France 24 Program on Fukushima Workers

It's a program from July 10, 2011 on France 24 International News in English. Unlike NHK documentaries or Germany's ZDF programs, France 24 managed to get the workers talk in front of the camera without hiding their faces and having their voices changed to avoid identification.

It is a well-made program.

One worker in late 50s says he is working at Fukushima I Nuke Plant because that's the job he was able to find. He says he has so much debt, and he is there to earn as much as he can for his family.

A local hotel owner says people praise the workers as heroes in the beginning but there are many different situations, as he shows the reporter one of the rooms that workers stay.

The anchor asked the reporter why these workers agreed to talk with him on camera, when the contact with the media was strictly prohibited by TEPCO. The reporter answered that the workers simply wanted to tell their story.

Towards the end, the reporter says Japan is now the 4th from the bottom in terms of equality (in pay, employment) among OECD countries. Japan's equality was based on full employment, and when that went (mostly thanks to former Prime Minister Koizumi) the famed equality went out the door also. Who could have known...

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