.

The hero behind the Onagawa plant is Yanosuke Hirai.  In 1968, Hirai retired from his position as VP at

Tohoku Electric Power and joined a committee for the construction of the company's plant in Onagawa.

 The man wanted the plant to be built 50 ft above sea level, that it should have a cooling system that would provide water even if a tsunami's receding waters temporarily left the plant dry, and should be protected by a 49 ft seawall (other had planned for this wall to be a mere 10 ft tall).

Despite the critiques he received from the company's bureaucrats who wanted to save money, Hirai held firm (incidentally, he believed bureaucrats to be "like human trash...who never take final responsibility.").  The company's then president finally agreed to Hirai's design, and the wall ended up being 46 ft high (since the tsunami, the wall's been raised another 10 ft).

So what about the Fukushima plant?  That plant also had a seawall, but it didn't go over 19 feet high, so that the 43-ft tsunami that had traveled 112 miles to get there had no trouble getting over it, knocking power out, creating meltdowns, explosions, and ensuing release of radioactive matter in the ocean.

Corporate compliance is different from compliance.  Just being 'not guilty' is not enough. ~Tatsuji Oshima

But without counting all the deaths brought on by the tsunami, here's another scary aspect of this terrible incident:  the radioactive pollution that will affect/is affecting the rest of the world.

I really hope that, after all the disasters we've had in recent years (Gulf of Mexico Oil spill for instance), we've finally learned that cutting corners for a little bit of extra profit is just not worth it.  But I'm afraid history does have a tendency to repeat itself... Sigh.

Full Article:
How tenacity, a wall saved a Japanese nuclear plant from meltdown after tsunami, by Richard Read

Note:
The title is a quote from the Bhagavad Gita which was brought to J. Robert Oppenheimer's mind after he witnessed the results of the first atomic bomb detonation.

The Origins Of The Samurai

During the Nara period, in the late 8th century, Japan shifted from conscripted armies (a concept that failed) to official troops whose taxes were remitted in exchange for military service.  The samurai remained the military force of Japan until the foot-soldier revolution of the 15th and 16th centuries.

The word samurai comes from the verb samurau, 'to serve.'