Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

JAPANESE

Q&As

REPORTER: In the ruling parties' leaders meeting that took place recently, according to an explanation by the People's New Party, the Prime Minister has spoken about his desire to conclude deliberations on the second supplementary budget by mid-July. What is the status of deliberations within the Government and what instructions have been given by the Prime Minister?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: As I have said before, while the Government is making every effort to ensure that the first supplementary budget is fully implemented, there are areas that are not covered by the first supplementary budget, and for these areas we are making every effort to gain a picture of what specifically is required to ensure that reconstruction can be implemented without delay. The Government recognizes that supplementary budget items will be required and is advancing considerations on the basis of the understanding that the second supplementary budget needs to be formulated as quickly as possible.

REPORTER: So when the Prime Minister referred to mid-July, what particular part of the budget compilation process was he referring to?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: I think he has been consulting with the Minister of Finance on this issue.

REPORTER: So can we take it that the second supplementary budget that will be compiled by the middle of next month will, rather than being a budget that provides for full-fledged reconstruction, be a budget that supplements the areas in which recovery has not yet advanced?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: There is no mistaking that supplementary budgetary allocations for reconstruction are required and in a broad sense this is something that is being considered by the Reconstruction Design Council. What is currently most urgent is that the areas not covered by the first supplementary budget are dealt with and provided with appropriate budgetary allocation as soon as possible.

REPORTER: In the ruling parties' leaders meeting, it was apparently agreed that the current session of the Diet should be extended. By what sort of length do you envisage that it will be extended by?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: The meeting that took place between the leader of our coalition party and the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) who is also the Prime Minister was very important. However I believe that a final decision will be made after consultation among the DPJ as a whole, with Diet Affairs committee chairpersons and others.

REPORTER: It emerged on June 11 that there are still ten cases where the results of measurements taken by the System for Prediction of Environment Emergency Dose Information (SPEEDI), of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) have not been published. The other day, the issue of unpublished data by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) also emerged. What is your opinion of this most recent incident involving NISA?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: There have been a number of occasions where various information and data have not been reported appropriately or have not been published and this is very regrettable and something I am sorry about. If such incidents continue to reoccur, unless a system is created that prevents such mistakes from happening, there is a possibility that they will continue to occur in times of emergency when people are very busy with various operations. I therefore believe that it is necessary to create a system under normal conditions that would ensure the communication and disclosure of information under emergency conditions. I am very sorry that such a system was not in place prior to the disaster.

REPORTER: Have instructions been given to NISA to ensure that there is no repeat of this incident?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: Yes, firm instructions have been given with regard to this incident in particular and for all others that every effort should be made to ensure that data is disclosed and there are no omissions in the disclosure of data. It is regrettably the case that due to a number of reasons there was a failure to disclose information. NISA is engaged in detailed investigation to ensure that it does not happen again.

REPORTER: On a related note, before he resigned as Special Advisor to the Cabinet, Prof. Toshiso Kosako submitted a report dated April 27 to the Prime Minister and to you, entitled "Proposal concerning the future response to Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station." In that report Prof. Kosako points out that due to the inappropriate initial actions of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) the radiation dispersal predictions using SPEEDI were not adequately utilized and this caused unnecessary radiation exposure for residents. How does the Government view this report from Prof. Kosako?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: As I have mentioned on previous occasions, if SPEEDI had been developed to take into account emergency situations prior to the disaster, there would have not been any problem, but in actual fact the system was not configured to take into account accident situations such as the one we faced. As a result, while there was some leeway for making use of SPEEDI from an earlier stage in the process, this proved not to be possible, and this is a significant issue that needs to be reflected on when we consider our accident response. However, although due to the various circumstances it was not possible to use SPEEDI, wide-spread evacuation zones were established, and although it was the case that some people actually sought to escape in the direction that the wind was blowing, the current understanding is that there was nobody who was ultimately exposed to harmful doses of radiation.

REPORTER: So, your understanding that the unnecessary radiation exposure highlighted by Prof. Kosako was not to such an extensive degree?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: Of course, if we had been able to utilize SPEEDI in the way that it was originally designed to be used prior to the disaster, there could have been room to make a different response concerning the evacuation areas and the ways to implement evacuations. This could have avoided the situation in which residents actually fled in the direction that the wind was blowing. Naturally, given the fact that the lower the exposure to radiation the better, the observations of Prof. Kosako are valid in some respects. However, the overall response involved requesting residents to evacuate at an early stage, to ensure that they were not exposed to harmful doses of radiation.

(Abridged)