Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary

JAPANESE

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO I have a few things to report today.

First is a personnel-related item. Effective today, two new special advisors to the Cabinet have been appointed to provide the prime minister with information, advice, and the like on future measures to take in response to the disaster and on relief for the victims. They are Dr. Yasushi Hibino, trustee and vice-president of the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and Lt. Gen. Noboru Yamaguchi, Director of the Center for Security and Crisis Management Education at the National Defense Academy of Japan. They just received their commissions from the prime minister.

Dr. Hibino is deeply knowledgeable in the fields of info-communication and information processing, as well as science- and technology-related public policy in general. Lt. Gen. Yamaguchi has developed an excellent command of crisis management and other areas through his service in the Self-Defense Forces. For these reasons, we have tapped them to provide their input on measures to take in response to the present conditions.

With regard to the nuclear power station situation, I believe Tokyo Electric Power Co. and other officials are at this moment reporting on detailed information and figures.

Right now, personnel are making every effort under extremely difficult conditions on the scene to carry out two tasks: supplying water to the Unit 3 and Unit 4 reactors, to lower the temperature of the pools, and restoring electric power.

Today, pressure readings within the suppression pool were seen to rise at the Unit 3 reactor, and in the interest of caution preparations have been underway to take steps to lower this pressure. At the present time, though, there is no pressing need to carry out venting. The personnel are focused on monitoring these figures, and are making preparations to take steps as necessary.

Next I will turn to the examination of foodstuffs for radioactive materials. The Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare is compiling a report to be issued by the end of the day on the monitoring that relevant organs are carrying out today. The information that has reached us at the Kantei as of this time is that levels of radiation exceeding the provisional standard values established by the Food Sanitation Act have been detected in one sample of spinach tested in Ibaraki Prefecture.

In addition, levels of radiation exceeding the provisional standard values have been detected in raw milk from four locations in Fukushima Prefecture. The Health Ministry has issued requests to the local authorities to take the measures mandated by the Food Sanitation Act with respect to these samples.

As I said yesterday, the national government is carrying out an ongoing investigation based on the assumption that these results are connected to the incidents at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Based on an analysis and evaluation of the results of an extensive investigation, we hope to reach a decision sometime tomorrow on whether measures like imposing restrictions on the consumption or shipping of produce from certain areas will be necessary.

However, as I said yesterday, the levels of radiation detected in these samples of spinach are not thought to pose any immediate risk to human health, even in the case of continued consumption.

Also, in the case of the raw milk from Fukushima Prefecture, we have received reports that no milk from the area where levels exceeding the provisional standard values were detected, or from of the surrounding area, has been shipped or otherwise released into circulation.

Moving on, the recently launched Special Headquarters for Measures to Assist the Lives of Disaster Victims has begun its work. At the present time the headquarters is engaged in carrying out an extremely wide range of measures. In particular, in preparation for plans for people affected by the disaster to be evacuated in groups across a wide area outside their home prefectures, the headquarters is working to minimize the burden imposed on local governments in areas that will accept the evacuees, and is also advancing concrete arrangements to provide support when the time comes for these people to move.

That is all from me for now.