Students offered money, rewards for joining gov't events to promote nuclear waste disposal

Oceanize mobilized 27 students by promising them printing services and venues for their club activities.

Compensation comes in many forms and if these "promises" were kept then they are guilty as charged!

If they were not kept, these students should pitch a fit and embarrass these nuts even more!

Students have been lured by money and other rewards to attend government events to promote public understanding linked to hosting final disposal sites for high-level radioactive nuclear waste, one of the organizers said Tuesday.

So the Nucler Waist Management of Japan, along with the Indusrtry minister, have hired students who are not land owners to convince the public how safe it is to burry high-level radioactive waist throughout Japan.

Sakura is a normal practice but this is ridiculous... how is it not illegal?

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan...blamed the matter on mismanagement by a Tokyo-based marketing company that has engaged in publicity work.

Passing the buck *is the real national sport in Japan, not sumo. They should lobby for the IOC to add it to the list of events for the 2020 Olympics, Japan would be guaranteed a gold medal.

Good old Japan.

Isn't this what we call bribery? Come on, let's not beat about bush.

What a joke, planting paid actors in town hall meetings.... people need to goto jail.

How is this different form the paid protestors at anti-security bill and anti-Okinawa base protests... move along...

Students have been lured by money and other rewards to attend government events to promote public understanding linked to hosting final disposal sites for high-level radioactive nuclear waste,

Low, very low.

I'd be interested to know more about these students. Where are they studying? What are they studying? Why / How were they selected? Why just 12?

I predict there's more to it than meets the eye - for example have they already secured post graduate employment with industries linked to the waste disposal?

It was stopped in the end, but when my town tried to push through an unwanted development about ten years ago, they insisted they had gone through the proper procedure and there had been a "public hearing", a phrase said in katakana and prominently used with relish as if it were the new all-conquering buzzword in local politics. No residents had heard about any such meeting, so if one had happened, it must have been insiders or stooges only.

This story only confirms my understanding of "public hearings".

This isn't the first time this has happened and clearly no lessons have been learned. Somebody needs to be fired for wasting taxes, but of course they won't be.

How is this different form the paid protestors at anti-security bill and anti-Okinawa base protests... move along...

there is something called "right and wrong". as an ex-doorman, you should at least have some instinct. nuclear waste takes from our lifetime to infinity to cause chaos on the health of animals and nature. we don't need to care about human life, as it seems the official practice of japanese politicians is to not care.

NB. what proof do you have about paid protesters? I've never been paid, in fact i give time and donate my money. my choice. no corruption.

Did anyone use an electric train or subway to go to the meeting, etc? No, they used their bicycles. Did anyone use a mobile to take pictures? No, they used hand-help generators to charge the phone. Did anyone use hand made paper on which he/she printed the message distributed to the public, then hold a sign so the TV coverage can show the message through free publicity? "You can't have your cake and eat it, too." Conservation of mass. Japan needs nuclear energy or a drain on of yen to buy oil to be used to make electricity.

"a possible attempt to manipulate the participants"

Possible attempt? This is a blatant attempt at perverting the outcome through bribery and favouritism. Oh. hang on! This is Japan. I forgot that this is how things are done in Japan.

@noriyosan73 - Did anyone use an electric train or subway to go to the meeting, etc? No, they used their bicycles. Did anyone use a mobile to take pictures? No, they used hand-help generators to charge the phone. Did anyone use hand made paper on which he/she printed the message distributed to the public, then hold a sign so the TV coverage can show the message through free publicity? "You can't have your cake and eat it, too." Conservation of mass. Japan needs nuclear energy or a drain on of yen to buy oil to be used to make electricity.

 Ah, you should have taken the blue pill. Japan has been without nuclear power for 6.5 years. I don't recall any power blackouts, do you? And, today they stated the economy has grown, which totally destroys your arguments of how fossil fuels drain the economy. Furthermore, let me add to your false perspective, nearly all of Japan's reactors will reach their use-by dates in the next decade or so, which means they all have to be upgraded or decommissioned at huge expense. Nuclear power is not clean, cheap or safe, no matter what you learned from the Japanese media Matrix. Then, after that sinks in, we can move onto nuclear waste. The highly radioactive debris from the meltdowns at Fukushima will cover 15 square kilometers after is has all been gathered. Cars, trucks, shops, houses, apartment blocks, factories, construction machinery and a few million tons of soil all have to be stored on land that used to be fertile farmland. All this is without counting the actual spent fuel rods that stay radioactive for up to a thousand years. These need to be stored and cooled in a safe housing that requires constant monitoring. Yeah, fossil fuels create CO2 and contribute to climate change, but nuclear power is much worse and leaves a much dirtier stain on the planet.

noriyosan73 Yes, I use a bike, my phone and IPad were charged with wind and solar.

My small house runs on only 30amps, most of that comes from a portable fuel cell generator, wind and solar cover the rest.

True, it's taken me several years to achieve this but it can be done even though I make a modest living.

Only 36,000 ¥? Thats what I have in my wallet. For 12 kids thats only a meal