2019-12-30
The following is from yesterday’s Sankei Shimbun.
Not only Moon Jae-in, but also the Asahi Shimbun, NHK and others, the so-called cultural figures, China’s one-party Communist dictatorship, and the countries and people around the world who side with South Korea must read this with their eyes wide open.
Even so, rather than appreciating our good fortune in having as prime minister someone of whom we should be proud as Japanese, the people who control NHK’s news department continue, in the opinion polls they conduct with unbelievable frequency, to include the truly laughable item “His character cannot be trusted” as the top reason for disapproving of Prime Minister Abe every time—whatever their intentions may be—and not only do I find it impossible to regard them as decent Japanese people, but I also feel an anger toward them that will not allow me to forgive them.
“Radioactive Substances from Fukushima Less Than One-Hundredth of South Korea’s”
Prime Minister Makes the Point; Moon Offers No Rebuttal
Calls for Scientific Discussion at Japan–South Korea Summit
It emerged on the 28th that, when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Chengdu, China, on the 24th, he pointed out that “the amount of radioactive substances contained in the water discharged from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station is less than one-hundredth of that in wastewater from South Korean nuclear power stations.”
With South Korea’s ban on imports of Japanese food products, including seafood from Fukushima Prefecture, following the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in mind, he was calling for a scientific discussion.
Moon reportedly offered no rebuttal.
Japanese and South Korean diplomatic sources disclosed this.
At the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, groundwater is currently pumped up through subdrains—wells near the buildings—installed to reduce the amount of groundwater flowing into the reactor buildings, purified, and discharged into the sea after confirmation that it falls below the regulatory limits.
According to materials from a government subcommittee and other sources, the annual amount of tritium discharged through the subdrains in 2016 was approximately 130 billion becquerels.
By contrast, the amount of tritium released in liquid form in 2016 from the Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant, one of South Korea’s major nuclear power stations, was approximately 17 trillion becquerels, about 130 times as much.
This comparison of the data is believed to have been what the prime minister had in mind at the meeting.
Regarding conditions in the waters surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and in the open ocean, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has assessed that “radioactive substance concentrations have not increased and are within the World Health Organization’s (WHO) drinking-water guidelines.”
Taking such scientific evidence into account, Bahrain, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Brunei lifted their import restrictions on Japanese food products this year, while the European Union (EU) also reduced the regions and products subject to inspection certificates, strengthening the international trend toward removing or easing restrictions.
South Korea, however, instead tightened inspections for radioactive substances in some cases.
According to sources involved in Japan–South Korea relations, the prime minister also explained the IAEA’s assessment to Moon and urged that “calm, scientific discussion should take place.”
The prime minister is believed to have brought up the comparison of Japanese and South Korean data in response to South Korea’s continued import restrictions, which run counter to the international trend.
In response, Moon offered no reaction, including any rebuttal.