It's the agency that LDP's Masako Mori now heads. Remember she is the one who wants to pass a law that will force retailers to sell Fukushima produce prominently in the storefront.
Now, her agency will launch a program to educate consumers so that agricultural producers in contaminated areas, particularly Fukushima (Ms. Mori is from Fukushima Prefecture to begin with) will not suffer from damages from "baseless rumors" that their produce may contain radioactive cesium from the Fukushima nuclear accident.
Also remember this same agency (under ex-TV announcer minister Renho) was the one who excoriated the consumers in Tokyo Metropolitan areas right after the March 11 disaster who bought food and water in panic as radioactive fallout from Fukushima was descending on them. The same agency, with the help of Japanese consumer "advocates", scolded the Japanese consumer in July 2011 for making a big deal out of radioactive beef, some of which tested, after it was eaten, with radioactive cesium in excess of 4,000 Bq/kg.
In Japan, consumers exist for the sake of producers. (Or I could say consumers are the tools for decontamination, if I may be so cynical.)
From Jiji Tsushin (1/8/2012):
原発事故で風評被害対策チーム=消費者の意識調査へ-消費者庁
Consumer Affairs Agency to set up a team to deal with damages caused by baseless rumors after the nuclear accident, and study the consumer psychology
東京電力福島第1原発事故による食品の風評被害防止に向け、消費者庁は8日、庁内に新設した対策チームの初会合を開き、消費者の意識など実態調査を行うことを決めた。
In order to prevent damages on food [producers] from baseless rumors after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, Consumer Affairs Agency held the first meeting of a new team set up in the agency on January 8, and decided that the team would conduct a survey of consumer psychology.
発足したのは「食品と放射能に関する消費者理解増進チーム」で、課長クラスを中心に14人で構成。週1回ペースで会合を開く予定という。
The new team is called "the team to promote the understanding by the consumers of food and radiation". There are 14 managers in the team, who will meet once a week.
The name of the team makes it clear that it is not about "understanding" but about "repeating the same safety mantra over and over and over again until the consumer gets so weary and gives up". Much like those town hall meetings over disaster debris burning, which was literally about "obtaining understanding" but in reality about "telling the residents what the municipal government is going to do anyway, and calling it understanding".
The sheer number of deranged news out of Japan today has been such that makes my head spin. In addition to the Japan's (literally) senseless Olympics message and this news, there is also depraved uttering by the boy-wonder mayor of Osaka City affirming the right of public school teachers to strike students for educational purposes. I just saw a headline from January 1, 2013 Sankei Shinbun that the Abe administration is planning for a war with China over possible Chinese aggression over Senkaku Islands, Miyako and Ishigaki Islands (both part of Okinawa Prefecture).
Kyle Bass is right. This has to end in a major war, all over the world. Someone should hit the reset button.
8 comments:
No, please do not hit the reset button. We all know how well that worked last time. It would be better if things simply slowly fell apart in the long emergency, but then again nuclear plants need decommissioning before we can have safety or peace...
I can feel your frustration. It would be interesting to read how you felt about your country before going abroad and how living outside and 3/11 changed your perception.
The new team is called "the team to promote the understanding by the consumers of food and radiation".
They should call themselves the "Dream Team" because they are dreaming if they think the distrustful portion of the population is going to accept their mantra.
In this emergency the people who ignored the "everything is OK" safety pronouncements early in the accident have since been given mounds of evidence bigger than the ever growing piles of "decontamination" waste they now see out every window. Did the experts ever warn the public of the well know danger of rainout or the fact these rains would concentrate the contamination in some places to immediately dangerous levels? No, they said nothing as throngs of people (and their clothes) were exposed. Did the officials do the obvious and tell the public that contamination is wind driven and therefore long ranging? No, they drew small circles and tried to convince everyone the danger would respect their arbitrary boundaries. How many times did the "experts" come out with a radiation level only to have to revise it up to the sky after some NPO like Greenpeace proved them wrong?
Ultimately, ms. Mori is trying to protect TEPCO from the risk of paying damages to producers.
Beppe
''The sheer number of deranged news out of Japan today has been such that makes my head spin''
Yup!
''They should call themselves the "Dream Team" because they are dreaming if they think the distrustful portion of the population is going to accept their mantra.''
Unfortunately however, the majority of people would rather believe the lies and return happily to their old paradigm.
''Ultimately, ms. Mori is trying to protect TEPCO from the risk of paying damages to producers.''
Ultimately Ms. Mori is trying to protect Japan from tipping point and protect Nuclear industry, which control the economy.
Japan is screwed. Damned if they fess up to what this signifies.
This is absolutely unbelievable. I cannot understand how supposedly intelligent people can be so irresponsible. This radiation will kill people in Japan and all over the planet. How can the Powers That be in Japan ignore so much danger?
Just reading Paul Zimmerman's book, A Primer In the Art Of Deception.
Did you know one atom of uranium lodged in the body can cause a fatal cancer?! One atom! HFS!
Eat up that delicious Fukushima ryori minna san O baka.
The reset button needs to be hit because building on top of a shabby foundation will inevitably lead to collapse. The more we build on top, the worse the collapse will be.
We wouldn't need to completely reset if humans were more open to embracing large scale revision for the sake of vast overall improvement. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Humans are too temporal, they only care about the moment and aren't willing to change what they've already learned or believe in. As far as most people are concerned, the world is and has to be the way they believe it is, and anyone that says otherwise is their arch-enemy. They go to great lengths to attack these people, denying the facts and deluding themselves without any desire to seek a better future.
If anyone can devise a solution against these self-destructing self-defense mechanisms, please do so.
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