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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
Japan's searing summer of 2013 saw the lid slide further off Fukushima Daiichi and its Pandora's box of radioactive and political crises. The company in charge, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), already Japan's most distrusted firm, was irredeemably exposed as dangerously incompetent. A slew of reports concerning leaks of high-level radiation led to increasingly concerned appeals, from within Japan and from overseas, for the Abe Shinzo government to take over at Fukushima Daiichi.
1 This is a much expanded and updated version of an op-ed article that ran in the August 29, 2013 Japan Times. See Christopher Hobson and Andrew DeWit “Government must take over Fukushima nuclear cleanup,” August 29, 2013: here
2 For example, Tepco ranks by far the worst in the Nikkei BP July 4 “Environmental Brand Survey” of 560 domestic firms’ brand image for global warming efforts, energy efficiency, resource-efficiency, and waste treatment. See (in Japanese) “Nikkei BP ‘Environmental Brand Survey 2013,’“ July 4, 2013: here
3 See “91 percent of Japanese want gov’t to step in a Fukushima plant: Mainichi poll,” Mainichi Shimbun, August 26, 2013: http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130826p2a00m0na004000c.html The original Japanese release a day before, on August 25, is at: here
4 See (in Japanese) Nishinihon Shimbun, “As Much as Level 3: Why is the National Government Slow to Respond?” August 23, 2013: here
5 See “Japan's leaky nuclear plant: no end in sight,” The Economist, August 24, 2013: here
6 See The Editors; Bloomberg, August 26, 2013: “Abe's Nuclear Imperative Starts at Fukushima, &rdquo
7 See Editors; Business Times Singapore, August 28, 2013: “Fukushima risks must be addressed urgently,&rdquo
8 Note that the carrier “only started the charter flights in July at Japan's request.” August 22, 2013: “Asiana Cancels Flights to Fukushima,” The Chosunilbo
9 The minutes were released August 27, and were remarked upon in “Japanese Radiation Leak: Leading Japan to Possible Become a ‘Black Swan,’“Business Korea, August 29, 2013: here”
10 In consequence, Japan's products rank with scandal-plagued Chinese food products, hardly a positive outcome for a Japan keen to promote food exports. On the poll, see (in Japanese) “Korean Poll Shows Nearly 80% Believe “Radiation Damage From Japan,” TBS (JNN) News, August 31, 2013: here
11 See Sebastian Sarmiento-Saher, “Japan's Never-Ending Nuclear Nightmare”, The Diplomat, August 24, 2013: here
12 On this, see (in Japanese) Imazeki Chuuba, “China State Oceanic Administration: “Marine Effects From Fukushima Nuclear Accident Expanding,” SBI Searchina, August 26, 2013: http://news.searchina.ne.jp/disp.cgi?y=2013&d=0826&f=national_0826_033.shtml and Antoni Slodkowski, “Fukushima operator to seek foreign advice on toxic water”, Reuters, August 26, 2013: here
13 This aspect is covered (in Japanese) by Hatakeyama Sakae, “Japan Covered in Sin: Chinese Twitter on the Leak of Contaminated Water From the Fukushima Reactors,” SBI Searchina, August 23, 2013: here The volume of messages include such sentiments as “no matter how big the crime, little Japan's unfazed,” “the little one's sole contribution to the world is doing harm,” “the US atom bomb didn’t wipe out the Japanese, but they’re exterminating themselves with leaked radiation.”
14 These tensions are already so fraught that in an annual survey taken since 2005 by China Daily and the Japanese non-profit think tank Genron NPO, mutual aversion was at its worst level in a decade. Fully 92.8% of Chinese surveyed “hold a negative attitude toward Japan, 28 percentage points higher than last year. Similarly, 90.1 percent of “ordinary” Japanese have negative feelings toward China, in contrast to 84.3 percent last year.” The survey was conducted in June and July of 2013, prior to the intensified concern over Fukushima Daiichi. See “Diaoyu Islands issue drives ChinaJapan enmity: survey,” Xinhua, August 7, 2013: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-08/07/c_132611210.htm
15 A good summary can be found in Jake Adelstein, “Japan's nuclear comedy just goes on and on,” Japan Times, August 31, 2013: here
16 Quoted in Patrick J Kiger, “Fukushima Leak's ‘Level 3’ Rating: What It Means,” National Geographic, August 29, 2013: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2013/08/130829-fukushima-level-3-serious-incident-rating/ Professor Higley spent a week earlier this year at Fukushima Daiichi, as noted in Phred Dvorak, “ Japan Races To Contain Worst Fukushima Spill Since Meltdown,” Wall Street Journal, August 22, 2013: here
17 On this, see Mark Willacy “New radiation hotspots found at Fukushima nuclear plant,” Australian Network News, September 1, 2013: here
18 See Mari Yamaguchi “Japan: Nuke Plant Operator Found Leak Too Slowly,” ABC News, August 28, 2013: here
19 Mari Yamaguchi “Japan: Nuke plant operator found leak too slowly,” Associated Press (via Kansas City Star), August 28, 2013: here Tepco has since increased the tank patrol personnel by 50 to around 60 people in total, using thermography to check tank levels.
20 See Mari Iwata, “Authority Chairman Not Convinced Level 3 Needed”, Japan Real Time, August 28, 2013: here
21 See Kiyoshi Takenaka and James Topham, “Japan's nuclear crisis deepens, China expresses “shock”‘, Reuters, August 21, 2013: here
22 See Yuji Okada, Takashi Hirokawa and Jacob Adelman, “TEPCO ‘Whack-a-Mole’ Means Government Takeover in Fukushima”, Bloomberg, August 27, 2013: here
23 See “Japan PM pledges greater government role at Fukushima”, Channel NewsAsia, August 29, 2013: here
24 See Ben McLannahan, “Japan says Tepco to retain control of Fukushima Site”, Financial Times, August 28, 2013: here
25 See Hiroko Tabuchi, “Nuclear Operator Raises Alarm on Crisis”, New York Times, August 23, 2013: here
26 Quoted in Quirin Schiermeier and Jay Alabaster, “Government ‘must step in’ to halt Fukushima leaks,” Nature, August 29, 2013: here
27 See Ben McLannahan, “Japan says Tepco to retain control of Fukushima Site”, Financial Times, August 28, 2013: here
28 Governor Izumida entered METI's predecessor organization MITI in 1987, after graduating from Kyoto University's Department of Law. Before his 2004 election as the Governor of Niigata Prefecture, he spent considerable time in MITI's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy. On this, see the Governor's home-page profile (in Japanese) at: here
29 On these staements and their context, see Aaron Shadrick and Mari Saito, “Japan official wants Fukushima operator Tepco to be liquidated,” Reuters, August 28, 2013: http://uk.reuters.com/artide/2013/08/28/us-japan-nuclear-tepco-idUKBRE97R0L820130828
30 This accounting of course omits much human suffering from being displaced as well as the potential health damage. One of the most authoritative speakers on the latter is Kodama Tatsuhiko, Professor in the Laboratory for System Biology and Medicine, RCAST, University of Tokyo, who warns convincingly that “Two Years After the Nuclear Accident, We Must Now Contemplate the Internal Irradiation,” Actio, May, 28: http://actio.gr.jp/2013/05/28103038.html
31 See Martin Fackler, “Japan Weighed Evacuating Tokyo in Nuclear Crisis, New York Times, February 27, 2012: here
32 On this, see Roger Witherspoon, “A Lasting Legacy of the Fukushima Rescue Mission: Cat and Mouse with a Nuclear Ghost,” The Asia- Pacific Journal, Vol 11, Issue 12. No. 1, March 15, 2013: here
33 See Roy K. Akagawa, “Interview - Yoichi Funabashi: Fukushima nuclear crisis revealed Japan's governing defects”, Asahi Shimbun, February 29, 2012: here
34 The figures are from Tepco spokesperson Suzuki Kaoru, and are cited in Jason Rogers “Faulty Tank at Fukushima Had Been Dismantled, Moved, Tepco Says,” Bloomberg, August 26, 2013: here
35 On this aspect, see the citation of Tepco's admission that this water's cesium content was 2.35 billion becquerels per litre versus normal background levels of 150 becquerels per litre, in Sreeja VN “Japanese Government To Support Tepco's Efforts to Contain Fukushima Contaminated Water Leak,” International Business Times, August 7, 2013: here
36 Tepco initially built seven of these underground tanks with a total capacity of 58,000 tons, as a cheap means of storing contaminated water. But in April of 2013, leakage from these tanks forced Tepco to move their contents above-ground. On this, see “TEPCO faces ‘biggest management crisis’ after toxic water leak from Fukushima tank,” Mainichi Shimbun, August 22, 2013: http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130822p2a00m0na014000c.html As of August 17, Tepco reports some remaining water in the tanks. See “Water Leak from the Underground Reservoirs in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (Follow-up Information No. 216),” Tepco Press Release, August 17, 2013: here
37 On this information, see (in Japanese) “Agency for Natural Resources and Energy Reports Calculation of Daily Flow of 300 Tons of Contaminated Water From Fukushima Daiichi into the Sea,” Reuters, August 7, 2013: here
38 On these numbers, see Fred Dvorak, “Japan Races to Contain Worst Fukushima Spill Since Meltdown,” Wall Street Journal, August 22, 2013: here
39 On the tanks, see Mari Saito and Antoni Slodkowski, “They Have No Idea What to Do With 330,000 Tons of Radioactive Water Leaking At Fukushima,” Reuters (via Business Insider), August 23, 2013: here
40 For the storage numbers, see “NRA: Water leak at Fukushima nuclear plant a ‘serious incident.’“ Asahi Shimbun, August 21, 2013: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201308210065 And note that this article, as with some others reports Tepco spokespersons suggesting that the total capacity of above-ground tanks at the site as of August 6 was 412,000 tons, with 80% (346,000 tons) of contaminated water already stored. These data conflict with other statements from Tepco
41 See Yuriy Humber, “Fukushima's toxic water pool grows as Tepco dithers,” The Age, August 31, 2013: here
42 On the AESJ statement, see “Radioactive water should be diluted, released into ocean: experts,” Mainichi Shimbun, August 29, 2013: here
43 The ALPS unit was built by Toshiba and “was taken offline after the radioactive water it was designed to filter was found corroding its pipes and basins.” See “ALPS filter off until at least September,” Japan Times, August 26, 2013: here
44 On this critical but largely ignored point, see paragraphs 13 and 14 of Yuriy Humber and Jacob Aldeman, “Tepco faces 132 Olympic Pools Worth of Radioactive Water,” Bloomberg, August 28, 2013: here
45 A concise (and perhaps unduly optimistic) description of the technology is available at Peter Fairley, “How the Fukushima Ice Barrier Will Block Radioactive Groundwater,” MIT Technology Review, August 30, 2013: here
46 On these numbers, see Fred Dvorak's careful work, “Japan Races to Contain Worst Fukushima Spill Since Meltdown,” Wall Street Journal, August 22, 2013: here and “Japan Studies Plan to Contain Radioactive Water,” Wall Street Journal, August 29, 2013: and here.
47 Coughlan argues that Japan should “filter out as much radioactive material as possible, dilute the rest, and dump it in the Pacific.” But he neglects to discuss the on-site capacity for this filtration, the various types and levels of radionuclides, and the international dimensions of the crisis. See Andy Coughlan “Should Fukushima's radioactive water be dumped at sea,” August 28, 2013: here
48 See “Japan regulator urges more comprehensive monitoring of Fukushima sea to assess impact of leaks,” Washington Post, August 29, 2013: here
49 Robert Alvarez is quoted in Matsumura Akio, “Fukushima Daiichi Site: Cesium-137 is 85 times greater than at Chernobyl Accident,” April 3, 2012: here
50 On this, see (in Japanese) “Fuel Removal Preparation in Final Stages: Fukushima Daiichi No 4 Pool,” Chugoku Shimbun, September 1, 2013: here This article declares there are 1533 used fuel rods in the pool, whereas the “Report by The American Nuclear Society Special Committee on Fukushima” indicates an inventory of 1535, of which 204 are new. See Table 1 “SPF Inventories and Estimated Total Decay Heat”: here The discrepancy is due to Tepco's having removed two unused bundles from the pool in a test in 2012: Aaron Sheldrick and Antoni Slodkowski, “Insight: After disaster, the deadliest part of Japan's nuclear clean-up”, Reuters, August 13, 2013, and here.
51 See Aaron Sheldrick and Antoni Slodkowski, “Insight: After disaster, the deadliest part of Japan's nuclear clean-up”, Reuters, August 13, 2013, here
52 On the contents and other aspects of so- called “high-level waste,” see the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission “Backgrounder on Radioactive Waste,” US NRC, February 4, 2011: here
53 For the precise number per pool as well as their decay heat, see the “Report by The American Nuclear Society Special Committee on Fukushima,” Table 1 “SPF Inventories and Estimated Total Decay Heat”: http://fukushima.ans.org/inc/Fukushima_Appendix_G.pdf The report's co-chairs were Dale Klein, Ph.D., former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Michael Corradini, Ph.D., Wisconsin Distinguished Professor of nuclear engineering and engineering physics at the University of Wisconsin, and Eric Loewen, Ph.D., President of the American Nuclear Society. For these and other details, see here
54 See “Japan upgrades Fukushima nuclear leak to ‘serious incident,’ slams plant operate for late response’, CBS News, August 28, 2013: here
55 See Mycle Schneider, “Why Fukushima is worse than you think”, CNN, August 30, 2013: here
56 See Edan Corkill, “Naoto Kan speaks out”, The Japan Times, August 31, 2013: here
57 All of Japan's nuclear reactors will be offline from September 15, when reactors 3 and 4 at Kepco's Oi plant go into their regular maintenance schedule. See Eric Johnston “Fukushima spill snags reactor restart quest,” Japan Times, August 29, 2013: here
58 Indeed, former PM Koizumi Jun’ichiro has of late been challenging Abe directly on the entire nuclear issue. Koizumi insists it is essential to declare a zero nuclear target now. He is apparently causing deep consternation in the Abe inner circle because he has the ears of the growing anti-nuclear LDP contingent. Koizumi persuasively argues with such examples as (re the claim that the Japanese economy will collapse without nuclear power) in the past it was said “Manshu is a lifeline,” but Japan developed in spite of its loss [after the Pacific War]. He also points to the fact that this was an extraordinarily, once-in-a-century, hot summer and nuclear power was not necessary. See (in Japanese) “PM Abe Deathly Pale? Koizumi Jun’ichiro declares himself for getting out of nuclear and calls on the PM to decide,” Nikkan Gendai, August 27: here Koizumi's challenge was widely carried by the Japanese media. A summary of his thinking and how he arrived at his conclusions is available at “Former PM Koizumi's anti-nuclear case makes sense,” Mainichi Shimbun, August 26, 2013: and here.
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