[Provisional Translation]

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the eighth 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 Genkai area” and the “revision of the Manual for the Nuclear Disaster Countermeasures.”

Based on the reports at the meeting, the Prime Minister said,

“Today, it was reported that a meeting of the Regional Nuclear Emergency Preparedness Council confirmed that the emergency responses for the Genkai area are concrete and reasonable.

The Genkai area includes many remote islands that are generally between 5 km and 30 km from the nuclear power plant. Should there be a situation in which a nuclear power disaster occurs, I want there to be close collaboration between all relevant municipalities, including Saga Prefecture, Nagasaki Prefecture, and Fukuoka Prefecture.

Taking the confirmed content as a starting point, the national Government will collaborate even more closely with relevant municipalities and businesses to continuously verify and improve emergency responses through actual training that includes operational forces.

It has been the consistent policy of the Government to respect the decisions made by the highly independent 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 only these power stations while gaining the understanding of the host communities. The Government has the responsibility to implement such policies.

In addition, should there be a situation in which a nuclear power accident occurs and it reaches a situation which could result 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.

I want to request understanding and cooperation for these policies from relevant municipalities such as Saga Prefecture.

Five years have passed since the accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of the Tokyo Electric Power Company. However, we have not been able to dispel the people’s concerns about the use of nuclear power even now. Humbly accepting this situation, we will 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.”