Regarding the May 4 Jiji article "Last reactor halts Saturday": The measure of the Japanese people's distrust of any government assessment of the country's nuclear power system can be measured literally in becquerels as many members of the public now carry their own compact radiation-measuring devices. The demand for the devices may not be as much of an overreaction as it may seem at first, because the government's fixed measuring devices have been placed at locations and elevations favorable to the power companies. The government devices do not paint the full picture.
In addition, there have been instances of contaminated building materials far afield, and those responsible have still not figured out how to safely dispose of all the radioactive rubble lying around well over a year after the meltdowns at Fukushima. Under these circumstances it is only natural for all of the nuclear power plants to be closed until a sincere moratorium has been completed. All the frantic makeshift efforts in recent months to put the power plants back on line are the desperate result of years of colluding and turning blind eyes to the terrible threats that nuclear power plus human greed and ineptitude continue to pose.
Most conspicuous in recent weeks have been the clamoring and pressure tactics of the utility conglomerates to raise prices as though they were the victims not the perpetrators.
Their methods are as insidious as ever. They have a history of influencing political decisions by having their employees pretend to be members of the public voicing support for nuclear power, as in Kyushu, for example. Now they are producing false data to suggest that there will be a huge lack of electricity this summer unless the nuclear power plants are restarted immediately.
Public distrust isn't limited to nuclear power — almost every part of government operations has been mired in secrecy at best, if not blatant corruption. The crippled health and welfare system is the product of decades of brazen greed and lack of oversight.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.