Kan to address international concerns on nuclear crisis

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan will look to reassure his G8 counterparts at the grouping's summit this week that Japan is winning the battle to stabilise the world's worst nuclear crisis for 25 years.

Kan will outline the emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, what is being done to remedy the crisis triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left nearly 25,000 dead or missing and speak on efforts to improve safety.

At home, pressure remains on the under-fire premier amid criticism over the government's handling of the disasters and the subsequent nuclear emergency that plunged Japan into its worst crisis since World War II.

Progress in stabilising the plant has been slow, and while plant operator Tokyo Electric Power has said it is on schedule to end the crisis by January, the facility was damaged more severely and quickly than first thought.

Kan has called for reform of the nuclear industry and an overhaul of government regulation as Japan looks to restore international confidence in its giant atomic power sector.

With a track record of safety cover-ups, TEPCO has been criticised for inadequately preparing for disaster, amid perceived soft regulation by a government body also tasked with promoting nuclear power.

"Perhaps this myth of safety was too powerful," noted Kan's economy and trade minister Banri Kaieda in comments to reporters last week.

Kan has also pledged to reconsider plans to boost Japan's reliance on nuclear energy, although the resource-poor nation has few other options in the face of soaring fossil fuel costs or expensive renewable energy, say analysts.

"It remains to be seen how serious Prime Minister Kan was about his comments regarding Japan's national energy policy," noted Paul Scalise of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies, at Temple University, Japan Campus.

"With the turnover of Japanese prime ministers so high, there is little fear that politicians will be held personally accountable for their promises to their electorate." Kan is Japan's fifth new prime minister in five years.

Tens of thousands of people remain evacuated from homes, farms and businesses in a 20-kilometre (12-mile) zone around the plant and in areas beyond it. Kaieda last week called them "victims of national policy".

The compensation bill is estimated to run as high as 10 trillion yen ($122 billion) and the government has devised a plan to protect TEPCO from bankruptcy and ensure compensation payments are met.

Japan has passed an emergency 4 trillion yen ($49 billion) relief budget to help fund reconstruction after the disaster and plans a second extra budget later to be financed by a government bond issue.

But the prospect of more deficit-spending has placed higher international scrutiny on Japan's public debt mountain that at around 200 percent of GDP, is the highest level among industrialised nations.

International sympathy for Japan's plight was reflected in the first concerted market intervention in a decade by central banks of the Group of Seven economic powers after the yen surged to a post-War high against the dollar after the quake.

Kan is also expected to address recent unrest in the Middle East and North Africa when he meets with his G8 counterparts at the top-level summit in Deauville, northwestern France, on May 26 and 27.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011