information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise
5 Juin 2014
June 5, 2014
Suga: Fukushima interviews could be made public
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140605_27.html
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says the country's government will publicize interviews with Tokyo Electric Power Company and government officials about the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant if they give consent.
A government-appointed accident investigation committee interviewed 772 people after the 2011 accident for a report. They include the plant's former head Masao Yoshida, who died last year.
Suga said on Thursday that the government sees no problem with publicizing the interviews, except for parts that concern national security or the rights and interests of a third party.
He said the government would release them based on the freedom of information law.
The government has not publicized any of the interviews on grounds that they were conducted with the understanding that it would not do so.
Jun. 5, 2014 - Updated 07:36 UTC
A group of Tokyo Electric Power Co. shareholders looks set to file a lawsuit to force the government to release records of interviews it had with 772 people to determine the cause of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
The group first plans to ask the Cabinet Secretariat, which keeps the records, to disclose them. If it refuses, as is expected, the group will immediately file an administrative lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court.
It is also waging a separate legal action against TEPCO to determine the responsibility of company executives for the nuclear accident.
The government established the Investigation Committee on the Accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Stations in May 2011, two months after the triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The committee conducted the interviews on the condition that what the individuals said would not be publicly disclosed. The identities of those interviewed have not been revealed, although it is known that Masao Yoshida, who was the manager of the Fukushima plant at the time and died of esophageal cancer last year, was one.
The committee has said it would disclose the records of the interviews within necessary limits, but has yet to do so.
"If the government obtains agreements for disclosure (from those interviewed), it will disclose the records within necessary limits based on the stipulations of the information disclosure law," Yoshihide Suga, chief Cabinet secretary, said June 5.
Yuichi Kaido, a lawyer who is representing the group, said media reports based on what Yoshida told the investigation committee suggest that TEPCO's chain-of-command structure had collapsed after the March 2011 triple meltdown.
"Records of interviews not only with Yoshida, but also other people concerned, are indispensable to clarify the cause of the accident and (TEPCO's) responsibility," Kaido said. "The government should decide on rules for disclosure and, in principle, disclose the records.”
Kaido criticized the Abe administration and previous ones headed by Naoto Kan and Yoshihiko Noda for concealing the information that has a direct bearing on the cause of the nuclear disaster.
Under the information disclosure law, government agencies and ministries must decide within 30 days whether to reveal information once a request is made.
If the government organization decides not to disclose the information, the individual or group that made the request for disclosure can file a complaint with the organization. However, Kaido’s group plans to file an administrative lawsuit immediately if the Cabinet Secretariat decides not to disclose the records of the 772 interviews. The action is intended to clarify in a trial whether the government’s nondisclosure stance is appropriate.
The government said that when its investigation committee submitted the records of the interviews in response to a request from the Diet’s Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission, Yoshida petitioned that the records of his interviews not be disclosed.
Based on Yoshida’s request, the government is refusing to disclose his records.
The Asahi Shimbun was the first media organization to obtain a copy of the interviews with Yoshida. In the documents, Yoshida grants the government the right to disclose them.
A member of the government’s investigation committee tells Yoshida: “I will be taking records of what you say here. There is a possibility that the records will be made public (in the future). Are you OK with that?”
“I’m OK,” Yoshida said in response.
(This article was written by Hideaki Kimura and Kyoko Horiuchi.)
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