Fukushima Gov. Masao Uchibori criticized Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Monday after the leader failed to directly mention the radioactive disaster that befell the region in an annual speech on the 2011 deadly tsunami and earthquake that destroyed its No. 1 nuclear plant.
In an address on the disaster’s sixth anniversary, Abe referred Saturday to the “rebuilding process in Fukushima,” including the repairing of infrastructure and the lifting of some evacuation orders. He omitted the term, “nuclear accident,” which was used in previous speeches. Uchobori expressed his frustration with Abe, saying the region “experienced enormous damage” and had not yet fully recovered from the world’s worst nuclear incident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine.
“This is an accident that does not exist in the past tense, but in the present progressive form,” Uchibori said at a regularly scheduled press briefing, according to Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun. “It is not possible to avoid using the important and significant terms of the nuclear plant accident or nuclear power disaster.”
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