Liberal-Democratic party (LDP) Secretary-General Nobuteru Ishihara is under fire for remarks he made this week in which he likened the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to a facility used by the Aum Shinrikyo cult to produce deadly sarin gas in 1995.
Ishihara's original comments were made Thursday on a TBS television program in which he said that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant "Satian" should bear the financial burden of the cleanup in towns in the no-go zone around the plant. "Satian" was the name given by Aum cultists to a building in which they produced the sarin gas and other weapons, TBS reported.
However, on Thursday night, Ishihara held a news conference in which he withdrew the comment, claiming it was a slip of the tongue and not a deliberate attempt to draw a comparison between the two.
Television commentators on Friday criticized Ishihara, who has declared his candidacy for the LDP presidency, for the insensitivity of the comparison.
© Japan Today
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Disillusioned
This guy should change his name to Richard!
chinpira
Like father like son. Another stupid comment from the Ishihara clan.
alliswellinjapan
Told you earlier this guy is loose-lipped and possibly very shallow. Very recently he made unnecessary assertions to the media that "China will never invade the islands because noone actually lives there" when many hope and believe nothing scary will actually happen from all this but nonetheless trying to handle everything with utmost care to avoid sending the wrong messages to the C-government, the C-people as well as the J-people. He's also brought up the concept of "death with dignity" when discussing social security policies on TV. All this is happening within the last couple of days. Goes to show why he should never be chosen President of LDP let alone PM of Japan in my personal view.
ebisen
He is right this time, except Fukushima caused incalculably more damage than Satian... Hundreds of thousands of evacuees, and hundreds of square km's of land rendered unusable. As of now, no senior manager at Tepco is under arrest or considered liable...
telecasterplayer
The Ishihara kid is correct. So, why does he continue to work with the party that enabled the nuclear industry's shoddy safety record?
GW
Yep, kaeru no ko wa kaeru!
ishihara you simple minded fool, it was the LDP that created THE ENTIRE PROBLEM with nuke plants in Japan you twit!
theeastisred
But at least he is so embarrassed about it that he is sitting quietly beneath a tree contemplating his words:
NZ2011
so this moron has basically single handedly starting an international crisis, suggests that natural disasters are caused by peoples behaviour and he still hasn't learnt to keep his mouth shut..
If you love your little islands so much buy them yourself go live on them and leave the rest of us to get on this difficult reality of a bad economy and nuclear power plant meltdowns and go enjoy your imaginary dreamland.
gogogo
When is he not under fire, but for once I agree with him.
KobeKid
nepotism and Japanese politics.... beer and edamame
semperfi
Japanese politicians !.................................................. Is there no one around with a brain ? ? ? ?
BurakuminDes
Hang on a moment. Why didn't this dropkick make some noise about how dangerous this plant was before March 11, 2011? Maybe he enjoyed all those brown-paper bags along with his colleagues too much...
smithinjapan
A 'slip of the tongue', eh? And it only took a few hours and a news conference to realize it, too!
japan_cynic
I guess he forgot that the poison gas actually killed some people, too.
Yubaru
And this is one guy who is trying to win the LDP leader election? Dude is no better than his father, which says a heck of a lot to those who know what I am talking about.
presto345
Insensitivity? That's putting it nicely. This man is a jerk.
Fadamor
If this guy was looking to make headlines with his speech, he succeeded but for the wrong reasons. The Aum cult set out to kill humans. Tepco and the Daiichi plant never had that goal. In fact, after over a year and a half since the meltdown, the only deaths related to the facility are "incidental" in the sense that the cause of deaths were unrelated to radiation sickness.
Open Minded
Fadamor: Sarin gas is an acute poison. Radioactive contamination causes long term and chronicle diseases. The casualties will eventually be bigger in the second case. Be patient! (without any misplaced sarcasms!)
It was not on purpose - as for the Aum's ones - but TEPCO criminally did not apply any basic safety rules. Thus why no prosecution?
hoserfella
just another empty suit making outrageous claims to be noticed in Japanese politics. 80% fizzle out within a year or two when their ignorance/complete lack of human manners are exposed. Unfortunately about 20% of the pondscum survive (like Ishihara's father) if they appeal to the lowest common denominator vis a vis jingoism, xenophobia, etc.
Lets hope the Japanese population see through this bottom feeder soon.
Yubaru
That is only if one believes what the media has put out so far.
Michael Craig
It's obvious to see whom Nobuteru inherited that offensive word play from!
Yubaru
I hit the reply button too early this AM, I wanted to add.......
Come back in 10 years and tell us all the same thing. This is a cop out statement as death from radiation related illnesses often times do not show up for years.
One worker died of acute leukemia, not related to his working at the plant as it's highly improbable that someone could get the disease that quickly, from when he started working until the onset of symptoms, BUT here is why my prior statement was not being flippant; this work that died of acute leukemia was given a friggin clean bill of health just weeks prior to starting to work there.
Folks at Fukushima, (TEPCO) and Ishihara too speak with forked tongues and can not be trusted.