Dirty tricks to promote nuclear power in Japan
To raise support among prefectural residents for the reactors’ reactivation, the utility also called on the employees to send the e-mails from their home computers to hide their identities as employees of Kyushu Electric or its subsidiaries and to pose as members of the general public.
E-mail scandal could amplify distrust of N-power, The Yomiuri Shimbun, 11 July If they thought they could use the deception to increase support for restarting nuclear reactors, the idea was extremely ill-advised.
This is in reference to the e-mail scandal involving Kyushu Electric Power Co., in which the utility sought to manipulate public opinion to favor reactivation of its Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga Prefecture.
Prior to a public hearing for prefectural residents about the Genkai plant that was aired live via a local cable TV station in late June, Kyushu Electric instructed some of its employees, as well as staff of the company’s subsidiaries, to send e-mails to the TV program in support of restarting the plant’s reactors.
To raise support among prefectural residents for the reactors’ reactivation, the utility also called on the employees to send the e-mails from their home computers to hide their identities as employees of Kyushu Electric or its subsidiaries and to pose as members of the general public.
Not a request but an order
There can be no doubt that the sending of the e-mails under the guise of ordinary residents of the prefecture was perpetrated systematically.
The document sent to the recipients asking them to send the messages was in the form of a “request.” But judging from the power relationship between Kyushu Electric’s management, its employees and its subsidiaries, the recipients must have felt the document was more like an order……..
Kyushu Electric President Toshio Manabe apologized Friday to Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda over the e-mail scandal, but it will be extremely difficult for the company to restore public trust.
Kyushu Electric must waste no time in finding out the whole truth about the matter. Thorough investigations are needed to determine whether the company engaged in similar deceptive activities in the past. Managerial responsibility should also be clarified, including the advisability of the company’s president stepping down.
Making the problem worse is the fact that the company at first tried to cover it up……
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