Japan Press Weekly

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2012 January 25 - 31 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Genkai mayor wines and dines Energy Agency officials

The mayor of Genkai Town, hosting the Genkai nuclear power plant, used public funds to wine and dine energy-related officials of national and prefectural governments at least 30 times in the last 5 years.

This was discovered in the town’s budgetary expenditures records that Akahata obtained.

According to the records, for 5 years since he assumed the post in 2006, Genkai Town Mayor Kishimoto Hideo had dinner with Saga prefectural government officials 18 times, the state’s Energy Agency officials 11 times, and Atomic Energy Commission Chair Kondo Shunsuke once, using 1.06 million yen in tax money.

The mayor invited Energy Agency officials to dinner 4 times after the Fukushima nuclear accident. Three out of the 4 occasions took place in April and May last year, when a move emerged to restart the operations of two off-line reactors at the Genkai NPP.

Genkai Town receives national government subsidies for hosting the nuclear power station. Many public works projects using the subsidies have been awarded to Kishimoto Co., a local leading construction company headed by the mayor’s younger brother. The mayor himself is one of the largest shareholders of the company.

The mayor’s actions should be subject to the National Public Service Act, which prohibits national government employees from receiving money or gifts from stakeholders.