information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise
25 Août 2014
August 25, 2014
Staff Writer
Following months of leaks, criticism and controversy, the government said Monday it will release most of the transcribed testimony of the late Masao Yoshida, who dealt with the 2011 triple meltdown crisis as head of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
The interview records will be made available to media outlets next month, with some parts redacted to protect third parties mentioned in the interviews and information related to national security, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.
“The situation is changing and there will be no problems in disclosing these records,” Suga told a regularly scheduled news conference at the prime minister’s office.
Asked if the government had obtained the consent of Yoshida’s family, Suga declined to comment, saying only that the administration “has made the decision by itself.”
Yoshida, who died of esophageal cancer on July 9 of last year, asked the government not to publish the interview transcripts. He said he was concerned that what he discussed during the interviews, which were conducted from July to November 2011, might include factual errors. He was also worried that the public might take everything said in the interviews as confirmed fact.
Facts about the crisis at the Tokyo Electric Power Co. plant should be gleaned from interviews with other people and other materials, Yoshida argued in a written request submitted to the government in May 2012.
Officials had refused to publish the transcripts despite requests from media outlets, including The Japan Times.
But Suga said Monday that Yoshida’s concerns “have already become a reality” with the publication by the Asahi Shimbun and Sankei Shimbun of what they say are the transcripts. At this point Yoshida’s original intention would be better served through disclosure, Suga said.
The Asahi claimed in May it had obtained the roughly 400 pages of testimony covering 28 hours of interviews. The paper reported that most plant workers temporarily fled to the nearby Fukushima No. 2 power plant despite Yoshida’s order to remain at the No. 1 plant amid the meltdown crisis in March 2011.
The Asahi’s report, which was published in Japanese and English, caught the attention of media outlets overseas because it went against the image of the plant workers, whom they had praised as the brave “Fukushima 50.”
But the Sankei, which said it had later obtained the same transcript of the interviews, caused a stir earlier this month by claiming that the Asahi’s report was wrong. Yoshida discussed the apparent confusion in the way his order was conveyed to workers at the crippled plant, but he didn’t believe they had acted against his instructions, according to the Sankei.
According to the Asahi, Yoshida said he did not order workers to evacuate to the No. 2 plant, but many went there anyway.
“Actually, I never told them to go to 2F,” Yoshida was quoted as saying by the Asahi, referring to the still-functioning Fukushima No. 2.
But according to the Asahi, Yoshida later concluded that the decision of those workers was right, which may have been why the Sankei claimed that Yoshida didn’t believe the workers acted against his orders. “I came to believe that going to 2F was by far the right thing to do if only you gave more thought to it,” Yoshida said, according to the Asahi.
Meanwhile, the Sankei also reported that Yoshida harshly criticized then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who claimed that top Tepco executives were considering withdrawing all of the plant workers, which would have left it deserted at a critical stage in the meltdown crisis.
August 25, 2014
Aug. 25, 2014 - Updated 08:49 UTC+2
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140825_25.html
Japan's government is soon to release interviews with the former chief of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Masao Yoshida, who dealt with the 2011 accident.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Monday the interviews given to a government panel will be made public at an early date in September.
The government intended to keep the testimony out of the public eye because Yoshida did not want them released, citing concerns about misinterpretation. Yoshida died of an illness in July last year.
Suga said some newspapers have published excerpts of the interviews, and the late plant chief's concerns have become a reality. He said withholding the interviews would run counter to Yoshida's wish.
He added the situation has changed and releasing them will not cause problems.
The government spokesperson also said information that concerns privacy and national security in the interviews will not be disclosed.
Suga said government officials are contacting more than 700 people interviewed by the panel to gain consent for making their interviews public.
He said Yoshida's interviews will be made open with some of those interviews. Suga said the government will disclose the rest of the interviews as soon as it gets approvals and finishes the work by the end of the year.
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140825p2g00m0dm051000c.html
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The government said Monday it will release in September testimony regarding the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in March 2011 given by then plant chief Masao Yoshida.
"Former plant chief Yoshida did not want his testimony to be made public as he had mentioned concerns about misinterpretation, but the situation has changed," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a daily press briefing.
In addition to the Yoshida testimony, the content of interviews with others who had key roles in handling the disaster "will be released at the earliest possible date in September, starting with whichever is ready first," Suga said.
The top government spokesman added that information related to privacy and national security will not be disclosed.
The testimony of Yoshida, who died of esophageal cancer in July 2013 at age 58, was compiled by a government panel formed to examine the disaster at the plant northeast of Tokyo.
The panel interviewed Yoshida for more than 20 hours from July to November 2011.
The government had declined to make public Yoshida's testimony, citing a statement Yoshida signed saying he did not want it made available to any third party.
But interest in Yoshida's first-hand account of what transpired in the days immediately after March 11, 2011, when a massive earthquake and tsunami knocked out power to much of the six-reactor power plant, leading to a series of explosions and the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, has been piqued by reports that most staff fled.
The Asahi Shimbun daily reported this past May that 90 percent of workers left despite being ordered by Yoshida to stay, citing his testimony to the government panel.
Another daily, the Sankei Shimbun, also reported the content of the Yoshida testimony earlier this month, while victims of the nuclear accident have filed a lawsuit seeking to make the documents public.
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201408250031
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
The government will release the testimony on the March 2011 nuclear accident by Masao Yoshida, the late manager of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, in September, the government's top spokesperson said Aug. 25.
“We will make public (the testimony) at the earliest possible date in September,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. He added that the first release of the testimonies of other interviewees would occur at the same time.
Dubbed the “Yoshida Testimony,” the government panel’s investigative record of Yoshida, who was plant chief at the time of the disaster, gained worldwide attention after The Asahi Shimbun obtained the document and published an article on the content in its May 20 morning edition.
The government has refused releasing the content, saying that Yoshida had written a request asking the state not to disclose his testimony.
But after the Sankei Shimbun began reporting on the document in its Aug. 18 edition, the government changed its stance, saying there is no need to withhold the Yoshida interview now that more than one media company has reported it.
August 23, 2014
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140823p2g00m0dm001000c.html
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The government plans to make public testimony regarding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster given by plant chief Masao Yoshida, government and other sources said Friday, possibly shedding light on whether Yoshida ordered staff to remain at their posts.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga will announce as soon as Monday the decision to release the testimony by mid-September or later, the sources said.
The testimony of Yoshida, who died in July 2013, was compiled by a government panel formed to examine the March 2011 disaster at the nuclear plant northeast of Tokyo.
The panel interviewed Yoshida for more than 20 hours from July to November 2011.
The government has thus far declined to make public Yoshida's testimony, citing a statement Yoshida signed saying he did not want it made available to any third party.
But interest in Yoshida's first-hand account of what transpired in the days immediately after March 11, 2011, when a massive earthquake and tsunami knocked out power to much of the six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi power plant, leading to a series of explosions and the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, has been piqued by reports that most staff fled.
The Asahi Shimbun daily reported this past May that 90 percent of workers left despite being ordered by Yoshida to stay, citing his testimony to the government panel.
Another Japanese daily, the Sankei Shimbun, also reported the content of the Yoshida testimony earlier this month, while victims of the nuclear accident have filed a lawsuit seeking to make the documents public.
August 23, 2014
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201408230029
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
In an about-turn, the government is weighing full disclosure of testimony about the 2011 nuclear accident given by the late manager of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The government initially insisted that it would not make public the investigative record of Masao Yoshida, who was plant chief at the time of the disaster, citing “Yoshida’s written request submitted asks the state not to disclose them.”
However, the government has been forced to re-evaluate its position, as some news outlets have reported on parts of the records written by the government investigation panel.
“The contents (of the testimonies) are in effect circulating in the world,” a senior official at the prime minister's office said Aug. 22 in response to the reports by the media. “(That has created) the atmosphere that we, as Japan’s government, have no choice but to disclose them.”
The Asahi Shimbun reported on contents of the testimonies that the newspaper obtained through its sources in the morning edition of May 20 and on its website. Although the government at that time refused to disclose them, it was compelled to alter its stance after The Sankei Shimbun began covering the testimonies in its Aug. 18 morning edition.
The government said it will consult with Yoshida’s bereaved family with regard to the disclosure of more than 400 pages of testimony, which contain 28 hour-long interviews in Q&A format.
Kyodo
The government plans to disclose testimony by Fukushima No. 1 chief Masao Yoshida that could shed light on whether he ordered staff at the stricken power plant to stay at their posts during the triple meltdown crisis, sources revealed Friday.
The decision could be made by mid-September, governmental and other sources said, noting Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga might comment on the leaking testimony on Monday.
Yossida, who died of cancer in July last year, gave testimony to a government panel that was formed to probe the March 2011 disaster. It interviewed Yoshida for more than 20 hours between July and November 2011.
The government has thus far declined to release Yoshida’s testimony because he signed a statement saying he did not want it made available to any third party.
But public interest in Yoshida’s first-hand account of what transpired in the days immediately after the March 2011 megaquake and tsunami triggered the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl has soared since the testimony was reportedly leaked to the daily Asahi Shimbun.
The disasters knocked out nearly all power to the six-reactor plant, leading to a series of massive explosions that tainted much of east Japan with radiation.
In the midst of the meltdowns, 90 percent of the plant workers fled despite being ordered by Yoshida to stay, the Asahi Shimbun reported in May, citing a copy of his testimony to the panel.
Another daily, the Sankei Shimbun, began reporting on Yoshida’s testimony earlier this month.
Those victimized by the nuclear disaster are suing for full disclosure of the Yoshida documents.
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