Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Fukushima 'Decontamination Troops' Often Exploited, Shunned
abcnews.go.com ^ | Mar 10, 2016 | MARI YAMAGUCHI

Posted on 03/14/2016 10:02:47 AM PDT by ransomnote

The ashes of half a dozen unidentified laborers ended up at a Buddhist temple in this town just north of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Some of the dead men had no papers, others left no emergency contacts. Their names could not be confirmed and no family members had been tracked down to claim their remains.

They were simply labeled "decontamination troops" — unknown soldiers in Japan's massive cleanup campaign to make Fukushima livable again five years after radiation poisoned the fertile countryside.

The men were among the 26,000 workers — many in their 50s and 60s from the margins of society with no special skills or close family ties — tasked with removing the contaminated topsoil and stuffing it into tens of thousands of black bags lining the fields and roads. They wipe off roofs, clean out gutters and chop down trees in a seemingly endless routine.

Coming from across Japan to do a dirty, risky and undesirable job, the workers make up the very bottom of the nation's murky, caste-like subcontractor system long criticized for labor violations. Vulnerable to exploitation and shunned by local residents, they typically work on three-to-six-month contracts with little or no benefits, living in makeshift company barracks. And the government is not even making sure that their radiation levels are individually tested.

"They're cleaning up radiation in Fukushima, doing sometimes unsafe work, and yet they can't be proud of what they do or even considered legitimate workers," said Mitsuo Nakamura, a former day laborer who now heads a citizens' group supporting decontamination laborers. "They are exploited by the vested interests that have grown in the massive project."

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: fukushima; nuclearplant; radiation

1 posted on 03/14/2016 10:02:47 AM PDT by ransomnote
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: ransomnote

Thats scary.


2 posted on 03/14/2016 10:18:30 AM PDT by cassiusking
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ransomnote

I’m sure there’s equal concern for laborers who clean up a town that has been hit by a tornado or clean up areas which have been flooded... Let’s see...

Huh, for some reason, ABC’s not reporting on them.

It is an article full of little facts, lots of wild speculation mostly by people hardly qualified to even comment on the issues, with the excuse that ‘no one was allowed to talk to us.’

In other words, an agenda piece. Nuclear is bad. Contract labor is bad. Go ‘green’ and ‘be union’ are the overall messages.


3 posted on 03/14/2016 10:25:50 AM PDT by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ransomnote

The yakuza is involved in the subcontracting.


4 posted on 03/14/2016 10:44:55 AM PDT by gaijin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ransomnote

There is an amazing quietness from the global warming crowd concerning this real environmental crisis that isn’t going away anytime soon.


5 posted on 03/14/2016 11:24:39 AM PDT by Smittie (Just like an alien, I'm a stranger in a strange land)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ransomnote

Sounds like they need to do like we do and allow in some “migrants”...I hear there is a surplus of unemployed men in the region of Syria these days...


6 posted on 03/14/2016 12:01:43 PM PDT by To Hell With Poverty (Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. ~ JFK ~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cassiusking

It’s a meritocracy without either a welfare system or functional religious care for the poor.


7 posted on 03/14/2016 12:37:20 PM PDT by MrEdd (Heck? Geewhiz Cripes, thats the place where people who don't believe in Gosh think they aint going.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: ransomnote
Just wait till one of them develops super powers.
8 posted on 03/14/2016 1:52:42 PM PDT by Idaho_Cowboy (I Samuel 8:19-20 The New Spirit of America?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson