Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Multi-Party Push for Wide-Area Disposal of Disaster (Radioactive) Debris Accelerates

Not just the Noda administration, not just the Democratic Party of Japan but the so-called "opposition" parties join the government's all-out effort to spread the disaster debris all over Japan.

That alone shows there are tons of money to be made from tons of debris.

Yomiuri Shinbun (3/6/2012; link will disappear soon as this is a Yahoo link) reports that 5 former Ministers of the Environment from the DPJ, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Komei Party will collaborate in persuading the residents in municipalities in Japan to accept the disaster debris from Miyagi and Iwate.

野田首相は6日、首相官邸で神奈川県の黒岩祐治知事と会談した。

Prime Minister Noda met with Governor Yuji Kuroiwa of Kanagawa Prefecture on March 6 at the Prime Minister's Official Residence.

 黒岩氏は、東日本大震災で生じたがれきの広域処理に伴う経費を政府が全額負担するよう求める要望書を提出した。首相は同県ががれき受け入れを検討していることに謝意を表明した。

Mr. Kuroiwa handed the prime minister the request that the national government pay for the entire cost of wide-area disposal of disaster debris from the March 11, 2011 disaster. The prime minister expressed appreciation for Kanagawa Prefecture's willingness to consider accepting the debris.

 一方、民主党は6日、東日本大震災・災害廃棄物広域処理推進議員連盟(会長・高木義明元文部科学相)の設立総会を開き、がれき処理の安全性を自治体に説明し、受け入れを直接働きかけていく方針を決めた。

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Japan held the first meeting of the DPJ members of the Diet for promoting the wide-area disposal of the disaster debris (chairman Yoshiaki Takagi, ex-Minister of Education and Science), and decided on the policy to explain the safety of debris disposal to the municipalities and directly intervene in the process of acceptance [instead of going through the governors or through the Ministry of the Environment].

 民主、自民、公明3党の環境相経験者5人も担当地域を決め、自治体にがれき受け入れを求める活動を展開する予定だ。

5 former Ministers of the Environment in the DPJ, the Liberal Democratic Party, and New Komeito [fairness] Party will launch their campaign to push the municipalities to accept the debris, with each former Minister in charge of one specific geographic region.

All-out war on those pesky residents who dare say no, by convincing the majority who don't care one way or another of the need to "help" Tohoku "recover".

The Ministry of the Environment continues to push for wide-area dispersion of debris to be burned and buried, and has allocated 200 million yen (about US$2.5 million) for the PR blitz featuring a popular actor from Onagawa-machi, Miyagi (whose debris is being shipped to the central Tokyo to be burned in the municipal incinerators for household garbage) showing the piles of debris in his hometown (Nikkan Sports news, 3/6/2012, in Japanese).

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

And all the burn and incineration sites..use the miracle filters to keep 99% of the radiation out of the emission? Just like Fukushima's reactor stacks/vents..right? Or that was the "party line".

kintaman said...

Will they be burning debris in southern Japan (Kyusku, Okinawa, Kagoshima)?

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@kintaman, as per my previous post on the topic, yes, Kumamoto and Oita (in Kyushu) want to accept debris. So does Okinawa. Not the residents but the prefectural governments and some municipal governments.

Anonymous said...

I am an expat in Japan with a very healthy business. When this plays out, I will be relocating either (1) outside of japan altogether or (2) to a prefecture/region that REFUSED to take the debris. I cannot vote these criminals out of office, but they and their constituents need to understand that there are consequences for this abuse of government power. I'm voting with my money.

Anonymous said...

Remind me again why they don't just burn the debris on the spot instead of carrying it all over Japan?

Anonymous said...

Mr. Expat. Moving to a region that isn't burning will be a very short-term stop-gap measure. Radiation will spread everywhere in the wind and the ash could end up in anything from the concrete in your apartment to the soil that your local farmer is using. Let us not forget the amount of other extremely poisonous contaminants from all the factories, homes, cars, stores and warehouses. These could actually be an even bigger threat than the radiation.

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