Importing Vehicles From Japan After The Nuclear Disaster... What Precautions Are Taken?

[BakemonoRicer]

Once I finish uni and attain a full-time job, I have plans to import a Toyota Supra RZ ....but I'd want to be 100% sure the vehicle is radiation free

So just wondering if the Auction Houses in Japan scan the vehicles passing through auction for radiation since the f*kushima Powerplant disaster happened?

I'd guess that buying a vehicle that has been located in an area far away from the disaster area would be the way to go, but can you trace where a vehicle has been registered etc? I mean, a radioactive car from f*kushima could be passed through auction in Osaka so being able to know the whole history of where the vehicle has been would be handy..

Interesting article about Radioactive vehicles leaking out of Japan

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Radioactive-Japanese-cars-on-the-market/-/688334/1487016/-/iq4u02z/-/index.html

It is a bit worrying importing a vehicle from Japan given that it could be radioactive.... so just wondering what measures are taken to ensure the vehicle has no radiation from the powerplant disaster etc...because the article seems to suggest a lot of radioactive vehicles are finding their way out of Japan

[Iron Chef]

The short answer is no, you have nothing to worry about.

The longer answer is a copy of my HPI column, which will give you an idea into what was going on at the time, and is still occurring. I'm not saying nuclear fallout shouldn't be taken seriously, of course it should, but when you read more about how the "internationally accepted levels" are set, it helps you to understand why hysteria is whipped up in the press - it's an (admittedly understandable) misunderstanding of the numbers involved.

I have a firm belief that the fabric of society is gradually
unwoven when its politicians resort to point-scoring rather than working
towards a greater good. To use a recent example, asylum seekers coming to Australia on
leaky boats lost their lives while Julia and Tony and their respective teams
used the issue to try and raise their own profile whilst trashing the policies
of their opponents. Regardless of your stance on asylum seekers, dear reader, I
doubt history will look too kindly on the behaviour of our pollies during on
this topic.

Japanese parliament is likewise an amazing melange of small
parties who form coalitions to get enough votes to take power, which usually
results in fiery debates and in extreme cases, all-in brawls whenever
controversial decisions are made. Unlike Australia,
the average Japanese citizen pays very little attention to the parliamentary
shenanigans, but 2011 was hardly an average year for Japan. Following the earthquake and
tsunami, the government-owned nuclear power plant at f*kushima suffered a partial meltdown and
thousands of people had to be evacuated for months on end.

Far be it for me to play down the seriousness of the matter,
but the nuclear hysteria subsequently whipped up by the ratings-hungry foreign
media circus was ridiculous. Nevertheless, it caused many average Japanese
citizens to start asking some serious questions of its government regarding the
safety of nuclear power plants, especially given their proximity to built-up
areas. For the opposition parties, it was a god-send, as everyone from the
prime minister down ducked and weaved, seeking to re-assure the public whilst
still being typically ambiguous in the language used.

With the tsunami-affected vehicles having already been sold,
the smarter operators began sneaking f*kushima
cars with high radiation readings through auctions in the hope that they would
disappear overseas before anyone noticed. While there hasn’t been any concrete
data to link driving a radioactive car to higher cancer rates or suddenly
growing a third testicle, common sense suggests that, if given a choice, most
people would rather they and their kids weren’t exposed to such a risk. So
other countries began testing vehicles exported from Japan as they arrived at ports. The
Australian nuclear testing body ARPANSA declared that the radiation levels on
the first batch of vehicles it tested were “scientifically negligent”. That
didn’t stop our Maritime Union demanding that all vehicles coming into
Australia be radiation tested, claiming it was “a victory for our workers” even
when testing after that point still failed to find a single car that was over
the allowed radiation limit.

Of all the countries receiving vehicles from Japan, it was Chile, of all places, that received
what it considered contaminated vehicles, with 26 vehicles falling foul of the
Geiger counter. By August, the Japanese government, its reputation already
tarnished internationally as a result of the nuclear power plant fiasco and now
‘glowing’ cars, was also coming under fire from its own maritime workers, who
were displeased at having to handle potentially contaminated vehicles, despite
having adequate guidelines and safety procedures already in place. So what was
the government’s response? Ignore the international limit set by the
International Atomic Energy Agency of 5.0 microsieverts they were already
using, and drop the limit for export vehicles to just 0.3 microsieverts, which
is effectively normal background radiation levels.

This decision wasn’t made after rigorous testing or
consultation with nuclear experts to determine what was safe for car owners, it
was a politically-motivated decision to save Japan any further embarrassment on
the world stage. To make matters worse, car exporters in Japan, already
battered by low stock levels, high auction prices and crap exchange rates, were
expected to pick up the tab for the radiation testing, at a cost of around $50
per car. By the time the new limit had been in place for a couple of months,
roughly 1% of cars exported were failing to make the grade. Many of these
simply required a wash to bring them back down to a suitable level, but
ironically, some of the cars getting pinged had never spent time near f*kushima! The new limit
was so low, one of my suppliers half-joked that even cars from Hiroshima
and Nagasaki
would struggle to pass.

To explain how ludicrous the current scenario is, imagine
you are a vehicle exporter who has bought a very expensive car that has a
radiation reading that is too high to send overseas. You’ve immediately lost a
big sale, and through no fault of your own, you’re suddenly stuck with a
‘heavy’ vehicle chewing up the money that you would otherwise be using to buy
other cars at auction. What do you do with the car? Incredibly, the Japanese
government provides no compensation or even advice to the vehicle owners in
this situation, so in the absence of any direction, the agents have been
re-registering their contaminated vehicles and putting them back through
auction again to try and recoup some of their losses. Once sold, these vehicles
will either end up with another unsuspecting export agent who goes through the
fruitless exercise of radiation testing for export again, or they go to
unsuspecting Japanese dealers who then sell them on to unsuspecting locals.

So you start with a knee-jerk policy change intended to save
the collective skins of the ruling party rather than being based on scientific
research, and end with a vast array of export businesses being heavily and
unfairly impacted. Even worse, the cars that the Japanese government now
consider too dangerous to export are instead sold to the very people who
elected them to power in the first place. Point-scoring put ahead of the
greater good? You betcha.

[Mr Eps]

...do you smoke, benji?? Take pre-workout supplements??

Drink coke?? That'd be more detrimental I think

[BakemonoRicer]

Cheers for the info Chef.

So does this mean if you were to buy a vehicle at Auction for a customer, and it was found to have a higher radioactive reading than what was allowable for export.....is it the customers responsibility to take a hit on any loss when it passes back through auction? Or would you prevent this by getting your agent to radioactive test the car at auction?

I mean, youd think the auction houses would be given a fund to allow for radiation testing etc...

...do you smoke, benji?? Take pre-workout supplements??

Drink coke?? That'd be more detrimental I think

I actually don't do any of those things you mentioned haha.

I try to do all the right things for my health.

[Plattsy]

dotn even waste you time this guy is a waste of air.

are you serious? scan for radiation?!

and you told us you where buying a gtr with your dad last week? stop wasting peoples time and go back to watching you tube videos.

[34GeeTeeTee]

What about your mental health Benji? I think you need your head read

[BakemonoRicer]

dotn even waste you time this guy is a waste of air.

are you serious? scan for radiation?!

and you told us you where buying a gtr with your dad last week? stop wasting peoples time and go back to watching you tube videos.

I didn't say my Dad was buying one, I said potentially buying one depending upon whether the guy my cousin sold it to was going to sell it, which it turns out he isn't.

Anyway..Why do you seem to be in such disbelief? It's a perfectly reasonable question to ask mate and I don't appreciate you taking a shot at me over it...quite immature really..

If you were familiar with this story about a van that went around Japan then you would have been inclined to ask the same question if you were contemplating importing in the future...I was just wondering about the possibility of a similar scenario occuring but with the vehicle being exported (but Iron Chef has cleared that up now).

"One van was so radioactive that “sitting inside it for two hours a day will

expose the occupant to more than the government’s recommended maximum dose over

the course of a year”. It “emitted radiation at a level of 110 microsieverts an

hour,” according to a reporter for the Asahi Shimbun.

A car dealer told Asahi, “It is just the tip of the iceberg. If high

radiation is detected, decontamination is too difficult. This is why such

vehicles are auctioned within Japan.”

The van’s owner said, “I decontaminated repeatedly after the test, and

retested the filter of the air conditioner, the wipers and tyres, replacing them

thoroughly, but the radiation level dropped only to 30 microsieverts per hour. I

decided to sell the vehicle in Japan because I couldn’t afford to lose the

money.”

“The vehicle eventually sold at auction in Kobe, 370 miles from f*kushima,”

according to The Times."

What about your mental health Benji? I think you need your head read

[Iron Chef]

Cheers for the info Chef.

So does this mean if you were to buy a vehicle at Auction for a customer, and it was found to have a higher radioactive reading than what was allowable for export.....is it the customers responsibility to take a hit on any loss when it passes back through auction? Or would you prevent this by getting your agent to radioactive test the car at auction?

I mean, youd think the auction houses would be given a fund to allow for radiation testing etc...

I actually don't do any of those things you mentioned haha.

I try to do all the right things for my health.

Some agents have carried geiger counters in the past at auction, but, speaking from my own experience, I haven't had a single car fail an export radiation check in at least 12 months (and neither has anyone else, presuming I would have heard about it), and even the ones that did straight after the accident were fixed with a wash. It hasn't happened to me, but where cars have been knocked back, the agents have taken the losses rather than the customer.

The story of the van you mentioned was the most extreme example, but either way, cars like that don't leave Japan.

[Plattsy]

learn how to count jap when you get your radioactive car. you complete tool.

[BakemonoRicer]

Some agents have carried geiger counters in the past at auction, but, speaking from my own experience, I haven't had a single car fail an export radiation check in at least 12 months (and neither has anyone else, presuming I would have heard about it), and even the ones that did straight after the accident were fixed with a wash. It hasn't happened to me, but where cars have been knocked back, the agents have taken the losses rather than the customer.

The story of the van you mentioned was the most extreme example, but either way, cars like that don't leave Japan.

Interesting stuff...

Yeah so basically any of the vehicles in close proximity to the f*kishima meltdown and radioactive as a result....will be staying in Japan since those new laws were introduced.

So I'm guessing when the car makes it to export, its checked for radiation on both the inside and outside of the vehicle? Or are the tests only conducted on the outside?

[34GeeTeeTee]

Hey Benji, buy one that is radioactive so next time you get a sack attack from Andrew he will glow green

[BakemonoRicer]

Hey Benji, buy one that is radioactive so next time you get a sack attack from Andrew he will glow green

Bahahaha.

Everytime I look at my car I'm instantly reminded of Andrew sack attacking it

[MattR]

im a radiation officer and will happily go over and test the car for you:) all paid by you. a geiger counters wont give a true indication of radiation you would need what i have a;

http://www.radiationsolutions.ca/index.php?id=47

I should start going into business and give companies reports.

[BakemonoRicer]

im a radiation officer and will happily go over and test the car for you:) all paid by you. a geiger counters wont give a true indication of radiation you would need what i have a;

http://www.radiationsolutions.ca/index.php?id=47

I should start going into business and give companies reports.

Interesting....are the cars tested with that instrument before heading out of Japan?

[Iron Chef]

Didn't I already say that before?

[Cherry Racer]

Chef, is there any way you could get me a radioactive vehicle?

I was thinking that if we could get it out of Japan and into Aus I could then sit in it and get bitten by a spider.

Boom, Super Powers!

[GTR-N1]

More like preventative radiotherapy for prostate!