Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, just back from a trip to the Middle East and Africa, where he promoted Japanese nuclear technology, faces mounting international criticism that his administration is not taking the Fukushima crisis seriously and growing calls both at home and abroad for long-term global assistance.
Since Tokyo Electric Power Co. admitted on July 22, the day after Abe's Liberal Democratic Party won a landslide Upper House victory, that radioactive groundwater was reaching the Pacific from the Fukushima No. 1 plant, international media attention has been intense.
Reporters, commentators and a wide range of experts have speculated on worst-case scenarios and warned that the leaks demonstrated the massive problems still to be resolved in dismantling the crippled plant.