October 12, 2012
A man who used to keep an eye on the general public as a top police official now heads the nuclear regulation agency. The agency, the administrative organ of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, was recently found to have invited a secret police agent to its weekly meetings to monitor reporters and the public.
Nuclear regulation agency chair Ikeda Katsuhiko is the former chief of the metropolitan police department. He had successively held important posts in security at the department and the national police agency.
An experienced journalist said, “Ikeda had been called an ‘ace’ of security since his youth. He regards it as a matter of course to watch people rather than to release nuclear power-related information to the public.”
The agency conceals the names of government offices which its staff members are from. However, vice-chief of the agency Morimoto Hideka said at a news conference, “Some of our personnel are from the fire defense agency, national police agency, and the defense ministry.”
Miyake Katsuhisa, a freelance journalist, said, “The nuclear regulation agency should be called a ‘press restraints agency’ or ‘agency regulating anti-nuclear movement’. What the organization should do is to meet the public request to root out corruption in the atomic energy administration and make it transparent.”
Nuclear regulation agency chair Ikeda Katsuhiko is the former chief of the metropolitan police department. He had successively held important posts in security at the department and the national police agency.
An experienced journalist said, “Ikeda had been called an ‘ace’ of security since his youth. He regards it as a matter of course to watch people rather than to release nuclear power-related information to the public.”
The agency conceals the names of government offices which its staff members are from. However, vice-chief of the agency Morimoto Hideka said at a news conference, “Some of our personnel are from the fire defense agency, national police agency, and the defense ministry.”
Miyake Katsuhisa, a freelance journalist, said, “The nuclear regulation agency should be called a ‘press restraints agency’ or ‘agency regulating anti-nuclear movement’. What the organization should do is to meet the public request to root out corruption in the atomic energy administration and make it transparent.”
