TEPCO Kept Alive for Fukushima: Responsibility for Promoting Invisible National Policy
Fifteen years after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is preparing to restart commercial operations at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Niigata Prefecture. This Mainichi Shimbun analysis critiques the Japanese government's role in sustaining TEPCO, describing it as an 'invisible national policy' that shields the utility from full accountability. The article highlights the human cost of the disaster, citing the tragic suicide of Fumio Okubo, a 102-year-old resident forced to evacuate from Iitate Village. Although courts established a causal link between his death and the accident, holding TEPCO liable, the broader question of governmental responsibility remains unresolved. The piece argues that while public scrutiny focuses on TEPCO's corporate failures, the state's complicity in maintaining the 'safety myth' and supporting the company's survival through financial and regulatory mechanisms has been overlooked. As TEPCO moves toward restarting reactors, the article questions whether this constitutes a genuine exit strategy or merely perpetuates a system where national energy interests override transparent accountability for past nuclear failures.
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TEPCO Kept Alive for Fukushima: Responsibility for Promoting Invisible National Policy
Fifteen years after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is preparing to restart commercial operations at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Niigata Prefecture. This Mainichi Shimbun analysis critiques the Japanese government's role in sustaining TEPCO, describing it as an 'invisible national policy' that shields the utility from full accountability. The article highlights the human cost of the disaster, citing the tragic suicide of Fumio Okubo, a 102-year-old resident forced to evacuate from Iitate Village. Although courts established a causal link between his death and the accident, holding TEPCO liable, the broader question of governmental responsibility remains unresolved. The piece argues that while public scrutiny focuses on TEPCO's corporate failures, the state's complicity in maintaining the 'safety myth' and supporting the company's survival through financial and regulatory mechanisms has been overlooked. As TEPCO moves toward restarting reactors, the article questions whether this constitutes a genuine exit strategy or merely perpetuates a system where national energy interests override transparent accountability for past nuclear failures.
mainichi