Japan Press Weekly

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2013 November 20 - 26 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Gov’t labels satellite images of crippled plant as ‘secrets’

TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, has not received the crippled plant’s images the government’s satellite took right after the 2011 massive disaster due to the supposed “maintenance of national secrets”.

This was confirmed by Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu in response to Japanese Communist Party Lower House member Akamine Seiken at a House special committee meeting on national security on November 20.

The images cannot be disclosed because of the absence of measures to protect secrets, said Kato.

The national government has explained to the public that the introduction of the information-gathering satellite system is to “respond to major disasters.” Akamine criticized the government for failing to utilize the satellite images at a time when a wide range of information was essential for preventing an escalation of the nuclear accident as well as for evacuating disaster victims.

Images taken by the Cabinet Secretariat’s intelligence-gathering satellite are currently designated as “specially controlled secrets,” most of which are expected to be labeled as “special secrets” if a secrets protection bill is enacted.

This contradicts remarks made by Mori Masako, cabinet minister in charge of the secrets protection bill, who said at a House of Representatives plenary session on November 7 that information regarding nuclear plant accidents “will not be designated as ‘special secrets’.”