Japan Press Weekly

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2012 June 20 - 26 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Bill enacted to launch ministry-attached nuclear energy regulator

The House of Councilors on June 20 passed a bill to establish a nuclear energy regulatory body in the Environment Ministry with the majority force of the Democratic, Liberal Democratic, Komei, and People’s New parties.

At an Upper House environment committee meeting on June 19, Japanese Communist Party representative Ichida Tadayoshi pointed out that the bill would not guarantee the genuine independence of the regulatory body since it proposes its placement within the Environment Ministry which calls for the promotion of nuclear power generation in order to achieve the Kyoto Protocol target.

Stressing the need to ensure the independence of a new regulatory body from the “community of interest” benefitting from nuclear power generation, Ichida pointed out the deep-rooted and close relations between nuclear-related businesses and the current administrative regulators such as Madarame Haruki, chair of the Cabinet Office's Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC ), who was found to have received several million yen from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

In his response to Ichida, Environment Minister Hosono Goshi stated that it is difficult to completely separate regulators and business, saying, “Specialized human resources are necessary” to be outsourced to the administrative body.