A Diet panel investigating the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant plans to summon former Prime Minister Naoto Kan for questioning as an unsworn witness, possibly later this month, panel sources said.
Kan, who was still prime minister when the crisis started March 11, 2011, will be the first Diet member to be questioned by the panel, likely in an open session.
The panel will look into whether Kan's immediate actions helped improve the situation, the sources said Thursday.
The day after the crisis began, Kan and Nuclear Safety Commission head Haruki Madarame inspected the plant, which had begun emitting radioactive fallout.
Hobbled by poor communication with the power plant and baffled why Tepco officials couldn't explain why it was refusing to vent radioactive steam from the stricken reactors on March 11, Kan went to the head office of Tokyo Electric Power Co. for an explanation and ordered it to contain the crisis at all costs.
Genetic data survey eyed
The science ministry will begin a unique health project to collect genetic and other data on about 150,000 people living in areas damaged by the March 2011 disasters to revive and promote the medical and pharmaceutical industries.
The Tohoku Medical Megabank project will survey residents in badly hit Iwate and Miyagi prefectures to collect data ranging from genetic information to dietary habits, officials from the ministry said Thursday.
By monitoring their health over the long term, the ministry hopes the data can be used to determine the genetic characteristics and lifestyles of people prone to certain illnesses.
The ministry will decide by the end of May how best to carry out the survey in Tohoku and start analyzing the residents by next March. It aims to have a pool of 150,000 subjects registered by the end of March 2016.