U.N. chief asks Japan for frank input at nuclear safety summit

'input' from Japan for the success of international conference? yes, Japan will also give well-worded speech like you, Mr. Ban.

“I expect the Japanese government to contribute constructively to the success of a high-level conference in the United Nations on Sept 22 on nuclear safety and nuclear security,” said Ban.

Japans input into this meeting will be very valuable indeed, if the Japanese can comprehensively explain what steps they have taken before and after the crisis this could become a template not only on how to avoid a nuclear catastrophe but also what not to do in the event of one. In other words if you do the opposite of what these clowns in this counrty have done you should be ok.

He only saw what Japan wanted him to see.

He only saw what Japan wanted him to see.

Right, below is what they didn't want him to "know"....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9sTLQSZfwo&feature=related

Watch and make your own conclusions... -_-

and to make things even worse.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVuGwc9dlhQ

Ban—who has convened a nuclear safety summit for the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September

Nuclear Safety, 1. Do not keep NPP past there intended usage date, 2. make sure backup energy sources in case of an emergency are functional, 3. replace old tech with new tech where possible, 4. do not be money hungry and keep old outdated NPP around for profits sake, replace with Modern tech. 5. Keep the environment surrounding the NPP as safe as possible.

Japan can play an important role. It can give an exhaustive list of all the mistakes you can make and all the possible things that could be done wrong. Learning from mistakes is an important life skill.

He reckoned Japanese people are resilient, they would need to be considering the calamatious way the Diet is handling the situation, or not andling it accoding to public oppinion. The international community is well aware of the cause of the disaster,ie the designers, the construction sites total unsuitability and the lack of forsight into the possibility that nuclear reactors errected in an unstable eartquake prone zone are extremely vulnerable.

Japan and "frank" should not be used in the same sentence when it comes to any information about Fukushima released by the government or TEPCO. Delayed, opague, partial, deceitful, overly-optimistic would all be much better adjectives.

Well, if anyone here felt ill will towards the man for merely stepping into the disaster zone and saying 'ganbatte', they'll forgive him because he praised Japanese resilience.

Anyway, Japan will be anything but frank about what's going on, save playing up the victim card. The government DOZENS of times promised transparency (in return for expectation people would continue to buy made-in-Japan) but they have yet to tell anyone what's really going on. In other words, don't expect frank input from this nation; the best you'll get is, "We have suffered terribly... we are doing what we can to solve the crisis. Please eat some of this produce from Fukushima to prove it's safe."

Japan and "frank" should not be used in the same sentence

Not true. The Japanese most adept at frank input - the best in the world, actually - would be Takeru Kobayashi.

Kan showing a smiling face in any circumstance since 3-11 is a disgrace. How can he manage to even bring a smile to his disgusting face? He and the government are the cause for the nuclear disaster in Japan and the likely future cancers of many many people. It is a disgrace beyond words. He should not be showing such a face.

Not true. The Japanese most adept at frank input - the best in the world, actually - would be Takeru Kobayashi.

Maybe you should read this damning article in today's New York Times. Looks like the Japanese government has not been quite frank enough about just how bad this situation really was (and is).

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/world/asia/09japan.html?_r=1

who is this frank guy? it doesnt even sound japanese. oh, thats right. no one here is frank and honest about most things especially fukushima - read on todays yahoo that japan ignored its own SPEEDI radiation forecasts. that sucker cost 11 billion yen of we taxpayers money and it wasn`t even used. is that frank enough?

dont be shy Japan, say what you think now when your abroad....dont invite any panic spreading obasans though whos most complicated engineering device they have to handle is a rice cooker

The government had initially resorted to drawing rings around the plant, evacuating everyone within a radius of first 1.9 miles, then 6.2 miles and then 12.4 miles, widening the rings as the scale of the disaster became clearer.

But even with incomplete data, Mr. Kosako said he urged the government to use Speedi by making educated guesses as to the levels of radiation release, which would have still yielded usable maps to guide evacuation plans. In fact, the ministry had done precisely that, running simulations on Speedi’s computers of radiation releases. Some of the maps clearly showed a plume of nuclear contamination extending to the northwest of the plant, beyond the areas that were initially evacuated.

However, Mr. Kosako said, the prime minister’s office refused to release the results even after it was made aware of Speedi, because officials there did not want to take responsibility for costly evacuations if their estimates were later called into question.

Mr. Hosono, the minister charged with dealing with the nuclear crisis, has said that certain information, including the Speedi data, had been withheld for fear of “creating a panic.” In an interview, Mr. Hosono — who now holds nearly daily news conferences with Tepco officials and nuclear regulators — said that the government had “changed its thinking” and was trying to release information as fast as possible.

Critics, as well as the increasingly skeptical public, seem unconvinced. They compare the response to the Minamata case in the 1950s, a national scandal in which bureaucrats and industry officials colluded to protect economic growth by hiding the fact that a chemical factory was releasing mercury into Minamata Bay in western Japan. The mercury led to neurological illnesses in thousands of people living in the region and was captured in wrenching photographs of stricken victims.

“If they wanted to protect people, they had to release information immediately,” said Reiko Seki, a sociologist at Rikkyo University in Tokyo and an expert on the cover-up of the Minamata case. “Despite the experience with Minamata, they didn’t release Speedi."

The NY Times article is pretty depressing, and it is likely the Japanese public will never learn all this. But, it is exactly as many posters here, including myself, have said for months. Trusting TEPCO and the J-government to handle this crisis in a transparent manner was simply foolish. To do so ignores decades of government control/spinning of information in order to protect Japan Inc. -- hepatitis, mercury, and asbestos being just three previous/recent examples. And no one can presume this will change at all going forward either.