Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

JAPANESE

Opening Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: I have three items to report. First, I will give an overview of today's Cabinet meeting. Sixteen items including general items as well as law promulgations and personnel decisions were approved. From the ministers, Minister Koichiro Gemba, Minister Kaoru Yosano and Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeaki Matsumoto discussed the overall state of progress on the policy issues we are working on, and Minister Goshi Hosono presented on the Basic Policy for the Reform of an Organization in charge of Nuclear Safety Regulation. During the ministerial discussions that followed, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Banri Kaieda spoke about his trip to Indonesia.

In addition to what I just mentioned, among the personnel decisions made at the Cabinet meeting today was one relating to an office I am directly in charge of as Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs. On August 15, head of the Okinawa Development and Promotion Bureau Yoshihiro Otsuji will leave for a post at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). It was decided that Masaaki Takezawa, Secretary General of the Okinawa General Bureau, will take his place.

The third item I would like to talk about is the decision made at the Cabinet meeting on the Basic Policy for the Reform of an Organization in charge of Nuclear Safety Regulation. I will explain an outline of the policy. The main points of the reform policies are as follows.

First, the nuclear safety regulation department of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) will be separated from METI and combined with the function of the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) to create a new affiliated agency of the Ministry of the Environment (MOE), which is provisionally being called the "Nuclear Safety and Security Agency (NSSA)."

Second, it is hoped that regulatory functions will be enhanced through the centralization of nuclear safety regulation under one government body. With the new agency, we aim to create a kind of control tower to handle safety regulations related to the use of nuclear reactors and nuclear fuel materials, nuclear security measures, and environmental monitoring operations, including SPEEDI.

Third, while creating an infrastructure within the Nuclear Safety and Security Agency that can handle crisis management from the very start of a nuclear accident, we will work to secure competent personnel suited to the work of the agency, regardless of whether they come from the public or private sector.

Fourth, we will revise current regulations and related systems simultaneously by introducing new regulatory frameworks to be formulated from lessons learned during the current accident.

Fifth, the Cabinet Secretariat will carry out preparation work including drafting bills needed to create the agency, with the aim of having it established by April of next year.

This is an overview of only the first round of reforms. For the second round, we will be forwarding further with broad consideration on what roles the new agency must fulfill and how to best create a more effective and robust safety regulation organization based on the revision of energy and nuclear power policy as well as the findings of the Investigation and Verification Committee on the Accidents at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Stations of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). We aim to have the final draft for this round of reforms finished by the end of next year. Minister Hosono will be making an announcement of further details on these matters, and in addition, I can report that during ministerial discussions the opinion was expressed that in order to make the significance of the new agency clear it should be called either the Nuclear Safety Regulation Agency or the Nuclear Regulation Agency.

Q&As

REPORTER: I have a question regarding the Nuclear Safety and Security Agency approved by the Cabinet. Please talk about the reasons why the agency is affiliated with MOE - that is, why the agency was set up under MOE rather than other entities such as the Cabinet Office.

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: I believe there are a variety of ideas on where to place the agency, and we have made careful considerations in this light. All things considered, we made the decision based on the following. First, we believe there is strong compatibility between the agency and the matters MOE has traditionally been overseeing in the broad sense of preventing environmental degradation due to nuclear radioactive materials. Secondly, we felt that it would be a cumbersome process if the agency is placed under entities such as the Cabinet Office, as the number of ministers will have to be increased to establish the post for the responsible minister. If the agency is placed under MOE, automatically there will be a minister who will be fully responsible for overseeing nuclear regulation affairs together with the compatible environmental affairs.

REPORTER: In that case, even if by chance a nuclear accident occurs, or if for instance, the situation at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station worsens after the agency is launched, the Government basically does not foresee creating a post like the one currently held by Mr. Hosono? Will the Minister of the Environment be responsible for these matters then? Is my understanding correct?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: Yes, there is a Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for Crisis Management in the Cabinet Secretariat, and this person will take the initial crisis management measures under the authority of the Chief Cabinet Secretary. In this context, with regards to crisis response related to radioactive materials and nuclear power in particular, I believe the Minister of the Environment and the Nuclear Safety and Security Agency - or Nuclear Regulation Agency - will be fully overseeing the response under the authority of the Chief Cabinet Secretary and the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for Crisis Management.

REPORTER: At the ministerial discussions that followed the Cabinet meeting, were any negative views expressed about the establishment of the new organization?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: No, none at all.

REPORTER: You mentioned that at the ministerial discussions, some expressed the view that the agency should be called the Nuclear Regulation Agency. Specifically, with what intent did they make this statement? Also, you said the agency's name is provisional. When will the official name be decided?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: First, regarding your second question, the name is "provisional." I believe the official name will be decided in the process of preparing the draft legislation. Also, regarding the name, at recent meetings among the relevant ministers too, it was not so much others who expressed the opinion but I who stated that in view of the agency's role to fully carry out the regulation of nuclear power separately from overseeing their use, the word "regulation" should be used in the name of the agency. Some ministers noted during the ministerial discussions today that this was a good idea. The word "safety" in particular is an ambiguous word. Bearing this in mind, the view was expressed that it would be better if the title makes it clear that indeed regulation will be separated from the use (of nuclear power), and that the agency's role will be to manage regulations in an integrated fashion.

REPORTER: Which ministers expressed this view?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: In principle, detailed accounts of ministerial discussions are not supposed to be reported. I feel it is fine for the person him/herself to say this is what the person said. However, I do not think it is appropriate for me to make this sort of statement about others.

REPORTER: If I may confirm something - you said that the head of the agency will be under the jurisdiction of MOE. Is my understanding correct that in principle the Minister of the Environment will concurrently serve as the head of the agency? For example, extra-ministerial agencies of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) or the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) to date have had separate people leading them.

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: I am aware that it is generally unprecedented for a minister to concurrently serve as the head of an affiliated agency. Up to now, it has been discussed whether someone under the leadership of the Minister of the Environment can serve as the head of the Nuclear Safety and Security Agency or Nuclear Regulation Agency. Ultimately, I believe this post can be created in various ways during the legislation preparation stage. At this point in time, this is what we have been discussing.

REPORTER: I have a related question about the status of the Minister of the Environment following the establishment of the Nuclear Safety and Security Agency. A moment ago, you said that the Nuclear Safety and Security Agency will also be tasked with carrying out initial response measures when an accident occurs. I believe in the past, there were discussions about the difficulty of the Minister of Disaster Prevention doubling as the Minister of the Environment, as the latter often must make overseas business trips related to dealing with global warming and other issues, while it is difficult for the Minister of Disaster Prevention to travel overseas. By setting up the Nuclear Safety and Security Agency as an affiliated agency under MOE, will there be any limitations placed on the Minister of the Environment?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: So far, NISA has been in charge of the safety of nuclear power, but NISA is positioned under METI and the minister in charge is the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI Minister). Although the METI Minister is in the position of having more overseas related business than the Minister of the Environment, after the occurrence of the nuclear accident, METI Minister Kaieda, while giving first priority to the response to the accident, also has dealt with other responsibilities, especially international business. As I mentioned a while ago, the Cabinet Secretariat will take the initial crisis management measures in particular, under the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for Crisis Management, thus I don't think that it is necessary to worry about the matter so seriously.

(Abridged)

REPORTER: At the Cabinet meeting or the ministerial discussions that followed, did the Prime Minister or any of the ministers make any remarks about visiting Yasukuni Shrine?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: No.

REPORTER: Related to that, I believe today's Cabinet meeting and the ministerial discussions that followed went long, lasting for approximately 40 minutes. Did the Prime Minister make any comments during the ministerial discussions?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: First, as a general remark, the Prime Minister said that despite any political circumstances, as long as we have a role to play as Cabinet ministers, he would like us to fully fulfill our responsibilities, particularly in coping with the earthquake disaster without any delay. In particular, he said that as the decontamination work in the wake of the nuclear accident very much cuts across a variety of ministries and agencies and requires the concerted efforts of the Cabinet, he would like the relevant ministries and agencies to make full-fledged efforts in order to proceed with the decontamination work accurately and promptly, without restricting themselves to activities only under the control of their own ministry and agency. In response, relevant ministers made a number of comments. For example, the Minister of Defense commented that if the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) have a role to fulfill, they will do so thoroughly.

(Abridged)