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© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013.Abe pledges comprehensive, prompt steps for Fukushima
By Sumio Ito and Mari Saito TOKYO©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
33 Comments
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Disillusioned
Ok, so here we are two and a half years after the event and the government has decided to step in. However, they have to have meetings, draw a plan and source the funding first. How long will that take? Another year? If they were serious they would have taken over from the very outset of this debacle. Get your poop together Abe and Co. or it's gonna be too little too late, if it is not already.
NZ2011
blah blah blah... stop talking about it... just do it!
Unholyimage
I'll believe it when I see it. Japan's government needed to be involved 2 years ago. Now, it's the world's business and every capable government needs to giving input for the future of the Pacific and surrounding areas.
minello7
He's like an old record thats got stuck, he said this last week and the week before and! !!!
Rick Kisa
This is what Abe was supposed to do immediately he stepped into power instead of globe-trotting selling his failed nuke technologies. He puts profits before people's security; he is a poor leader...
smithinjapan
For the love of god, stop pledging, start DOING!
BertieWooster
Before too long, a lot of people are going to be regretting they voted LDP in the last election. If they are not already.
CrazyJoe
Rather than afford to stand still forever, do it now!
smithinjapan
What HASN'T Abe pledged so far? Or better yet, what pledges has he actually met?
NZ2011
lets hope that this latest little promise is actually followed by some action regardless of the result of that not so little announcement for a not so little event in 5 days............ transparent much....
badmigraine
Turns out the "kills you in 4 hours" thing was hysterical misinformation. It would be true for alpha exposure, but apparently this one was beta radiation so no such risk. Still totally unacceptable and horrible though. An unending series of lies, deceptions, bungling and clumsily executed fakery. And these are the guys in charge of nukes. Our local konbini is run much better than this.
StormR
Ahem this should be edited to read - "the legacy of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in HISTORY",
Baibaikin
I hope that the government calls in some outside help rather than simply throwing more money at TEPCO, which has proven itself to be completely incompetent. It is, however, laughable to hear this from the government over two years since 3.11, but I'm getting used to laughing at the indiosyncracies of the political culture here.
TheInterstat
This is perpetually ridiculous. Nothing will happen, and these 'pledges' will keep on coming.
Piotr Gierszewski
The PM served people a nice populist cake, but is there really a way to deal with the leaks? I did a little research on the web and couldn't find any satisfying answer. Is it possible that nobody thought of such scenario to happen? That would be terrible.
edojin
So far from the comments made above we see "zero confidence" in Abe and his stumbling government.
Guess if Abe wants to show that he has some support he should get his pals in the pro-LDP Yomiuri Shimbun to carry out an opinion poll in which the survey will show that the nation is solidly behind him and his plans.
And as stated above and in previous comments from earlier stories on this subject, what the heck has Abe and his cohorts been doing since they took over the government at the beginning of this year? I thought they would be tackling the Fukushima nuclear disaster with all power available. And here, as the above article says, "Abe reiterated that the government will step forward to take all necessary steps to handle the legacy of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in a quarter century, adding it will draw up a fundamental plan to do so 'quickly'.” You mean to say nothing has been done yet? According to this article, Abe has wasted almost nine months on this vital issue while at the head of the government.
Sigh ...
smithinjapan
Isn't this Abe's second pledge in a month? So what has he done since the last pledge to do what he pledged this time as well?
Jack Stern
The Abe government is typical of whoever runs tihis country. All talk as usual. Where is the international help? The contamination may keep running out and spread beyond just the Fukushima area by ocean currents. Cheap tanks and cheap talk.
windandsea
The irony of all this is that in some sort of an orchestrated theatrical production, TEPCO will slip from the news, it will continue to get bail out money, the government will take the scorn, little meaningful progress will be made, and everyone will have escaped responsibility.
The government having little better idea of what to do, will go through a number of complex pantomimes, buying more time for political machinations such as their Olympic bid, efforts to sell Japanese nuclear power plants abroad, and a bit more time for the large corps to reap profits while the weaker yen lasts. Eventually, higher costs will catch up, Abenomics will run out of steam, the national debt will rise so high that Jpns government bonds will lose their appeal, and the economy will plummet.
When the economy plummets, Japan will somehow find it is having irreconcilable differences with some neighbor, changes will be made to the the constitution, some portion of all that enriched plutonium Inaba has been referring to will be put into some device that has been sitting around waiting, and Japan will thus enter the nuclear club and become a 'big boy.'
Everyone will live happily ever after.
Japanese politicians are bred to keep the status quo, not to change things, not to reform. Such being the case they are hardly equipped to deal with as complex, unforgiving problem as an unbridled, multi-faceted nuclear powerplant failure. More pressure must be exerted on the Japanese government to accept international help with this problem.
If not, even newer frontiers will be trod upon: World Court for widespread contamination of the environment the restitutions collapsing the country; an as yet unspoken possibility that some other entity must step in and forcibly wrest the problem from Japanese control, essentially taking control of the county, the second time for a Japan that has miscalculated on the grandest of scales.
Abe, stop talking and get it in gear before someone else takes the wheel.
Magnet
Heard this news around 2 years ago. It seems that the government has no idea what "quick and decisive" means.
smithinjapan
Magnet: ""quick and decisive" in Japan means "pat me on the back for saying something I'll probably never do". Or so it seems with politicians. It's been more than 2.5 years since the disaster and yet the government has literally done nothing. Fisheries are demanding the liquidation of TEPCO but, nope, we'll just "vow to do something" instead. There will be another pledge just before the Olympic decision, but still nothing will have actually been done.
YongYang
How long have you been in office, Abe? This is the first thing that needed tackling, not your vanity projects, you're going down in history as an amoeba, you have done nothin; you haven't even, as most of Japan unfortunately, faced up to the facts. Denial after denial after denial with a good deep mix of lies. You've focused more on getting the nuclear lobby greased off and up and running again than dealing with the world's WORST nuclear catastropheS. And it isn't even near to being as bad as it could get. You need to ask for help from the international community YESTERDAY.
GET A GRIP and SORT IT OUT.
I am annoyed and endorse this message.
hereforever
As I stated in a post a couple months ago, Why is he still using future tense? How many times will he post these same statements?
Ian Duncan
Prompt! Two and a half years late?
There is no higher priority than this. I'm appalled by the ritualistic incantations those charged with fixing this keep trotting out in place of action.
"We must make sincere efforts", "we must implement all policies", blah blah blah.
Arrest those responsible for the shambles, call in international help and do something to fix this catastrophe.
Plutonium Disparatum isn't going to work.
nyunt_shwe
Before taking any steps, just seal securely and close the facility for good. You've deliberately poisoned the sea creatures and the people who eat themeveryday now. What a shame!!
Francis Urquhart
Happy new tax hike! "Well, you wanted something doing about it. Don't complain when we need more money to do it and make you pay more".
kuuku
i think this should have already been a priority for the PM and his executives to tackle (rather than TEPCO alone), looks to me like it is just becoming a priority now (while leaving it exclusively to TEPCO in the past, though news of radioactive leakages were already repeated in the news) - wondering how many more months or years will this new pledge will take.
JohnBecker
The only thing that's going to change the situation in the near term is if the IOC gives the games to Istanbul or Madrid and states that Tokyo was rejected over fears that the nuclear situation would be unresolved. Maybe that will be enough of a slap in the face to get people to wake up.
philly1
Really? What are the odds? Yokoso Japan.
globalwatcher
I am ready to send a T shirt to Abe that reads "JUST DO IT FOR FUKUSHIMA" .
nath
So much for the fishing industry. Another slap in the face to the working people of Japan because of inaction by industry and government.
globalwatcher
marcelitoSep. 02, 2013 - 03:56PM JST
The US media is also all impatient after 2 years as well. I blame everything to a Japanese 'DEKINAI" culture. Japanese often have a meeting to talk about a next meeting. Do you know what I mean?