Japan Press Weekly

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2023 March 15 - 21 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP Iwabuchi opposes ocean release of tritium-tainted Fukushima water

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Iwabuchi Tomo at an Upper House Budget Committee meeting on March 15 expressed her opposition to the planned release of tritium-tainted water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean.

She said that the plan is opposed by Fukushima fishermen and local residents, demanding that the plan which the central government and plant operator TEPCO will put into practice be withdrawn.

The total catch in Fukushima's coastal fishing last year was 5,525 tons valued at about 3.5 billion yen. This amounts to 21% of the catch and 38% of the value in 2010 before the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns. Iwabuchi said that local fisheries are still far from recovered.

She criticized the plan to discharge the radiation-tainted water into the ocean for undermining local fishermen's efforts to increase their fish hauls to at least 50% of the pre-disaster level.

She cited several opinion polls showing that more than 90% of respondents in Japan worry that "harmful rumors may occur again" with the ocean release of radioactive Fukushima water. She again demanded, "The plan should be retracted or at least put on hold."

Past related article:
> Fisheries cooperative association head opposes ocean release of radiation-tainted Fukushima water [April 8, 2021]