Japan Press Weekly

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2014 June 18 - 24 [POLITICS]

Ichida raps environment minister for insulting Fukushima victims by making gaffe

Environment Minister Ishihara Nobuteru on June 16 said that local residents would agree “to taking money in the end” to the construction of interim storage facilities for contaminated soil taken from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident.

More than 130,000 victims are still unable to go home. The Fukushima governor, Fukushima prefectural assemblypersons, and inhabitants of the candidate site of Futaba and Okuma towns are furious about Ishihara’s statement.

Japanese Communist Party Dietmember Ichida Tadayoshi at an Upper House Environment Committee meeting on the following day criticized the minister for his lack of concern for sufferers’ feelings. Ichida said, “His inappropriate comment is representing the irresponsibility of the government.”

Governor Sato Yuhei said to the press on June 17, “I wonder if the minister knows about our suffering. I think he is totally insensitive to the love of our home communities.”

The Prefectural Assembly sent a letter of protest, endorsed by all political parties in the assembly, to Minister Ishihara. Under the name of the assembly speaker, the letter points out that the state is yet to provide satisfactory answers to local questions regarding the building of storage facilities, and that many local residents are seriously concerned about the future of their hometown. The letter demands that the minister immediately retract the remark trampling on local dignity.

Driven out of Futaba Town to a different city in the wake of the nuclear meltdown, Amano Masaatsu was the head of a sufferers’ association at an evacuation center with more than 100 townspeople. He now lives in temporary housing in another city.

The 76-year-old man said, “Facilities to store radioactive waste in Futaba and Okuma are one option, I think. But, at the same time, it means we may lose our homes. This has nothing to do with money.”

Itoh Kichio, 72, is also from Futaba Town. He now lives in a municipal-rented house in a different location. Itoh said, “When can we return home? The state hasn’t even shown us that prospect.”

Futaba townspeople have been forced to live apart from each other in temporary housing or rented housing units. He said, “We are struggling to get by every day, unable to see what will become of us. So, we have no time for that nonsense.”