information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise
25 Avril 2015
April 25, 2015
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201504250021
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
A man held for landing a drone on the roof of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's office in Tokyo said he was protesting the administration's nuclear policy.
Yasuo Yamamoto, 40 and unemployed, turned himself in to the police and was promptly arrested, even though operating the device over Abe's office was not illegal.
Under the Aviation Law, a drone is not recognized as an aircraft. Therefore it is not illegal to operate one over the prime minister's office at an altitude of under 250 meters.
The Metropolitan Police Department arrested Yamamoto on April 25 on suspicion of interfering with the duties of staff members of the prime minister’s office in Chiyoda Ward because he left the drone on the roof. It was discovered April 22.
“I was operating the drone around 3:30 in the morning on April 9 to express my opposition to nuclear power generation,” police quoted Yamamoto as saying.
Yamamoto, a resident of Obama, Fukui Prefecture, said he placed sand from Fukushima Prefecture, site of the 2011 nuclear disaster, into a plastic container attached to the drone.
Police detected a small level of radiation resulting from radioactive cesium from the container. A seal indicating the presence of a radioactive substance had also been pasted on the container. Police also verified that about 100 grams of sand was in the container.
Yamamoto gave himself up at the Obama Police Station around 8 p.m. on April 24, carrying sand and the console used to control the radio-operated drone.
The culprit drone was a Phantom 2 model manufactured by Chinese drone maker DJI. The drone was equipped with a small digital camera, a device to transmit video footage and a framework to protect its propellers.
The body of the drone was originally white. However, it was apparently painted black. Light-emitting diode lights installed on four places of the drone were also painted black.
During questioning, Yamamoto told the police that he writes an Internet blog under the name of “Kantei Santa” (Santa at the prime minister’s office).
In a blog entry, Yamamoto wrote that he controlled the flight of a drone from a parking lot in Tokyo’s Akasaka district toward the front yard of the prime minister’s office around 3:30 a.m. on April 9, but later lost contact.
In another entry, he said he tried to fly the drone toward the prime minister’s office last December but gave it up.
Those descriptions match what he told police.
With regard to the sand in the container, Yamamoto wrote in a blog entry that he went to Fukushima Prefecture last October and again in March to gather “contaminated soil.” He wrote that he placed 100 grams of the sand in the container on April 7.
He started his blog in July 2014. In entries, Yamamoto indicated he planned to take a solitary stand against moves by the Abe administration to restart idled nuclear reactors. “I am a lone wolf,” one entry reads. “I will not hesitate to commit a terror act to stop restart (of nuclear reactors),” says another.
After he flew the drone on April 9, Yamamoto wrote in his blog: “I returned home and watched a news program (on TV). But there were no reports (on my drone).”
On April 18, he posted a photo showing him preparing a different drone. “I am steadily making preparations to fly the second arrow,” he wrote.
On April 22, after media reports of a drone being found on the roof of the prime minister’s office, the blog read, “The drone was left as it was for two weeks.”
The blog ended in the morning on April 24 with a posting that read, “I am sad because the security at the prime minister’s office is incompetent.”
Kyodo
Police formally arrested a man Saturday on charges of forcible obstruction of official business for flying a small drone found earlier this week on the roof of the prime minister’s office, investigators said.
Yasuo Yamamoto, 40, of Obama, Fukui Prefecture, presented himself to prefectural police Friday evening, saying that he flew the drone onto the rooftop of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s office to protest the government’s nuclear energy policy.
Yamamoto brought with him sand and what appeared to be a controller for a drone, sources said. The man was quoted as saying that he had put sand from Fukushima Prefecture, home to the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, into a plastic bottle carried by the craft.
Tokyo police confirmed Friday that the bottle contained sand, sources said. They were checking to confirm that it had come from within the prefecture.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, Yamamoto said he flew the drone toward the prime minister’s office at 3:30 a.m. on April 9 — nearly two weeks before it was found Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in a blog entry that appears to have been made by Yamamoto on April 12, he said he left his hometown of Obama on April 7 and arrived at Tokyo’s Akasaka district — near the prime minister’s office and the Diet building — in the wee hours of April 8 with the intention of flying his drone. But, the blog posting said, bad weather forced him to give up that night, and he returned to the area again the following day and flew the drone from a parking lot between buildings.
The aircraft, which had been decorated with a radiation sticker and was carrying a radioactive payload, was found on the roof of the prime minister’s office at about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. According to the police, the craft was equipped with a camera, what appeared to be two flares, and a brown container containing a liquid that later turned out to have a slight amount of cesium in it.
According to the police, an aerial photo over the roof of the prime minister’s office taken on April 15 showed a black object, which matches the color of the drone.
Fukui Prefecture, on the Sea of Japan coast, hosts more than a dozen nuclear reactors.
Last week, the Fukui District Court endorsed a citizens’ bid to halt Kansai Electric Power Co.’s push to restart two reactors at the Takahama nuclear power plant on safety grounds. The government, however, said it has no plan to push for restarting reactors, while the power company has appealed the court-issued injunction.
The drone was also equipped with a global positioning system that provides information about its flight path, sources said. A small digital camera on the drone, believed to be a Phantom2 sold by China-based DJI, was connected to a transmitter able to send recorded footage to a remote monitor. The Phantom drone made by DJI is only sold in white but the one found on the rooftop had been painted black.
On Friday, the government began considering legislation to regulate drone flights above key facilities. Plans under consideration include obliging buyers to register their name and address, as officials of relevant ministries held their first meeting on the issue at the prime minister’s office.
“We need to immediately establish” legislation on drone usage, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at the meeting of officials from police and ministries overseeing such areas as transport, internal affairs and industry.
The government is also expected to consider introducing a licensing system, rules on the maintenance of drones and an obligation to buy insurance in case of an accident, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
Suga described the incident as “a grave issue in terms of crisis management” and said drones “could have a substantial impact on public safety and privacy protection, depending on how they are used.”
Toshihiro Nikai, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s General Council, said Friday that lawmakers need to submit a bill to prohibit drones from being flown above important facilities.
Suga, the top government spokesman, said the previous day that the government will consider legislation to regulate drone flights, during the current Diet session scheduled to wrap up in late June.
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