Ogasawara Mayor Effectively Tolerates N-Waste Site Survey

Tokyo, April 13 (Jiji Press)--Masaaki Shibuya, mayor of the island village of Ogasawara, on Monday showed his effective tolerance of the Japanese government conducting a literature survey on the feasibility of constructing a final disposal facility for highly radioactive waste on Minamitorishima, one of the Ogasawara Islands.

The central government should decide whether to conduct the survey on Minamitorishima, Shibuya said in a closed-door meeting with local residents. Two such meetings were held on the day, with one on Chichijima and the other on Hahajima, both inhabited islands of the Ogasawara chain in the Pacific Ocean, which belongs to Tokyo.

According to the village government, the mayor said in the meetings that accepting a literature survey does not mean that the construction of a disposal facility is decided.

Speaking to reporters online after the briefings, Shibuya said he will ask the central government to provide village residents with explanations by experts. The mayor also said he will not indicate his stance on the next stage of the facility site selection process until the central government asks other local governments to accept literature surveys.

Minamitorishima, Japan's easternmost island, about 1,950 kilometers southeast of central Tokyo, would be the fourth site to accept the literature survey, after the town of Suttsu and the village of Kamoenai, both in the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, and the town of Genkai in the southwestern prefecture of Saga.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]