Japan sacks top officials over nuclear disaster
By Rie Ishiguro, Yoko Kubota; Editing by Edwina Gibbs
3 August 2011 9:48pm EDT TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan sacked three senior bureaucrats in charge of nuclear power policy on Thursday, holding them to account for a series of scandals which have broken out in recent weeks over the government’s cozy relationship with the power industry. Japanese Trade Minister Banri Kaieda, who oversees energy policy, said he plans to replace three senior officials in the ministry following the crisis at the Fukushima power plant, the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years. The three officials are Kazuo Matsunaga, the top bureaucrat at the trade ministry, Nobuaki Terasaka, head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, and Tetsuhiro Hosono, head of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy. Kaieda, who played a key role in handling the Fukushima crisis and who has said he intends to step down to take responsibility for missteps, vowed to carry out major changes in the ministry’s personnel but did not say when he will resign. […] Prime Minister Naoto Kan has called for gradually weaning Japan off of its dependence on nuclear power and has expressed growing distrust toward the trade ministry, which has promoted atomic energy. The unpopular Kan, who has been fighting to stay in his post despite calls even from his own party for him to step down, was instrumental in the decision to fire the three officials, Asahi Shimbun said. […]
