Published on November 3, 2019.
Based on an essay by Abiru Rui published in the Sankei Shimbun, this article introduces the image of the “Prime Minister” depicted in the film Fukushima 50 during the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident.
It discusses the impact of the Prime Minister’s Office and the “Prime Minister’s” visit on the front-line workers struggling with venting operations and seawater injection, and the significance of a film portraying the extreme conditions faced by plant manager Yoshida Masao and the Fukushima Daiichi staff.

November 3, 2019.
The “Prime Minister” detained Mr. Yoshida for about twenty minutes and, as a result, delayed the instruction to carry out the venting.
Also, the Ground Self-Defense Force, which had rushed to the site together with fire engines in order to cool the reactor, was held up at the entrance because the “Prime Minister” had arrived.
The following is from an essay by Abiru Rui, one of the few genuine journalists among active reporters, published in the Sankei Shimbun on October 31 under the title “The Image of the ‘Prime Minister’ Depicted in Fukushima 50.”
As I have already written, Mr. Abiru’s ancestors were the chiefs of the sakimori, frontier guards deployed along the Kyushu coast in ancient times to prevent invasions by foreign enemies.
Emphasis in the text, other than the headings, is mine.
I had the opportunity to see a preview screening of the film Fukushima 50, scheduled for release next March, which depicts the conditions in which the workers on the scene at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station were placed, what they thought, and how they confronted the accident, during the Great East Japan Earthquake and the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station that occurred on March 11, 2011.
The original work is The Man Who Saw the Abyss of Death: Yoshida Masao and the 500 Days of Fukushima Daiichi, written by journalist Kadota Ryusho after interviewing more than ninety people involved, including the late Yoshida Masao, who was the plant manager of Fukushima Daiichi at the time of the accident.
Because it was carefully produced based on a true story, it was realistic and full of force.
With a Sudden “Inspection.”
The scenes of the film shift rapidly among the seismic-isolated important building where Mr. Yoshida takes command at the front, the central control room operating reactors No. 1 and No. 2, the Prime Minister’s Office, TEPCO headquarters, and evacuation shelters.
However, since I was covering politicians and relevant bureaucrats in the Prime Minister’s Office at the time of the accident as the reporter in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office, I paid attention to how their words and actions would be depicted.
In the film, the proper names of politicians do not appear.
Only an unidentified “Prime Minister” and “Chief Cabinet Secretary” appear.
Even so, who the prime minister and chief cabinet secretary were at the time is something one cannot forget, even if one wants to.
For example, amid a succession of accidents, while the people on the scene were recruiting a suicide squad in order to avoid an explosion of the reactor containment vessel and were about to undertake the venting operation to release gas inside the containment vessel, word suddenly came before dawn on the 12th that the “Prime Minister” would come to inspect the site.
While those on the scene were exhausted yet desperately working on measures to deal with the accident, the “Prime Minister,” who arrived by helicopter, refused the contamination check required upon entering the seismic-isolated important building and shouted loudly.
“Why do you think I came here?
There is no time to be doing this sort of thing.”
The “Prime Minister,” who had no thought of the danger that the seismic-isolated important building, the front-line base, might be contaminated by himself and his party after walking outside, raised his voice.
“Why aren’t you doing the venting quickly?”
In the film, the “Prime Minister” detained Mr. Yoshida for about twenty minutes and, as a result, delayed the instruction to carry out the venting.
Also, the Ground Self-Defense Force, which had rushed to the site together with fire engines in order to cool the reactor, was held up at the entrance because the “Prime Minister” had arrived.
The Film Is Gentler Than the Real Figure.
“The Prime Minister’s Office is nitpicking.”
In addition, there is also a scene in which a TEPCO executive orders that the reactor cooling by seawater injection, which Mr. Yoshida had already begun, be stopped, saying that it was a demand from the Prime Minister’s Office.
On the 15th, the “Prime Minister” stormed into TEPCO headquarters and made a speech.
This was also being shown on television at Fukushima Daiichi.
The “Prime Minister” screamed, displaying his anger.
“If you withdraw, TEPCO will collapse one hundred percent.
Even if you try to run away, you will not be able to get away.”
In this scene, the staff members of the emergency response room at Fukushima Daiichi, who had decided to remain on the scene while facing death in an extreme situation, showed astonishment and discomfort.
Incidentally, regarding the “Prime Minister” at that time, Mr. Yoshida also testified as follows in the hearing record of the government’s Investigation Committee on the Accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Stations, the so-called Yoshida Testimony.
“I hardly know what he said, but I remember only that it made me feel bad.”
“While he was shouting something, this event occurred: a large impact sound at Unit 2 and a hydrogen explosion at Unit 4.”
The “Prime Minister” in the film was still gentler than the real figure I had seen and heard about.
In any case, in order to properly remember that “nightmare” and pass it down to posterity, it is surely worth going to the movie theater.
Editorial writer and political department editorial committee member.