Minister sorry for delay in releasing survey results on radiation exposure

[yuiyoshida]

Local residents collect soil samples for inspection in a park in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, while measuring airborne radiation. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Industry minister Toshimitsu Motegi apologized April 18 for a six-month delay in releasing the results of a survey in Fukushima Prefecture about the amount of radiation each resident will likely be exposed to per year.

“I am sorry for any anxiety I might have caused,” Motegi said at a news conference held after a Cabinet meeting.

In a separate news conference, Atsuo Tamura, counselor of the Cabinet Office, which commissioned two organizations to conduct the survey, explained that bureaucrats shared the results of the survey but decided to refrain from releasing them publicly without consulting Motegi or other politicians in high-ranking positions.

In July 2013, the Cabinet Office’s team in charge of assisting the lives of nuclear disaster victims asked the National Institute of Radiological Sciences and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency to look at the situation in the municipalities of Kawauchi, Iitate and Tamura, which included zones being prepared for the lifting of evacuation orders.

more..http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201404190048

[McCamy Taylor]

1. In the past in Japan, victims of industrial pollution have been pressured to

keep their mouths shut for the good of the economy. Those who complained have been stigmatized. It seems to be that Japan thinks it will be able to get away with the same thing this time---however, our new global culture has probably made the Japanese people more like Americans than Japan wants them to be. I.e. I do not expect the people of Fukushima to just bow their heads and do as they are told. I expect them to act more like Americans. Popcorn, indeed.