Election season in Japan mostly means street-side speeches. Last week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe swung by Fukushima City in Fukushima Prefecture to support local candidate Masako Mori, who’s the current minister of the Consumer Affairs Agency. And what did he talk about?
How great Fukushima-produced food is, of course!
Standing atop a campaign van, the prime minister addressed the crowd on behalf of Mori. Among other things, Abe touched on the issue of Fukushima-produced food.
Following the horrific Tohoku disaster in 2011 and subsequent radiation leaks, many people, both in Japan and abroad, are reluctant to eat food produced in the prefecture out of fear of radiation poisoning.
The prime minister, perhaps hoping to appeal to local voters, claimed to eat Fukushima-produced rice every day, saying that the food was what kept him energetic. He continued, saying, “Whenever I go to a summit meeting, I tell the other leaders. I eat Fukushima-produced rice.”
Abe added later, “We’re going to wipe away the financial losses from this misinformation, speed up the rebuilding of the infrastructure, and use all our power to take up the rebuilding of Fukushima.”
While the safety of Fukushima rice may not be in question for Abe, he seems to face an uphill battle on changing public perception. Source: Merx
Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- Cool Japan has a plan-- Abe Derails Budget Meeting by Repeatedly Going to the Toilet.-- Abe's haunted house
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54 Comments
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Airion
Good on Abe for putting science before fear.
some14some
Abe might be regretting for not eating Fukushima Food as he had to resign from the post of PM due to tummy trouble !
cleo
Abe is 58, if his cancer takes 20 years to develop he'll be near the end of the average male lifespan anyway. Let him eat all the glowing rice he wants. The teller is whether he feeds it to his grandkids.
hereforever
Two and a half years later, why is he using future tense? And seriously, does he expect everyone to believe that he is being honest about eating rice that gives him energy everyday. How stupid and gullible does he think the public is?
Nessie
But don't make him angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry.
TokyoGas
Political pandering.
OrangeXenon54
There's reassuring the population that the food is healthy and then there's propaganda. This is clearly propaganda.
sillygirl
Actually, I think he got good meds from abroad to take care of his tummy troubles. Something I may have read on these pages.
Disillusioned
Perhaps? There is no 'perhaps' about it! It was purely a campaign statement. Is there any chance we could get this claim confirmed?
smithinjapan
Yeah, because Abe is one healthy horse, after all! I want to see him feed it to his family.
rowiko68
Election season also seems to mean talking a whole load of bollocks. As far as I'm concerned, Abe can eat as much Fukushima rice as he likes and believe that it keeps him healthy, but I wish he'd keep that to himself.
YongYang
The claim is lame and hopefully can be litigated against.
Robert Roo
Hahha thanks Japan times for the morning giggle. Can only hope that Hashimoto and Ishihara eat all that good glowing rice too!!
wanderlust
With the number of food labeling scandals known in Japan, and constant reports of food and fish being landed and routed through other prefectures to avoid the Fukushima 'brand', it's hard to know where food come from these days. At my own local supermarket and cooperative in downtown Kanagawa, where my wife is a member of the "food committee", locals are hardly buying anything labeled as coming from Fukushima or it's neighboring prefectures, they just do not trust the producers, the testing and especially the food distributors.
japanisation
At least hes giving a try...not sure is really what hes thinking...just PR...ummmm does really work!!
Offwithyourarrogance
Keep eating Abe, might be the best way to cut off your line of low IQ decedents! Making comments like this is a slap in the face for all those who have & will have died because of the radiation!
Yubaru
I wonder if he glows in the dark now too!
Richard Posner
A prime specimen of a power-hungry political whore.
cloa513
I'm happy to eat Fukushima food- nothing wrong with it- most is so far from Fukushima Daiichi that other prefectures are closer.
Magnet
Good. He and all those other oyajis in government and their nuclear cohorts can have it all. He's probably too old to be really be affected anyway. I'll continue taking precautions though and opt for food from areas further from the disaster. Why take the risk, when all signs point to radiation being a major cancer risk factor?
Maurice Derrick Batie
What kinda of pitch is that. They might as well let a monkey run for prime minister!!!
Virtuoso
A tabloid magazine (Shukan Jitsuwa) came out on Thursday claiming that Abe suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Wonder if that's linked to his diet...
Gaijin Desi
Don't know if he talk politically or scientifically.
Citizen2012
Prove it ! I really doubt this dude is eating Fukushima's food, rather he must be importing expensive delicatessen from abroad. How can you publicly claim that irradiated food with Strontium90 , tritium and alike will keep you healthy ? Irresponsible !
Cricky
Such a stupid unfounded comment to make
Citizen2012
Apparently enough to vote for this guy.
Waxman
Liar liar house on fire
CrazyJoe
Two Is One, And One Is None.
sf2k
maybe he cooks it in all that extra irradiated water as well.
moomoochoo
There must come a point where irresponsibility becomes criminal.
crustpunker
I'm surprised that Jgov. hasn't found a way to pitch that a certain amount of contamination is actually quite good for the "unique Japanese physiology." Maybe instead of taking time to specifically eat Fukushima-produced food, You could perhaps produce some forward progress on the thousands of families and individuals left in limbo still years later... Gawd.
bass4funk
Seriously, who believes this garbage? Does Abe really think the public is THAT stupid? If he goes on national TV with his family and they can monitor their eating habits and give us weekly reports perhaps, but I think, the politicians are looking out for their best constituents and farmers to see the bottom line and try to downplay the fear like it's nothing, It's shameful and pathetic!
MASSWIPE
"The teller is whether he feeds it to his grandkids."
Abe and his wife Akie have no children of their own, and they chose not to adopt.
Yubaru
Yes
sf2k
so the solution... is a cookbook. do do do do.... do do do do....
Pukey2
Well he's fooled the Japanese public before. You get fooled twice, then you deserve him.
cramp
did you even read the article before posting
Airion
Yes, I read the article. I found it unfortunate that the tone of the article is on the side radiation paranoia.
Personally I don't worry about Fukushima products. There's no 100% guarantee that it's 100% safe, but no food ever is. If others feel there's a risk, that's fine, it's everyone's own choice to make.
Soymilk
Stupid Prime Minister
LifeOutSideTheBox
So is this AbeFukuTabenomics :)
warewarenihonjin
I wonder how Abe-San is planning to "wipe away the financial losses"?
Must be by selling Fukushima rice without a label, I think. Mix it up with Niigata rice and etc. Japanese people will eat, Fukushima farmer will get a money, so keep planting in contamination zone, all Wa is practiced by tatemae "don't think about it".
Why is my Japan want a suicide?
And if it is true Abe-San eats Fukushima rice, and he says so to another leaders in summit meeting, they must think he is really so stupid guy. Then he keeps running to a toilet. Yummy yummy, so healthy!
FizzBit
Could you elaborate or post some links
Maria
He's lying.
Pukey2
The true test is to let all his young relatives and children, if he has any, to eat Fukushima products on TV. Is he game for a bit of seafood too? Next time he says he's ill, he may not be faking it!
Francis Urquhart
Hang on, though...maybe he really is eating Fukushima rice. He never said it was rice harvested post 3/11. That's how to have your rice and eat it!
Anna Louise
That means he won't be stepping down soon, the radiating rice will take him first! Glow your rice as you see fit!
globalwatcher
Garbage!
Kazuaki Shimazaki
It is pure politician talk, but at least he is saying things in the right direction.
Kimokekahuna Hawaii
The sacrifices politicians will make to stay in power.. and to fool the people. Fukushima fish are radiated.. it is not going to affect an old man who will die soon.. but it is going to make Godzilla out of children living in that region. Why are these people not allowed or helped to relocate. Why does the country as a whole sun and ignore disaster victims as a whole.. look at how Japan society still treats Hiroshima and Nagasaki.. turn away.. ignore.. go on shopping at designer stores. We were talking yesterday on the beach and even the fishermen in Hawaii were talking how could people eat tuna from Japan and no one wants to eat big Tuna even here. MEantime how many million gallons of radiation do you continue to dump in the ocean that is working its way around the Pacific.
Ron Barnes
How come Japan has the Second Worst Debt of any Country If Abe is Doing so well . Does he really Eat rice grown In contaminated rice fields. I doubt any one has tested it.
sushilover
What an astute politician!
hkitagawa
I hope he will not find any cesium atoms inside the food. Better to distribute anti thyroid cancer pills.
A Green Road
Why stop with rice? He can be a better example by also drinking Fukushima bottled water, (unfiltered), wild mushrooms, wild pig, and local fish as well as other creatures, such as those caught in the Fukushima harbor.