Kan criticizes nuclear safety agency, cozy ties to industry

Poor Japan such a great country inspite of all of these idiot useless parasites aka Japanese corrupt politicians!!!

@Yogizuna

We leave the clean up of the toxic waste to future generations of course! Think of all the new government posts and industries that could be built around it! We just need to be able to pin the blame on the other party and then appear as environmental heroes while making lots of money in the process. Smart, eh?

"Yes, We Kan"

...is needed now more than ever.

He could have easily quit just like the others and then fade into obscurity and a quiet life knowing just how screwed up things have become like the others. But he didn't.

This is same old, same old story of the government ministry invoking the invisible hands on big corporations. Kan's accusation cuts no ice with anything--it doesn't appease the public anger and distrust; it doesn't help him recover his dwindling approval rating. It only allows him to buy the time to extend the deadline for resignation.

And what the heck Kaieda's apology mean to the public who are already disgusted with the central government over the reconstruction progress? Nothing! He wasn't even in the ministry when the METI pulled the strings on power companies three years ago. It was LDP-led lawmakers and senior bureaucrats who orchestrated the conspiracy theory in the first place. If the government feels truly responsible for this incident, they really need to hold the investigative committee and summon former ministry bureaucrats, LDP politicians, and power company executives right away.

@Lenin: So even if Japan "updates" it's nuclear reactors, where does all the highly dangerous extremely toxic nuclear waste go in the future?

The more the LDP, Ozawa, Hatoyama etc criticize Kan, the more I like him.

I just hope he doesn't resign, and say something like he was going to, but he realized how he couldn't trust the other morons to do any better.

CityView, I guess you're the type who prefers to think the glass is half empty. Before looking a gift horse in the mouth, (and any other cliches I can throw in here) think of it this way: a former nuke supporter is now PM of the country and is actually taking a stand against nukes!!!

what is not to like about this? Maybe, like Asagao, you'd prefer that he be pro-nuke.

If Kan knows physics, he would not have requested to stop the cooling for the time he posed by travelling nearby with a helicopter after the tsunami. The truth is he does not have a clue.

Also, he jumps the chance to promote solar energy for his own reasons. Research this if you wonder. It was not high on his agenda until the world's third biggest earthquake finally made him think about what anyone else already knows.

Thank you Kan for speaking out!! I don't think they are going to be able to get rid of them so soon after all!!

Kan has got guts, stubbornness, independence, a sense of duty, and a science/technology background.. Best Japanese prime minister in a damn long time.

Nice to hear a world leader speaking the truth. Thank you, Prime Minister Kan. ****

Me too, I agree that Kan is the first Japanese Prime Minister with enough balls to fight against the Japanese establishment for ages. It might be easier to understand that he is a physicist and as such, in principle understands nuclear matters far better than most of the Japanese policy club bigwigs. I hope that he continues for a while. While some of his decisions have not been correct (and we all know that he cannot take these major decisions just on his own), I firmly believe that almost any other Japanese politician would have been worse than him. Kansan, gannbatte kudasai.

Asagao, lighten up! This is (Japanese) politics. So he changed his mind on a issue. Would you prefer that he stayed pro-nuke?

He may be known as "the 15% man," but he's OUR 15% man.

Japan will continue to rely on nuclear power notwithstanding government propaganda to the contrary. The problem is outdated reactors and the real question is why they were not updated but the answer is always money. So now this blame game when all parties were to blame. The Fukushima reactors, had they been modernized, could have resisted the tsunami. They were not and the horrendous results. Stop the blame game, realize that Japan must rely on nuclear power to be viable, and modernize those plants! Nuclear power is a clean form of energy and no other option equals its power. Japan got what it did not pay for in the Fukushima tragedy. And now the Japanese treat the whole prefecture as taboo. I enjoyed my recent trip by motorcycle to Mt. Bandai and did not come back glowing radiatively. Those reactors were inferior stuff and needed "renewal" and that is a lesson for the rest of the world. Knee-jerk anti-nuclear campaigns are not the answer.

"Trade Minister Banri Kaieda apologized for NISA’s question planting and promised an independent probe."

Kaieda, who has openly declared the need for nuclear power and his desire to see it INCREASE, is promising an 'independent' probe on question planting? PLEASE! He'll hire electric company employees to do the investigating.

I agree with others that Kan is the only PM worth his salt for the last little while, if not for a very long time. Once again, while it's likely he'll step down I hope he does not, and I hope he tells everyone who thinks he should to shove it. He is actually DEALING with the problems Japan faces now instead of running away as the past few PMs have, and also not simply looking after vested interests.

This is just so SHAMEFUL! For shame stupid Japanese power companies!

Prime Minister Kan seems to be playing this issue on the spur-of-the-moment thinking as new revelations pop up one after another. He said the new revelations underscore a cozy relationship and the deep-rooted problem that must be corrected in the wake of the March 11 tsunami and the nuclear crisis. As written in the main story above, he said ... " “NISA, which is supposed to check nuclear safety to represent the interest of the general public, provided support for the promoters. It was more than just a help, if true.” The words "if true" indicate that more study of this issue is needed. There might be more hidden secrets that need to be uprooted. Meanwhile, Kan should also rap the Liberal Democratic Party because all of this corruption took place while the LDP was in power.

The last batch of LDP prime ministers would have quickly resigned by now, tossing the hot potato to someone else to handle. The likes of Aso and Koizumi, as mentioned by "lucabrasi" above, would be long gone by now. At least Kan is showing some guts by sticking around and handling all the controversial problems that have arisen since March 11. Hang in there Kan-san ... and don't flinch ...

Yes, Osakadaz, dead right.

I've been in Japan over twenty years, as Kan is pretty much the only PM I've ever felt any respect or sympathy for. He's getting on with the job as best he can without looking out for himself (Aso) or running around looking after his image (that floppy-haired, preening tw*t Koizumi). Hang in there, Kan-san!

The International Atomic and Energy Agency has criticized Japan’s murky nuclear regulation system, while the government also acknowledged the need to separate NISA from the Trade and Industry Ministry that promotes atomic energy

Wow, you think. All it took was three reactors melting down and radioactivew poison that will take years to work its way through the ecological system being emitted for them to conclude this. Who says Japan is too isloted and continuing to adhere to a model that was broken two decades ago?

Kan called for a long-term effort Friday to scale back Japan s nuclear-reliant energy policy overtrhe next four decades

four decades is much too long in an earthquake-prone country like Japan. It's frightening. Nuclear Power should be phased out as soon as possible.

"rather than acting as a regular. " What does "acting as a regular" mean? Was "regulator" the word the translator was looking for?

Regardless of Kan's motivations, I hope he plays this for all it's worth to keep the nuke industry bobbing instead of punching. But it will only last as long as he does.

Finally Kan says what everyone is thinking! Good work!!!

People need to be fired, new people brought in, you can't keep the same old in there, they obviously are just there to "promote" nuclear... the safety headline is just a cover...

Kan is only doing this to get public support. He is the original "180 degree" man. He was all for Nukes, then he saw over 70% of the people are anti( much more than his 22% popularity rating)... As for the connections between the government, Tokyo University and the Nuclear Industry, well that will never change in The half life of an escaped Plutonium isotope!

Thumbs up Osakadaz