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TEPCO seeks yet more cash for Fukushima payouts

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So, the people seeking compensation are just getting their own taxes back, and no doubt I suppose they are being made to jump through hoops to prove they deserve it.

I hope how TEPCO is managing these finances is being monitored closely. I wouldn't trust them with a single yen of taxpayers' money, but they're getting trillions of it.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

TEPCO seeks yet more cash

granted, thanks for using Abenomics cash flow services :(

9 ( +9 / -0 )

Great logic. TEPCO's mistakes get paid for by the victims.

There should be a referendum or something.

It's disgusting that they keep getting bailed out.

Didn't they give bonuses to staff last year?

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Easy solution: fire all those at the top, no severance packages or parachutes, and put one or two people with actual qualifications in charge. I don't hear too many of the CEOs complaining about wages.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

These guys are worse than pirates.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Unbelievable. Someone at TEPCO really needs to go to jail.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Someone at TEPCO really needs to go to jail.

Someone ? The whole lot of 'em ! TEPCO is like a bottomless hole, the more money is injected into it, the more they ask for...

3 ( +4 / -1 )

In the future this will be written as some comical joke, and I'm quite sure then, the TEPCO president, with the company still existing, will say it is regrettable but not their fault, and nothing can be done. Then he'll ask for more payouts and demand higher energy bills, saying it's necessary to avoid shortages and perhaps finally attempt to compensate some people still in shelters while the company aims to make more profits and keep in the black.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Take it from Tepco execs' pension fund.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

when you're practically in bed with the government, all things are possible = abenomics

0 ( +1 / -1 )

So Abe can give away Japanese Yen to other countries, but cannot help his own people from this disaster not good at all. Should look after your Citizens first then others.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Why do these compensation payments need to go through tepco if they're ultimately being paid for by the government? Cut out the middleman.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

"taking its total cash handouts to 3.9 trillion ( 3,900,000,000,000 ) yen"

What a complete and total financial disaster.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Many people are disgusted, but what can be done? Sure, I don't disagree with the ideas of using at least some of the executives' pensions to pay for all this, but ultimately, TEPCO doesn't have enough money. At this point, it is a between a bail out, the government taking over all compensation directly, and the victims getting nothing. You can only squeeze so much juice from a lemon even if it is the lemon's fault.

A lot of people blame TEPCO, but I stick to saying this: TEPCO is a company, and because of that, safety will never be their sole or primary concern. At best, it'll be part of a cost-risk analysis and if the risk of having to do this kind of payout (w/o government bailout) is great enough they'll make the safety upgrades.

We might not like it, but let's face it, how many people would really have agreed with TEPCO if before the accident, it increases the bill by X% and labels it a "Safety Charge" (we will assume the money does indeed go to safety upgrades). I think most people will say "Give us our cheap electricity back." or "Somehow find a way to pay for those safety upgrades without charging us more."

Or how many people would allow the government to impose an additional "safety tax", whose income would be used to pay for government-mandated safety improvements in nuclear power plants beyond what the companies think is optimal? Maybe now and for a short while people will be willing to pay such taxes, but like heck that will happen before the accident.

Humans are hypocrites and companies + governments have to work with us. You can't have cheap and maximum safety at the same time, but people pretend you can.

Further, I'm on the side that a good deal of the damage is being done due to oversensitive safety regulations. For one thing, the insistence on very high levels of radiation attenuation in normal circumstances inevitably takes away money from safety devices in emergency situations (such as more backup generators and higher seawalls - which is what is really needed to prevent all this). For another thing, they are blocking off more area than they really need to and just exploding the compensation bill's size - to the detriment of all in Japan. The victims may deserve their fair shake, but what if the calculations give them more than their due?

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Only in japan can a mismanaged and incompetent company gas citizens with dangerous radiations out of negligence and still have the audacity to endlessly ask for taxpayers money to pay its losses. None of the TEPCO officials has been interdicted or brought to book. Very very funny situation!!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Yeah, let's build more reactors on an earthquake and tsunami prone coastline. Gees, it's only money. People shouldn't blame TEPCO. They are victims of the foolish Japanese government for investing so heavily in nuclear power. They were just at the business end. It was also the governmental nuclear regulatory agency that let these plants be run in a manner that left them succeptable to tsunamis after many years of warnings from other agencies and other countries. Now, everyone in Japan is going to have to foot the bill for this totally preventable truck up. If one was to point the finger at who should be blamed it should be pointed at every person that supported nuclear power in Japan, including every voter over the last 50 odd years. Yeah, plenty of people are speaking up now, but its too late after the fact. All the warnings about nuclear power are true, but 'shoganai ne'. The damage is done and the next three generations will be paying for the mistakes of the past three generations. Otsukade sama Japan! It a hugely contortionistic country and seems to be able to screw itself at every turn.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

It makes me wonder how much money TEPCO donated to a certain political party. It seems their man is in power. "Let's start up the reactors and give TEPCO more money."

I am sure TEPCO still has a lot of assets that could be sold and should be sold before they get more taxpayer finance. For example, they could sell their head office, which is in an extremely expensive part of Tokyo, and relocate to a new office somewhere in the countryside. Fukushima would be a good place to put it.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Zichi wins again....with facts and clear explanation. What a terrible situation we are all in.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

TEPCO seeks yet more cash for Fukushima payouts

Sell some of your 15 trillion yen assets !

0 ( +0 / -0 )

First, anything related to TEPCO should be in the Crime category. Second, I can't see an end to 'We the People' paying for TEPCO's criminal acts. First we pay in taxes, then and a hike in energy costs, and next in Medicare. Feel free to add anything else.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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