News from Japan

Some weeks ago, an article about the disastrous earthquake in Japan and the usage of a RIEGL Laser Scanner to support work at the nuclear power plant Fukushima has been published on our website.
More than one month after the catastrophe, people in Japan try to resume their normal lives, although it is going to take years, if not decades, until the country’s economy will have recovered completely.

We would like to share with you a personal message from Mr. Teruo Sasaki, CEO RIEGL Japan,  describing the situation in Japan, and especially in Tokyo, where our sales office RIEGL Japan is located.

 

First of all, we like to express our thanks to the people and the countries in the world who are providing us the heart-warming assistances for rehabilitation and reconstruction in various forms.

Although some Embassies and foreign-capitalized companies are moving from Tokyo to Osaka or Fukuoka where  they are adequately far from Fukushima, our daily life in Tokyo is resuming day by day except that some kinds of food and drinking water are lacking in the market and that we feel a little bit comfortless due to the brownout caused by electricity shortage.

Since many people refrain voluntarily from the expenditure for the entertainment and the pleasure, the restaurant business in Tokyo also got huge blow. On the other hand, there is such movements for the economical aid to the affected area by drinking SAKE (rice wine) and eating foods made in that area.

The highway, railway and the air ports are resuming in some degree, and the transportation of relief goods and the input of relief party will become more active. The popular amusement park, Tokyo Disney Land has been re-opened.
The remaining anxieties are the prompt rehabilitation of Atomic Power Plant and the stable cooling of Atomic Furnace.
We only can pray for no-more disaster and the discover of missing persons as many and soon as possible.
At last, we like to mourn the loss of lives of many victims.

GANBAROU NIPPON ! ( Harambee Japan ! )  WE ARE ONE !


Japan is going back to its daily routine – at least outside the disaster area.

RIEGL Japan is already preparing for its participation at two trade fairs, SPAR 2011J, taking place in Kawasaki City May 17 and 18, and the 50th Spring Conference of the Remote Sensing Society Japan, taking place in Tokyo May 26 and 27.

Monitoring of disasters and preventive emergency management – these two topics will definitely be discussed at both events.
Laser scanning offers a great opportunity to record important data of large areas in a fast and precise way, combined with high resolution image data. This can then present the basis for a variety of additional applications, e.g. simulations in order to detect endangered areas.

April 6th, less than a month after the first earthquake, the team of RIEGL Japan was in Sendai city in Miyagi prefecture, north of Fukushima, to collect data of the devastated area by means of a VZ-400.

Hopefully further development of laser scanning technologies and efficient exploitation of scanning results can contribute  to future catastrophe preventation.

  • Business as usual: The team of RIEGL Japan in Tokyo
  • RiSCAN PRO 2D view provided during data acquisition in Sendai City
  • <i>RIEGL</i> VZ-400 in Sendai City
  • RiSCAN PRO showing a 2D view of the acquired data