愛川欽也パックインジャーナル4/23(土)「原発事故20キロ以内封鎖」2/3
愛川欽也パックインジャーナル4/23(土)「原発事故20キロ以内封鎖」3/3
「論」も愉しとは、故筑紫哲也氏の言葉である。 近ごろ「論」が浅くなっていると思いませんか。 その良し悪し、是非、正しいか違っているかを問う前に。 そうやってひとつの「論」の専制が起きる時、 失なわれるのは自由の気風。 そうならないために、もっと「論」を愉しみませんか。 ・・・・「論」を愉しむためには、いろいろな事を知っていた方が良いと自分は考える。沢山引き出しを持っていた方が、人生を愉しめるような気がする。
In the immediate aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the Japanese media stayed remarkably calm. While overseas news outlets fretted about nuclear meltdown and terrified expats stranded in a 'City of Ghosts', their Japanese counterparts generally hewed closer to the official line: stay calm, go about your business as usual. And, yes, you can still drink the tap water.
But that was only part of the picture. While the mainstream media presented a reasonably united front, a group of freelance and internet journalists were openly dissatisfied with the explanations being given at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s seemingly endless stream of press conferences. Why wasn't the company mentioning levels of plutonium around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant? What had happened to TEPCO's president, Masataka Shimizu – last seen on March 13?
One of the most influential members of this group of dissenters is Takashi Uesugi, a former New York Times journalist and, in an earlier incarnation, aide to Liberal Democratic Party bigwig Kunio Hatoyama. The author of books including The Collapse of Journalism, Uesugi is a vociferous critic of Japan's 'Kisha Club' system – a network of exclusive press clubs that, he says, nurtures excessively close relationships between reporters and the organisations they are supposed to cover.
Gadfly to some, hero to others, Uesugi is a much-sought commentator. He makes weekly appearances on Tokyo FM and Asahi Newstar, and is a regular contributor to the Diamond Weekly business website, along with various weekly tabloids. However, he's most prolific on his own website and via Twitter, where he commands a following of 177,000 and counting. One place place he won't be appearing any more is TBS Radio, who booted Uesugi from his regular weekly guest slot this month (more on that later).
Time Out caught up with Uesugi last Monday, during a brief lull between press conferences at the TEPCO head office in Shimbashi. We'd gone expecting to have a nice chat about tweets and microsieverts, but smalltalk apparently wasn't an option. What followed was a eye-opening, if occasionally paranoid tirade against TEPCO, the government and the mass media, delivered in rapid-fire Japanese.
Obviously a lot has happened over the past couple of weeks, but what are the main things you've learned?
Basically, something that I knew from the beginning, but has become more blatant yesterday and today [March 27-28], is this terrible situation where the government and TEPCO are suppressing information. To be more specific, I thought it was strange that there was nothing written about plutonium when the data about reactor 3 was given out at the TEPCO press conference on the 27th, so I asked them if it was true that no plutonium had been detected in reactor 3, and for how long it had not been detected. TEPCO answered: 'Plutonium hasn’t been detected.' To confirm what they were saying I asked if perhaps it wasn't that none had been detected, but that they hadn't actually taken any measurements. They were alarmed, and it turned out that it wasn't even that they hadn't taken any measurements, but that they didn't have the instruments to do so in the first place.
That's one example. Another is the question of where exactly has the TEPCO company president gone? There was a rumour doing the rounds a while ago that he had been hospitalised, when actually he had been away because of fatigue. This time they're using the pretence of hospitalisation for the same situation. All of it's lies. It's emblematic, isn’t it? [Note: TEPCO president Masataka Shimizu was hospitalised on March 29, and subsequently resigned.]
Two weeks ago I told someone in the government that TEPCO was lying. I called a friend from back when I was a governmental aide directly on their mobile phone and said that the government was being deceived, but I didn't get any response at all. On top of that, even though I was able to attend the Chief Cabinet Secretary’s press conferences before the earthquake, after the quake, all the freelance journalists, foreign media and Internet reporters were kicked out. So I took on the role of representative for those media outlets, and tried to negotiate by constantly badgering the official residence – like a stalker – saying, ‘If you don’t let in the foreign media too, there won’t be any way for information to be conveyed abroad, will there?’
Ever since the [nuclear] trouble started, I’ve been saying again and again via the different media and radio programs that I appear on that TEPCO are concealing things about the accident, that they're lying, and that the government is being fooled. I’ve been saying that TEPCO is a client of the media and the press clubs, being one of their biggest advertisers – so the press won’t be able to say certain things, and will be holding back, won't they? But then, at the end of one of the programs, the producer came to me and asked me to stop doing the show at the end of the month, and I was dropped. When I criticized TEPCO on a different program, they also wanted to get rid of me. But the producer of that particular program is a strong person, and actually went ahead and did it without a sponsor.
TEPCO are such an important advertiser that the television and newspapers are completely silent. Even now, they're running TEPCO commercials on the television, aren’t they? This week, there are also full-page advertisements in the newspaper. Despite the fact that they've caused such a scandal, TEPCO are still putting ads in the newspaper. If they have such enormous sums of money, they should send it to the areas hit by the disaster.
It's like the false announcements made by the Imperial General Headquarters 70 years ago [during World War II] are happening all over again. I’m shocked that something I've seen in history textbooks, and had thought was completely implausible, is happening right before my eyes. I never thought that I'd become a party to anything like this. [Laughs]
Have you been following reports in the foreign media, then?
Yes, all the time.
Would you say that they've been overdoing it?
No, I wouldn’t, because the foreign media was just reporting what was possible. I think the correct way to report about the events at the nuclear power plant is to assume the worst case and write about it, and then also add what the current situation is in relation to that. Newspapers and television shouldn't say, 'Don't worry, it's safe. You don't need to run away,' like Japan's have. There's absolutely no problem with the way the foreign media has covered this news. It's not fanning people's fears if we report by saying it's possible for things to reach such and such a point, but at the moment the situation is like this, so you don't need to worry. There's also nothing wrong with the foreign media referring to the examples of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. After clarifying the source, I have also talked about those kinds of things in my email newsletter and in my regular reports for websites, as well as on radio shows and satellite TV programs where I'm a regular guest. Except recently, the more I talk about those topics, the more complaints I get after the program has finished – in incredible numbers. People say things like, 'Don't lie!' or 'It's safe!' But they've got no grounds to say that. Japanese people want to believe that it's safe, don't they? They just don't want to look at how things really are. It's like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.
We've read a lot of opinions from scientists recently, and the majority of them seem to fall in line with what the government's saying: that this isn't another Chernobyl, and Tokyo isn't at risk from radiation…
That’s because at the moment, any scientists who say that the current situation is dangerous are being removed from the mass media. Ultimately, the most dangerous situation is one where the only information available is what suits the government and TEPCO. From the outset, the mass media haven’t been using the people who are reporting that the worst possible outcome could happen. And yet the evacuation area was changed from 2km to 3km, and then to 10km, and to 20km, and finally to 30km. America has specified a 50 mile (80km) evacuation zone, but Japanese people still say that things are OK as they are...
Then the next week I said [to Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano], ‘You were wrong, weren’t you? Radioactive material has been found in the area outside the 30km line, and even though you said radioactive material would never reach Tokyo, it has, hasn’t it? The government is responsible for the consequences of what it says so you should make a proper apology. Correct your mistakes.’ He replied, ‘That is not the case.’ When I said that, far from being within the 30km radius, radioactive material was found 40km away, and that he should correct the mistake, he told me to ‘Submit that properly in writing.’ I asked a question in the middle of a press conference, and he actually told me to put it on paper. [Laughs] At that point I just couldn’t believe it any more. It’s the first time that has ever happened to me – to be asked to submit a question in writing in the middle of actually asking it. Basically, it’s hopeless, isn’t it? Something in the minds of the government has burst.
When The New Yorker interviewed you recently, you talked about how the Japanese public were 'brainwashed' by the media. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
From a young age Japanese people become convinced that newspapers and the television are correct, and that magazines and the Internet are full of lies. But the information in the newspapers and on the television is just what the government is giving out through the press clubs. Even if it's different from the information and data that reporters have gathered themselves, they just accept what the government announces. So the people here who think that the newspapers and television are right always believe the information given to them, and it’s why the same kind of brainwashing is happening now too. But one thing that's a little different from how things have been up until now is that people, mostly the younger generation, are starting to realise what's going on, and using the Internet to say, ‘Hang on, there’s something that’s not right, isn’t there?’ Even my Twitter timeline has been incredible since this morning, with messages like, ‘What the newspapers and television are saying is not the truth!’ It’s just like Egypt and Tunisia. That’s where we can clearly see changes happening.
東日本大震災:原発から20キロでも放射線量が高濃度
http://megalodon.jp/2011-0331-1643-51/mainichi.jp/select/science/news/20110316k0000e040048000c.html
福島第1原発から北西に約20キロ離れた福島県浪江町内の放射線量が、一般の人の年間被ばく限度の2233~2890倍に当たる1時間当たり255~330マイクロシーベルトに達していることが、文部科学省の調査で分かった。浪江町内には介護施設などに避難できない住民が多数いるとの情報もあり、文科省は「問題がある数値で官邸に報告した」と説明した。
調査は15日午後8時40分~同50分にかけ、同町内3地点で計測機器を積んだ「モニタリングカー」を使って実施した。その結果1時間当たりの放射線量は、19キロ離れた場所で車外255マイクロシーベルト、車内223マイクロシーベルト▽20キロ離れた場所で車外270マイクロシーベルト、車内220マイクロシーベルト▽21キロ離れた場所で車外330マイクロシーベルト、車内300マイクロシーベルト--となった。
文科省によると一般の人の年間被ばく限度は1000マイクロシーベルト、同町内の数値は屋外にいると3時間前後で限度に近付くことになる。屋内でも車内に近い数値が計測されることも予想され、文科省は16日から「測定者の健康に被害が出ない範囲で計測を続ける」としているが、住民の健康被害については「枝野幸男官房長官からコメントするなと指示があった」と説明している。【篠原成行】
東北地方太平洋沖地震による福島第一原子力発電所の事故に関する会長声明
1 本年3月11日に発生した東北地方太平洋沖地震及びこの地震によって引き起こされた大津波により、東京電力福島第一原子力発電所では、1号機から4号機で、外部電源や非常用ディーゼル発電など炉心や使用済核燃料プールの冷却機能を働かせるために必要な電源が全て失われ、核燃料棒が冠水できず、高温状態が継続して、炉心溶融・水素爆発等による建屋や圧力抑制室の損壊・使用済核燃料プールの水温上昇などの事故が発生し、放射性物質が原子力発電所から環境中に放出されるなど予断を許さない深刻な事態が進行している。そのため、原子力発電所から半径20km以内は避難指示、半径20~30kmの範囲では屋内待避指示が出される異常事態となっている。
当連合会は、避難指示及び屋内待避指示を受けた住民の皆様にお見舞い申し上げるとともに、現在も原子力発電所事故の現場で懸命の努力が続けられている原子炉の冷却作業等によりこれ以上の深刻な被害が回避されるよう心から祈念する。
2 福島原子力発電所事故に対する危機管理は、原子力災害対策特別措置法により行われているが、原子力災害対策本部による情報開示は、情報伝達の遅れ、東京電力との情報の食い違い、開示情報が不十分であるなどの問題があり、国際原子力機関(IAEA)を中心とする諸外国からも批判がなされている。
日本の原子力発電所は、設計の際に想定した地震や津波を基に安全性評価を行っており、かつ、原子力発電所の安全装置の一つが働かなくなっても、他の装置が働いて安全性を確保できるという単一故障指針に基づいて設計されてきた。今回の福島第一原子力発電所の事故により、想定されている地震、津波が過小評価であること、そして地震に対しては複数の故障が同時に生じ、安全性が確保されないことが明らかになった。
また、国や電力会社は、放射性物質が外部に漏出しないよう、燃料被覆管、圧力容器、格納容器、原子炉建屋で多重に防護されているから安全であるとしてきた。しかし、今回のような冷却剤喪失等の事故が起これば、原子力発電所の安全性が確保できないことも明らかになった。
今回の地震と同じ大規模なプレート境界地震である東海地震等の発生が予測されており、その想定される震源域の直上に位置する浜岡原子力発電所をはじめ、全国には地震と津波の危険にさらされている多数の原子力発電所や原子力施設が存在するが、今回の事態を受けて、原子力発電所の建設が進められていた上関原子力発電所、東通原子力発電所、大間原子力発電所については工事を一時見合わせることが発表された。
当連合会は、従前より、地震及び津波による原子力発電所事故の危険性を指摘し、原子力発電所の新増設の停止と既存の原子力発電所の段階的廃止を訴えてきた(2000年10月6日第43回人権擁護大会決議)。今回の事態は、当連合会の表明してきた危惧が現実のものとなったものである。今こそ、原子力発電所に頼ってきた従来のエネルギー政策を抜本的に見直し、エネルギーの消費削減と再生可能エネルギーなど他のエネルギー源への転換を速やかに図らなければならない。
3 よって、当連合会は、現下の緊急事態に鑑み、地域住民と広く国民の生命と健康、安全と安心を守る立場から、関係機関に対し、早急に以下の措置を講じるよう強く求める。
(1) 原子力災害対策本部は、福島第一原子力発電所事故の現状及び今後想定されるあらゆる事態、並びに、各地の放射能汚染の実情と被曝による長期的なリスクに関する情報、被曝防護に関する情報を正確かつ迅速に国民に提供し、適切な範囲の住民を速やかに避難させること。
(2) 国及び東京電力は、今回の事故により避難及び屋内待避の指示を受けた住民等に対し十分な支援及び被害補償を行うこと。
(3) 国、電力会社その他原子力関係機関は、二度とこのような原子力発電所事故を繰り返さないために、原子力発電所の新増設を停止し、既存の原子力発電所については、電力需給を勘案しつつ、危険性の高いものから段階的に停止すること。
2011年(平成23年)3月25日
日本弁護士連合会
会長 宇都宮 健児