Vice Prime Minister/Finance Minister Taro Aso Strikes Again: "Keep TEPCO Alive to Keep Electricity Coming"

Mr. Taro Aso (pictured here, one of his better ones - probably the best one I've seen), elite fifth-generation politician and Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister in the Abe administration, is well-known for his very candid remarks.

The last I heard him say was "Learn from Nazis" on how to change the Constitution on stealth.

From unabashedly pro-LDP Sankei Shinbun (11/1/2013):

麻生太郎財務相は１日、閣議後の記者会見で、自民党の東日本大震災復興加速化本部が了承した東京電力福島第１原発事故の除染に対する国費投入を柱とした提言について「東電という会社をきちんと維持しないと電気が回ってこない。（国費投入は）現状を踏まえて考える」と前向きな姿勢を示した。

During the press conference after the cabinet meeting on November 1, Finance Minister Taro Aso commented on the proposal approved by LDP's Headquarters for Accelerating Reconstruction from Great East Japan Earthquake to inject the government money in decontamination, and said "Unless we properly keep the company of TEPCO alive, no electricity will come. We will consider (injecting the government money) given such circumstances," indicating his favorable stance [on injecting the government money in decontamination].

Isn't the name great? "Headquarters for Accelerating Reconstruction from Great East Japan Earthquake"? (My translation, though, not official.) This administration sure likes talking about "accelerating" and "ahead of schedule" particularly when they are not the ones who actually do anything.

But what Aso says sounds all too familiar. Where have I heard this before?

Most recently, it was September/October 2008. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson threatened the Congress and American people with the immediate collapse of the US and global financial system unless they were given 700 billion dollars of taxpayers' money so that they could "save" the some of the world largest banks and financial institutions who had made many billions creating the housing bubble with the Fed and the government and busting the bubble, selling financial shenanigans like MBS (mortgage-backed securities many of which turned out to be backed by no mortages), CDOs (square and cube included), CDS (credit default swap), etc., thanks in part to very lax oversight by the government regulators.

"It would be very inconvenient if there was no bank, wouldn't you agree?"

That was the message by the powerful duo, and that was what the media hyped at that time to pressure the Congress to do what Ben and Hank were saying. (It was in fact more like the foul messenger from Mordor, visiting the Dwarf King and offering friendship and wealth in exchange for information of Bilbo Baggins - "But refuse, things will not be so well. Do you refuse?")

Still, the House of Representatives dare voted down, and they duly punished them by tanking the stock market. (Instead of PPT, plunge protection team, it was PT, plunge team, in those days.) The House of Representatives folded in the second vote.

Going back in Japanese history, I have heard the similar story over Chisso, the company that polluted the Minamata bay with mercury. To pay compensations to the mercury-poisoning victims (the company and the government fought hard against), Chisso was kept alive as a corporation, instead of being declared bankrupt and having shareholders and debt holders take the hit. The national and local governments injected money into the company so that the company could keep making profit to pay the victims.

Just like Wall Street banks in 2008 and TEPCO today, taxpayers ended up paying for the mistakes of Chisso and failure of the governments to properly regulate the company.

History does repeat, even if no one pays attention.

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"Now They Tell Us" Series: Depleted Uranium Storage Facility Next to Cosmo Oil Refinary In Chiba Burned after Earthquake Hit on March 11

The facility belongs to Chisso Petrochemical, and it contained 765 kilograms of depleted uranium at 0.3% concentration. It caught fire when the adjacent Cosmo Oil LPG tank caught fire and exploded. Not a problem, the Chiba government now says, and Chisso hasn't said anything about the facility.

There was a "baseless rumor"(link in Japanese) that circulated on the Internet on March 12 that said "Harmful substance will come down with the rain after the Cosmo Oil fire. Do not expose your skin." Cosmo Oil and the government dismissed the rumor vehemently. Maybe the "baseless rumor" was not about Cosmo Oil's tank but about Chisso's depleted uranium...

From Chiba Nippo (7/1/2011):

劣化ウラン保管施設も延焼
コスモ石油のガスタンク火災で

Depleted Uranium Storage Facility Also Burned when Cosmo Oil's Gas Tank Exploded

　６月千葉県議会は３０日、総務防災と総合企画水道の２常任委員会が開かれた。総務防災では、東日本大震災で発生したコスモ石油千葉製油所（市原市）の液化石油ガス（ＬＰＧ）タンク火災・爆発に伴い、隣接する劣化ウラン保管施設も延焼していたことが明らかになった。放射性物質の漏えいはなかったとしている。

On June 30 Chiba Prefectural Assembly held meetings of 2 standing committees, "general affairs and disaster countermeasures" and "planning and water". In the general affairs and disaster countermeasures committee, it was revealed that the LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) tank fire and explosion at Cosmo Oil Refinery in Ichihara City, Chiba also burned the adjacent depleted uranium storage facility. There was no leak of radioactive materials, according to the committee.

　【総務防災】県消防課は、同製油所のガスタンクの火災・爆発事故で、隣接するチッソ石油化学の劣化ウラン保管倉庫の屋根が焼け落ちていたことを明らかにした。

The Chiba prefectural fire department disclosed that the depleted uranium storage facility's roof was burned down because of the fire and explosion of the LPG tank at Cosmo Oil. The depleted uranium storage facility belongs to Chisso Petrochemical [subsidiary of Chisso Corporation].

　同課によると、同倉庫は「核燃料使用事業所」として国の許可を受け、ガス製造用の触媒として使われる劣化ウラン７６５キログラムが保管されており、放射性物質が０・３％含まれていた。

According to the fire department, the storage facility is licensed by the national government as "nuclear fuel usage location", and had 765 kilograms of depleted uranium that contained 0.3% of radioactive material [uranium]. The depleted uranium is used as catalyst for gas production.

Looking at Chisso's press releases, there is no mention of the depleted uranium storage facility at this plant location. The explosion and fire at Cosmo Oil Refinery was finally put out on March 21, at which point Chisso was able to go inside their plant to assess the fire damage.

Ichihara City is on the west side of Chiba Prefecture, facing the Tokyo Bay, and there are many industrial plants and petrochemical facilities on the reclaimed land on the Tokyo Bay. Chisso Petrochemical is marked with a Yellow balloon with a dot:

View Tokyo bay in a larger map
A minor detail, but Chisso Petrochemical is NOT adjacent to Cosmo Oil, by the way. There is Maruzen Oil in between the two. Hmmm. How would Chisso's facility catch fire when Maruzen's did not?

Here are some video of Cosmo Oil explosion on March 11, in case you missed:
http://youtu.be/TZqhc-ysHzM (Asahi Shinbun footage)
http://youtu.be/x3Hy2LV_lLo (explosion that darkens the sky after 1:40 into the video)

By the way, Chisso is the same company that caused extensive mercury poisoning in the Minamata Bay in Kyushu by dumping methylmercury in the wastewater from the company's chemical plant, and the company has been kept "alive" so that it makes profit to pay compensations to the victims. TEPCO's likely future.

(By the way, turning gossipy, Japan's crown princess is the granddaughter of the Chisso president who fought and fought the "allegation" in the 1960s that his company's plant caused mercury poisoning.)

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