In honor of the four month anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan, VCU Brandcenter, DiGennaro Communications, ad agency McKinney, Clear Channel, and Matt Miller, president of the American Independent Commercial Producers are launching STILLforJAPAN, which is seeking “moments of stillness” to remember and support the people of Japan. Kaede Seville, a New York-based reporter for Nikkei is also leading the campaign.

A Clear Channel billboard in New York’s Times Square will display messages once every hour starting at 1p.m. as part of the campaign, and the company’s radio division in NY has donated time for an ad spot.

There’s also a website and #StillforJapan hashtag to participate and send messages of comfort.

Japan’s government is now the spokesperson for the Tokyo Electric Power Co, or Tepco. The government will be handling the daily briefings about the developments at the Fukushima Daiichi power complex, which was damaged after the quake and tsunami that took place six weeks ago.

“Tokyo’s intervention in Tepco’s public-relations arm came after several briefings that sowed confusion, with Tepco issuing statements on radiation levels that it later rescinded or revised, or that appeared to catch Tokyo by surprise at briefings often held at around the same time of day,” writes The Wall Street Journal.

A university professor tells the Journal that the “incomplete and conflicting information” about the situation at the plant has “damaged the credibility of recovery efforts.”

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A photo from inside Japan's Fukushima plant. Photo: AP

Good news amid Japan’s ongoing problems and fears about radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant – radioactive levels in the water have dropped to safe levels and the lights in the Number 1 reactor are back on, which may mean that the cooling system can soon be restored and nuclear catastrophe averted. Still, there’s plenty of work to be done.

The nuclear energy industry is looking for any positives in the barrage of negatives in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan a couple of weeks ago. Making sure that people are safe and restoring some sense of normalcy to life in quake-stricken parts of the country are of greatest importance right now. But the nuclear energy industry is also consumed with the damage that the tenuous situation could be doing to its future.

“Can the reputation of the nuclear power industry be saved?” reads a headline on Katie Paine‘s blog The Measurement Standard. Answer: “No; too many problems, too many protests.”

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Kesennuma in northeastern Japan is still under water. Photo: Yomiuri Shimbun / Kaname Yoneyama

Bridge Global Strategies president and CEO Lucy Siegel traveled to Asia just before the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan last week. In a post on her firm’s blog, she recounts her experience in Tokyo in the aftermath of the quake. Moreover, she discusses the communications problems that have arisen.

“It started with TEPCO [Tokyo Electric Power Company] understating the problems with the reactors to the Japanese government, which then repeated what TEPCO said and (unknowingly, I believe) understated the dangers to the Japanese public,” she writes.

Click here to read her post. Interesting stuff.

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The Office of the Prime Minister of Japan has launched an English-language Twitter feed to provide information about the situation following this past weekend’s earthquake and tsunami. @JPN_PMO will provide the English translation of tweets posted on @Kantei_Saigai. As of this morning, the account has more than 16,000 followers.

[via Mashable.]

A tsunami crashes into Natori, Miyagi in Japan. Photo: Kyodo News, via Associated Press

As we’ve seen with other world events, social media mobilized quickly in response to the devastating 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan, the largest to ever hit the nation according to The Washington Post.

Google has launched a Person Finder app, available in Japanese and English, to help people locate loved ones. Trending Twitter hashtags this morning include #prayforjapan, #japan, #japanquake, and #tsunami. The Hawaii Red Cross is tracking the impact of the tsunami on its shores on its Twitter feed and another trending topic is “Text REDCROSS.” Texting 90999 to the Red Cross will generate a $10 donation. MSNBC has other philanthropic information.

Business Wire has also announced that they are offering complimentary press releases for news related to the earthquake.

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