Taro Aso, vice president of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, emphasized the safety of nuclear power plants and said that there was no fatal accident, causing controversy.
Deputy Governor Aso attended a meeting of his supporters' association held in Fukuoka Prefecture on the 15th and mentioned the merits of nuclear power plants, saying, "I investigated how many deaths occurred at nuclear power plants, and it was zero."
When the remarks became controversial, government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno, the government's spokesman, officially denied Aso's remarks, saying, "There are deaths at nuclear power plants."
In Japan, in 2004, an accident occurred in Fukui Prefecture, Kansai Electric Power Co., Ltd.'s Mihama Nuclear Power Plant Unit 3 in which steam erupted when pipes were damaged, resulting in the deaths of five workers.
There have been fatal accidents due to industrial accidents within the nuclear power plant site, but there is no known case of death directly due to radiation.
However, following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant explosion accident that occurred during the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, the Japanese government issued an evacuation order to the area around the nuclear power plant where radioactive materials were leaked, resulting in a large number of refugees and deaths related to evacuation.
Deputy Prime Minister Aso, who is nicknamed the "manufacturer of absurd remarks," caused controversy several times, such as calling it a "cursed Olympics" when the possibility of postponement or cancellation of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics was discussed.
(Photo = Getty Image Korea)