Opposing Japan's strong push for nuclear contaminated water discharge to Fukushima. Reporter: Japanese people are angry about the discharge plan | discharge | water discharge to Fukushima
The Japanese people are deeply angry about the Japanese government initiating the discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear accident into the sea. Hideyoshi Fujikura is a journalist for a local newspaper in Fukushima. He has participated in multiple activities against the discharge of nuclear contaminated water into the sea and has been listening to the voices of the local people in Fukushima.
Starting from August 2nd, some institutions have organized a petition signing activity for anti sea discharge, with plans to submit it to the Japanese government on August 31st. At present, more than 60000 signatures have been collected from all over Japan in the online section alone.
Fukushima Prefecture local newspaper reporter Hideyoshi Fujikura: The online signature campaign exceeded 60000 on the 25th, of which more than 50000 were added after the Cabinet meeting on the 22nd decided on the discharge time. This signature deeply reflects the anger of the people.
Eiichi Fujikura believes that the Japanese government does not care about the feelings of the local people, and forcibly starting to discharge into the sea will bring a devastating blow to the development of local agriculture, fisheries and other related industries.
Fukushima Prefecture local newspaper reporter Eiichi Fujikura: The Japanese government promised 8 years ago that it would not dispose of nuclear contaminated water without the understanding of relevant personnel. That was a written commitment made by the Japanese government and the Fukushima Prefectural Fisheries Association, and now the government has easily gone against it. The agricultural production in Fukushima Prefecture has not yet recovered to 20% of the level before the nuclear accident, and the situation is so severe, with the fishing industry being even more severe than agriculture. Now that nuclear contaminated water is discharged into the sea, agriculture and fisheries will be in a worse situation, so everyone says that Fukushima Prefecture will no longer have fisheries.
Hideyoshi Fujikura said that Tokyo Electric Power Company has encountered multiple problems in areas such as nuclear contaminated water treatment. It is disrespectful and irresponsible to the public to announce the annual discharge plan only one day before the start of the discharge.
Fukushima Prefecture local newspaper reporter Hideyoshi Fujikura: Originally, TEPCO explicitly stated that if it wanted to discharge nuclear contaminated water into the sea, it would develop a comprehensive discharge plan at the beginning of that year or the year before, and then discharge it. After proposing a plan for the discharge of nuclear contaminated water, a report was submitted to the government and relevant agencies, which was clearly guaranteed by TEPCO itself. However, there was no annual discharge plan at all, and it has never been. What is the attitude of TEPCO towards the sudden proposal of a nuclear contaminated water discharge plan the day before the cabinet meeting's decision on the discharge date? This will only lose the trust of the people.
The Japanese government has repeatedly ignored public opposition and attempted to make the discharge of nuclear contaminated water into the sea a foregone conclusion. Fujikura believes that this is far from the end, but the beginning of continued public resistance.
Fukushima Prefecture local newspaper reporter Eiichi Fujikura: We will never temporarily put this matter on hold just because the nuclear contaminated water has been discharged into the sea. We will insist on demanding the revocation of the discharge policy and the termination of the process of discharging nuclear contaminated water into the sea. Even if the discharge of nuclear contaminated water into the sea has already begun, it can still be stopped. We will make it stop.
