Fabricated Data on Radioactive Materials

Access to public information is guaranteed by the Constitution in Japan. It is commonly named “right to knowing.” For bureaucrats, the right is all about information only convenient to the government.

Mainichi Shimbun scooped on Tuesday that Cabinet Office had been concealing true data of monitoring radioactive materials in Fukushima prefecture. Because quantity of monitored radioactive materials was unexpectedly high, the Office backed off the data last October. In the time when the government was promoting go-home policy for sufferers, bureaucrats thought the impact would be too big to let them go home. By manipulating data, they are manipulating democracy.

The monitoring was exercised by a team for supporting nuclear sufferers of the Office in the area preparing for returning home last September. When the data was collected, the researchers found the data was as high as 2.6 to 6.6 millisievert (mSv) for a year, while governmental safety threshold had been 1 mSv. Although the team was planning to disclose the data last fall, it refrained from doing that in consideration of impact on the public and necessity of explaining to local governments, and trying to say the place was safe. The reason of concealing, however, was as same as hiding data about possible direction of dissemination of radioactive materials collected by SPEEDI monitor right after the disaster in First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant three years ago.

The team invited more skepticisms by changing rule of the game. Yearly exposition to radioactive materials was calculated with hypothesis that every person would be outside of houses and buildings for eight hours a day. The result of research was also based on that calculation. Nevertheless, the team changed the norm from eight hours to six, and is planning to submit that manipulated result to local governments.

The episode represents some erroneous aspect of bureaucracy. Firstly, bureaucrats work in closed community, in which they can manipulate all the facts. Secondly, they easily ignore a crucial truth, when it opposed their expectation, policy standard and knowledge. Lastly, they fool ordinary people, looking down from the status guaranteed by the government, with notion that all people instantly get crazy, while the elites do not realize their own craziness.

A crucial problem is such bureaucracy is weakening governance of the nation. As long as bureaucrats keep on fooling the people, the people would never believe in bureaucrats. Necessary policies are not go through in that environment. Sufferers trying to go home would not believe in the words from the government which allow them returning back home, even if it is true. Bureaucratic leadership does not work anymore after the great disaster.