As you know, I have been refraining from posting my views on this blog or sending out message via twitter since the beginning of this year.
It is because I was assigned as the Chairman of the National Diet of Japan
Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (NAIIC) launched on December 8th last year, as I have explained in my postings of January 1st , 2nd , and 3rd. I did not wish to evoke any unnecessary misunderstandings by expressing my private views on blogs or twitter, regardless of the relevance (to the commission) of the topics I choose.
NAIIC submitted the report to both the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the House of Councilors on July 5th, approximately 6 months after the launch of the Committee. My appointment at the Chairman officially ended on the day after the completion and submission of the report.
You will find media coverage in various forms by searching on the web by the key word “NAIIC”. I made comments in several television broadcasts and other media in the evening of the very day we submitted the report, and also in the next morning. Now that this frenzy is soothing down a bit, I think it is time for us to start making steady efforts in sharing this report with all the committee members of the Diet and the citizens of Japan, in various settings and places.
How the Diet reads and responds to our recommendations is surveyed and reported in many ways by the media, and we all know that their reactions are inevitably affected by the political climate which is very turbulent these days. At any rate, I do not hesitate to say that we, as a committee, did our very best to fulfill our responsibilities, in a given very limited timeframe, starting from the setting up of our team from zero.
The report is constructed from “7 recommendations” to the Diet of Japan. It is quite important that we share this “7 recommendations” with the people of Japan, and ask them to support the members of the Diet they choose in taking actions. Doing so is one of the processes of empowering the functions of legislative body under the trias politica principle of democracy.
I have written my rough idea in an article; “Common Sense and Responsibilities of Democratic Nation: What Did the Kokkai Jikocyo Aim At?” (in Japanese under the title; "Minsyusyugi Kokka no Jyoshiki to Sekinin: Kokkai Jikocyo wa Nani wo Mezashitaknoka") which I contributed to the "Sekai" magazine published from Iwanami Shoten.
Recently, I spend my time visiting the heads of the towns and villages of Fukushima, of which the residents evacuated because of the nuclear power plant accident. It is shocking to learn how much difficulties the people are facing every day.