Kan slams TEPCO over nuclear crisis video footage

By Mari Yamaguchi

Politics Aug. 09, 2012 - 03:00PM JST ( 31 )

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31 Comments

9

japan123Aug. 09, 2012 - 02:21PM JST

The real news in the video is what has been left out
11

DenonAug. 09, 2012 - 02:47PM JST

Kan for PM!
7

gyromanAug. 09, 2012 - 02:48PM JST

Kan must have done something right. Else, he wouldn't be asking for what almost all posters here have asked for - the complete footage
11

NZ2011Aug. 09, 2012 - 02:52PM JST

Why is not a single person in jail for criminal negligence?

How can TEPCO be allowed to edit any footage, or even be the ones in possession of this crucial material when they have again and again shown that the misinformation and collusion with-in the company is at systemic levels.

It doesn't matter if you are Pro or Anti Nuclear power, this company has continually failed to step up to even its most basic responsibilities, no body can defend them and they shouldn't.

It all makes me quite upset to be honest, especially now that everyone of us will be forced to pay for their mistakes for the foreseeable future.

The Government is just as much to blame for allowing this company to make its own rules and regulations and allowing the industry to monitor itself, which they still haven't really addressed in any significant way.

A disgraceful and disgusting display of modern economics and society at its very worst.
10

edojinAug. 09, 2012 - 02:56PM JST

Kan continues to look good in how he handled the nuclear crisis ...

Pressure must continue to be placed on TEPCO so that we know the full, real story ...
6

DisillusionedAug. 09, 2012 - 02:57PM JST

Good on ya Kan! Stick it to the lying bastards! They are just trying to cover their tracks with bull dust. The upper management of TEPCO should be facing criminal charges for their bungled handling of the world's second worst nuclear disaster and for withholding key information to save themselves from embarrassment. There should be a royal inquest (or the Japanese equivalent) into what happened in the first two weeks after 3/11. If you remember correctly, TEPCO was adamant their was no meltdown, only a gas explosion, which we all know was just cover-up BS to keep the heat off them while the rest of the eastern seaboard was basting in radioactivity. They are criminals!
-3

NinohAug. 09, 2012 - 03:18PM JST

Opinions are dime a dozen, do something.
3

smithinjapanAug. 09, 2012 - 03:18PM JST

LOCK THEM UP NOW!
3

cubicAug. 09, 2012 - 03:20PM JST

Good on you, Kan. Get all of the footage released in the spirit of accountability.
3

gogogoAug. 09, 2012 - 03:38PM JST

Kan saved tokyo, the wessles at Tepco wanted to run away and now are changing their tune.

By edittng the audio they are also showing they have something to hide, release all the video, why would you need to edit it!??
3

gaijinTechieAug. 09, 2012 - 05:10PM JST

If Tepco has nothing to hide and did everything correctly as they claim, there should be no problem in releasing all the footage in full. Obviously there is something to hide.

Afraid to take responsibility of what was done and left undone? So childish. Apparently Tepco executives never grew up beyond junior high school level. Too bad, since now they're criminally responsible, no matter how they try to disregard that.
2

tokyokawasakiAug. 09, 2012 - 05:18PM JST

If they had nothing to hide, they would release it all. Their actions speak volumes..
2

VirtuosoAug. 09, 2012 - 05:35PM JST

Well you see it was like this, when the secretary reached across the desk to answer the phone, she accidentally hit the RECORD button of the only copy, and.... Hence the 18-minute blank portion.
2

shanabelleAug. 09, 2012 - 05:50PM JST

TEPCO the corporation with an editing prowess second only to the folk in 'Naughty North Korea'... This speaks volumes as to the sheer arrogance of the ageing leadership of TEPCO....they seriously believe they can get away with this....and they just might....
3

Terry TibbsAug. 09, 2012 - 05:59PM JST

Kan is a hero.
3

Thomas AndersonAug. 09, 2012 - 06:02PM JST

Kan has nothing to hide, but TEPCO does.
-10

basroilAug. 09, 2012 - 06:12PM JST

The content of TEPCO’s video conference is crucial evidence, “equivalent to communication between a pilot and a control tower in an airplane accident,” Kan said.

Normal people have no need to see or hear anything, just allow those who's job it is to learn and improve systems to listen and see all the data, and have them implement what they learn.

What he is complaining about is that he was made to look bad because of what he said instead of what he meant. Considering he shouldn't have ever talked with those people until after the situation was over (by common sense AND law), he shouldn't complain.
1

CrickyAug. 09, 2012 - 07:07PM JST

So after things went really pear shaped, then he should have intervened? And we would then be talking about too late? As PM the whole country is his responsibility, he intervened because the baboons were ready to run. Now the baboons won't admit their putrid motivations or less still what they had actually planed to do until Mr Kan put pressure on them.
5

hatsoffAug. 09, 2012 - 07:14PM JST

just allow those who's job it is to learn and improve systems to listen and see all the data, and have them implement what they learn.

Basroil - I wish I had as much faith in this system as you. I am not anti-nuclear energy per se, but the oversight, compliance and communication in this whole affair have been disgraceful. Those who support nuclear power do the industry no favours by denying this (not referring directly to you here). I have little faith that they will implement or learn unless transparency is maintained - nay, enforced - at every step. We don't even have the new governing body set up yet.

As for Kan, I would rather a proactive PM than a reactive one. And seeing as he wasn't being given information from TEPCO he made the right move. I remember one occasion when Edano was questioned at his daily news conference on information TEPCO had released to the press but had not passed on directly to the government. Poor communications, and they haven't learned much since.
3

smithinjapanAug. 09, 2012 - 07:53PM JST

basroil: "What he is complaining about is that he was made to look bad because of what he said instead of what he meant. Considering he shouldn't have ever talked with those people until after the situation was over (by common sense AND law), he shouldn't complain."

Those people, basroil, led by Shimizu, were going to flee the plant in terror until it was demanded they stay. Later Kan got angry that they did not give proper information as to the severity of the reactors (didn't want to use seawater until it was too late because they wanted to save the reactors even though they were gone), and didn't release proper information on the release of information. If you can't hear what Kan said, basroil, how is it YOU know? Ah, wait, TEPCO was complaining about the government interfearing in the crisis -- that's right! You WOULD believe them, despite them editing everything out.

The government now owns the majority of the company and if the government wants those records released in full, they should be released immediately. If they've got nothing to hide, let them out. As it is, it seems like they have an AWFUL lot they're trying to hide, and pin on everyone else, of course.
0

GWAug. 09, 2012 - 10:00PM JST

When I rerad stuff like this I sometimes wish there were FIRING SQUADS in Japan!
2

kaminarioyajiAug. 09, 2012 - 10:04PM JST

Y'know, it really beats me how the Japanese seem to have no limit for how much obfuscation and general BS they are prepared to take.

Mr Kan is seemingly a diamond in the rough.
1

warnerbroAug. 09, 2012 - 10:11PM JST

"Pretty much every piece of evidence states you are spouting nonsense."

I had to laugh at this comment. Every piece of evidence beyond politicians and TEPCO functionaries calling each other liars is in the tapes that TEPCO refuses to release. If it has nothing to hide, it should release everything.
-4

issa1Aug. 09, 2012 - 10:49PM JST

Hatoyama, kan, Noda, the enter to history of Japanese politics as the worst Prime Minister this country ever had. What amazes me most is that the Japanese people handed the power in the hands of these lunatics.
3

hatsoffAug. 09, 2012 - 11:39PM JST

issa1 - if you are linking those prime ministers with the disaster in some way (assuming you're not intentionally way off topic), then I'd remind you that it was the LDP who for 50 odd years was running the country during the growth of nuclear power, and is therefore 100% responsible for the poor regulation, the failure to prosecute for non-compliance and deceit, the failure to keep the regulating body separate from the industry, failure to follow-up on instructions to the power companies....

Now then, what were you saying about lunatics?
-1

zichiAug. 10, 2012 - 12:09AM JST

@Issa1

Hatoyama, kan, Noda, the enter to history of Japanese politics as the worst Prime Minister this country ever had. What amazes me most is that the Japanese people handed the power in the hands of these lunatics.

At the time of the 3/11 disasters, the ruling gov't had only been in power for about 20 months.

Since the mid 1950's right up to 3/11, nuclear power had been the responsibility of decades of LDP gov't's which started in the 1950's by colluding with America and the CIA to introduce nuclear energy into the country, even hiding from the public, important documents on nuclear safety,

It was the LDP gov't's which bears all the responsibility for the worse nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. We also know they were bed fellows and part of the nuclear village.

I'm a little shocked but I suppose not surprised, by how quiet the LDP have been over the nuclear disaster,
-2

zichiAug. 10, 2012 - 12:48AM JST

In the video, Plant Manager Yoshida seems to be saying it was "steam explosion" (水蒸気爆発） in Reactor 3. When a TEPCO senior executive (perhaps Mr. Komori, from the voice) talks to NISA, he is saying "possible hydrogen explosion". The official account is that it was a hydrogen explosion.

I have stated since last year, I thought the explosion in No3 reactor was a steam explosion. If it was, t would mean the reactor must be badly damaged which might explain the high radiation levels in the building, or what remains of it.
1

FadamorAug. 10, 2012 - 03:07AM JST

The videos and audio were edited "in the interest of confidentiality". Hogwash. We're not talking about video of a run-of-the-mill Board meeting here, we're talking about video covering a period of NATIONAL EMERGENCY of the people directly involved in the mitigation of the emergency. There IS no valid claim of "confidentiality". These videos have a direct impact on National Safety and any judge that would rule they should remain edited needs to re-think his purpose on the bench.
-2

basroilAug. 10, 2012 - 08:22AM JST

FadamorAug. 10, 2012 - 03:07AM JST

The videos and audio were edited "in the interest of confidentiality". Hogwash. We're not talking about video of a run-of-the-mill Board meeting here, we're talking about video covering a period of NATIONAL EMERGENCY of the people directly involved in the mitigation of the emergency. There IS no valid claim of "confidentiality". These videos have a direct impact on National Safety and any judge that would rule they should remain edited needs to re-think his purpose on the bench.

As I have stated many times (and later censored), no other industry releases the full results of tape analysis, including the aviation industry that Kan specifically references in this article. The tape should be made available in full to qualified researchers (under NDA), IAEA/NISA, and the companies that build and maintain reactors, and indications are that all those parties already have the tapes. A normal person would be gaining nothing out of the video because they won't understand a bit of it, and because they don't understand it they will be senselessly made afraid.
0

bajhista65Aug. 10, 2012 - 04:41PM JST

hahahaha...do you expect the culprit to show and tell you the truth?
1

basroilAug. 10, 2012 - 08:29PM JST

zichiAug. 10, 2012 - 12:48AM JST

In the video, Plant Manager Yoshida seems to be saying it was "steam explosion" (水蒸気爆発） in Reactor 3. When a TEPCO senior executive (perhaps Mr. Komori, from the voice) talks to NISA, he is saying "possible hydrogen explosion". The official account is that it was a hydrogen explosion.

You mean the one here?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCA8MYRuXR0

That one seems to say 水素 (hydrogen) or　水蒸気(steam), and then proceeds to state he believes it was the same type as reactor 1. I'm more interested in the と that was left hanging, either something and explosion or one of the two above words and something else (explosion unrelated). The video has very poor sound and should not be peered too much into until we have some sort of expert review of it.