Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant director sick, says TEPCO
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58 Comments
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14
borscht
Sorry, not anymore. Since he's been working hard at the damaged plant for nearly nine months and everyone in Japan is concerned about radiation to some degree, his illness needs to be public. If it's not related to radiation, tell us. If it is related to radiation, tell us. Also, get well soon from your unspecified disease.
And I know this might be impossible for TEPCO, but Get Your Message Straight! Mixed messages imply you don't know what's going on (worst case scenario) or you're lying jerks (best case scenario). And, yes, I know TEPCO regularly monitors JapanToday for advice. You're welcome, Big T.
6
Yubaru
Really? Hummm, if that's the case it's really no wonder why things are still so screwed up with all the conflicting opinions from the experts here.
4
NetNinja
They're going to lie. They'll call it anything but radiation sickness.
This is where you see loyalty to company is higher than the safety of the public. He'll take one for the team. Can you imagine his family willing to live with his disgrace if he dies. We need some investigative reporting right now. We want to know the truth.
The lawyers will no doubt have gag orders on everyone who comes near this guy. Don't expect we'll see him publicly for a while.
22
hatsoff
It could be argued that Masao Yoshida's action of injecting seawater against orders saved Japan. This man is a hero. The public needs to know definitively if his illness is due to radiation.
I wouldn't be surprised if it is - and nor would Mr Yoshida. He knew the risks, and chose to stay at the plant when the then-Tepco president wanted to abandon it (Kan forced the president not to). Masao Yoshida, and his brave team of 'Fukushima Fifty( are all heroes. I'm sure the whole nation wishes him well.
0
MaboDofuIsSpicy
? How? Why?
1
ihrwjns
Yeah, I agree that TEPCO and the monitors need to make public the extent of Mr. Yoshida's illness, whether it be from the radiation exposure or otherwise...
That is so all the other workers have at least can make an informed decision on whether it is safe to continue working at the plant without some more precautions...and for the general public to have the straight skinny...
3
borscht
Do y'all think TEPCO reads JT? Sarcasm at my own expense; sorry for the confusion. Though, it could explain a few things...
6
globalwatcher
Good grief! You will never be told the truth unless Mr. Yoshida himself is willing to talk. Hope nothing is serious. He is the most courageous man of TEPCO.
Pray for Mr. Yoshida's fast recovery
-3
Jared Norman
people should have the right to privacy, i have experience with reactors
3
Godan
From day one, with so many conflicting opinions, I haven't really known what to believe in regard to the reactors and the damage they took from March 11. But I do believe this man, as well as the Fukushima 50, has tried his best, and I sincerely hope he recovers soon and gets the recognition he deserves for doing what was best for the people of Japan.
PS I would rather see a movie about these heroes as opposed to a movie everyone's been talking about recently.
6
kurisupisu
We all owe a debt to Mr Yoshida for putting his own life at risk................
-5
Onniyama
They will no doubt find a bottle of radioactive material from the 1960s in a bottle in his backyard.
-1
Ted Barrera
Glad they're sending the 'head of nuclear plant operations' into the fire from his cushy Tokyo job. Probably should have been there in the first place, especially if he has anything to do with how shabby and shady the plant was before the disasters hit.
-3
ExportExpert
He's had a nervous or mental breakdown is most likely, happens alot to people who endure stressfull situations for prolonged periods, Could be said he has had a little melt down of his own.
The polite way to describe this condition is to say an undisclosed illness or something simillar like they have been suffering from exhaustion etc
4
zichi
Masao Yoshida, 56, will resign as of Dec.1. His last day at the plant was Nov.14 which was two days after the visit by the media.
TEPCO/government kept silent for 2 full weeks until Nov.28. The government/NISA/TEPCO hold teleconferences daily, and no mention from any of them that the plant director or general manager was missing.
The Fukushima atomic power plant continues to release very high levels of radiation. The rad levels around the plant remain high. Inside No2 reactor building the level is 1.2 SIEVERTS/hr and inside No3 reactor building, 1.6 SIEVERTS/hr.
Did he expose himself to high levels of radiation? We can only speculate on that? This year I know several people around his age who have suffered stomach cancer, which was a thought I had about Yoshida?
Since the nuclear disaster began on 3/11, 6 workers have been dismissed from their duties as of Oct.31, due to radiation exposure over the allowed limit of 250 millisieverts. Weekdays, there about 3,000 workers at the plant, and more than 16,000 people have worked at the plant as of the end of Aug.
Yoshida and his team risked smoke, debris, explosions and radiation to bring the reactor cooling systems back on line.
-2
gyouza
If it isn't stress related I'd be very surprised.
3
FernandoUchiyama
Its a shame the lack of transparency from TEPCO and the weakness of the japanese media (TV, radio, newspaper, magazines, internet...). In other countries, the media would be pressing TEPCO to tell the truth or at least to tell more, instead of just saying it is "private matters".
-1
pawatan
It could be a lot of things - stress, radiation, unrelated middle-aged man issues. I'm not sure how relevant it is to tell the public if his illness is radiation related or not. He's spent a lot of time on site; everybody, and I mean everybody, knows that the site itself is quite lethal. Why would it be surprising that he has a radiation-related illness?
Anyway his health is a private matter.
1
Equality
@Netninja - Yoshida is actually anything but "a disgrace". In fact, he is more like a hero after having gone against direct company orders - extremely rare in Japan - to cool down a reactor in the only way possible at that time.
-5
NetNinja
@Equality I don't have any issues with Mr. Yoshida. I like his BBQ sauce. (J/K)
I do have issues with TEPCO as a whole. The people, like myself, are demanding to know the truth. This is not like Michael Jackson who couldn't keep his life private. This is a public safety matter.
His poor health if in fact was brought on by radiation exposure the public has the right to know.
The paparazzi follows people all the time just to see who they are dating. That is something that should be PRIVATE.
This is a matter of national security and safety for the general public.
I don't know why some of you major in the minor and minor in the major.
Not trying to be rude or offensive but if you think THIS individuals health should be private then you need to sort out your priorities.
3
YongYang
He IS the man who ignored the mandate of Follow The Manual.and did the RIGHT thing. He fought and struggled and came through as others wanted to "Save the investment", he saved us. Love and peace to the man. It is radiation related for sure.
0
YongYang
No. He and others helped establish NEW cooling systems that were ad-hoc and fly-by-wire make it up as you go along inventions. Remember the fire hoses? The desperataion of dumping water from helicopters? Remember the ishards of deep cold in your guts? There were no reactor cooling systems left. Even now nothing is for certain. Mr Yoshida, thank you and those whos stayed with you, followed your instruction.
1
Antonios_M
Well, let's hope that it is not radiation related (although i doubt, judging by the "confidentiality" of the illness) and that he will get well soon. Everyone who fought in order to keep safe all of us and the country as well, is a hero to my eyes.
Of course, i can't say the same for many managers and shareholders of TEPCO who made terrible choices and lied constantly in order to protect the "status" of the company.
0
smithinjapan
"Yoshida is being replaced by Takeshi Takahashi, who was in charge of nuclear power plant operations at TEPCO’s head office in Tokyo, some 220 kilometers southwest of the Fukushima plant."
Bring on the amakudari! Does this guy have any qualifications or is he just another Shimizu who's waited in line?
I wish Yoshida the best, truly. He sounds like one of the only people with the gall to stand up to the corruption rampant in the company. Had Yoshida NOT defied them who knows what we'd be facing now. As it is, I think the company needs to come clean and declare his illness outright -- it sounds more like an issue of 'privacy' for the company, not the man and his family, given what the man has done and how he has acted (like a hero). If he is sick due to what's going on, that needs to be said. If not, it still needs to be said, albeit it's impossible to believe TEPCO these days for whatever they say.
-2
originalusername
Most people Perhaps it is just something private, which he doesnt want the world to know? Swollen testicles? who knows?
The problem is, nobody here will accept any other answer than "Radiation related" If they come out and say "stress related high blood pressure", everyone will accuse them of lying It could be a pre-existing cancer, but everyone will assume its radiation related.
-4
CrazyJoe
Privacy is taken very "seriously" here I guess. Privacy is just the right to be left alone.
0
pawatan
NetNinja
WHY? Please explain why his health needs to be public. It's well known he has spent a lot of time working on site, and it's well known there are levels of radiation on site that pose a significant risk to health. WHY do you need to know the cause of his illness? It's very well established that he has quite likely been exposed to significant levels of radiation, much much higher than the general public. How does this affect you? Don't insult, explain.
3
gyouza
@netninja
Exactly which part of National Security is at risk?
0
BurakuminDes
Get well soon, Mr.Yoshida - and then get back to getting that bloody reactor sorted out.
2
Samantha Zoe Aso
Thank you, Mr Yoshida. You are a hero. You stayed put and did your job in the most unbelievable terrifying and dangerous circumstances. If TEPCO management had an iota of your dedication, integrity and bravery perhaps the north of Japan wouldn't be in this huge mess.
I hope that you recover soon.
Zichi~ thank you as always for the updates!
1
smithinjapan
originalusername: "The problem is, nobody here will accept any other answer than "Radiation related" If they come out and say "stress related high blood pressure"..."
No, the problem is that the company, which has lied on COUNTLESS occasions, is once again giving conflicting reports. Doesn't exactly instill a lot of confidence, does it?
9
zichi
I hope whatever it is that Masao Yoshida makes a full recovery from his illness. He knows vital information about the atomic power plant. I hope he will also fully co-operate with the nuclear disaster investigation and reveal everything he knows about the plant especially the defective parts like the cooling pipes to the reactors. Also what happened to the No2 suppression chamber on 3/11. Was it destroyed or badly damaged? I want to see the day come when TEPCO is prosecuted for their lack of safety standards at the plant.
1
Elbuda Mexicano
I really wish Yoshida San recovers ASAP!! Tepco has a lot of explaining to do!
0
smithinjapan
zichi: "I want to see the day come when TEPCO is prosecuted for their lack of safety standards at the plant."
As do we all, save TEPCO heads. The problem is that by the time that rolls around all of the people who were responsible for the mismanagement and lack of safety standards will be long gone from the company and living off their Cayman Island accounts.
0
RealJapan
Seems like a hero to me. He took decisive action and injected seawater into the plant (possibly saving lives) when TEPCO was indecisive.
0
hatsoff
Do we need to know or not?
If he is sick due to radiation and it is terminal - let's hope not, but if it is - then I would hope the country would be able to show its thanks and gratitude to Mr Yoshida while he is still alive, to let him know we all deeply respect the courage and fortitude and leadership he has shown. If it is really unrelated, then yes, his health is a private matter.
0
Cricky
A dog got a medal last week and a certificate! Does anyone know if this man will be recognized in any way? Seems he held his nerve and made decisions under extreme pressure. Hope he is exhausted and nothing fatal.
0
supercub
It's entirely possible that he has an infection associated with radiation exposure, but that doesn't mean that he has a life-threatening sickness. I'm no doctor, but it seems unlikely that he has developed cancer in such a short period. He doesn't have acute radiation sickness. Obviously this guy (and many workers there) are at risk for radiation-related illness, and there is a whole range of illness associated with radiation exposure. It's not just acute radiation sickness and cancer.
0
bajhista65
I hope it is not radiation related but if it is, the radiation caused Cancer countdown have started.
5
zichi
For the first time since the atomic bombing, Japan is about to start a New Year, almost 9 months after 3/11, with a massive radiation and contamination problem. According to the Science Ministry, 8% of the total land mass is contaminated. People are fearful of the food supply and mothers are in panic about the health and well being of their young children.
The 80,000+ people evacuated from the Fukushima exclusion zone still haven't received a single yen in compensation from TEPCO and are still battling with the massive claims form. Contrary to public opinion, food is still being grown and sold from Fukushima.
TEPCO have made some progress at the atomic power plant but the rate will be very slow for many years if not decades. The plant is still releasing high levels of radiation and the plant remains highly dangerous for the workers.
Japan has entered a new era of strong and powerful earthquakes and it could take decades for the country to settle down again after the powerful quake of 3/11 which released a massive amount of energy moving the country 7 meters nearer to America. The most critical point at the power plant must be the removal of all the spent fuel because another powerful quake could rattle the weakened structures and collapse one or more of the spent pools? The government have ordered TEPCO to remove all spent fuel within two years.
TEPCO are reaching some kind of end game with reactors 1-3 and won't be able to do much more, like removing the melted fuel, for many years, if ever? The radiation in the reactor buildings is higher than any worker can be exposed to for any meaningful length of time. Even removing the spent fuel is going to be very difficult.
In the disaster zone there are still more than 150,000 homeless people. Large areas of debris have been removed but remain in mountains with no real clear plan what to do with it, since many prefectures, except Tokyo are refusing to take it. There has been no start of reconstruction and most local governments don't even seem to have a reconstruction plan.
Meanwhile, the politicians of the Diet spend their time fighting each other, instead of working together in unity to overcome and resolve all the massive problems.
2012 is not going to be a good year for the country.
-5
theResident
It's none of out business what is wrong with him. He should be afforded the same prvacy as anybody else. He is not a celebrity Simply by publishing this article you are provoking 'it must be linked to radiation' comments by hysterical foreigners. Most of whom remain here for reasons that are beyond me. Yoshida-San stayed at his post and did the right thing.
1
Miyagidad
In this case a hero would be someone who risked their career for years prior to the March incident to expose the cover-ups, design flaws, arrogance, safety lapses etc. at the plant. Yoshida did none of that. Lest we forget, they gave the power plant an operational extension just months before the incident, then announced weeks before that much of the back-up systems hadn't in fact been checked - these failures were on Yoshida's watch - sloppy, negligent, criminal. My hero!
2
zichi
Miyagidad,
I have previously stated the same and agree with you on that one!!!
-3
pawatan
I disagree very strongly with you on that one, Miyagidad. We don't know what Yoshida-san did or did not do before 3/11. We don't know what alarms he raised. We don't know if his concerns were ignored. We can see from his actions to stem the crisis that he did not hesitate to go against the will of his superiors when it was absolutely necessary. Hindsight is always 20/20 when discussing what he should have done before.
We DO know what he did after 3/11, and that makes him a hero. He (and others) probably gave his life to save ours - I will not be critical of a man who sacrifices so much.
1
Miyagidad
pawatan,
What he didn't do was to blow the whistle on these matters and he did endorse the certification that the plant was safe. If his negligence has led to sickness, that is regrettable.
I don't know where you are based, my area is just kilometers from Iitate-mura, I have had to evacuate my family and lost my house to this poison. Our friends are engulfed in this horror everyday - these are the common-a-day hero's who will receive no compensation, little in the way of health checks and a life time of stress.
My sympathies go out to the contract workers brought in by Yoshida and his cronies, many of them unaware, unprepared and untrained for the work around the reactors - paid a pittance compared to the TEPCO workers, and for about 140 or so of these, that are unaccounted for - lost in the system that Yoshida oversees and will likely never receive the medical care that he is receiving now. My hero!!
1
Cos
8 months too late. Should have been fired mid-March and ordered to take a shift as temp worker to help clean the mess. News today would be "a temp worker from Fuku dai-1 quits", and that news we never hear, but we should keep more respect for all those temp workers than for the director of disaster. He did the good thing after the disaster ? Nothing special that a guy does his job. It's not being a hero, even if that contrasts with the many times he and his buddies Tepco execs failed at their task.
I don't care. I try, but I can't. He's the last person in all Fukushima Pref that I care about. The only news is he is not fired. Nobody got the guts to fire him. Sad news.
3
zichi
Yoshida was in charge of the atomic power plant since mid last year and given his responsibility I would think he had worked at the plant for many years.
Yoshida and all the other nuclear engineer's, technicians and operators who knew the plant was defective or below necessary safety standards had a duty to themselves, to their families, and to the nation, to blow the whistle.
But not a single one did. Shame on them! I was a chief electrical engineer and in my time refused point blank to run any plant I didn't think was safe.
Since 3/11 some retired engineer's have spoken out with deep regret and shame, but all much too late?
-1
pawatan
Miyagidad
My sympathies for your position. It's horrible and nobody should have to be put through such a situation.
However, this doesn't change my opinion. I'm in Kanto, BTW.
I will likely get thumbed down hard for this, but I honestly don't understand the huge stress related to fear of cancer. My brother died of cancer, my mother had several cancer related surgeries and my father had cancer when he died (of unrelated issues). It's something i've thought about in the back of my mind since I was a child, not only for my health but for my mother (still in good shape through it all) and sister as well. Maybe if my family were generally healthy I would be more worried, but as it is it's just another likely fact of life for me....
-6
j4p4nFTW
This illness is part of this man's private life. As a private citizen of Japan, I acknowledge that I have no right whatsoever to ask what his illness is. Japan has very strict privacy laws, and it is best for us not to know his illness.
1
Miyagidad
pawatan
The issue of health is primarily for kids, actually my youngest has serious respiratory issues. Cancer is one issue, there are a multitude of other thyroid, lung, auto-immune conditions etc. that long-term exposure causes. Breathing it, eating it, drinking it, touching it.
Chernobyl permanent evacuation was for those experiencing 350 milli in a lifetime, this will be reached by people in our are within 22-25 years, and we are not under compulsory evacuation. The fact that you have lived with cancer around you as many of us have is challenging for all, but sending children to school with dosimeters is unacceptable.
0
pawatan
Miyagidad
Indeed. Please take care as best you can.
0
Miyagidad
Article in today's Guardian, highlights the point that when Yoshida led the department overseeing the plant's management in 2008 a report was submitted and subsequently rejected highlighting the risk of a 10.2 metre tsunami to the Fukushima plant.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/29/fukushima-daiichi-operator-tsunami-warning
-4
wtfjapan
probably didnt realise anything was wrong until he took a leak late at night, and found his urine was glowing in the dark. LOL
3
Blair Herron
I agree with Miyagidad.
I respect Mr. Yoshida's heroic act after 3.11 and great leadership for all the workers at the plant. However, he was one of TEPCO executives that ignored the discovery of the prediction in 2008 that said tsunami could reach 15 meters. The prediction was made by the government's nuclear accident investigation and verification committee. I hope he will get better soon and will speak what was really going on at that time.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110826005191.htm
http://mainichi.jp/select/jiken/news/20111128k0000m040140000c.html
3
zichi
Germany, the first major country which announced it would give up nuclear power, recommended on Monday the same thing for Japan, through the voice of German ambassador at Tokyo, Volker Stanzel.
2
Miyagidad
Zichi,
Respect for all of your postings over the months. Well informed, insightful, keep it up.
0
Onniyama
I sure wish Mr. Yoshida all the best in recovering. For anyone who has not seen it I encourage you to watch Chernobly: A Million Casualties on YouTube.
0
zichi
Miyagidad,
thank you!
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