A veteran radio show host has quit his job at Japan Broadcasting Corp. after the program director told him not to discuss nuclear power for fear his comments “would affect voting behavior” in the upcoming Tokyo gubernatorial election.
Toru Nakakita, a professor of economics at Tokyo University, was
the host of the Business Outlook segment on the Radio Asa Ichiban
for the past two decades. On Wednesday, the director of the
morning news program, told him to change the subject of his
commentary after seeing an outline for the program to air the
following day, The Japan Times reported.
For the Thursday morning edition, the Nakakita planned to talk
about the rising operating costs of nuclear power worldwide, as
well as in Japan where the cost of decommissioning nuclear plants
is not clearly reflected on utilities’ balance sheets. According
to The Asahi Shimbun daily, Nakakita planned to say in his
original script that “damages to be paid in the wake of a nuclear
plant accident are extraordinarily high.”
However, after looking at the draft of the discussion, the
director of the news program allegedly told Nakakita to wait
until the gubernatorial election was over, on the grounds his
comments “would affect the voting behavior” of
listeners, the radio host quoted the NHK director as saying. The
election is Feb. 9.
While Nakakita insisted that the nuclear debate was timely
“precisely because it is the campaign period,” Japan's
Broadcasting Corporation claimed it wasn’t censoring the debate,
but simply wanted the discussion to be balanced.
An NHK official said that since nuclear power is one of the major
issues in the gubernatorial election, "we need to be
especially careful about ensuring fairness," and presenting
opinions from both sides is "needed to secure
impartiality."
"It could have been possible to feature another expert with a
different viewpoint soon before or after [Nakakita’s] appearance,
but because we received his draft the day before the scheduled
broadcast, and because we have limited editions of the program
during the campaign period, we decided it would be difficult to
air a contrasting view,” the official said.
Nakakita, who previously served as the deputy chairman of the
Council for the Asian Gateway Initiative in the first Shinzo Abe
cabinet, said he wasn't satisfied with the broadcaster's official
explanation.
“I wonder if it’s OK to say we can talk about [contentious
issues] at length only after the election," Nakakita told
The Japan Times. “What if I had talked about welfare? Wouldn’t
that have affected the voting behavior?"
“The media should choose various issues especially during the
campaign,” he said. “If they don’t, voters will go to
the polls with no information to base their judgments on. Isn’t
it the mission of the news organizations to have the guts to give
more information to the public?”
In December, Japan enacted a new law to increase legal penalties
for leaks, despite public concerns that the state secrets law
could damage press freedoms. According to conservative Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe, the measure is necessary to combat the
leaking of state secrets. The new law enacts stricter sentences
for public servants and others with access to sensitive national
information, and could lead to jail terms of up to 10 years.
Journalists in Japan could face up to five years’ imprisonment if
they are adjudged to have used “grossly inappropriate”
methods to acquire state secrets.
Nuclear power is often a controversial topic in the Japanese
media. Last week, a freelance commentator who hosts several news
and music shows on radio and TV, including for NHK, revealed in
his morning program on InterFM that he had been allegedly
pressured by “two broadcasting stations” not to touch nuclear
power issues. “I have been told by two stations (other than
InterFM) not to touch on the nuclear issue until the
gubernatorial election is over, even though the campaign has not
officially kicked off,” Peter Barakan said during the show,
without identifying the stations.
Tensions grew earlier this month when a staunch opponent of
nuclear power, former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, joined
the Tokyo governor’s race. The 76-year-old politician has the
support of another harsh critic of nuclear power, ex-Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi, one of Japan's most popular leaders
during his 2001-06 term. The pair are in opposition to the former
health minister Yoichi Masuzoe, the candidate backed by the party
of the current prime minister, who supports the restarting of
Japan's many nuclear plants, which were shut down after the 2011
Fukushima nuclear disaster. Some of those are currently
undergoing mandatory safety checks.
"I foolishly once believed the myth that nuclear energy is
clean and safe," Hosokawa told a news conference Jan. 22.
"That myth has completely broken down."
"We need to turn around by 180 degrees the current
energy-guzzling society dependent on nuclear power," he
added, unveiling his platform.
On Jan. 14, Japan's Trade Ministry approved a revival plan for
the utility operating the Fukushima nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric
Power Co (Tepco). The plan revolves around Tepco restarting its
currently shuttered seven-reactor Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear
complex, the world’s largest, to cut fossil fuel costs.