As announced on the front page of the website, I am on a speaking trip to Japan and am now in Sendai, the only major city in the earthquake/tsunami area. I spoke yesterday at Tohoku University in Sendai. “Tohokudai” is the third oldest state university in Japan and the home of the Research Institute of Electrical Communication (RIEC) - a major radio technology research center. I spoke on the National Broadband Plan and its 2 major spectrum controversies: TV band auctions and the LightSquared/GPS controversy.

Downtown Sendai is far enough from the coast that there was no tsunami damage and earthquake damage is not very visible. However, an unusually high fraction of the buildings have scaffolding on them to repair loose bricks and tiles on the exteriors. On the train from Tokyo there was little damage clearly visible, but the bullet train track is also away from the coastal areas. Because of trackbed damage the bullet train in this area is now slower than usual, adding about 20 minutes to the approximately 2 hour trip.

I brought with me an offer from Virginia Tech to host students and faculty whose wireless research is on hold due to campus damage at Tohokudai. It is not clear if there is a good match here for specific research, but I am proud to start a dialogue on US help for the prominent university in Japan.