Posted on 02/23/2012 4:59:49 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
How the Yakuza went nuclear
What really went wrong at the Fukushima plant? One undercover reporter risked his life to find out
By Jake Adelstein
11:30AM GMT 21 Feb 2012
/snip
Tepco has long been a scandal-ridden company, caught time and time again covering up data on safety lapses at their power plants, or doctoring film footage which showed fissures in pipes. How was the company able to get away with such long-standing behaviour? According to an explosive book recently published in Japan, they owe it to what the author, Tomohiko Suzuki, calls “Japan’s nuclear mafia… A conglomeration of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, the shady nuclear industry, their lobbyists…” And at the centre of it all stands Japan’s actual mafia: the yakuza.
/snip
A former yakuza boss tells me that his group has “always” been involved in recruiting labourers for the nuclear industry. “It’s dirty, dangerous work,” he says, “and the only people who will do it are homeless, yakuza, or people so badly in debt that they see no other way to pay it off.” Suzuki found people who’d been threatened into working at Fukushima, but others who’d volunteered. Why? “Of course, if it was a matter of dying today or tomorrow they wouldn’t work there,” he explains. “It’s because it could take 10 years or more for someone to possibly die of radiation excess. It’s like Russian roulette. If you owe enough money to the yakuza, working at a nuclear plant is a safer bet. Wouldn’t you rather take a chance at dying 10 years later than being stabbed to death now?” (Suzuki’s own feeling was that the effects of low-level radiation are still unknown and that, as a drinker and smoker, he’s probably no more likely to get cancer than he was before.)
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
P!
WOH! This is interesting and lends to my tagline. Take away guns in a society, badguys can make their own knives and you will have nothing.
Even in the US when I worked in the industry, the persons most exposed to radiation were the HP techs. They would be cleaning the areas and no doubt injest some alpha emiters; which is the worst.
These were also the same people who drove high performance motorcycles. High risk as a lifestyle.
I never heard that nuclear power plant workers had a lower life expectancy or more than a very slight increase in cancer rates. And they’ve got a good salary in the US. And Japan is supposed to be so meticulous and up to date with all their engineering.
So why on earth would the yakuza have cornered the labor market? Maybe the atom bombs terrified the Japanese so that they really really don’t want to work at nuke plants - but if they’re that scared why have nuke plants at all? Or why not have the most fanatic schedule of inspections imaginable?
Because they are corrupt.
The Samarai went Yakuza...
But then Japan has always had Mob Rule by mobsters.. or an Emperor (which is just a Mob)..
They know nothing else.. Democracy or Mob Rule has always been Japanese..
The Government is a Mob the Yakuza is a Mob..
Probably they are also cross pollinated..
Some gov’t officials are Yakuza and some Yakuza are elected officials..
Mobs rule there..
Its like Mexico, Mexico has no government..
The Mexican gov’t is a/the Mob... depends on which Cartel is on top..
Same is true in all of URP.. Slavic countrys, Russia, India, and China..
The mid-east is totally tribal(Mobs)...
You know it looks like the same is true in America.. for sure Canada is Mob controlled..
This elected could and probably is Kabuki Theater..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67-bgSFJiKc
** All strange sounds, costumes, makeup, and platitudes..
Similar to a union mob boss.
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