August 20, 2020

Japanese Communist Party Diet Policy Commission Chair Kokuta Keiji on August 19 at a press conference in the Diet building said that the Japanese government should exert every possible effort to deal with a huge oil spill off the coast of Mauritius caused by a Japanese-owned ship.

Kokuta stated that the government on August 10 sent six government staff to Mauritius, four days after the local government declared a state of emergency, and criticized the Japanese government’s initial response as too slow and insufficient. He said that given that the accident will have a grave impact on the ecosystem of the island nation, the Japanese government has a responsibility to do everything possible to restore the damaged natural environment.