TEPCO asked to consider coming under temporary state control

Why are they still being asked? This should be a mandatory takeover.

On the collusion and lack of responsibilty shown by the jgov and tepco, I only have this to say, as bad as it may sound, and I truely believe the situation is bad in regards to transparency, responsiblity, and due diligence; at the end of the day, I believe regardless of what anyone thinks, Tepco HAS to be the one to clean up the mess, to think that anyone that has the nuclear expertise and authority to do anything, but is not actually working in the nuclear field, and would want to go and clean up this mess, is quite ridicuous.

Why isn't the newly established 3rd party agency (that collects funds from nuclear companies from across the nation, and got the government grant) handling the payouts, then billing Tepco for the payouts with Tepco being able to challenge on a case by case basis. Lets face it, if Tepco never established the neccessary safety procedures or proper training for its workers at the plant, they sure as **** didn't hire people to handle payouts in case of nuclear meltdowns. Payouts should be based on whats fair and reasonable, not how much tepco can handle financially.

It would be a positive development, then liquidate it's assets and put proceeds towards tsunami/earthquake relief.

The fact that the govt has to ask a company's permission here shows who is really in control. And it's sure not the government. Reminds me of Kyushu Electric recently saying simply "No, we don't want to" when asked by the prefectural govt there to submit a report on their recent problems. WTF? Is this a democracy or a corporatocracy?

Asked? Do it now and place all those in high ranking positions in prison. Better yet place them at the Daiichi reactor site to do manual labor.

@Elvensilvan

There is a limit to which the "sit and wait" approach can be effectively utilised, however. With nuclear power, the acceptable margin for error is zero. Every mistake that TEPCO made and will make in the future will still be billed to the jgov's lack of decisive and prompt response. While it is true that a hasty takeover will create more problems than it will solve, waiting and letting a private company which has been proven to be untrustworthy continue to flail around is going to damage the jgov's credibility on top of creating just as many problems as a takeover would have.

To prevent widespread chaos and ensure efficient response, sugar-coating the news may be acceptable for the politicians and historians. Allowing outright lies and fabrication, on top of being seen to do nothing, however, will only cause a break down of the very order that the government needs to maintain in order to respond efficiently to the crisis. At this stage, Japan is in the "licking its wounds" stage of the disaster. One can only hope historians will highlight the mistakes the government made for future reference.

@jamurai:

I concur with your comments on the government failing to impose regulations upon TEPCO. But please do remember that TEPCO is a private firm who can and may imlement it's own rules based on their expertise and therefore, scope of knowledge which the government may not be aware of.

The Japanese government is indeed partially responsible for this, but if TEPCO has been straightforward in their press releases as well as post-disaster management, then they wouldn't be slammed on this much. Also, most government agencies rely on TEPCO's updates to relay to the masses.

The government could have taken over control of the firm since day 1, but the government is not a communist one, and neither is it an expert in nuclear matters, much less so for nuclear disaster. In my honest opinion, much more damage may have been done to Fukushima and the neighboring prefectures if some government official just took control of a nuclear meltdown in process.

This should, of course have been done the minute the reactors blew and it was evident that there was a national emergency unfolding (notwithstanding the earthquake and tsunami destruction). All those crying out for TEPCO heads perhaps don't realise that this is exactly what the authorities in Japan like to hear, letting TEPCO be the scapegoat and deflecting attention from the government's failings, with criminally inadequate safety standards and regulation enforcement, and a woeful disaster management plan. It was the government who failed to enforce standards and regulations on TEPCO before the disaster, it was essentially the government's failing. When it was apparent that TEPCO could not control the problem, the government should have been in a position to suit up and step in immediately. I cannot imagine that governments in Europe or America would allow a private company to let such a farce develop. The government is still ticking Tepco off from time to time. Ticking them off!! With thousands of lives and livelihoods on the line the continual "mistakes" should never have been allowed to happen. So I suggest directing your ire at the Japanese government.

In other words, they want the government to sort everything out with tax payer money, then hand it back when everything is okay again...No way you lying thieving mofo's, government should take over PERMANENTLY, because you obviously don't know what you're doing.

In the USA it is called, "The blind leading the blind." Japan needs visionaries who will not provide false information or cover-ups as the most recent report states. If there is no faith in the elected officials, then there is no hope for the future.

Stop requesting, start demanding. Remove the word 'temporary' and replace it with 'permanent'. I just hope that if TEPCO is generous enough to 'understand' the government request that the execs are not simply replaced by government approved amakudari.

Lie after lie after lie after... well, if you still, STILL receive comfort from what TEPCO spouts, ha, well, good luck. Lie after lie. They WILL be nationalized.

Bankrupt Tepco ?? Everyone crying that the victims should have compo but if tepco bankrupted how will they be able to compensate the victims. Gotta keep tepco going to pay compensation, even if the money ultimately comes from govt loans, atleast the money will be owed back to govt.

Govt doesnt really want to take over tepco permanently as it will be saddled with tepcos losses debt with no way out, atleast by keeping tepco goin govt doesnt need to show the total loss, just show it as outstanding loans owed. creative accounting maybe.

I think the government shouldn't give any more tax money to TEPCO. Then, when it declares bankruptcy, take it over, expel the executives, hire the best nuclear workers in the world (regardless of citizenship), hire some accountants that know how to add and subtract (not Olympus, obviously), and say it is all for the good of the stockholders.

Since the gov't is just funneling money through TEPCO anyway, might as well have some accountability and get some results people can believe in, eh?

With the government intervention, I hope that they put qualified and competent personnel into the TEPCO ranks.

Also, to take regular employees as staff, instead of the usual baito or pa-to even for lower ranks.

This would be quite a reversal as part of the central government has been under de facto TEPCO control for a long, long time.

In the end, it would be window dressing at further taxpayer expense.

temporary?? WTF- hope that means for 100 years.

I seriously hope that none of the donations to Japan are going to aid TEPCO, or the Jgov.