Radiation in seawater may be spreading in Japan

well duh..

But it's ok, the Company and the Japanese government keep saying everything is ok.

It'll be the long term radioactive stuff that will have to be watched, and how it progresses through the food chain.

You ever get the feeling the authorities in Japan have no plan whatsoever to fix this and are just flying by the seat of their pants?

No, they're just handling this in a typically Japanese way: The sh*t hit the fan at the outset and they're gradually revealing the truth. It's just how they roll.

That said, right at the outset I assumed it was worse than they were saying (and so did a lot of Japanese and the US government) because the Japanese government typically denies bad news.

Ya, I noticed that. It's like they would rather give you wrong information then have to admit they don't know. I think it's inherant to the culture because there is shame in not knowing.

It's complicated and entrenched in their culture that direct answers to direct questions are considered rude and impolite. Like if you call someone in Japan and ask their name good luck getting it as they won't give it up. Even in person they can be very evasive.

Then you have a crisis and it sort of makes them brain-fart. In a crisis they need to communicate quickly and without nuance and the civilians can't do it. Their military gets around it by their guys adopting a sort of robot-like persona during operations where they give out infomration in a kind of emotionless way. By making robots of themselves they're able to transcend the societal rules that forbid the sort of brusque and direct language required of the military.

Remember Katrina and New Orleans, JFK's assination, 911 even. You still ain't heard all the gubberment might tell you if they thought you should know.