Abe sticks to his guns

October 23, 2013

Abe again insists that radioactive water at Fukushima plant is 'completely blocked'

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20131023p2a00m0na008000c.html

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has again repeated his insistence that radioactive water leaks at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant are being kept within the bay there.

"We are monitoring radiation levels, and they are far below the safety limits for radioactive materials. The effects of the contaminated water are being completely blocked," Abe said on Oct. 22 at the House of Representatives' Budget Committee, denying that radioactive materials are affecting the outside ocean. The remarks were made in response to a question by the Japanese Communist Party's Akira Kasai.

At the International Olympic Committee Session in September, Abe said that "the effects (of the radioactive water) are being completely blocked to inside of the bay" and "the situation is under control." However, in questioning during the Lower House plenary session on Oct. 16, he didn't use the word "completely" and qualified his "under control" statement with "overall," saying, "The effects are blocked to within the bay. Overall the situation is under control."

Kasai questioned Abe, "Why has your phrasing changed?" The prime minister responded, "Basically the phrases mean the same thing. From the stance of the impact on health as well, the effects are completely blocked. My thinking has not changed."

Meanwhile, on the subject of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks and the exemption of certain products from tariff elimination, minister in charge Akira Amari said, "By untouchable products, we mean things that Japan must have for its survival. We have not specified particular products." The statement suggests that tariffs on 586 products under five important categories such as rice might be eliminated.

In its policy platform for the July House of Councillors election, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wrote clearly that it would "prioritize exempting products like those in the five important types, and if we cannot secure their tariff status we will not hesitate to quit the negotiations." Koji Hata of the People's Life Party criticized the LDP for apparently backing off from this policy, calling it "betraying the people."

Kasai and Hata called for intensive Budget Committee deliberations on the radioactive water and TPP issues.