An industry ministry bureaucrat has been punished for asserting that reconstruction of northeastern Japan, already depopulated even before the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, is unnecessary and a waste of taxpayers’ money.
An industry ministry bureaucrat has been punished for asserting that reconstruction of northeastern Japan, already depopulated even before the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, is unnecessary and a waste of taxpayers’ money. The 51-year-old career bureaucrat was suspended from work for two months on Sept. 26. “I think politicians, who do not rightly maintain that reconstruction is unnecessary, should die,” he wrote on his anonymous blog on Sept. 25, 2011. He described the disaster area as “depopulated” and “almost dead” even before the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami devastated the Tohoku region on March 11, 2011. The bureaucrat also said “old geezers are trying to profiteer” from their vested interests in fishing rights. Viewers of the blog identified the author based on his remarks about his job and disclosed his name and title on the Internet on Sept. 24. The blog was inaccessible on Sept. 25, but his radical remarks have been posted on other websites. In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun, the man said he was expressing his thoughts by writing on his personal blog. However, he said, “It was due to my lack of discretion,” when he was asked about his remarks about the disaster area. The man has been on loan to the Japan External Trade Organization since June. He does not belong to a reconstruction-related division. In June, a Reconstruction Agency official was suspended from work for 30 days after he was found to have repeatedly insulted citizens groups and Diet members on Twitter. In a notice to ministries and agencies, the communications ministry later said central government officials are banned from slandering individuals and organizations when they personally use social networking services. Disaster victims expressed anger when they were informed of the industry ministry bureaucrat’s remarks. “They were uttered by someone who does not know anything about the disaster area,” said a 59-year-old man who lives in temporary housing in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture. “He may be smart, but he does not have the mind and heart of man.” A 60-year-old woman who runs a restaurant in a temporary shopping area in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, said: “We are trying to restore what we built over the years (and lost). As long as there is someone like him, reconstruction is impossible.” Yutaka Ikarigawa, mayor of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, said: “A bureaucrat’s job is to think about ways not to make a place unnecessary. He has abandoned his job.” * * * “In depopulated coastal areas of the Tohoku region, which were already almost dead, old geezers, well past not only retirement but also pension-eligible age, are trying to profiteer from their vested interests in fishing rights. “To build ports and levees for them and persuade them to relocate, politicians speak nice words and rob people around the country, including future children, of necessary money. “I think politicians, who do not rightly maintain that reconstruction is unnecessary, should die.”