Guest
Tokyo-based freelance journalist Mr Hiro Ugaya discusses 12 misdecisions and misinformations regarding the discharge of “treated radioactive water“ from the meltdown reactors of Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean, which started on August 24, 2023. 1) 4:14 Shift radioactive contamination from Japan's domestic problems into international problems. 2) 10:15 The standards Japan government applied are inappropriate. 3) 18:17 JP government disregards long term influence of the treated radioactive water on the environment. 4) 21:28 There are alternative options by which they could store the radioactive water on the ground. 5) 27:03 The remaining radioactive materials in the treated water is NOT only Toritium as the government and TEPCO insist. 6) 35:41 “Every other country dumps Toritium radioactive water into the ocean. Why can't we?“ Japan government says. 7) 36:21 Only Fukusima Dai-ichi NP coolant water directly contracted the highly-radioactive meltdown debris. 8) 47:01 Only 33% of the stored radioactive water can be discharged. The rest 67% must be kept in the tanks on the ground. 9) 49:22 TEPCO “We have no more space to store the radioactive water“, which is untrue and the misleading the public. 10) 56:09 The ocean discharge will NOT contribute to the reconstruction of Fukushima's contaminated arias. 11) 1:02:55 The ocean discharge will NOT contribute to the decomission of the troubled Fukushima reactors. 12) 1:08:03 Japanese mainstream mass media hardly question the government's policies. Mr. Ugaya has been a full-time journalist for 37 years. For the first 17 years he served for a national major daily Asahi Shimbun and national weekly news magazine “Aera“ as a staff writer. In year 2003 he became an independent freelance journalist and has authored more than 20 books on security issues, internet, mass media and popular cultures. Ugaya is widely known as one of very few journalist that has been constantly covering the Fukushima nuclear disaster and its aftermath since the Day One, March 11, 2011. He covers both the contaminated areas on the spots in Fukushima and government and TEPCO policy sides in Tokyo. His investigative trips to Fukushima count up to more than 100 times. Ugaya published the Japanese version of the “12 misdecisions and misinformations of the ocean discharge“ video on August 26, 2023 which has been drawing massive public attention. At present of August 31, 2023, the video gained more than 105,000 views in five days. Ugaya decided to publish the English version of the same commentary video after learning that neither main steam mass media nor internet / SNS is accurately reporting the truth and facts of ocean discharge of the treated radioactive water. That is partly because the local Japanese main stream media, newspapers and TV stations are not well functioning in questioning the government policy-shaping process / decision making / rationale to permit the ocean discharge. As you may know, Japan's main stream media hardly question the ( both national and municipal ) governments policies. They are pro-government from the beginning. A joke goes “ Japanese media are not watch dogs but pet dogs of the government.“ In addition, after 12 years since the break-out of the Fukushima meltdown crisis, those mass media corporations had lost appetite for reporting the issue ( by saying 'the Fukushima news does not sell' ) and only ill-prepared and poorly-knowledged about the ocean discharge of the water. Thus very few news on Fukushima NPP was published on Japan's local TV and newspapers before August 24, 2023. Unfortunately, because the foreign press in Tokyo largely depends on the local press for the first hand reporting, Fukushima news was hardly published on foreign media before August 24 too. Therefore, the main stream media report on the ocean discharge have many “blind spots“ and often miss important points. So what you will learn by viewing this video is not only the issue of the ocean discharge of treated radioactive water but problems of Japan's free press. I heartily hope my message will reach you. (Facebook) (Donation) SMBC Trust Bank (0300) Ginza Branch Office (022) Savings account 5294975 Hiromichi Ugaya
