The government’s “no-return” rule to ensure independence of a nuclear regulatory agency from pro-nuclear ministries and agencies will apply to only seven senior officials of the new 485-member watchdog, sources said.
The government’s “no-return” rule to ensure independence of a nuclear regulatory agency from pro-nuclear ministries and agencies will apply to only seven senior officials of the new 485-member watchdog, sources said.The remaining officials expected to join the new regulatory agency will be allowed to return to Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the Nuclear Safety Commission at the Cabinet Office and other government functions under regular personnel changes, the sources said.The new agency will be set up in April under the Environment Ministry to bolster oversight of the nuclear energy industry following the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant since last March.The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), which falls under METI’s jurisdiction, has come under fire for failing to ensure safety at the nation’s nuclear plants. Critics said that failure was because METI has long pushed for nuclear power generation as a key part of Japan’s energy policy.The 354 METI employees now on loan to NISA are expected to represent more than 70 percent of the new agency’s initial work force.But if they are allowed to return to the ministry after several years of working at the new agency, they will be replaced by other METI bureaucrats. Some Diet members have said such a situation will make it difficult to limit the ministry’s influence on the new agency.Goshi Hosono, state minister in charge of the nuclear crisis, told a news conference in late January that to prevent possible conflicts of interest, the bureaucrats should not be allowed to return to ministries and agencies they previously worked for.“We should enforce the ‘no-return rule’ on officials who hold senior positions, in particular, on those from ministries and agencies that have promoted nuclear power,” he said.However, the no-return rule is expected to be applied to only seven senior positions, including the heads of the agency and an emergency response task force, as well as councilors, the sources said.The government apparently had to compromise on the no-return rule because of concerns that senior bureaucrats and other employees would not want positions at the new agency if they were not allowed to return to their ministries and agencies.The nuclear power sector has become less attractive as a place to work since the government decided to reduce the nation’s dependence on nuclear power generation, which supplied 30 percent of the nation’s electricity before the Fukushima nuclear accident.Some members of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan suggested that the agency hire its own employees.But the new agency expects only 12 hires in the first year.The no-return rule was also applied to bureaucrats at the director-general level or above when the Financial Services Agency became independent of the Finance Ministry in 1998.But that rule was effectively broken during personnel changes in 2009, allowing a senior agency bureaucrat to return to the Finance Ministry.