Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

JAPANESE

Q&As

REPORTER: I have a question about the reorganization of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) to make it an independent organization. It has been reported that a new organization will be created within the Ministry of the Environment (MOE). Can you tell us the status of the current considerations as well as your opinions on creating an organization within the MOE?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: Under Minister Hosono, ideas are now being put together which will serve as the basis for further discussion. While I have been informed that that is one of the proposals which have been put forward in this process, it is still a blank slate as to which way we will go. It's one of the options. I, myself, think it is one idea. There needs to be a general discussion including the options from a comprehensive viewpoint, whether the organization will be able to actually function with independence and neutrality. Moving forward, I would like these specific issues to be considered promptly.

REPORTER: Until now, the organizations subject to reorganization have belonged to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Cabinet Office. Is the Government's view that from the perspective of independence, it is more desirable if the organizations are assigned to ministries and agencies other than these two?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: At the very least, everyone agrees that it is a problem for NISA to belong to METI, in other words, for the authorities promoting the full use of nuclear power and the authorities checking this to belong to the same ministry, leaving aside the question of whether the word "promoting" is appropriate since the Government has decided on a policy to gradually reduce the dependence on nuclear power. As to where to assign NISA - whether it is the Cabinet Office or MOE or another government office, I believe there are indeed a variety of views and I cannot make imprudent predictions about the conclusion at this stage.

REPORTER: When are Mr. Hosono's ideas for discussion scheduled to be announced?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: Since they are ideas for discussion, whether or not they will be announced is not up for question I think. This is an extremely sophisticated, political topic. The relevant ministers, etc. are beginning to have consultations, while of course receiving a variety of assistance with respect to logistical information and knowledge. In this context, although the ideas for discussion are being reported by the media and so on, I believe what will happen is that once we are a little further into the discussion, the discussion items will be reported as a proposal.

REPORTER: I have a related question. Does the Kan administration intend to come up with a vision for the organizational reform?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: I believe there is already a vision.

REPORTER: Revisions were made to the Government's proposal for the legislation to establish an organization for supporting the nuclear disaster compensation payments that was passed. What are your thoughts on the passage of this legislation?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: An assistance framework of some kind is essential for providing thorough compensation payments for all of those who were affected by the incident. Therefore, particularly from the perspective of assistance for the affected people, I believe that the passage of this bill today will be a significant step forward. Regarding the revisions which were made to the Government's original draft, while of course we submitted a bill which we thought was best, I have consistently believed since my opposition party days that even if the Cabinet submits a bill which it thinks is best, it is desirable to have a process in which the bill is made even better through discussions at the Diet. I believe the bill we submitted was further improved through a variety of discussions at the Diet.

REPORTER: On a related note, the total compensation amount is still unknown. In this context, I believe the Government will be making provisional compensation payments ahead of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). Do you believe that this approach will function optimally?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: Regarding whether or not the Government's provisional payments will precede TEPCO's payments, I believe this is indeed a question of operations. With the passage of the Basic Act on Reconstruction, TEPCO will not face problems, such as not being able to make payments financially or on time. Furthermore, in terms of the actual payment operations, for instance, I have seen news reports that said TEPCO will have 5,000 or so of its staff and employees in charge of making the payments. In fact, with regards to securing people who will be responsible for the actual payment work, it can be quite difficult for government or quasi-government offices to do this quickly due to various restrictions about using public money. In this sense, both options are provided, that is, the option for the Government to make the payments and the option for TEPCO to make payments as before, so that indeed payments can be made through the quickest and best logistical route. The actual payment operations will be based on this viewpoint.

REPORTER: I have a related question. Up to today's passage of the legislation to establish an organization for supporting the nuclear disaster compensation payments, a number of the earthquake-related legislations have been passed during the current session of the Diet after revisions had been made. In the final phase of this Diet session, there have been much tug-of-war between the ruling and opposition parties and it seems that it has become common practice to make significant revisions to the earthquake-related legislations. What are your thoughts on this point?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: As I mentioned a moment ago, based on the mechanisms of the Cabinet and the Diet under a parliamentary cabinet system, I believe the Cabinet of course has a responsibility to submit a bill which it thinks is best. Regarding the bills which have been revised at the Diet, while we submitted the bills which we thought were best at least at the time of submission, I believe making revisions to the bills based on the judgments of the legislature at the Diet is indeed a desirable political process that is expected under the Japanese Constitution. With regards to not only the response to the earthquake disaster but in all circumstances, I believe it is a very welcome move for revisions to be made as necessary through discussions at the Diet and for the legislation to be passed with broad approval.

REPORTER: About the establishment of a new organization for nuclear power regulation, what is your prospective timeframe for drafting a proposal among relevant ministers within the Cabinet and for submitting a bill to the Diet?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: With regards to NISA and its current situation, as I have repeatedly said, the people at the scene of the incident and the rest of the staff have been doing their utmost, particularly since March 11, with the common will of never letting an incident like this happen again. However, the current framework and mechanism of our system are such that they cannot be easily understood by the Japanese people. I do believe this is something we need to expedite the process of remedying - the faster we can do this, the better. That said, to develop the entire framework and mechanism for the overall regulation for nuclear power involves vast and wide-ranging volumes of relevant laws and related agencies, and therefore, I predict that to complete the entire process will take a certain amount of time. As such, I believe that, while we hold deliberations on our ultimate plans, we must also determine which areas need to be or can be done speedily, and which areas need a certain amount of time spent on them.

REPORTER: Do you mean that before reexamining the overall framework of the regulations, you will adopt a two-step process, meaning you will first work on the reorganization of related ministries and agencies?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: In order to change the organization, relevant laws must also be drastically changed. Therefore, although I am not set on adopting a two-step process for the reorganization, I do think that we must consider the possibility of taking a two or three-step process. What I mentioned is merely one of the possible options.

REPORTER: On a related note, has the entire administration unanimously agreed on launching a new organization in April of next year?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: It would be desirable. At least with regards to the separation of METI and NISA, I believe we are mostly in agreement that it would be most desirable for this to take place by then, considering the perspective of and impression given to the Japanese people. However, as I have already said, complete reorganization would involve an enormous amount of work, so we must take this into consideration and develop a schedule for all the work that is involved.

REPORTER: On a somewhat related note, Mr. Azuma Koshiishi said at the general assembly of the House of Councillors members today, with regards to the modalities of nuclear power regulations, "What we must do immediately is to solidly establish the three bills to create a new system. We have to place top priority on this." What is your take on his suggesting that priority should be placed on the establishment of the three bills before the restructuring of the nuclear power organization?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: I do not know in what context or with what sort of intentions Mr. Koshiishi said this, nor have I heard what he said or talked to him directly. There was a question I think yesterday, and I found out that the interpretation of the speaker's intentions by the questioner and the intentions of the actual speaker as later reported to me were completely different. As such, I believe I must decline from answering this question.

REPORTER: It was said that it is desirable to separate away NISA as soon as possible, that doing it by April of next year would be best; that doing this first would be best. Are you already planning to submit the bill at the extraordinary session of the Diet without waiting for the ordinary session?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: We have not engaged in deliberations in such concrete details. We are still at the stage of having had Minister Hosono compile a draft and now relevant ministers are starting to consider its contents. Therefore, I see us as just now standing at the starting line for deliberations on issues including what kind of time schedule we will go by.

REPORTER: My question has to do with decontamination after the TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station incident. Minister Hosono said that he would like to start the decontamination of the no-entry zone in September. However, local residents are making numerous and strong requests that decontamination of areas other than the no-entry zone be carried out as soon as possible. What are the Government's intentions with regards to the decontamination of areas other than the no-entry zone?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: Minister Hosono is with the intention of starting the decontamination work which includes the no-entry zone by September. This is not a definite plan as there are still many technical and other issues that need to be dealt with, but I am told that that is the goal. As far as other areas are concerned, people are allowed to enter these areas, so we are already engaging in decontamination work with areas where this is possible, through consultations and cooperation with members of the local municipalities. We would like to proceed in these areas on as wide a scale and as promptly as possible, and as such, we are going forward with deliberations and actual decontamination work on a daily basis.

(Abridged)