Japan Press Weekly

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2022 March 16 - 22 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP urges gov’t to recall leaflet informing pupils/students that ALPS-treated Fukushima water is 'safe'

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Iwabuchi Tomo on March 15 at a Diet committee meeting urged the government to recall copies of a leaflet claiming that Multi-nuclide removal equipment (ALPS)-treated water at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is “safe” which were distributed to students at elementary, junior high, and high schools across Japan.

The distribution of the leaflet in question was conducted by the Reconstruction Agency and the Natural Resources and Energy Agency without prior consultation with local education boards. The two government agencies directly sent copies of the leaflet to schools at all three levels in the form of an appendix to a supplementary reader on radiation.

The JCP lawmaker at the meeting of the House of Councilors Special Committee on Reconstruction after the Great East Japan Earthquake asked how many copies of the supplementary text were distributed to schools. An Education Ministry official in response said that about 790,000 copies were provided to elementary schools and about 1.57 million copies to junior high and high schools.

Iwabuchi criticized the distribution of the leaflet for ignoring concerns among local residents, including fishermen, over the government plan to release radioactively-polluted Fukushima water into the ocean. She also condemned the government agencies’ act for misleading pupils and students into thinking that there is no problem with the ocean release of Fukushima water. She demanded that the government recall the leaflet and withdraw the ocean release plan.

Past related articles:
> JCP Koike protests against Suga gov’t decision on ocean release of Fukushima water [April 13, 2021]
> Fukushima fishermen oppose release of tritium-tainted water into ocean [August 31, 2018]