Regarding the Jan. 17 Kyodo article "Fukushima No. 1 engineer's warning to Taiwan: Nuclear power unstable": So now we know that the government — the Liberal Democratic Party, that is — was not only clearly informed of the likelihood of a nuclear disaster but has been deliberately covering up this information for decades!

Is it any wonder that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has tried to deflect his party's guilt when he states that the Feb. 9 Tokyo gubernatorial election, to be contested by anti-nuclear proponents like former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, should not be about nuclear problems. Of course, he thinks it shouldn't be, because that would mean giving the public the "Full Monty" — a full frontal view of the LDP's shame.

People in Abe's government should have been incarcerated for putting so many lives at stake with their greed and callous lies. Instead, he is basking in the popularity of another lie — rigging currency exchange values to give the temporary illusion that Japan's economy is recovering. For the rich, the economy was never a problem, but that's because "Abenomics" is really "Abenonsense."

And the whole passel of lies will soon be neatly swept under the carpet of the recently enacted state secrets law to further delude Japanese people and make the truth about his politics inaccessible.

"He who controls the media controls the people" is an old adage used by despots and tyrants since politics began, and the worst culprits are those doing it in public with a beautiful smile, who can even install a puppet board at Japan's national broadcaster.

david john
chikushino, fukuoka

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.