The chairman of an investigation ordered by Japan’s parliament into the Fukushima nuclear disaster has declared that it was a crisis “made in Japan” resulting from the “ingrained conventions of Japanese culture”.
Kiyoshi Kurokawa, chairman of the Diet’s Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission, said the crisis was the result of “a multitude of errors and wilful negligence” by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power, regulators and the government.
In an English language summary of the commission’s final report, Mr Kurokawa blamed the plant’s failure on “our reflexive obedience; our reluctance to question authority; our devotion to ‘sticking with programme’; our groupism; and our insularity”.