Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2011 March 30 - April 5 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Official understanding of tsunami was wrong: PM Kan

“I must say that the government understanding of the dangers associated with a major tsunami was greatly mistaken,” Prime Minister Kan Naoto said in response to Japanese Communist Party representative Daimon Mikishi at a House of Councilors Budget Committee meeting on March 29.

Daimon pointed out that the JCP Fukushima Prefectural Committee and JCP parliamentarian Yoshii Hidekatsu had been warning the possibility of tsunami-caused nuclear accidents and that the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and its Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) had ignored the warning.

Daimon stated, “Negligence in implementing security precautions in addition to the promotion of the ‘safety myth’ of nuclear energy has resulted in the on-going nuclear crisis. This wasn’t an unexpected event but a man-made disaster that could have been prevented.”

METI Minister Kaieda Banri admitted that the Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plant was constructed to withstand a 3.1 meter-tsunami, but the 14-meter was the actual height of the March 11 tsunami.

PM Kan said, “It will be a problem if the present standards for tsunami preparedness are set in accordance with a low tsunami height. I will examine the validity of the present standards.”