The government on Tuesday urged the operator of the disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant to carefully examine the firm's plan to have non-Japanese work at the complex under a new visa program, citing difficulties in managing long-term health risks.
"It is necessary to give very deliberate consideration" to whether non-Japanese who arrive under the new visa program should engage in decommissioning work at the plant, labor minister Takumi Nemoto told reporters.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. said last month it plans to accept foreign workers at the facility, which was hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami disasters in 2011.