national

Fukushima worker dies after being buried in rubble

21 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© 2014 AFP

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

21 Comments
Login to comment

Besides, the work was necessary due to their wrongdoings.

I don't understand this. The work was because of damage from an earthquake. How was the earthquake TEPCO's fault?

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

"A worker" or "the man" or "he" or "him" was used here. As he was an honest worker, shouldn't his name be used? He is not a minor nor a criminal. I would like his name to be known. He was a person. Too many nameless up there doing the dirty work. R.I.P.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Alejandro wrote VTEPCO should be using robots to investigate dangerous site like these

Any dangerous place, Robots should be used.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Checking 'UNDER' the foundation? Not only was he foolish to risk his own life (RIP), but the supervisor who told him to do that should be held responsible. No shoring? Has idiocy no bounds?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

And they don't even have the decency of contracting directly their workers nor send their regular employees.

It has to do with the fact that majority of the workers have already exceeded their annual radiation exposure. This has been discussed initially as one of the reasons why temp workers were needed.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

It was obviously an accident and they do happen at any work site in the world,

Could be. But given the abominable record of the company, it's not exaggerated to ask if they had the necessity safety equipment and measures for this task.

there but blaming TEPCO for this seems a bit unfair

It's 300% their responsibility. It's TEPCO's worksite, the person worked for their benefit, so responsibility is normal. Besides, the work was necessary due to their wrongdoings. And they don't even have the decency of contracting directly their workers nor send their regular employees. You can bet they have not provided these temp workers with the necessary insurances for high risk situations. And as usual that company will pay nothing or just pennies to the relatives of the victim.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

It was obviously an accident and they do happen at any work site in the world, including nuclear power plants. It is a tragedy and maybe surprising that there haven't been more accidental deaths there but blaming TEPCO for this seems a bit unfair without having been there at the time of the accident.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Estimates are around 2,000 workers killed each year in industrial accidents, mainly construction. Many of them are off-season agricultural workers, who come to the 'big cities' to do daily labour and supplement their wages. Sadly, many of them never return home,

1 ( +1 / -0 )

InakaRob,

I've done work as a safety engineer, and have to say, in all the walks of life I have seen in Japan, safety was never a concern.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

InakaRob - I have to agree with you there. The was a young guy killed a few weeks ago while working under a concrete slab that was dropped from a crane and another that had a wall pushed on him by another crane. I could also go on about those stupid Aladdin pants the tradies wear that would get caught on any piece of moving machinery they pass, which is paired up with their wetsuit booties. Then, on the other end of the ridiculous scale there is the hardhat phenomenon. I remember seeing a pair of tradesmen at a school I worked in a few years ago repairing sections of fake grass in the middle of the soccer pitch. They both had their hardhats firmly planted on their heads. It made me wonder what the overhead danger was. I could only conclude it was meteorites.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Some of these sub-contracted workers end up being worse off than before they took the jobs out of desperation, and in debt to the yakuza no less. TEPCO should be held 100% responsible for this, though of course any lawsuits would be thrown out because they would claim they had no knowledge of who hired them, and because they are still in the process of getting constant bailouts and so can't possibly pay any compensation because it would interfere with them being back in the black. RIP to this poor man -- another victim of greed and stupidity.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

"Is there such a thing as a 'workplace health and safety officer' in Japan? It doesn't seem like it." I am telling you, if OSHA stepped foot in Japan their heads would EXPLODE.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

¥trillions are involved and to date ¥10 trillion have been used up. Money is pouring into a bottomless nuclear pit with little accounting going on.

There it is in a nutshell folks. The contractors are scamming as much out of this pool of public funds as they can and passing very little of it onto the workers. While it may be a money pit for the government and TEPCO, it is a gold mine for the employment agencies and contractors. Every tax payer in Japan should be totally outraged! I know I am! Every time I pay my electricity bill I say a four letter word that I cannot repeat on here. However, TEPCO only deserves half of my disgust. The J-gov deserve the rest of it for letting this circus continue unabated or challenged. It's an absolute disgrace!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

TEPCO should be using robots to investigate dangerous site like these

1 ( +2 / -1 )

The man was hired by one of the many subcontractors

I wonder how many parasites were in the chain feeding off the poor guy and his colleagues.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Is there such a thing as a 'workplace health and safety officer' in Japan? It doesn't seem like it.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Sad. Another unnecessary death thanks to Shimizu and other for TEPCO exeuctives' incompetence.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites