[Provisional Translation]

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the fifth meeting of the Nuclear Emergency Preparedness Council at the Prime Minister's Office.

At the meeting, there were reports on “the outcomes of the verification of emergency responses in the Ikata area” and “the holding of the FY2015 Nuclear Energy Disaster Prevention Drill.”

Based on the reports, the Prime Minister said,

“Today, it was reported that the emergency responses for the Ikata area, including its evacuation plan, are concrete and reasonable, and this was confirmed at a meeting of the Regional Nuclear Emergency Preparedness Council  which the relevant municipalities as well as ministries and agencies attended. On this basis, the Nuclear Emergency Preparedness Council approved the emergency responses.

In November, a Nuclear Energy Disaster Prevention Drill for the Ikata Nuclear Power Station  will be held. I ask that the Council study the effectiveness of the emergency responses in the Ikata area and extract lessons learned from the outcomes of the drill, in order to improve and enhance the emergency responses.

With regard to the nuclear power station, we will give top priority to safety above everything else. It has been the consistent policy of the Government to respect the decisions made by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) regarding the nuclear power stations for which the NRA conducted scientific and technical examinations and found to be in compliance with the new regulatory standards that are the most rigorous in the world, and to restart these power stations while gaining the understanding of the host communities. The Government has the responsibility to implement such policies.

Should there be a situation in which a nuclear power accident occurs and it results in a disaster, it is the Government’s important responsibility to protect the lives, health, and property of the people, and the Government will do so responsibly. The Government will spare no effort in providing maximum support to municipalities and in doing all that it can.

For this reason, we will continuously make concerted efforts to strengthen nuclear disaster measures as a responsibility of the Government.

I would like to ask Governor Nakamura of Ehime Prefecture who is in attendance today, as well as the municipalities concerned, for their understanding of and cooperation with this Government policy.

We have not been able to dispel the people’s concerns about the use of nuclear power even now, four and a half years after the accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of the Tokyo Electric Power Company. Humbly accepting this situation, we will continue to make every effort to gain further public understanding on nuclear power by carefully explaining the importance of nuclear power, safety measures, and nuclear disaster measures, as well as by listening to the various opinions of the people and reflecting them appropriately in Government initiatives.”