A so-called “third party” investigation
committee on severe accident in First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant submitted
Tokyo Electric Power Company a report that revealed unusual order of
then-President, Masataka Shimizu, not to use the word of “meltdown” in its
explanation about situation of the nuclear reactors. Controversially enough,
the committee indicated that the order was instructed by Prime Minister’s
Official Residence, or Kantei, at that time. The leaders of Democratic Party, which
was running the administration at the time, got furious on the attribution.
According to the report, Shimizu ordered
his staff to send a memo reading “meltdown” to the Vice-President, Sakae Muto,
in a press conference on 8:40 p.m. of March 14th, 2011. The staff whispered
to Muto not to use that word, because it was an order from Kantei. Whether
meltdown occurred in the reactors was a focal point to understand what happened
in the Fukushima plant at that moment. TEPCO did not make that point clear for two
months.
The report did not reveal when, who and how
the order of Kantei was issued and received. The committee did not have
interview to anyone in Kantei, who were in charge of management for the nuclear
accident. Then Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, requires elaborating what kind of
person was meant by “Kantei.” The chairman of the committee, Yasuhisa Tanaka,
told that interviewing was difficult, because of lack of authority and enough
time.
As long as the committee consists of
lawyers appointed by TEPCO, its objectivity as a their party is limited.
Secretary General of Democratic Party, Yukio Edano, blamed the report as
twisting truth. “The report was defamation against our party and skeptical as
disturbing our election campaign,” told Edano in his press conference.
Democratic Party considers filing a lawsuit.
TEPCO was once successful to plant an image
of excessive intervention of Kantei, when Kan was criticized as emotionally
demanded venting air in the building of Fukushima nuclear plant, the behavior
which was broadly regarded as disturbing disaster management. TEPCO must have
tried to do the same thing, as long as Shinzo Abe administration would be
welcome those action to defame the opposite party.
There is a tendency that a scandal is
investigated by “third party,” which is not completely neutral. Governor of
Tokyo, Yoichi Masuzoe, launched “third party” investigation committee for his
money scandal. Pretending to be neutral by outsourcing discussion is a
long-time culture in Japanese bureaucracy that kept on building consultation
body for every important policy.
No comments:
Post a Comment