Ex-TEPCO chief denies plan to pull all workers from Fukushima plant

smith, the guy was a waste of space there anyway. No need for a bureaucrat, all he needed to do was rubber stamp what his engineers told him

Fuji Oil Co, which is owned by AOC Holdings Inc, a firm in which TEPCO has an 8.7% stake.

JGov is bailing out TEPCO with the use of Tax payers money. TEPCO I am sure have more Stocks and Shares around. Is JGov considering asking TEPCO to sell those shares to lessen the JGov bailing amount of money for TEPCO's problems? TEPCO is damn rich. They are just GREEDY to use their money to pay victims and fix the mess their Daichi Nuke Power Plant had created. They just want JGov to bail them out. Why not sequestered all the stocks and share Tepco own, sell it and pay the victims.

Shimizu is such a scumbag. The guy claims he wasn't going to abandon the Fukushima plant, and yet he left after three days citing 'stomach problems' and 'stress'. I don't see what Kan would gain from lying about the situation, and given that Shimizu has selective memory when it comes to the disaster, I'd doubt him before the former PM. His punishment, as well as jailtime, should be to single-handedly clean out the destroyed reactors.

U.S. wanted to place nuclear experts in the PM's office in Japan after the Fukushima disaster last year but Japan refused citing sovereignty fears. U.S. wanted to have top nuclear engineers to help deal with the crisis. The Americans were frustrated, and they wanted to share any information to assist on the unfolding nuclear crisis and it were not going very well with Japan politics in desperate times. It also questioned why Kan's administration was slow to disclose vital information on areas hit by radiation. This delayed the evacuation for many of the civilians within Fukushima.

Well you can understand why he needed a sudden vacation three days after the disaster, all that strain and what have you, checking out how good his golden parachute would be and lining up another good paying job. He is talented in taking care of himself, what a shame he had no such talents in taking care of a nuclear power plant,but hey no one is perfect. Yes all of those golden parachutes should be confiscated, as well as everything else the guilty owned, then they should be held in prison without bail while the court cases are started. Won't happen, but we can dream can't we?

Nice to reflect, but those reactors are spewing now. A large scale effort is needed to stop the danger.

This POS already has an amakudari "job" lined up when he shud be behind bars for christs sake, its getting harder to get up in the morning & do my thing knowing these SCUM are getting away with it, pocketing MILLIONS OF YEN & the country is going down the crapper.

It really is time for the Japanese to get REAL PI$$ED OFF & start to fix their country!

But they likely wont................

"When pressed, however, Shimizu - whose frequent comments that he could not recall certain conversations prompted a rebuke from the panel chairman - said he had never clearly stated to government officials that some staff would remain."

Well, there you go. I believe him, don't you?

"But in a sign of the close ties that bind corporate Japan, Shimizu will later this month become an outside board member of Fuji Oil Co, which is owned by AOC Holdings Inc, a firm in which TEPCO has an 8.7% stake."

And they all lived happily ever after.

Does this guy really need any more money? I'd believe his "sorry" if instead of getting another fatcat job, he went and did volunteer work to help the people up there.

So it doesn't matter how bad you are at foreseeing problems, listening to advice, ensuring safety standards are met, and even remembering important conversations and giving clear directions (by his own admission), you can still become a board member of a company.

Doesn't anyone get angry about this?

Squidbert, regardless of the safety issue, I'm not sure it makes sense to build nuclear power stations in the middle of major population centres. It's much easier and cheaper to find a suitable site out in the countryside - and on the coast it's easier to ship the fuel to it too.

Never a truer word spoken Horsefella. :)

He won't be punished or be held accountable by the system because scum like him ARE the Japanese system. Meanwhile, the Japanese citizenship busy themselves with which AKB member they think is cutest rather than show an interest in the steady decay of their own country

All the board of Tepco current and past should be prosecuted as zichi says but so should any politician who held an office associated with the design or build or approval of anything to do with this plant including any PM's who had there finger in the fukushima pie, what has happened is absolutely criminal on many levels, court cases should be being prepared as we type.

In fact the public should be baying for blood from these criminals.

I hope they seize all his assets, including his bank account and any invested stock, for liquidation, with the funds to be distributed to victims of 3/11. I know it's a big ask, but one is allowed to hope!

Finally! About time they started criminally investigating these oyajis! Best article I've read all year from JT!

"Outrage? How did that manifest itself then? Muttered grumbles perhaps, but outrage? Never saw any evidence of that." @kaminarioyaji: Shimizu was confronted numerous times in public by angry citizens. It was kept relatively quiet by the press but it did happen.

Shimizu quickly became a target of public outrage in the early days and weeks of the crisis

Outrage? How did that manifest itself then? Muttered grumbles perhaps, but outrage? Never saw any evidence of that.

I said it before, and I will say it again.

If nuclear power was safe, they would build the plants close to major population centers where it makes the most sense. Which means there should be one right in the middle of Tokyo.

It is well documented in the media he wanted to pull out all his staff, it was the one of the reasons the SDF went there and dumped buckets of seawater in desperation.

Kan saved Tokyo and alot of peoples lives and this should be remembered.

The Tepco former president and executives should be jailed. Why would Japan have tsunami and earthquake warning systems all over Japan and including Fukushima if there was no risk?

This old man is a grub. I hope they find something to charge him with and throw him in a decrepit jail cell.

"...but company documents have shown the utility was well aware of the risk."

There, so no more complaining by people who say it was an unparalleled and unpredictable disaster. And since it was clear they were well aware of the risks but did nothing about it, that is negligence, and should be punishable by jail time, given the gravity of the situation. We all know he won't be punished, though.

He and other TEPCO executives had said repeatedly that the scale of the natural disaster was unpredictable,

possibly, but putting the back up generators in the basement of a building sitting next to a large body of water prone to tsunami has nothing to do with predictability. It's just stupid and careless, even to layman.

Homer Simpson would have done a better job!

A meter reader who made it to the top, via supplies management and cost-cutting, and then was appointed president due to a dire shortage of other candidates after they all resigned for falsifying data on tests at the NPP.

Such are the requirements to succeed at TEPCO...

Ridiculous, from a man that holds as his personal life motto the Zen term kankyakka, which translates "look at what is beneath your own feet." What a joke.

(see here: http://www.keidanren.or.jp/english/journal/200908.html)

Laws:

We know what they are, and what they are worth!

They are spider webs for the rich and mighty,

steel chains for the poor and weak,

fishing nets in the hands of the government.

-Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.

NetNinja,

Law and punishment are for the poor huddled masses.

Here's the news from six months from now. "Shimizu offers sincere regret for any trouble caused".

Thank you for your time, Mr Shimizu, please enjoy your very generous retirement bonus.