How well has the Government of Japan taken care of the Fukushima citizens? Fukushima victims: homeless, desperate and angry.

October 28, 2011

The Government of Japan has always stated that their citizens are a priority when dealing with the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster.  Yet, what the Government of Japan actually practices is one of disregard.  It is only after there is a problem that they rush to address it.  This has been repeated over and over again.  What it indicates is that there is no thought about the Fukushima citizens until there is a  problem.  Then, the Government of Japan runs around putting out the fire it created.  These are citizens of Japan and yet, it is only after the Fukushima citizens become angry that the Government of Japan addresses the problem.   That is, if the Cabinet members aren’t too busy laughing.

The article below describes how the Fukushima citizens feel.  They should cheer up when they find out that they have become research subjects for the Government of Japan’s “world record” study of the effects of Radiation on its population.

Fukushima victims:homeless,desperate and angry

By Yoko Kubota

FUKUSHIMA, Japan | Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:42pm EDT

Oct 18 (Reuters) – At last, victims of Japan’s nuclear crisis can claim compensation. And they are angry.

They are furious at the red tape they have to wade through just to receive basic help and in despair they still cannot get on with their lives seven months after the huge quake and tsunami triggered the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.

Shouts fill a room at a temporary housing complex where seven officials, kneeling in their dark suits, face 70 or so tenants who were forced to abandon their homes near the Fukushima nuclear plant after some of its reactors went into meltdown after the March 11 quake struck.

“We don’t know who we can trust!” one man yelled in the cramped room where the officials were trying to explain the hugely complex procedures to claim compensation.

“Can we actually go back home? And if not, can you guarantee our livelihoods?”

About 80,000 people were forced to leave their homes by the nuclear crisis.

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Factbox on compensation for victims

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While the owner of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co , has made temporary payments to some victims, it was only last month that it finally began accepting applications for compensation.

But the procedure is so complicated that it seems to just make things worse.

After claimants have read a 160-page instruction manual, they then have to fill in a 60-page form and attach receipts for lodging, transportation and medical costs.

“It’s too difficult. I’m going to see how it goes. I don’t want to rush and mess up,” said Toshiyuki Owada, 65, an evacuee from Namie town, about 20 km (12 miles) away from the plant.

Owada is one of many who still has not applied for compensation even though they have lost jobs or businesses and are running out of cash.

COMPLEX AND UNFAIR

The complexity of the task is one deterrent.

There is another — the perception that Tepco is not playing fair.

Confidence in the authorities is low. The government is seen as having bungled its early response to the crisis and being secretive about what was really happening.

Tepco is accused of failing to take sufficient safety measures at the Fukushima plant even though it knew the risks and then deliberately underplaying the extent of the accident.

It is also seen as insensitive.

One clause in the original instruction booklet telling victims they would have to agree to waive their right to challenge the compensation amount in order to receive payment provoked a public uproar.

Chastised by the government, the company promised to drop the clause, issued a simplified 4-page instruction booklet and assigned 1,000 employees to Fukushima prefecture to help victims with the process.

“There may be times when the content is difficult to understand or in some cases our employee in charge may not grasp it fully, but we would like to explain and respond as carefully as possible,” said Tepco spokesman Naoyuki Matsumoto.

A government panel overseeing the compensation scheme estimates claims are likely to reach 3.6 trillion yen ($46.5 billion) in the financial year to next March.

FEW CLAIMANTS

But so far just 7,100 individuals have applied to Tepco for compensation out of the 80,000 it send forms to.

And of the 10,000 businesses in the Fukushima area, a mere 300 have submitted claims.

The company expects a total of 300,000 claims from businesses given that the impact of the radiation crisis has been so widespread.

Victims can sue but that is rare.

Junichi Matsumoto, a Tepco official, said the utility faces about 10 lawsuits so far. He declined to disclose details but said some were seeking more than the firm deemed appropriate.

Yuichi Kaido, an attorney and the secretary-general of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, said lawsuits are considered a last resort in conservative rural northeast Japan.

“In the end, many lawsuits could take place,” he said.

“But the majority is thinking of first speaking with Tokyo Electric or seeking mediation . “

SENSE OF RESIGNATION

The final compensation depends on whether and when victims will be able to return to homes within a 20-km evacuation zone. That question remains unanswered, breeding a growing sense of resignation among evacuees.

Some said they doubt they will ever be able to go home and suggested their entire towns simply be relocated and many worry about long-term health effects of radiation.

An Asahi newspaper poll showed this month that 43 percent of evacuees still want to return, down from 62 percent in June.

For many, what is now on the table — reimbursement for moving and transportation costs associated with evacuating, compensation for damage to health, lost jobs, and psychological suffering — only deepens frustration over what they have lost.

Tokyo Electric said it will pay about 100,000 yen a month for the period to end of August as compensation for psychological trauma. After that, the sum will be halved.

“Evidence that we have lived our lives is completely destroyed and for that, we are told that we will be compensated 100,000 yen for our psychological suffering. That’s it?” said 75-year-old restaurant owner Sumiko Toyoguchi, who had to leave her home in Namie.

“What’s at the root of our frustration is that we cannot see what our tomorrow will be like.” ($1 = 77.365 Japanese Yen) (Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Jonathan Thatcher)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/18/japan-nuclear-compensation-idUSL3E7LC0AZ20111018

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Why doesn’t the Government of Japan do its citizens a favor and just remove Goshi Hosono? Why? ( insert the sound of a drum roll, please ) Here’s another mess that can be traced back to Goshi Hosono and his inability to manage an on-going disaster. Spontaneous debris fires add to Tohoku woes.

October 13, 2011
What do you mean that trash catches on fire?
It’s just seems that as time progresses, the issues that have not been addressed by the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Nuclear Disaster Management, Goshi Hosono, continue to be revealed.   With all the trash and rubble that comes from cleaning up and no-where designated for the disposal of the waste, there is now an issue of fire.  How long has this man been in charge of Nuclear Disaster Management?  And, really, just what has he done?  I keep asking this because I am not quite sure what plan he has actually presented for the world to see.  The only thing that the citizens of Japan and the world have seen is a ” Let’s wing it” plan.
It’s a good thing that Goshi Hosono has clown shoes on, he will need them to keep stomping out the ” fires” that his lack of planning continue to ignite.
Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011
News photo
Combustible: Firefighters last month tackle a debris fire in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, likely caused by spontaneous heating. KYODO

Spontaneous debris fires add to Tohoku woes

Kyodo

SENDAI — Smoke and a burning smell filled the air in central Sendai Sept. 16.

It was caused by a fire more than 10 km away at a debris storage site in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, that burned for more than five days.

Tons of debris from the March 11 disasters are spontaneously catching fire at storage sites in the Tohoku region, adding to the headaches of local authorities.

Miyagi Prefecture says it alone has had 15 such blazes.

In late August, a storage site near a fishing port in Kesennuma caught fire, burning about 25,000 cu. meters of debris. Although most of the sites are far away from residential areas, locals have been voicing strong concerns.

According to the National Institute for Environmental Studies, when flammable waste, including wood chips and tatami, is piled high or compressed with heavy machinery, microbes generate methane gas.

The waste material is heated by chemical oxidation and biological decomposition, and catches fire as it comes in contact with a methane gas pocket.

The phenomenon is known as spontaneous combustion.

To avoid such fires, experts say waste should be piled no higher than 5 meters, individual piles kept to 200 sq. meters or less and separated by others by 2 meters or more of open space.

As of Sept. 21, debris stored at temporary sites in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures amounted to 12.74 million tons, a level approaching the roughly 14 million tons collected after the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995. The Tohoku total is expected to rise to about 22.72 million tons.

In the case of Miyagi Prefecture, there is a scarcity of flat land in the ravaged hit coastal area suited to storing debris.

A separate site to compact and incinerate the debris won’t be ready until early next year, while debris at the current sites continues to pile up day by day.

Ishinomaki, where six fires have occurred since April, has started gathering tatami mats, which are likely to emit methane when they rot, at a single location. City officials started patrolling the area and installed pipes to send air into the debris piles.

“It’s hard to see if its steam or smoke rising from the piles of debris,” a city official said. “I want the prefecture to start the disposal of the debris as soon as possible.”

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20111013f3.html

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Dubbed the ‘suicide corps’ by Goshi Hosono. The group is made up of only retirees over the age of 60. At one time, Goshi Hosono considered using them even if that was a conflict of the Labor Standards Law of Japan. Goshi Hosono showing that he is fully versed in the laws of Japan, NOT. We saw how he handled the Animal Welfare Act, he just ignored the parts that didn’t work for him.

October 12, 2011

Old Veterans Who Ache for Battle

2011.08.10 Wednesday

By Makiko Segawa
SNA (Tokyo) – A group of retired engineers and professionals calling themselves the “Skilled Veteran Corps for Fukushima Daiichi” handed a letter of proposal to TEPCO and Minister Goshi Hosono on August 3 asking for state sponsorship of their project. What they have in mind is to work in the most dangerous areas of the Fukushima Daiichi plant in the place of younger workers who are more vulnerable to the long-term effects of radiation.
Some observers are describing these men as “Kamikaze”―though this term is meant as praise by some and criticism by others.
The number of old men who want to participate in this project has been steadily growing. On their website it announced on Tuesday that the number of volunteers has reached 505.
The idea for the creation of the Corps comes from Yasuteru Yamada, a retired 72-year-old plant-making engineer of Sumitomo Metal Industries. About four months ago he began thinking that skilled workers over the age of 60 should be sent into radiation-affected areas rather than young men.
“I am simply proposing something very rational and logical,” he told the SNA in an interview this week.
“Just think about it,” he continued, “which is the larger burden on society? That one young man or two elderly men be exposed to radiation?” He then answered his own question: “After radiation exposure, a young man might have to suffer for, let’s say, about sixty years. However, elderly men have much less time anyway in which to develop radiation-related illnesses.”
For their part, TEPCO has indicated their interest in the Corps and Hiroe Makiyama, a DPJ lawmaker, has been recommending their project to Minister Goshi Hosono.
Yamada is resolute, telling the SNA that he “cannot imagine” that the plan will be rejected. “Through the power and voice of the people, I want to push forward and make it happen,” he declares.
However, not everyone has applauded the plan. A 50-year-old worker at the Fukushima Daiichi who is in charge of construction design at Reactor Number 3, told the SNA, “Thinking realistically, it is extremely hard for people who are above the age of 60 to endure the physically demanding work there, wearing heavy and steamy radiation suits.”
He also points out that this project may conflict with the Labor Standards Law of Japan, which prohibits those younger than 18 as well as elderly people to engage in construction work.
The media, on the whole, tends to glorify the self-sacrificing spirit of the project, but as in all large-scale endeavors, people’s motives are often mixed.
One of the old men involved with the project said with a laugh, “After retirement I didn’t have anything to do with my life, so I came to join the Corps. Also, I wanted to escape from the control of my wife!”
Makiko Segawa is a staff writer at the Shingetsu News Agency.
Shingetsu News Agency

http://shingetsublog.jugem.jp/?eid=112

‘The Moral High Ground’: Japanese Seniors Volunteer For Fukushima ‘Suicide Corps’

1st June 2011   · 

Some 250 elderly Japanese men and women have volunteered to help remedy one of the worst nuclear meltdowns in history. Dubbed the ‘suicide corps’ by Goshi Hosono, Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s special adviser on the Fukushima crisis, the group is made up of only retirees over the age of 60.

(Photo: Kawamoto Takuo)

CNN reports that these seniors believe they are in a unique position to be able to contribute to solving the nuclear crisis at the radiation-contaminated Fukushima plant. And they have a valid point– older peoples’ cells don’t divide as rapidly as do those of younger folks, enabling them to do  work that could be much more perilous to more youthful workers.

“We have to work instead of them,” 72-year-old Yasuteru Yamada told CNN. “Elders have less sensitivity to radiation. Therefore, we have to work.” Yamada, a cancer survivor, said he wanted to do something to make a difference in his remaining years of life.

Their courageous enthusiasm is remarkable. It’s not as if they are immune to the cancers that radiation can cause. But at their age, it is possible that they will die of other causes before radiation-induced cancer can affect them.

Kazuko Sasaki, a 69-year-old woman who co-founded the ‘suicide corps,’ says that death isn’t as frightening for older people as it is for the young. “When we were younger, we never thought of death,” she told CNN. “But death becomes familiar as we get older. We have a feeling that death is waiting for us. This doesn’t mean I want to die. But we become less afraid of death as we get older.”

Sasaki has a different reason for wanting to help. “My generation, the old generation, promoted the nuclear plants,” she told CNN. “If we don’t take responsibility, who will?”

Right now, it doesn’t seem as if the Japanese government is eager to accept the ‘suicide corps” help. There are currently about 1,000 workers already heroically laboring to contain the damage at the Fukushima plant. The plant’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), told CNN they were thankful for the seniors’ offer but that they had enough workers to manage the crisis.

But CNN reports that some younger workers at the plant will never return there. The cable news network interviewed  Hikaru Tagawa, a father of two young children, who temporarily worked at the plant. He lived just a few miles away; now the area is a mandatory evacuation zone.

“Nothing can make me go back to work there,” he said, calling the radiation levels “too dangerous.”

Perhaps that is why Goshi Hosono sounded just a little more open to the idea of accepting the ‘suicide corps” help.

“I met the leader of the group and we’ve started a discussion, looking for any possible, practical next step,” he said at a news conference.

The Japanese government, which has handled the crisis less than admirably, ought to seriously consider their offer. It needs all the help it can get.

http://morallowground.com/2011/06/01/japanese-seniors-volunteer-for-fukushima-suicide-corps/

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