The Man Who Doesn't Sleep

Do you recognize this man?

He made frequent appearances on TV last week to give the up-to-date report on the imminent situation to the people of Japan, press, and to the world.

As his face literally represented Japan in this time of crisis, some viewers in overseas may have thought this is our Prime Minister, but he is not.

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Mr Edano, 46, the chief cabinet secretary and the right-hand man of Naoto Kan, the prime minister, has appeared every few hours on television in a blue emergency jumpsuit to update the nation.

But many are worried the man will collapse from a lack of rest since Friday's twin disasters. The hashtag #edano—nero is trending on the popular micro-blogging site - "nero" means "go to sleep" in Japanese.

There are some who compares the spokesman to Jack Bauer, the lead character on the hit television show "24", a tireless counter-terrorism agent who works around the clock to prevent major attacks in the United States.

  (cited from Telegraph, England ) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8383430/Japan-earthquake-Yukio-Edano-the-Jack-Bauer-of-the-crisis.html

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It is believed that Mr Edano worked intently for more than 100 hours continuously for the first 4 days without sleeping at all.

His words were also very logical and always to the point, which was rather new when compared to typical old politicians in Japan.  Many of Japanese including myself now admires his tireless effort and professional commitment!

In Twitter, even a new word was coined after Mr. Edano.  The verb, “eda-ru.”  means to work effortlessly and tirelessly around the clock (& without getting any assistance from the boss…)

Disaster Aftermath: 　Total number of death and unaccounted for exceeded 27,000  (As of March 24)

・Here are the latest tweets from the quake victims in Japan.  
http://hearthevoicefromjapan.blogspot.com/

How can we help?

Japanese Red Cross
http://www.google.co.jp/intl/en/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support Website

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Japan-Earthquake-Animal-Rescue-and-Support/207835229228979
OR;
http://japanearthquakeanimalrelief.chipin.com/japan-earthquake-animal-rescue-and-support/