issue 14 / volume 40

| emmy HEWN. ae |
Memembers of the Media nd Tokyo Electric Power Co. Employees wearing protective suits and masks // By Tomohiro Osumi

news // 5

 

Fukushima nuclear clean-up plagued with corruption

» Japan recruits homeless men for one of the world’s least desirable jobs

 
  

-. Patrick Vailancourt
485 News Editor
ne 2 M news
¢) 42 @theotherpress.ca

mployment rates in

Japan are on the rise
as clean-up efforts at
the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear facility ramp up.

The Japanese government
has reportedly allocated
billions of dollars on the
“rebirth of Fukushima.” The
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
plant experienced a meltdown
in the aftermath of an earth-
quake and tsunami in 2011. The

natural disaster killed approx-
; imately 18,500 people and left
: countless others displaced.

A lack of applicants

: for positions at the nuclear

: site prompted the Japanese

: government to ask recruiters
: for assistance. The program

: rewards recruiters with $100
: for each worker found.

While the government

: meant for this to bea rea-

: sonable measure to speeding

: up the clean-up effort at the

: Fukushima plant, recruiters

: have taken advantage of the

: program, recruiting homeless
: Japanese men to work for less

: than minimum wage. Even

: Japan's notorious Yakuza

: gangs have been in on the

: action, with reports that up
: to 50 different Yakuza clans
: are operating in and around
: the Fukushima area.

With the clean-up effort

behind schedule, the Japanese

government and the contrac-
tors involved in the clean-up
are pulling out all the stops

_ to bring the clean-up back

: ontrack. Japanese residents,
: however, are not willing to

: workin sucha high-risk area
: for the little compensation

: they would be receiving.

Vulnerable workers

: are often housed ina small

: apartment with numerous

: others, leading to having no

: personal space. Contractors

: would take costs associated

: with housing and food off of

: aworker’s wages, leading to

: very little net compensation

: for the people doing the work.

Seji Sasa, a recruiter, told
Reuters of the corruption
that routinely occurs: “So

_ iftheir employer decides to

: skim their wages or charge

: them exorbitant amounts of
: money for food, for heating,
: for coffee, for cigarettes, for
: whatever, very often, they don’t :
: get paid in advance, or they
don’t get paid weekly, but they

sometimes get paid in 45 day
: instalments and these people
: have very little or nothing.”

Some gangsters have

: been arrested for sending

: workers to the clean-up site
: without a licence, and one

: admits to pocketing upward
: of $60,000 in his workers’

: wages ina two-year period.

There are approximately

: 8,000 registered workers

: currently at the Fukushima

: plant and contractors say

: they require at least 12,000

: workers to bring the clean-up

back on schedule. The full

: cost of the clean-up has been
: estimated at $125-billion.