politics

Kan visits Fukushima to apologize over no-go zones

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Why should Kan have to apologize for this?

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Meanwhile, back in Tokyo, politicians are busy shaking each other's hands congratulating themselves on ousting Kan (the only person standing who actually ever did anything for the people). The next round of political bickering begins Monday.

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The title should be "Kan visits Fukushima to apologize over the failure to mobilize disaster and evacuation instructions to Fukushima residents."

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Now i understand why Japanese foods re so sweet

They did it , they must get it

Can not be helped !!!

oh lah lah ...

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"Outgoing Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Saturday said he was sorry that some areas close to the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant will remain uninhabitable for a long time."

Wow... only five months after everyone else already said so!

Serrano: "Why should Kan have to apologize for this?"

Because he is part of the big down-play and one of the parties that kept telling said people it's temporary, and if they clean up the topsoil the land will be usable again, etc. No one told these people, despite foreign media and posters on here pointing out the half life of cesium being 30 years or more, leaking into ground water, etc., that they would not be able to go back for a LONG time (and define 'long'!) until now. Some of these people, if not all, will NEVER see home again, but the government denied that until now. Even still they're using euphemisms like 'long time' instead of '80 years' or so. It'll be years before they actually sit these people down and lay it out straight because doing so now would hurt the incoming PM (Kan is on his way out, so he takes the fall and apologizes). Yes, he needs to apologize, but so do all the other politicians, and so does TEPCO.

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I remember few days ago someone did bet that Kan will not bother to visit disaster areas to apologize after resigning. Now, it's something like this: yes he did visit, but he was the one to blame to begin with.

The inefficiency in handling the problems that emerged is to be blamed on both LDP and DPJ for not being able to get around the small and silly conflicts they had when the whole nation was in crisis. Looking at the whole issue from a side, I believe that there is something wrong with the Japanese politics in general that produce such corrupted and bureaucratic behavior. That said, if everyone responsible for the problems were to quit then Japan would have been left with no politicians at all.

So in my humble opinion, the resignation was meaningless to begin with. But at least this should make LDP happier now that their chances in the next elections are better with a crumbling ruling party (like 50 years in power were not enough for them).

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He did make it worse, and dump radiation in the sea, so he should do this, but it is TEPCO criminals who should be doing this.

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The nuclear reactor inspectors and regulators should be the ones apologizing for their years of falsifying safety data and complicity with TEPCO's shoddy design and construction. Stories of cooling pipes rupturing instantly and fixtures snapping and breaking from the earthquake shock alone are coming out now from on-site workers, meaning that blaming the tsunami for the triple meltdown is no longer true. The design and construction was so poor that they had to use heavy machinery to bend pipes into position before they could weld them, meaning they were under stress from the start!

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@AsagaoAug. 28, 2011 - 11:46AM JST

This is not Kan problems!

This is result of government requirements and standards for atomic electrostation that used many years. The government never learning world problems of AES security. Also last 5 years Japan have new PM. In Japan very big problems a cancer of stomach. May be TEPCO always drops water in Pacific ocean. Also Japanese manner of communication is not usable for extremal situations: "i hope", "may be" and other. Also in Japanese manner of communication many worried about emotions but without describe of information. This is on good for describe extremal situations. Extremal situations need describe only information without emotions. May be for Edo period that manner is usable but not now. Also problem of emotional self-confidence of government and TEPCO. After some hour Russia offer help, but Japan make request only after 3 day! But no one dead from radiation that is very good!

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Kan: "I was not sufficiently competent and prepared" for the disaster"

No one was.

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The government built the nuclear plant. The government was responsible for overseeing nuclear safety by the operator. And the government is responsible for the recovery effort and restitution of people inconvenienced by the explosions of the nuclear reactors.

Kan is head of the government.

Shrugging his shoulders and saying "this was the LDP's fault" doesn't cut the mustard, and plenty has gone wrong since the accident.

He is doing the right thing, although admittedly it is a bit cynical that he is getting in all his apologizing now to help his successor avoid having to do the same thing.

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Apologies are meaningless in Japan, and everyone knows that. His "apology" is especially so. What he really means is, "We have the money to decontaminate the area, but its very expensive, so we are not going to bother our backsides. Live with it. We politicians in Tokyo will continue to do nothing for you, and still receive our fat salaries."

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