Fukushima governor takes aim at Abe for language in memorial speech

Fukushima Governor Masao Uchibori has said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did not use the mandated expression "nuclear accident" during his national address on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, local media reported Monday.


Abe addressed the nation on March 11 at an annual memorial ceremony in Tokyo organized by the government, six years on from the day a magnitude-9.0 earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami that swept across Japan's northeast and triggered a nuclear disaster at the Daiichi nuclear facility in Fukushima Prefecture.

While stating that the evacuees as a result of the triple disasters had been forced to live in "uncomfortable" living facilities, Abe avoided the use of the expression "nuclear accident" to refer to the crisis at Fukushima, Uchibori said.

Uchibori also stressed the fact that Fukushima Prefecture is still suffering severely due to the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings' (TEPCO) Daiichi plant in the prefecture.

He added that the prime mister also referred to the disaster in the past tense, in stating that a milestone had been crossed after six years.

Uchibori said the disaster in Fukushima has not finished and is continuing, and as such language used to express the severity of the ongoing situation is important.

The Fukushima governor said expressions the prime minister avoided using such as "nuclear accident" and "disaster" are indispensable in describing the current situation in the prefecture, which remains severe.

According to the latest statistics from Japan's National Police Agency (NPA), more than 2,553 people are still unaccounted for in the wake of the triple disasters, meaning the actual death toll is likely more than the current figure of 20,000 either dead or unaccounted for.

Including nearly 40,000 people who fled Fukushima after the meltdowns at the Daiichi plant, 123,168 remain displaced and the ongoing disaster remains the world's worst nuclear crisis since the 1986 Chernobyl accident.

  [Xinhua/China]

14/3/17