Japan Press Weekly

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2011 July 13 - 19 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

N-plant operators’ officials donated 28 million yen to LDP

In 2009, 206 executives of nine nuclear power plant operators, including Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), donated a total of 28 million yen to the Liberal Democratic Party. This was discovered by Akahata.

According to a political funds report published by the People’s Political Association, the LDP’s fund management body, TEPCO’s 47 executives in 2009 gave 5.69 million yen in total to the LDP. They included Chairman Katsumata Tsunehisa (300,000 yen), then President Shimizu Masataka (300,000), and six executive vice presidents (240,000 yen each).

The former ruling party also received a total of 4.5 million yen from 16 executives of Chugoku Electric Power Co. as well as 4.06 million yen from 25 senior officials of the Chubu Electric Power Co. in the same year.

After the Fukushina nuclear accident, the LDP launched an inner-party committee on energy policy, led by former Economy, Trade, and Industry Minister Amari Akira. In its first meeting on April 12, Kano Tokio, an advisor of TEPCO who served as an Upper House member of the LDP as well as the utility’s vice president, was sitting next to the top officials of the committee.

Its vice chair Nishimura Yasutoshi, during an NHK’s debate program on July 10, said that Japan cannot sustain its economy without nuclear power plants.