Panel: Saga governor triggered nuclear power e-mail scandal

Saga Governor Yasushi Furukawa admitted on July 30 that he had told senior officials of Kyushu Electric Power Co. that opinions backing the restart of the utility's reactors needed to be raised in a public hearing. A third-party panel looking into the matter told reporters on the same day that Furukawa's remarks led Kyushu Electric to attempt to steer residents' opinions in its favor. The public forum, organized by the government, was held on June 26 to discuss the utility's planned restart of two reactors at its Genkai nuclear power plant in the prefecture. The utility came under heavy fire for planting pro-nuclear voices in the hearing by asking employees of the company and its affiliates to send e-mail messages to the cable TV program airing the session. Furukawa, 53, told reporters that five days before the program, he had met Mamoru Dangami, then executive vice president of Kyushu Electric, who paid a visit to the governor as he was resigning. Two other Kyushu Electric officials--Masatoshi Morooka, then chief director of nuclear power generation, and Kiyoharu Otsubo, head of the Saga branch--were also present in the meeting with the governor. Furukawa told the news conference, "I told them although all the opinions I received are opposing nuclear power, voices agreeing to the restart (of the reactors) in light of a stable power supply needed to be heard." While he acknowledged he was "careless" about having made such remarks and "regretful," he denied that his action prompted the utility's manipulation. "With what I told them, I did not mean that Kyushu Electric should do something," he said. "My understanding is that my remarks did not set off (manipulation), but Kyushu Electric wanted to do that." According to a Kyushu Electric in-house probe, the three officials of the utility shared the view right after the discussion with Furukawa that the program needed to receive e-mail messages supporting the restart. Three employees at its Saga branch decided to ask for cooperation from 26 client businesses in response to instructions from Otsubo. The third-party panel investigating the issue told the news conference in Fukuoka, after one by Furukawa in Saga, that the governor should share the blame for making misleading remarks. "The governor is in a position to make judgments fairly and independently after summing up public opinion," said Nobuo Gohara, lawyer and professor of compliance at Meijo University who led the panel. "Even if he did not mean to seek e-mail messages, his action was not appropriate." Gohara said that Otsubo's memo stated that the governor "wanted it arranged so that the program would receive pro-nuclear power messages on the Internet." "The text can be interpreted as the governor requesting Kyushu Electric to speak for (the restart) in the program through the Internet," he said. A text conveying Otsubo's view was attached to e-mails sent to about 100 employees of Kyushu Electric asking for messages to be sent in favor of the restart to the TV program. Some employees who complied had received the e-mail. Morooka told The Asahi Shimbun in an interview on July 30 that Furukawa's influence on the issue cannot be completely discounted. "I don't believe that Furukawa triggered the manipulation," he said. "But it is not true that he did not have any impact on the matter." Yuichiro Nishimura, a movie critic who attended the aired hearing as one of seven representatives of the prefectural residents, expressed disgust with Furukawa's action. "The governor ended up deceiving seven people, other residents in the prefecture and the Japanese public," he said. "I am at a loss what I should trust." Although the third-party panel unveiled exchanges between Furukawa and the three executives of Kyushu Electric in the June 21 meeting, the utility had not made it public despite its knowledge of it after the in-house investigation. Kyushu Electric did not mention the discussion with the governor in its July 14 report to the industry ministry. Gohara said the utility kept it under wraps out of consideration that the revelation "could have serious implications on Furukawa's political responsibility." Furukawa, who is serving his third term, was a former central government bureaucrat. His father was a former Kyushu Electric employee.