TEPCO was so generous in making donations to municipalities that hosted the nuclear power plants it operated that other cities began holding out their hands demanding similar donations.
TEPCO was so generous in making donations to municipalities that hosted the nuclear power plants it operated that other cities began holding out their hands demanding similar donations.
Some cities asked for money even though there was no nuclear plant within their jurisdiction, leading Tokyo Electric Power Co. to resort to funneling money through a prefectural organization.
The move that prompted the rush for donations was the construction in 1997 by TEPCO of the J-Village soccer training facility in Naraha, Fukushima Prefecture, at a cost of 13 billion yen ($167 million). Naraha is one of the communities where the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant is located. TEPCO subsequently donated the soccer facility to the Fukushima prefectural government.
TEPCO was later pushed to donate 3 billion yen to Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, as well as 6 billion yen to Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, and 4 billion yen to Kariwa, also in Niigata. The two municipalities in Niigata host TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant.
According to a former high-ranking official of the Koriyama city government, TEPCO officials approached city officials in 1993 and proposed the building of a roofed soccer stadium in the city. However, TEPCO officials later informed Koriyama officials they were canceling the plan.
In August 1994, TEPCO announced the plan to construct the J-Village facility in Naraha.
Koriyama city officials complained to TEPCO officials that they had gone back on a promise. City officials had begun considering changing zoning plans to allow for the construction of the soccer stadium.
During the discussions, TEPCO officials eventually suggested the possibility of making a donation to Koriyama.
However, rather than make a direct donation to Koriyama, TEPCO wanted to make a donation that would go to the entire prefecture.
"There was little basis for donating to Koriyama because it was not a local government where a nuclear plant was located," a TEPCO source said.
Koriyama officials then proposed that a donation be made through the Fukushima prefectural youth educational promotion association, an entity under the jurisdiction of the Fukushima prefectural government.
The association's offices were located within Koriyama city hall and its activities were centered in Koriyama.
TEPCO agreed to the arrangement and donated the 3 billion yen in 1999. The money went toward the construction of the Fureai Science Center in Koriyama, which opened in October 2001.
Eiji Fujimori, who was Koriyama mayor at the time, said, "The donation may have been intended as an apology to the city. The money was channeled through the association because that matched the intentions of TEPCO of wanting to avoid a direct donation to Koriyama."
Meanwhile, in July 1997, soon after TEPCO donated J-Village to Fukushima Prefecture, the No. 7 reactor of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture was completed.
According to former high-ranking officials of Kashiwazaki, the city asked TEPCO for a big donation as an expression of gratitude for completion of the construction plans.
According to the Kashiwazaki sources, TEPCO was asked to make a donation of 10 billion yen. Officials thought this was a reasonable sum, given that 13 billion yen was spent on constructing J-Village.
Officials of Kariwa also asked TEPCO for a donation to their municipality.
In the end, TEPCO distributed the 10 billion yen to the two municipalities, with Kashiwazaki getting 6 billion yen and Kariwa the remaining 4 billion yen.
Kashiwazaki used the money to construct a park in 2007 and pay for its upkeep, while Kariwa used its money for a sports facility.
"We want to refrain from commenting about the process by which the donations were made because there are other parties involved," a TEPCO representative said.
(This article was written by Yo Noguchi and Kamome Fujimori.)