LDP resolution condemns 5 ex-prime ministers for spreading false information

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:34 JST, February 9, 2022

The Liberal Democratic Party has approved a resolution condemning five former prime ministers, including Junichiro Koizumi, for disseminating false information regarding the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

The other four former prime ministers mentioned in the resolution adopted Tuesday at the LDP’s Policy Research Council Board are Naoto Kan, Morihiro Hosokawa, Yukio Hatoyama, and Tomiichi Murayama.

The Policy Research Council Board plans to submit the resolution to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

The resolution criticizes the former prime ministers for sending a letter to the European Union stating that many children are suffering from thyroid cancer due to the 2011 accident. It accused them of fostering groundless discrimination and prejudice.

The resolution calls for the government to improve the way it disseminates information to prevent rumors from arising.

A Fukushima prefectural government expert panel and the U.N. Scientific Committee have stated that thyroid cancer diagnosed in residents aged 18 or younger at the time of the accident cannot be attributed to radiation exposure.

“Discernible excess of thyroid cancer caused by the radiation exposure are unlikely, up to ages 30 or 40 years, or over the entire lifespan,” the U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation said in a report it released in March last year.

It is rare for Koizumi, an LDP member, to be at the receiving end of criticism from his party.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Hiroshige Seko, secretary general for the LDP in the House of Councillors, said, “It is extremely regrettable that a former prime minister would distort and disseminate information abroad, even though it has clearly been shown that there is no link to the accident.”