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Kan sues Abe for defamation over Fukushima comments

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Abe's LDP will win comfortably because 70% of the population will not vote because there is one else reliable enough to vote for. He'll get 70% of the votes, not of the people eligible to vote.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

If he wins, and the court rules one politician can't spread lies about another politician, then I guess this means politics is dead!

2 ( +5 / -3 )

This is classic modern day Japan politics...bureaucracy at its finest.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

Good for Kan!

It's rare to see someone stand up to a person in "authority" in Japan.

I wish him luck.

20 ( +23 / -3 )

I'm behind Kan for a change, and hope this lawsuit is successful.

10 ( +14 / -4 )

I was wondering all the time, why Mr Abe and the LDP could fare that well in the election forecasts ,despite the impression one got after the Fukushima desaster was, that they did not care for the people but had only one thing in mind : to get back at the top. In my country these people would get no votes at all.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Glad to see Kan standing up for himself. Japan, wake up! Abe is an idiot. A lying, idiot.

10 ( +13 / -3 )

hereforeverJul. 17, 2013 - 07:31AM JST Abe's LDP will win comfortably because 70% of the population will not vote because there is one else reliable enough to vote for. He'll get 70% of the votes, not of the people eligible to vote.

Actually, no working men or women will vote because it means taking time off work... and in the era of Abenomics no-one can take that risk.

No young people will vote because they're pretty much systematically excluded from national politics (no-one talks to them at ALL).

That leaves the retired. Old ojiisans who think that nuclear power must be good because they're still living in the 1960's, and old obaachans who just vote whatever their husband tells them to.

Japan isn't a democracy. To be a democracy you'd need to see sizeable portions of all segments of the population involved in voting, and there simply aren't enough young or middle-aged voters.

-2 ( +6 / -8 )

Indeed Frungy. Why are people not given the day off or have elections on a Sunday. Oz has it right with making everyone have to vote.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Kan was a good prime minister, and handled the load of faeces build by the Abe's party with their nuclear policy of corruption, over the decades, very well. It is a wonder that no one form the that gang (Abe included) is not yet under arrest for facilitating this situation. Of course they are trying to blame anyone else for the problem they have made.

That the J-People can't see this and elect such idiots back in power is truly dissapointing...

11 ( +13 / -2 )

Having Naoto Kan as ex-Prime Minister of Japan must be the biggest humiliation for the Japanese.

-4 ( +4 / -8 )

Frungy, tmarie

Actually, no working men or women will vote because it means taking time off work...

But the election IS on Sunday. They always are. The elections in 2012, 2010, and 2009 were on Sundays. Obviously some people work on Sundays, but most have it off. That's WHY elections here are always on Sundays, it's the one day most salarymen (core voters) are off.

10 ( +11 / -1 )

In J-baseball this is called a TIMELY!

But it wont do any good the people have spoken or not spoken, result will be the same disastrous re-erection of the ldp.

Japanese never seem to learn from the past sadly, lets sit back & watch the rot!

2 ( +3 / -1 )

The election is on Sunday.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

He might be worry not to be able to do any action against the mono-party of Japan after the election.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I wish success for Mr Kan! He truly demanded TEPCO don't run away, even when TEPCO boss Shimizu was hiding somewhere from most serious responsibility in his life.

Mr Kan is why all Japan is not glow-in-a-dark. Good luck Mr Kan, and thank you!

8 ( +11 / -3 )

Though Kan's cabinet had to deal with the mess which was a result of problems created by previous governments, he and his cabinet did not do what is naturally expected from governments in time of accidents like Fukushima. Although he claims otherwise, the fact is that he did waver when he heard that the seawater would render the reactors unusable in the future. Good that Mr. Yoshida, the chief of the plant at the time, did not wait for the permission of Kan and authorized the use of sea water before the accident evolved into something much worse. Abe may be an idiot but he has internal information which happens to be true for once.

However, Kan's government failed not because of what he did but because of what he failed to do in the days and weeks after the accident. In an accident like Fukushima, failing to do the necessary minimum to assure the people in the affected area and the whole country is indeed unjustifiable. But, of course, Kan could always shift the blame to other parties involved in the accident -- while they are also to blame, Kan is not innocent either. Saying otherwise is nothing but hypocrisy.

But what can we expect before elections??

-15 ( +0 / -15 )

Thanks Borax - I thought it was but then read the comment so thought I was mistaken!

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

If Kan is prepared to have witnesses who supports Abe's claims, his political career will end immediately on the spot dragging the DPJ along with him.

-11 ( +2 / -13 )

What independent panel said Kan played a key role in preventing the crisis worsening further? Not the NAIIC! They took Kan to task for meddling in things he was ignorant about and making the crisis worse than it should have been. They also concluded Tepco had no plans to abandon F. Daiichi and Kan's allegation was totally unfounded. What experts said Kan kept the accident from spiraling out of control? I have been following this diligently for more than 2 years, and I know of no such experts. Nothing in the NAIIC report supports your statement. If there is some other independent panel that contradicts the NAIIC, please post who or what it is. State who these mysterious "experts" might be! Otherwise, all of it must be taken as a pure fabrication by Japan Today.

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

Gotta agree that Abe's comments are fallacy and Kan has every right to sue him for defamation. I distinctly remember Kan screaming at the TEPCO boss to give him some answers and to take some action. It was the TEPCO boss, who is also on Abe's crony list, that wanted to pull everybody out and let Rome (Fukushima) burn and if he had the whole plant would have gone into meltdown and made Chernobyl look like a picnic. Of course, announcing the law suit a week before the election does seem pretty suss, but it is good that he is taking action against Abe.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

The panel said that as the situation on Japan’s tsunami-wrecked coast deteriorated, TEPCO had wanted to abandon the plant and evacuate its workers, but that Kan had ordered them to keep their men on site.

An out-and-out lie.

The Investigation Committee on the Accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Stations report, in a very waffling section on the matter stated:

The Investigation Committee discussed from various viewpoints about the possibility in question that TEPCO President Shimizu and some other TEPCO officials might have actually considered evacuating all personnel from the Fukushima Dai-ichi NPS. While there are some grounds to support the possibility, the Investigation Committee cannot affirm the possibility and has concluded that the Investigation Committee cannot rule out the possibility that TEPCO was considering the partial withdrawal.

The NAIIC report stated:

At the same time, it is hard to conclude that it was the Prime Minister who discouraged the idea of a full pullout by TEPCO, as has been reported elsewhere, for a number of reasons: 1) there is no evidence that the TEPCO management at the plant had even thought of a complete withdrawal; 2) There is no trace of a decision on a complete withdrawal being made at TEPCO headquarters; 3) The evacuation planned before Mr. Shimizu’s visit to the Kantei included keeping emergency response members at the plant (though evaculation criteria were discussed); 4) The director-general of NISA reported that when Shimizu called him, he was not asked for advice on a full withdrawal; and 5) The off-site center, which was connected through a video conference system, claimed there was no discussion of a complete withdrawal. Crisis management related to public safety should be assured without having to rely on the capability and judgement of the prime minister of any given time.

So, the two official report do not endorse PM Kan's point-of-view.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

This is SO ...NOT...gonna happen. In Japan people smear other people ALL the time. Sometimes they do it verbally but most of the time they do it bureaucratically in documents.

Relax Mr. Kan. Abe is only try to make sure that Fukushima is blamed on you and your party.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Leslie, it might be alright to have a go at Kan but at the same time have a go at Abe. Abe is presiding over a nuclear system which still has to many questions and he is just following the libe of the bureaucrats and big business who just want to have cheap electricity. Once again the situation has been papered over and no real change looks like happening.

It looks like a change back to the past at the next election and given the past of Japan things look bleak. I hope that I am wrong. History does repeat and the consequences second time round are often even worse. On the courts know whether or not Kan is right but I hope that he keeps trying to keep the many vested interests honest.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Star-Viking,

May I say your timing of your post which follows Disillusioned is almost perfect.

-8 ( +1 / -9 )

Kan failed to handle the Crisis, it is the reason Japan economy went down, it is the reason many foreigners left, it is also the reason many Japanese left Japan during the crisis.

-11 ( +0 / -11 )

nigelboy,

well, I hope some people take the time to read it, and check the reports too. Far too many people get their news from blogs and fail to go to the primary sources - and this seems to include AFP.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

While there are some grounds to support the possibility, the Investigation Committee cannot affirm the possibility and has concluded that the Investigation Committee cannot rule out the possibility that TEPCO was considering the partial withdrawal.

Star-Viking, do you call this a conclusive report? This is a load of jibberish that neither confirms or denies TEPCO's plans to pull out or Kan's directives to get their assets back in there and stop the meltdown. As Nichi's post states, all the relevant audio was deleted from the video recordings of negotiations. But, that does not change the news reports of the day and days after the event. For nearly three weeks after the event TEPCO denied there was a meltdown at all. Kan is right and Abe is a sniveling coward that has to write fallacies to gain public support.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

All I can say on the the matter is that Japan is lucky the LDP wasn't in power during the Fukushima disaster. The whole country would have been unlivable now.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Disillusioned Jul. 17, 2013 - 01:19PM JST

Star-Viking, do you call this a conclusive report? This is a load of jibberish that neither confirms or denies TEPCO's plans to pull out or Kan's directives to get their assets back in there and stop the meltdown. As Nichi's post states, all the relevant audio was deleted from the video recordings of negotiations. But, that does not change the news reports of the day and days after the event. For nearly three weeks after the event TEPCO denied there was a meltdown at all. Kan is right and Abe is a sniveling coward that has to write fallacies to gain public support.

It's from one of the two oficial reports into the disaster. And yes, it doesn't confirm or deny it - that is the point, it does not support either view. My point was that AFP lied

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

What a loser.`

1 ( +1 / -0 )

YES HE "KAN" !!!!

2 ( +3 / -1 )

As has been said before ... it is good that Minshuto was in charge of the nation when the earthquake/tsunami occurred. This way we got the truth about what was happening at the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant. If the LDP had been in charge, we would have been fed a bunch of half-truths and lies. And now Kan is claiming that Abe is twisting the truth.

After Abe and the LDP win big as expected on Sunday ... look for more weird things to be said about what is happening at the Fukushima nuclear plant. After a while with full government control, the LDP will be saying that everything is fine and that nothing serious happened there a little over two years ago.

Kan's gotta hang in there if he feels Abe is lying. If he does, who will the courts support ... ???

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Kan not being Prime Minister and Abe being the Prime Minister signifies that Japan is doomed. The people are sheep plain and simple and are that easy to convince its ridiculous. Kan deserves retribution and although I personally think most Japanese politicians are useless wastes of air, Kan's voice needs to be heard.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Zichi

TEPCO released the many hours of the video conference tapes but whole section of the audio sound was blocked out. Why?

Maybe to prevent various heated argument from being aired in public? Who knows? The inquiries had access to the video conference tapes, didn't they?

Kan decided not to record the minutes of a large number of emergency meetings. Questions could be asked of him too.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Kan decided not to record the minutes of a large number of emergency meetings. Questions could be asked of him too.

Exactly. But because of the minutes which he decided not to record, he feels somewhat safe in shifting the blame to others. And it is not difficult to do so given the that "the others" are TEPCO and METI. But he is no saint and he knows really well how to maneuver so that he can manipulate public opinion to his advantage -- no surprise here as he is a politician. No better no worse than Abe.

No matter what most of the posters here believe, Minshuto did not tell the truth either. They withheld a lot of information for whatever reasons they had. The fact is that Kan and his government dealt with Fukushima in a most incompetent manner. Kan just cannot/do not want to accept responsibility for his/their incompetence and prefer to play victim and say that somebody (in this case Abe) is accusing him of something which he did not do.

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

Pathetic Kan, he lost in the election. Nobody even considered him for the office but for some kind of party member points, he was reinstated as a lawmaker. thats how popular he is. Incompetent, empty headed garbage Kan. The whole Tohoku is still suffering because he has no idea how to deal with the aftermath of the earthquake.

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

The whole seawater debacle was caused by Kan's aide (special adviser Goshi Hosono) asking Haruki Madarame, the former chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission (sic) if there was a chance of seawater injection causing an explosion. Matarame's assessment was that seawater might cause recriticality in the Reactor 1and that was what supposedly prompted Prime Minister Kan to order TEPCO to halt the seawater injection on the night of March 12. Matarame denied this after the event. Of course there is a whole blame-game and he-said/she-said attached to this conversation, not helped by no recordings or notes of the meetings.

But he later told the media, “I now recall myself saying something to the effect that the possibility of recriticality was not zero (from the standpoint of the academic world). Administrative officials overreacted to my comment.” He said he had accepted the amended government statement quoting him as saying, “When asked about the possibility of recriticality, he said something to the effect that the possibility would not be zero.”

PM Kan was relying on scientific advice, can't really be blamed for that.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Kan made one big mistake, HE lied with Edano to the public during Fukushima event pretending nothing is happening covering Tepco's ass while the situation was getting worse and worse, should they have both told the truth and take people has enough responsible to accept the situation at that moment , he will still be PM.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Zichi

Star-viking

"Maybe to prevent various heated argument from being aired in public? Who knows? The inquiries had access to the video conference tapes, didn't they?"

Do you know what for sure, I don't? TEPCO prevented one member of the investigation from visiting the No1 reactor, claiming there wasn't enough light inside when the wrecked building is covered by a translucent cover?

No I don't - that's why I wrote "maybe". Lots of people are perfectly willing to assume the 100% worst of any situation pertaining to TEPCO. I'm a great believer in shades of gray. As for the cover, TEPCO said an exec assumed the cover blocked light, one committee member said "you lie! I say, unless there is a smoking gun the committee member's assertion is unprovable, but that they should be allowed access to no. 1 as soon as possible.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The road to Fukushima on-going disaster began with LDP Hatayama in 1956 with the creation of the Atomic Energy Commission to promote nuclear power. The first nuclear planet was under LDP Ikeda in 1963. A push for more nuclear power was during LDP Koizumi fist term. The first reactor decommissioning was under LDP Miki in 1976. The Nuclear Safety Commission ruled out Seismologist Ishibashi in 2007 under LDP Fukuda. So the apparatus, policy and procedures were created under the LDP but DPJ Kan is the problem? Yes it happened under his watch but everything and all the problems were setup by the LDP over some 60 years. The whole Japanese nuclear program was started under Abe's grandfather in the same year that Abe was born. So the mondaiji kid is Abe not Kan. Outside this political dispute.... maybe people should what this: <http://video.pbs.org/video/2202847024/ >

2 ( +2 / -0 )

True on the LDP's role, though we can also add the lack of a proper national policy on investigating possible natural disasters. Lots of people beating on TEPCO for not 'discovering' an 'expected' tsunami - no one asking why no-one was looking out for the residents of Tohoku's Pacific Coast.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Frungy and tmarie

Actually, no working men or women will vote because it means taking time off work... and in the era of Abenomics no-one can take that risk

well, the election is on Sunday.. and if that particular Sunday doesn't work well with your schedule, they can vote beforehand.. have you heard of early voting?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Zichi,

TEPCO were warned and advised in 2009, that the height of the seawall at its Fukushima plant was not high. It ignored the warning. There are hundreds of scientists who concentrate on natural disasters, including tsunami. At all the major ports along the coast there were sea walls but this time not high enough or strong enough.

If what you are saying is true - why didn't any of the experts who advised TEPCO not bother to advise the residents of the Pacific Coast of Tohoku of a possible mega tsunami?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

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