Shareholders slam TEPCO at heated general meeting

TEPCO - The worst Ever Polluting COmpany. Now that is a witty yet truthful banner.

Great to see people venting. But there were no or little answers as to what is actually happening! Maybe compiling with current standards would be a start?

+1 for the sign

One shareholder cried out that the executives should all jump into the reactor and die to take responsibility for the fiasco. Several others demanded they give up their entire pay. Another screamed that all they deserved was “seppuku,” or ritual self-disembowelment.

Are they members of this site?

No, suicide would be far too lenient. These people need to resolve the situation, & not do the typical Japanese - pass it on to someone else routine.

Greedy shareholders vs greedy management, no sympathies for loss of money.

So, is Tepco worse than BP? (Or should that be a poll option?)

Look at the shareholders (gamblers) all upset that their bets went south. No sympathy what-so-ever especially when none of them have come forth to help the people in REAL need or offered their homes for the children. What a barrel of scum they all are. Hope they don't get a penny for sponsoring such an appalling company.

This is well beyond the resources of a single company to cope with. The whole nation should be mobilising to prevent a greater disaster-as it is huge amounts of radiation are still gushing from the melted down reactors poisoning us all!

"All of us directors apologize deeply for the troubles and fears that the accident has caused,” he said at a Tokyo hotel."

He call this disaster just "troubles"!! What a piss of shit....

Although I take notice that some of the shareholders are now shouting for good reason on TEPCO executives, we should not forget that those are the same shareholders who have shut their mouth for the last 40 years totally neglecting to rise their voice on the crazy practices of the company as long as the dividends were coming to their pockets. Dividends resulting from the profits generated by selling electricity produced by dangerous, poorly designed and poorly maintained nuclear power plants.

That't all hypocrisy in the end.

"He said it would speedily compensate people forced to evacuate the area around the Fukushima Daiichi plant and farms whose products were banned because of radiation contamination."

Yup, only been four months so far. How fast is 'speedily', may I ask?

"They quickly defeated with a show of hands the first proposal from a shareholder, who demanded Katsumata be replaced in chairing the meeting by someone else, who could better address the nuclear crisis. The top shareholders of the utility include Japanese financial institutions and the Tokyo metropolitan government."

of COURSE they did! THey have a lot of money invested in these things, why on earth would they ever listen to the people??

Maybe instead of this statement,

"All of us directors apologize deeply for the troubles and fears that the accident has caused,” he said at a Tokyo hotel."

He should have said.

All of us directors apologize deeply for the total and utter disaster, the lies and the reluctance to tell the truth in a timely manner that we as a company have perpetrated over the past months.

That would be a good start.

Here's what needs to be done. The international media needs to make it matter-of-fact that Japan will fover be seen as the bastion of idiocy UNLESS they do something now to get rid of TEPCO -- the company that has once again made an a&% of itself. So long as said international media proclaims Japan will be viewed as a hero if they get rid of TEPCO it will work.

Where have all these shareholder's cries been in the last years? At least some of the sloppiness of Tepco about safety has been know for a long time. Has it been addressed in previous meetings? It's the shareholders who control the company and thus bear ultimate responsibility. My amount of pity with those who lost their investment is very limited.

I agree Daito. No excuses are owed to persons that were glad to benefit from Tepco cheap security policy over the years. If they had a minimum of decency, they would want to apologize and they'd bring 10 times the sum they benefited from Tepco to compensate the victims.

That meeting is an imposture. TEPCO has stopped paying its bills in March, and taxpayers of Japan cover its debts and we'll repay for years. So the shares should be worth 0.0000 yen (too bad we can't charge negligent shareholders). The State owns the company, that should be officialized.

"defeating a proposal from 402 shareholders that demanded TEPCO abandon nuclear power."

Only 402 ? Seriously, even the most pro-nuke people on earth don't want to see the Tepco gang in that activity.

"all they deserved was “seppuku,"

No way, that's for honorable warriors that were fighting for a master/a cause, not petty cheats that only covered their own rear. Auction their belongings, make them work as slaves, then when they can no longer, take organs for transplants. The debts are so huge that every little bit counts.

@YongYang: How would you know what individual shareholders have done? I know two people in my office who have significant cash in TEPCO shares who have both volunteered up North 4 or 5 times each now. That's a big statement you are making! Sensible shareholders are NOT gamblers - another big statement. This is is NO way an endorsement of TEPCO by the way, more a comment of YongYings atitude towards anyone who doesn't agree with him 100%. Many of these 'gamblers' are as angry with the situation as you are.

****yildirayJun. 28, 2011 - 05:35PM JST

One shareholder cried out that the executives should all jump into the reactor and die to take responsibility for the fiasco. Several others demanded they give up their entire pay. Another screamed that all they deserved was “seppuku,” or ritual self-disembowelment.

Are they members of this site?****

THIS POST MADE MY EVENING!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!

~~ROTFL~~

It will get a lot worse as time rolls on - sad to say.

On the Greenpeace sign:

T he worst

E ver

P olluting

CO mpany

Oh my...

TEPCO is only thinking of MONEY! They don't care about the citizen, don't care about employees, don't care about children, and don't care about ECO. TEPCO is all about yen sign. All directors have a double face(YEN). We should start thinking of new energy to replace nuclear energy and now is the time think about change.

TEPCO is only thinking of MONEY! They don't care about the citizen, don't care about employees, don't care about children, and don't care about ECO. TEPCO is all about yen sign. All directors have a double face(YEN). We should start thinking of new energy to replace nuclear energy and now is the time think about change.

Sorry, but the fact that Tepco failed to cope effectively with this disaster, does not necessarily prove that nuclear energy is evil, catastrophic etc. It is the lack of effective mechanism to deal with this situation that created the problem.

Few people understand that changing 100% to alternative energy requires time, money and the development of a technology which is not yet available. Maybe it is possible for Denmark, but for a country with 127 million people plus several industrial zones, it is something close to utopia for the time being. I agree though that all nuclear reactors in Japan should be updated in order to cope with a catastrophe of a similar scale. This is a MUST.

We understand conversion to non Nuclear power will take time, start now and that time is shorter! Or do not and expect events we have seen repeated again. Once was not enough?Twice would you think about it? Three events now really would that be enough to sway your mind? I am sensitive so 1 event was enough for me.

Although thousands of those present at the six-hour meeting supported the motion, the institutional shareholders that own most of the stock were not swayed, and the motion was defeated.

Nuclear power has always been evil because we cannot contain it. To this date we have no way of cleaning up the waste and need to store if for millennia to come. Just think about it? Would you play with a deadly virus that can wipe out mankind just because it is a cheap cleaning agent. Nuclear power is not clean. Sure you could store all the coal and oil power plants toxic fumes into one big plastic bag along with car exhaust and other CO2, but you don't call that clean either. Even if there was a safe way to dump the waste into space, you still don't call it clean.

Greedy shareholders vs greedy management, no sympathies for loss of money

some14some -- that is a typically silly comment on many levels. First off, did you read that the Tokyo Metropolitan government is one of TEPCO's biggest shareholders? Is it among the "greedy"? Are you happy that folks living in Tokyo will have to pay to make up for TEPCO's years of mis-management? Second, as indicated, people invested in TEPCO because it was considered a safe investment and paid a regular dividend. So, likely, many of these investors may have been people investing for their retirement, not to make huge capital gains like those buying Livedoor did. How does this make them greedy? Third, without individual shareholders investing in company stocks, the Japanese economy would collapse. In fact, the government has put several things in place over the past decade or so to encourage more individual investors in stocks as they realize Japanese stocks are under-valued. Fourth, while I agree that investing in any company is a risk, and therefore these stockholders do not deserve any real sympathy for their losses, it is not because they were greedy and trying to make a "quick buck".

Well well well, seems we have some folks bitching they lost some $$$, I am willinging to bet these same folks were not unhappy at the shareholders meeting a year ago or the ones before that................hope you LEARNED SOMETHING!

Perhaps we shud ALL take a closer look where our $$ are invested & perhaps make some changes

It's a shame that a company as lax and incompetent is now the face of nuclear power for Japan, because nuclear power itself isn't the problem here.

(We should be far more concerned about the dioxins and black soot that spew from the millions of automobiles that fill the nation, but, unlike with radioactive elements that cause different kinds of maladies that are just as life-threatening, somehow people seem to be able to endure this pollution without complaint.)

A power provider that didn't paper over mistakes like TEPCO did wouldn't be in the mess they're in today, and neither would the people of Japan who now have to endure a summer with less power that society requires. Perhaps the solution is to turn a public good like nuclear power over to prefectural governments. Dumping nuclear power entirely is a short-sighted feel-good move that ignores a host of other problems -- peak oil being one of the biggest. I say make use of nuclear power to the fullest, while simultaneously researching other, cleaner methods. Those methods should be well-developed before the next once-in-a-millennium killer tsunami arrives.

"One shareholder cried out that the executives should all jump into the reactor and die to take responsibility for the fiasco. Several others demanded they give up their entire pay. Another screamed that all they deserved was “seppuku,” or ritual self-disembowelment."

I would personally like to meet this shareholder and shake his/her hand. Any way you can set that up, JT?

@YongYang There is nothing wrong with buying stocks. Just because you can't afford any doesn't mean people shouldn't buy them.

How about residents around the plant who naively trusted a company with a history of coverups and fabrications going back at least to 2002 but that had never been held accountable by the Japanese government ?

Of course they're livid and terrified now, but honestly have no one but themselves to blame for at the time thinking it was for the better good. Of course the real fireworks will start when the issue of how to replace the reactors at Fukushima comes up ...

One shareholder cried out that the executives should all jump into the reactor and die to take responsibility for the fiasco. Several others demanded they give up their entire pay. Another screamed that all they deserved was “seppuku,” or ritual self-disembowelment.

Too bad I was not there. I would have said "kiss my ass" in Japanese to these executives.

cwhite:

" Nuclear power has always been evil because we cannot contain it. To this date we have no way of cleaning up the waste and need to store if for millennia to come. Just think about it? "

Funny thing, about a year ago we heard the same slogans about the Gulf oil spill. At that time, the world was going to end because of the evil oil. How quickly minds change...

It reiterated that it was counting on some government aid.

"It [TEPCO] reiterated that it was counting on the tax payers on providing funds to restore normality and compensation."

"One shareholder cried out that the executives should all jump into the reactor and die to take responsibility for the fiasco. Several others demanded they give up their entire pay. Another screamed that all they deserved was “seppuku,” or ritual self-disembowelment."

"I would personally like to meet this shareholder and shake his/her hand. Any way you can set that up, JT"?

Really? I would personally like to ask that anyone who would tell some to kill themselves to witness this event, be there to tell the ones left behind why you would want their loved one to kill themselves and how the executives should have seen the earth quake and tsunami coming.

If you have never seen this happen or found a body hanging from your building, then you should witness for yourself and then post such comments.

@Hide: If gambling is your preffered way of 'making' money knock yourself out. Who needs stocks when you've got a big stash?

@YongYang.

Like the people that gabled on Enron, BP, Sony, etc the list is very loooong indeed. Guess you never did any investing yourself. ;)

@Okinawamike

Tepco was warned about the dangers of earthquakes and tsunamis. They insisted their plants are safe.

Greta12 by plants they ment the plants on their desk probably.

anyway they have done their apologizing and thing will continue as "normal".

TEPCO had been made aware of the possibility of a huge tsunami as one had occurred in the past so TEPCO essentially gambled that it wouldn't occur again and choose not to spend the money to upgrade their facilities accordingly.

shareholders take a risk with then invest in a company. they are betting that the management of the company will run the company prudently and make money for them.

in this case they both gambled and they lost. i don't see why taxpayers should foot the bill for their gambling. TEPCO should be force into bankruptcy and put under new management who should costs and run the company to use their monopoly profits to pay off the damages.

@Zenny, I do invest, but not in fallible entities. I do commodities.

"Tepco was warned about the dangers of earthquakes and tsunamis. They insisted their plants are safe".

So this gives people the right to ask for the people who made the judgment error to kill themselves?

What about the people who build other structures that are damaged or collapse? Should they all so jump from what's left standing?

I'm not defending TEPCO, I'm saying you have no right what so ever to tell someone to kill themself for any reason.