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| May 24, 2011 |
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| Immunity for TEPCO and Burden on People |
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The government announced May 13 a reparation scheme (draft) for damages inflicted by the accident at Fukushima nuclear power plant. It explains who should pay. The plan will be put under Diet debates and a body will be set up to be financed by power companies, including TEPCO (=Tokyo Electric Power Co.), and covered by special government bonds. However, the estimation is too optimistic and the proposal virtually exempts TEPCO from liabilities. It suggests people shoulder the burden. It has many problems.
GOVERNMENT'S DISASTER COMPENSATION PLAN CANNOT BE ACCEPTED
Absence of Sincere Apology
TEPCO has begun temporary payments to victims of the nuclear plant accident; a small sum of one million Yen a family. But secondary payments are necessary immediately for them to cover the minimum cost of living. As for compensation for losses in the agriculture & stock farming, fisheries and jobs, full commitment is needed without delay, but no measure has been taken yet.
The government's scheme, however, does not imply a sincere attitude to disaster-stricken people: it must fully compensate and protect all of them. Firstly, the estimated total of indemnity is far from reality: the government calculates as 5 trillion Yen. The accident status is not stabilized and the estimation is allegedly altered: government bonds, solely, will reach 10 trillion Yen.
A calculation counts several trillions of Yen: it is only for payments of costs of living to guarantee the minimum needs to disaster-hit residents who lost economic bases after evacuating from the radioactively contaminated areas. A reparation sum for businesses is far bigger. Some government officials proposed to limit payment for evacuees: only for those officially instructed evacuation by the government. A more rigorous payment norm cuts off victims. Radioactive disaster will continue at least for decades.
Responsibility of Share Holders
Secondly, the government plan presumes rehabilitation of nuclear power generation. Even commercial media criticize it as a policy package to save TEPCO. A lawmaker of the House of Representatives from the opposite Liberal Democratic Party, Kono Taro, stressed to aid 'TEPCO so that the firm may not bleed even it turns upside down'. Capital would not retreat from the nuclear industry when the government helps so that it could be kept registered in the stock market as a prestigious corporation after being accused of responsible for the accident. Chief executives of TEPCO will pay back their salary of 70 million Yen a year, which is not painful to them at all.
Prime Minister Kan told he would fully review the existing energy policy, but his words sound hollow. The maximum contribution of TEPCO will not meet. The government compensation plan specifies that it demands all the relevant parties to cooperate with the policy.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano Yukio told that the state level aid will be hard unless lender banks write off loans to the company. Compensation, however, must be made strictly enough by the financial institutions and shareholders who gained from investments. Capitalism as a rule does not help shareholders when they lost in the transactions. Not a few still dare to challenge in this context.
Does the Japanese Government have an intention to impose 'nuclear power generation tax' on the electric businesses which earn approximately 1.7 trillion Yen a year in the nuclear energy sector?
US Secretary of State Clinton visited Japan after the disaster, accompanied by President of US Chamber of Commerce, while French President Sarkozy came with chief officers of Areva, the biggest nuclear energy company of the nation. The delegations came to offer for decommissioning reactors. Collection of reparation money should be made from the complex of nuclear businesses. It is necessary to let them know nuclear business is costly and risky.
Possible Source for Reconstruction of Industry
Thirdly, the government's proposal opens a path by which TEPCO will revive with people's money. The plan demands TEPCO to take prime responsibility, but adds that 'liability on payments is unlimited before the fact', and continues that 'the government is to support the company when stable supply of electricity is hampered'. It also says about 'the minimum amount of people's duty'.
As the reparation cost increases, the government will approve a hike in the electricity rate and tax. People may agree, thinking that the higher rate might help disaster-hit people. Don't be deceived. People's goodwill contributions can be used as a financial source to reactivate the nuclear power business.
The electric power industry will never cease as it is monopolized on the local level and crucial to Big Business. People must demand loudly: Make compensations immediately! Don't use tax money. Don't hike the electric rate.
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