Documents show that the central government was not upfront from even before moving into nuclear energy in the 1950s and used a fake report in deciding on the administrative structure to be used in the nuclear energy field.
Documents show that the central government was not upfront from even before moving into nuclear energy in the 1950s and used a fake report in deciding on the administrative structure to be used in the nuclear energy field.
The report was compiled by the first fact-finding mission sent abroad by the central government between December 1954 and March 1955 to look into how foreign governments administered nuclear energy.
Although the United States was the only nation that had established a commission for nuclear energy, the report stated that many nations had such a commission and recommended that Japan also establish such a body to oversee the administration of nuclear energy.
A document compiled by the science and technology ministry contains a statement by a late official of the former Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) admitting to the false entries in the report.
The document is a 620-page transcript of recordings of lectures given by 33 politicians, bureaucrats and scholars who had at one time been engaged in nuclear energy policy.
The lectures were given between 1985 and 1994 at a study group hosted by the late Takehisa Shimamura, who was also closely involved in nuclear energy policy.
The Asahi Shimbun obtained a copy of the document compiled by the science and technology ministry.
In December 1954, the central government dispatched 15 individuals divided into four groups to visit 14 nations, such as the United States, Britain, France, India and Sweden, to look into the administrative structures established for nuclear energy policy.
The fact-finding mission was made possible with the first inclusion in March 1954 of a budgetary item for nuclear energy policy of 250 million yen ($3.2 million at current exchange rates).
In the report compiled by the mission after its return home, the recommendation was made to establish a commission in Japan to promote and develop nuclear energy. The report stated, "Almost all of the administrative agencies in those nations have taken the form of a commission with many members. It is believed that is done to allow for a sufficient range of opinions to be heard."
Serving in the secretariat that helped compile the report was the late Sumio Hori, who served as the first head of the nuclear energy section in the former Agency of Industrial Science and Technology under the old MITI.
According to the science and technology ministry document, Hori gave a lecture in 1988 to the Shimamura study group in which he stated, "The United States is the only nation that has a commission."
While he pointed to the fact that nations such as Britain and France had other agencies overseeing nuclear energy policy, Hori admitted to the false entry in the report about all nations having a commission and said that was the reason why the report strongly recommended that Japan also establish a commission.
Hori also said, "A young bureaucrat became angry at having to write such a lie."
Hori revealed that the bureaucrat was Keiya Toyonaga, who would go on to serve as deputy director-general of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy.
In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun, Toyonaga said, "Because a commission was only found in the United States, I felt it would not take root in Japan because its responsibility would be vague. I advised my superior that a stronger administrative organization should be established instead."
However, based on that false report, the central government established the Japan Atomic Energy Commission in 1956.
The first head of the commission was Matsutaro Shoriki, a state minister, and other members were Hideki Yukawa, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, and Ichiro Ishikawa, the chairman of a predecessor of the Keidanren (Japan Business Federation).
The inclusion of such luminaries was likely an attempt to weaken public doubts about nuclear energy triggered when the No. 5 Fukuryu Maru fishing boat was showered by deadly radioactive fallout from the testing of a hydrogen bomb in 1954 by the United States on the Bikini Atoll.