» Gov’t released interviews of 127 officials at Fukushima disaster

2014/12/26

The central government released dozens more closed-door accounts by people closely connected to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in response to a public outcry about secrecy.

The latest batch involves accounts by 127 officials, workers at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and other parties caught up in the crisis triggered by the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

They include accounts by former Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato, Toshitsuna Watanabe, the mayor of Fukushima Prefecture’s Okuma town, and Eiji Hiraoka, vice director-general of the now-dissolved Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

It brings to 202, the number of records released to date.

Bowing to calls for greater openness on the issue, the Abe administration in September made public its records of remarks by 19 people, including the late Masao Yoshida, who was the manager of the nuclear facility at the onset of the disaster, and Naoto Kan, the prime minister at the time.

It followed up with records of interviews with an additional 56 people in November.

A government investigation committee held closed-door questioning sessions with about 770 related officials and others in connection with the accident.

<Media Report>
127 more ‘secret’ interviews on Fukushima crisis disclosed (Asahi Newspaper)

Tags:japanese government, news, plant workers, TEPCO

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