Japan’s power deregulation benefits only a handful of figures such as Masayoshi Son while damaging electric utilities that have long been among the world’s finest employers and infrastructure providers. With massive workforces and deep regional roots, Japanese power companies represent public stability itself. The Flint, Michigan water contamination crisis vividly demonstrates how deregulation can collapse safety and public trust.

It is nothing more than something that only damages Japan’s electric power companies, which can be said without exaggeration to be the best in the world.
January 25, 2016.

The other day, I wrote that there is absolutely no need to liberalize Japan’s electric power system, which has continued to supply the highest-quality electricity in the world, and that such liberalization is completely unnecessary.

The fact that proves this was found on page seven of yesterday’s Sankei Shimbun.

The deception known as power deregulation once again merely allows a handful of people, such as Masayoshi Son, to amass meaningless enormous wealth, while only undermining Japan’s electric power companies, which can be said without exaggeration to be the finest in the world.

This is because Japan’s electric power companies are corporate groups that have employed an extraordinary number of workers.

For example, the Tokyo Electric Power Company has continually employed an average of about 40,000 workers ever since the end of the war.

If one includes the employees of affiliated companies and related enterprises, the number becomes enormous.

The same is true for all other electric power companies.

In each region, they were also companies that attracted the most outstanding people as employees.

That is precisely why they were also the most excellent companies in the world.

I wrote that deregulation and regulatory liberalization not only did absolutely nothing to resolve Japan’s long-term deflation, which countries around the world now despise as if it were a plague, but instead merely expanded inequality and further deepened deflation. I also wrote that the bus accident was proof of this.

Michigan State.
Lead detected in drinking water: “Children in danger.”
Water drawn from river due to fiscal hardship; contamination worse than expected.
President Obama declares a state of emergency.
[New York = Jun Kurosawa]

In Flint, a city in the Midwestern U.S. state of Michigan suffering from fiscal difficulties, lead contamination in drinking water was discovered, prompting President Obama to declare a state of emergency.

High concentrations of lead have been successively detected in the blood of children, and residents are fiercely protesting.

Flint (population under 100,000) had previously drawn water from Lake Huron, one of the Great Lakes. However, in April 2014, in an effort to cut costs, the system was switched to draw water from the Flint River. About one month later, complaints such as “the water smells strange” flooded in from residents. Although contamination of the river proved to be far worse than expected and led to lead leaching from the city’s water pipes, the authorities continued to use the river water until October of last year.

Currently, water from Lake Huron is again being used in the city, but lead levels have reportedly not improved significantly.

Because lead poisoning causes serious health damage such as brain disorders, parents fearing for the health of about 9,000 children are harshly criticizing the authorities.

They are surrounding the state capitol building with demonstrations, and lawsuits have also been filed.

Many households are still receiving bills for water that cannot be drunk, further amplifying residents’ anger.

Governor Snyder (Republican) announced on the 19th that he would allocate 28 million dollars (about 3.3 billion yen) to improve the situation.

National Guard units have also been urgently deployed in the city.

President Obama, who issued the emergency declaration on the 16th, said on CBS television on the 20th, “If I were a parent in that community, I would be beside myself with anger that my child’s health was being endangered,” and called for thorough improvements.