nuclear-news

Lucrative jobs for former nuclear officials, and “benefit” money keeps Japan’s “nuclear village” operating

Foundation filled with ‘nuclear village’ officials monopolizes nuclear
benefit program
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201301030065
 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN, 3 Jan 13 A foundation that provides high-paying
jobs for retired industry ministry officials has held a two-decade
monopoly on the program that pays benefits to residents living near
nuclear power plants, The Asahi Shimbun has found.

The Center for Development of Power Supply Regions receives contracts
from local governments for the work. But the center has outsourced
most of the operations to electric power companies, enabling it to
secure a profit of around 38 million yen ($435,000) in fiscal 2010.

The benefit program is part of the grant system under the three laws
on electric power sources. The central government provides grants to
local governments that host or are located near nuclear-related
facilities. The money comes from part of the electricity bills paid by
consumers and businesses.

The center has long been in control of the benefit program. But the
accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March 2011
sparked heavy criticism against the “nuclear village” of pro-nuclear
politicians, industry bureaucrats and utilities. The central
government ordered prefectural governments to open up the benefit
program  to other bidders.
Under the guidance of the central government, the prefectural
governments in fiscal 2012 changed the system to one in which the
business that undertakes the operation is chosen from a wide range of
applicants,” the center said in a statement to The Asahi Shimbun. “As
a result, the center has been conducting the work.”

In response to questions from The Asahi Shimbun, 14 prefectural
governments involved in the benefit program said they started
accepting applications from any business to run the program in fiscal
2012.

They all said the center was the only one that applied.

The center outsources such work as calculating the size of the
benefits for individual households and providing the payments, but it
remains in charge of making plans and reporting the results to the
local governments.

In its 22 years of existence, the center has been engaged in
amakudari, the “descent from heaven” practice of retired bureaucrats
landing jobs at organizations or companies once under their
jurisdiction. After its foundation in 1990, the center’s first four
presidents were former industry ministry officials. The current
president, Kinju Atarashi, is former director-general of the Small and
Medium Enterprise Agency, an affiliate of the Ministry of Economy,
Trade and Industry.

According to published data, being president of the center is
considered a full-time job, with annual compensation of 16.58 million
yen.

Makoto Yagi, chairman of the Federation of Electric Power Companies of
Japan and president of Kansai Electric Power Co., is the current
chairman of the center.

The names of executives at utilities and companies that build nuclear
plants are on the lineup of part-time directors at the center. And 15
of the 46 staff members are temporarily on transfer from utilities.

The benefit program itself has been criticized as a way to offer
“bribes” to residents to prevent them from opposing nuclear power
facilities in their neighborhoods.

In fiscal 2011, the 14 prefectures provided 7.6 billion yen in
benefits to 1.03 million households, according to figures obtained by
The Asahi Shimbun.

(This article was written by Satoshi Otani and Takuho Shiraki.)

January 4, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties