On July 5, 2012, the Commission of inquiry into the disaster of Fukushima attributed it mainly to a failure of regulation.

Context and Summary

© thejournalofregulation

 After the nuclear disaster of Fukushima, Japan’s Parliament established an independent commission of inquiry, in particular to elucidate the causes and find remedies.

It is also for the remedies that a new nuclear regulatory authority is implemented in the Japan, now functionally independent of the Government and also of its industrial and energy policy choices.

With regard to the causes, the Commission of inquiry made its final report on July 5, 2012.

First, the report estimates that the disaster was not caused by an individual in particular and that the technical competence of the staff is not at issue. Secondly, while the report says the nuclear accident is "the result of collusion between the Government, the regulatory agencies and the operator", which was made possible by the absence of proper governance of three covered entities.

Thus, according to the report, "the fundamental causes are the systems of organization and regulation based on misleading logic in their decisions and actions".

Not surprisingly, that company Tepco had argued the opposite in a report that it had itself published a few months ago.

In this report, which crushes the regulators, but also the capture and the collusion between the Government, the regulator and the company, the system where industrial policy is integrated in a close relationship between the Government and the company, the regulator remains on the behind is condemned.

In addition, once again, as in other sectors, the link between regulation and governance is done. But it is remarkable that the report intends t not only the governance of the report. It also includes the governance of the company, probably already experiencing conflicts of interests.

Brief commentary

The Commission of inquiry established by the Japanese Parliament about the Fukushima nuclear disaster issued its final report on July 5, 2012. After recalling a "right of nations to be protected from nuclear disaster", considers that the accident was not due to individual failure, or linked to a problem of technical competence of the staff. The failure is in the same regulatory system. It is first in the collusion that existed between the Government, the regulatory authority, and Tepco. Secondly, it is the failures of governance of all of them.