{"id":15639,"date":"2019-06-06T08:06:05","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T18:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=15639"},"modified":"2019-06-07T03:41:57","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T13:41:57","slug":"scmp-japan-needs-thousands-of-foreign-workers-to-decommission-fukushima-nuclear-site-high-irony-alert-first-blame-nj-then-have-them-clean-up-your-deadly-messes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=15639","title":{"rendered":"SCMP: Japan needs thousands of foreign workers to decommission Fukushima nuclear site. High irony alert: First blame NJ, then have them clean up your deadly messes."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. In the wake of renewed interest in nuclear disasters thanks to HBO’s miniseries “Chernobyl” (which I watched from more of a political science perspective than a popcorn disaster movie), I harked back to the Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown of 2011.<\/p>\n

There was a similar outcome, in that the fiasco demonstrated the shortcomings of a system built upon institutional lying. \u00a0<\/a>However, the main difference was that Fukushima helped\u00a0bring down the government (the DPJ)<\/a>, but, unlike the Soviet system, not the architects of this corrupt system in the first place (the LDP), who remain in power stronger than ever.<\/p>\n

But as far as Debito.org is concerned, the other big difference is that the Soviets didn’t import foreigners to do their cleanup. Unlike Japan, as Debito.org has pointed out<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0many years now<\/a> — to the point where TEPCO not only tricked Japan’s poor or homeless into doing this dirty work, but also NJ asylum seekers<\/a>!<\/p>\n

The news is that the trickery has now become above-board. \u00a0TEPCO is taking advantage of a new visa regime (see item #1)<\/a>, designed to fill Japan’s construction sites and convenience stores, giving NJ laborers jobs that put them in harm’s way (after Japan ironically blamed foreigners for the fallout after 3\/11 in the first place; <\/a>see also here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Read on. Kudos to the SCMP for reporting on an angle the overseas media<\/a> has\u00a0largely ignored<\/a>. \u00a0Debito Arudou Ph.D.<\/p>\n

(PS. \u00a0Enjoy this Gaijin-handling propaganda video I found<\/a>, with the obfuscating language of officialdom directly translated from the Japanese. \u00a0There’s even a scene clearly designed for foreign consumption of NJ being fed Fukushima fish!)<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

Japan needs thousands of foreign workers to decommission Fukushima plant, prompting backlash from anti-nuke campaigners and rights activists<\/strong>
\nActivists are not convinced working at the site is safe for anyone and they fear foreign workers will feel \u2018pressured\u2019 to ignore risks if jobs are at risk<\/strong>
\nTowns and villages around the plant are still out of bounds because radiation levels are dangerously high<\/strong>
\nJulian Ryall, South China Morning Post, 26 Apr, 2019<\/strong>
\nhttps:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/asia\/east-asia\/article\/3007772\/japan-needs-thousands-foreign-workers-decommission-fukushima<\/a><\/p>\n

Anti-nuclear campaigners have teamed up with human rights activists in Japan to condemn plans by the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to hire foreign workers to help decommission the facility.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) has announced it will take advantage of the government\u2019s new working visa scheme, which was introduced on April 1 and permits thousands of foreign workers to come to Japan to meet soaring demand for labourers. The company has informed subcontractors overseas nationals will be eligible to work cleaning up the site and providing food services.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

About 4,000 people work at the plant each day as experts attempt to decommission three reactors that melted down in the aftermath of the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the huge tsunami it triggered. Towns and villages around the plant are still out of bounds because radiation levels are dangerously high.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

TEPCO has stated foreign workers employed at the site must have Japanese language skills sufficient for them to understand instructions and the risks they face. Workers will also be required to carry dosimeters to monitor their exposure to radiation.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Activists are far from convinced working at the site is safe for anyone and they fear foreign workers will feel \u201cpressured\u201d to ignore the risks if their jobs are at risk.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are strongly opposed to the plan because we have already seen that workers at the plant are being exposed to high levels of radiation and there have been numerous breaches of labour standards regulations,\u201d said Hajime Matsukubo, secretary general of the Tokyo-based Citizens\u2019 Nuclear Information Centre. \u201cConditions for foreign workers at many companies across Japan are already bad but it will almost certainly be worse if they are required to work decontaminating a nuclear accident site.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Companies are desperately short of labourers, in part because of the construction work connected to Tokyo hosting the 2020 Olympic Games, while TEPCO is further hampered because any worker who has been exposed to 50 millisieverts of radiation in a single year or 100 millisieverts over five years is not permitted to remain at the plant. Those limits mean the company must find labourers from a shrinking pool.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In February, the Tokyo branch of Human Rights Now submitted a statement to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva demanding action be taken to help and protect people with homes near the plant and workers at the site.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been reported that vulnerable people have been illegally deceived by decontamination contractors into conducting decontamination work without their informed consent, threatening their lives, including asylum seekers under false promises and homeless people working below minimum wage,\u201d the statement said. \u201cMuch clean-up depends on inexperienced subcontractors with little scrutiny as the government rushes decontamination for the Olympic Games.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Cade Moseley, an official of the organisation, said there are \u201cvery clear, very definite concerns\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is evidence that foreign workers in Japan have already felt under pressure to do work that is unsafe and where they do not fully understand the risks involved simply because they are worried they will lose their working visas if they refuse,\u201d he said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In an editorial published on Wednesday, the Mainichi newspaper also raised concerns about the use of semi-skilled foreign labourers at the site.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a real risk of radiation exposure at the Daiichi plant and the terminology used on-site is highly technical, making for a difficult environment,\u201d the paper said. \u201cTEPCO and its partners must not treat the new foreign worker system as an employee pool that they can simply dip into.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The paper pointed out that it may be difficult to accurately determine foreign employees\u2019 radiation levels if they have been working in the nuclear industry before coming to Japan, while they may also confront problems in the event of an accident and they need to apply for workers\u2019 accident compensation. TEPCO has played down the concerns.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 4,000 Japanese workers are already working on the decommissioning and clean-up work at Fukushima Dai-ichi,\u201d the company said. \u201cThe amendment to the regulations on workers from overseas is a measure that creates more employment opportunities, including for foreign nationals with specific skills.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn March, TEPCO explained the new regulations to its contractor companies involved in the clean-up work at Fukushima Dai-ichi and we have also confirmed that those companies will be in compliance with the regulations covering the safety of workers.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
\nENDS<\/p>\n

=============================
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SCMP: Anti-nuclear campaigners have teamed up with human rights activists in Japan to condemn plans by the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to hire foreign workers to help decommission the facility.<\/p>\n

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) has announced it will take advantage of the government\u2019s new working visa scheme, which was introduced on April 1 and permits thousands of foreign workers to come to Japan to meet soaring demand for labourers. The company has informed subcontractors overseas nationals will be eligible to work cleaning up the site and providing food services… Activists are far from convinced working at the site is safe for anyone and they fear foreign workers will feel \u201cpressured\u201d to ignore the risks if their jobs are at risk.<\/p>\n

COMMENT: In the wake of renewed interest in nuclear disasters thanks to HBO’s miniseries “Chernobyl” (which I watched from more of a political science perspective than a popcorn disaster movie), I harked back to the Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown of 2011. \u00a0There was a similar outcome, in that the fiasco demonstrated the shortcomings of a system built upon institutional lying. \u00a0However, the main difference was that Fukushima helped\u00a0bring down the government (the DPJ), but, unlike the Soviet system, not the architects of this corrupt system in the first place (the LDP), who remain in power stronger than ever.<\/p>\n

But as far as Debito.org is concerned, the other big difference is that the Soviets didn’t import foreigners to do their cleanup. Unlike Japan, as Debito.org has pointed out\u00a0for\u00a0many years now — to the point where TEPCO not only tricked Japan’s poor or homeless into doing this dirty work, but also NJ asylum seekers! Kudos to the SCMP for reporting on an angle the overseas media has\u00a0largely ignored.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,43,47,26,73,4,14,16,13,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-bad-business-practices","category-food","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japans-blame-game","category-japanese-government","category-japanese-politics","category-labor-issues","category-media","category-nj-legacies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15639"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15685,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15639\/revisions\/15685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}