Through an essay by Ryusho Kadota in the monthly WiLL, this chapter examines the issue of the Iwaki branch of the Fukushima District Public Prosecutors Office releasing suspects and moving to Koriyama after the Great East Japan Earthquake, Justice Minister Masako Mori’s remarks, attacks by opposition parties such as the Constitutional Democratic Party, and the LDP’s response. It questions the abnormal state of a Diet where political impressions outweigh the truth.

2020-03-27
It is no wonder, since they released suspects including a forcible indecency offender and quickly fled to Koriyama themselves.
Iwaki was not an evacuation area at the time, and most of its citizens remained there.
The following is from an essay by Ryusho Kadota, published in this month’s issue of the monthly WiLL, released yesterday and required reading for the Japanese people, under the title “From the Scene of the Incident: Why Did Justice Minister Masako Mori Apologize? — A Hollow Diet Where ‘Truth’ Does Not Matter.”
He is one of Japan’s great benefactors, who revealed that the Asahi Shimbun had altered and fabricated its reporting on the testimony of Masao Yoshida, the manager of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
This essay proves that he is now one of the most brilliant journalists not only in Japan but in the world.
Like me, most Japanese people will learn for the first time what Justice Minister Masako Mori’s apology really was.
At the same time, they will also learn how low-level television media such as NHK are, that they can hardly be called journalists at all, and that if Japanese people keep watching such things, they will all simply become complete fools.
Those who usually hurl jeers turn defiant and say, “Jeering is unacceptable,” forcing the prime minister of a nation to apologize.
They ignore facts, twist white into black, and manipulate impressions.
The present Diet has become an “ill-informed” and “abnormal” place that would be unthinkable by the standards of ordinary society.
If this is said to be the highest organ of state power, then the level of Japan can also be guessed.
The main actors this time too are the Constitutional Democratic Party, the Democratic Party for the People, the Japanese Communist Party, and the Social Democratic Party.
Let us consider their low level by taking the Masako Mori apology incident as an example.
At the House of Councillors Budget Committee on March 9, Justice Minister Masako Mori stated, “At the time of the earthquake disaster, prosecutors were the first to flee from Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, while citizens had not evacuated,” and “At that time, they released more than ten people whose bodies were being detained, without reason.”
In response, Jun Azumi, chairman of the Diet Affairs Committee of the Constitutional Democratic Party, said, “It is completely groundless. We want the government’s view,” and adopted the tactic of refusing deliberations in both houses until the government presented an official view.
At the very time when the bill to revise the Act on Special Measures against Novel Influenza and New Infectious Diseases was to be passed, Justice Minister Mori was eventually severely reprimanded by Prime Minister Abe and forced to apologize and withdraw her remarks.
But were Mori’s remarks truly “groundless”?
I was based in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, in order to cover the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011, and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.
Based on that experience, I will describe what I saw and heard in Iwaki City.
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant lost all power because of the great tsunami, and its reactors melted down.
The danger of radioactive contamination caused by explosions in the containment vessels drew near.
The citizens of Iwaki, too, were shaken.
Among families with private cars, not a few left Iwaki.
The same was true of public institutions.
At the Iwaki branch of the Fukushima District Public Prosecutors Office, twelve suspects, including a forcible indecency offender, were being detained when the earthquake disaster occurred.
However, as the contamination crisis approached, the Iwaki branch released these twelve people with disposition pending, closed the office on March 16, and moved to Koriyama.
The prosecutors returned from Koriyama to Iwaki nine days after the reactors had settled down and resumed their ordinary duties.
When this became clear, the anger of Iwaki citizens was great.
It is no wonder, since they released suspects including a forcible indecency offender and quickly fled to Koriyama themselves.
Iwaki was not an evacuation area at the time, and most of its citizens remained there.
The person who raised this issue was Masako Mori, a lawyer from Iwaki and a Liberal Democratic Party member of the House of Councillors.
Ms. Mori thoroughly pursued the Democratic Party administration of the time, and two months later Justice Minister Satsuki Eda dismissed the chief prosecutor of the Fukushima District Public Prosecutors Office.
The feelings of Ms. Mori can also be imagined from the fact that the anger of Iwaki citizens reached its peak when one of the released suspects immediately reoffended.
I remember that the Democratic Party administration of the time, including Justice Minister Eda and then Justice Minister Hideo Hiraoka, was often brought to a standstill by Ms. Mori’s persistent questioning.
The present Constitutional Democratic Party is composed mainly of members of the Democratic Party administration of that time.
Of course, they know the circumstances of this issue very well.
Yet they never let on, and from beginning to end attacked with lies, saying “groundless” and “apologize.”
The worst of all was Ms. Renho.
On March 16, when she stood to ask questions, Ms. Renho said, “Justice Minister Mori tells lies in the Diet about the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, on that very day. Why do you not dismiss her?”
I am appalled at the nerve of asking this question while knowing the facts.
This is a matter of whether such conduct can be permitted as a human being.
Then the opposition parties resorted to their “usual” tactic of absence.
But what is surprising here is that Hiroshi Moriyama, chairman of the LDP Diet Affairs Committee, did not protect his own party’s minister, but moved to swallow the opposition parties’ claims whole and make her apologize.
From the viewpoint of the people, if the opposition parties adopt an absence tactic, they should simply be left alone.
They should be allowed to keep “sleeping” forever.
That way, we would not have to listen to their unbearable nitpicking questions, and the people would grow disgusted with them.
However, the LDP cozies up to the opposition and pleads, “We will make her apologize, so please attend the Diet.”
This is the collusive “1955 system” created by the Liberal Democratic Party and the Socialist Party.
The evil practices of the Diet, which have continued for more than sixty years, still hold sway.
Questioning in the Diet is broadcast on television, and many exchanges can also be watched on the Internet.
In other words, the Diet should be an example for the people.
Yet there, “truth” is ignored and “falsehood” struts about openly.
The LDP Diet Affairs Committee that allows this, and Prime Minister Abe who appointed it.
To me, the greater problem seems to be how long the people will continue to permit such a farce.