Published on September 6, 2019.
As a reposting of a chapter originally published on September 6, 2018, this essay is based on Yoshiko Sakurai’s article in Shukan Shincho and discusses the treatment of tritium-containing water from Fukushima Daiichi, public-hearing coverage, the reporting stance of Hodo Station, and reputational damage against Fukushima.
It questions whether reporting that fails to explain the international standard of removing dangerous radioactive substances with multi-nuclide removal equipment, sufficiently diluting the remaining tritium water, and releasing it into the sea, as well as the nature of tritium itself, is helping fuel anti-nuclear activism and reputational harm.

September 6, 2019.
Regarding point ①, the contaminated water discharged from 1F is processed by the multi-nuclide removal equipment, which removes 62 types of dangerous radioactive substances, leaving only tritium, and then it is sufficiently diluted and released into the sea.
This is a chapter I sent out on September 6, 2018, under the title “What Hodo Station Does Not Touch at All Is, ① How Contaminated Water Containing Tritium Is Treated Throughout the World, Including Japan, and ② Whether Tritium Is Harmful or Harmless.”
Today, a friend bought for me the Shukan Shincho released today.
This week’s serialized column again proves that Yoshiko Sakurai is a woman worthy of being awarded the People’s Honor Award.
It is an essay with which the Japanese people and people throughout the world would 100 percent agree that it is only natural that she is a woman for whom I have the highest respect.
When I read this essay of hers, I thought of Saicho’s “National Treasure.”
It is a splendid essay that perfectly criticizes, through correct verification that is the exact opposite of theirs, the maliciousness still being carried out by the people who created the condition in which the electricity of every household in Hokkaido stopped…this is surely an essay that warns the world.
The emphases in the text other than the headline, and the parts marked by ＊～＊, are mine.
Is Hodo Station fueling reputational damage against Fukushima?
＊Sakurai brilliantly demonstrates that it is no exaggeration at all to say that Hodo Station = the Asahi Shimbun & NHK and South Korea are completely of one body and soul＊
On August 30 and 31, public hearings were held in Tomioka Town, Fukushima Prefecture, and elsewhere concerning the disposal of water containing tritium from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, 1F.
Nishimoto Yumiko, a local resident and chairwoman of the NPO Happy Road Net, spoke with an air of deep unease.
“The media reporting this time as well was superficial and did nothing but stir up confusion. We have repeatedly had bitter experiences with reporters who report as if they know the actual situation of the region and the feelings of local people. More than the nuclear accident itself, we continue to suffer from reputational damage created by the media and still being fueled by it.”
In fact, when I watched TV Asahi’s Hodo Station, hereafter Hodo Station, on August 30 and saw the way it reported on tritium-contaminated water, I was indignant at its one-sided content.
Hodo Station conveyed none of the basic information necessary to understand the problem of treating contaminated water.
＊I no longer watch this program at all, but it was exactly the same as when I watched it the other day, misled by a false article on the Internet saying that its reporting content had changed completely.
When I watched it, regarding the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election, in its reporting that, as usual, praised Ishiba Shigeru and criticized Prime Minister Abe, with the commentator being someone named Goto of Kyodo News, an outright representative of the Asahi Shimbun, it conveyed none of the basic information that in the 2012 presidential election, because the late Machimura Nobutaka, the head of the faction to which Prime Minister Abe belonged, was running, Prime Minister Abe could hardly conduct activities to win local party members…and therefore Ishiba Shigeru won alone…even though that fact had been reported by the Yomiuri Shimbun several days before the broadcast and then by the Sankei Shimbun as well＊
Can a program be called a news program if it does not convey to viewers information that leads to grasping the overall picture of the matter and understanding the most important issues?
If it does not cut out and show the essence of the matter, and merely remains at superficial criticism, is it not the same as a well-side gossip-style wide show?
Such irresponsible reporting crushes the efforts of local people who are trying to overcome the nuclear-power problem, revitalize the region, and rebuild their lives.
Nishimoto sharply described that as “reputational damage caused by the media.”
That day, Hodo Station reported the public hearing on the contaminated-water issue and the nuclear-fuel removal work that had begun at the fast breeder reactor “Monju” as one item.
The following is a summary of the public-hearing portion.
First, in the studio, a female announcer read the lead: the contaminated water at 1F is “continuing to increase rapidly,” “there are 900 tanks containing treated water,” and “a public hearing was held on the proposal to dilute this and release it into the sea,” and then the program moved into the VTR.
Tritium is practically harmless.
At the beginning, the comment of fisherman Ono Haruo burst forth.
“I am absolutely opposed only to releasing it into the sea of Fukushima Prefecture.”
The narration explained that the tritium water stored in large quantities at 1F has now exceeded one million tons and continues to increase, that securing storage space is difficult, and that a proposal to dilute it and release it into the sea is under consideration, and it introduced a researcher’s view that “ocean dumping is also the best method economically.”
Immediately afterward, Ono was again introduced as speaking intensely and emotionally as follows.
“If tritium is released into the ocean, whether it is safe or not, from the moment it is released, additional reputational damage will be added. There is absolutely no way I would support it because I want compensation money.”
Criticisms from another attendee and an observer followed: “Reputational damage will expand. I do not want to put such seafood in my mouth,” and “I am evacuated in Iwaki, and if something like that is done, my sense of returning will again grow more distant,” and the public-hearing report ended there for the moment.
Looking at it this way, what Hodo Station does not touch at all is ① how contaminated water containing tritium is treated throughout the world, including Japan, and ② whether tritium is harmful or harmless.
Regarding point ①, the contaminated water discharged from 1F is processed by the multi-nuclide removal equipment, which removes 62 types of dangerous radioactive substances, leaving only tritium, and then it is sufficiently diluted and released into the sea.
This is the standard of the international community, and China, South Korea, Russia, the United States, and every other country release it into the sea according to that standard.
Japan has done the same, both in the past and at present.
Fukushima is the exception.
Regarding point ②, tritium is originally a nuclide that exists in nature and emits a small amount of radiation, but because it has the same properties as water, it is not concentrated in living organisms, and if sufficiently diluted, it is completely harmless to the human body.
Cosmic rays falling from the sky collide with moisture in the atmosphere, such as clouds, and tritium is produced, and we live amid that, but tritium does not cause external exposure to the human body.
Whether it enters the body or falls on the body from outside, tritium is practically harmless.
What on earth is the intention of Hodo Station in not conveying such things?
One cannot help suspecting that it is an attempt to divert viewers’ eyes from the truth about tritium water, crush the solution of ocean release, which is the global standard, and give momentum to the anti-nuclear movement.
Another thing Hodo Station pretended not to know was Ono’s statement that he would absolutely never support release because he wanted compensation money.
The continuing confusion in Fukushima and the backward-looking words and actions that, as a result, hinder reconstruction are closely intertwined with the compensation-money issue.
Tokyo Electric Power Company has already paid an enormous amount of compensation, approximately 8.3 trillion yen, from March 11 up to the end of July this year.
Much of it is concentrated in Fukushima Prefecture.
Wariness toward the media.
Regarding compensation for losses caused by a major disaster, the national government sets the implementation period at within two years for commerce and industry, within three years for agriculture, and within four years for fisheries.
For areas under evacuation orders and the like within Fukushima Prefecture, TEPCO has paid commerce and industry for four years, twice the national standard, plus two more years as future compensation; agriculture for six years, twice the national standard, plus three more years; and for fisheries it continues compensation without setting an end date at present.
There is no end to compensation for fishery operators.
It can be said that fishery operators are compensated more generously than those in commerce, industry, and agriculture.
But the circumstances are a little more complicated, and when one goes to the local area, one notices that fishery compensation is broadly divided into two types.
① Cases in which fishermen who are still completely out of work are fully compensated with an amount corresponding to their pre-3.11 catch, or income.
② Cases in which fishermen have already gone out fishing, but if sales are short compared with the previous catch, the difference is compensated.
Now that more than seven years have passed since March 11, it is natural to hope that many fishermen have returned to pattern ②.
That is because by working energetically, they also gain the strength to overcome difficulties.
However, there are still people who remain in pattern ①.
The fishery cooperative associations, while protecting both group ① and group ②, serve as the window for negotiations with TEPCO.
Cases in which people continue to live on compensation without going out fishing have also been tolerated under these circumstances.
The claim that it is not for the sake of compensation is not necessarily fully supported even locally, because the generous compensation for fishery operators appears to many people as an obvious fact.
Including such delicate background, Hodo Station should report fairly through on-site coverage.
Nishimoto says that Fukushima’s true feeling in opposing the release of tritium water is wariness toward the media.
She says that the message is that they want to avoid a situation in which the media stirs up fear that release into the sea is dangerous, consumers refrain from buying Fukushima seafood, and Fukushima’s fisheries become unable to recover.
“This is a question posed to the media: fulfill your responsibility to eliminate reputational damage by reporting correctly. If politics is running away from that, then demand that politics respond so as to eliminate reputational damage. Is that not the ‘confrontation with power’ that the media should carry out?”
Now, how will Hodo Station answer?