Japan Press Weekly

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2014 May 14 - 20 [POLITICS]

Gov’t should ban US military aircraft from flying over nuclear fuel facilities: JCP Kasai

Japanese Communist Party Lower House member Kasai Akira on May 14 urged the government to stop U.S. military aircraft from flying over nuclear fuel fabrication facilities in Japan.

Kasai at a House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting relayed information from residents of Kanagawa’s Yokosuka City about U.S. military airplanes flying at low altitudes over a nuclear fuel facility in the city.

Parliamentary Vice Defense Minister Wakamiya Kenji promised to look into the information provided.

When Kasai asked about countermeasures in the case of a U.S. military air crash into the facility, an official of the Nuclear Regulation Authority Secretariat replied, “The facility operator explained that as odds of suffering from an airplane accident are one in 10,000,000, there is no need to prepare for that event.”

Citing the past plane crash near the facility, the JCP representative criticized the government attitude of denying risk and creating another “safety myth”.

Stressing that five prefectures, including Kanagawa, are hosting nuclear fuel production facilities, Kasai demanded that the Japanese government examine the actual state of U.S. military airplanes’ flights over these facilities and stop the flights.

Foreign Minister Kishida Fumio said the ministry will request the U.S. forces to take into account public concerns over safety.