Fukushima Cleanup 'Going Nowhere, Yakuza Infiltrated,' Undercover Reporter Reveals [Video]

Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear plant cleanup not working as well as official reports state, freelance investigative journalist Tomohiko Suzuki, a specialist in the Yakuza in Japan, told the audience at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan on Dec. 15, according to The Mainichi Daily News. Suzuki went undercover as a worker at the crippled plant for a month, employed by the Toshiba Corp. 'Absolutely no progress is being made' towards the final resolution of the crisis, Suzuki stated, according to the News.

Undercover at Fukushima, the 55-year-old worked from July to August and used a hidden pin-hole camera to document shoddy work, including the use of flimsy plastic piping to handle highly irradiated waste water--and manipulation of workers radiation dosimeters, which is resulting in many workers getting radiated beyond approved levels. Asked about his own heavy exposure to radiation as a result of his investigative report he said, what's done is done, I am not going to worry about it anymore.

Making matters worse, about 10 percent of the workers are from subcontracting firms, who supply these workers to Toshiba and Hitachi, that are Yakuza-related, the undercover reporter told the audience at the club.

Beyond that, he claims, in his new book just released, that, Reactor makers Toshiba and Hitachi (brought in to help resolve the crisis) each have their own technology, and they don't talk to each other. Toshiba doesn't tell Hitachi what it's doing, and Hitachi doesn't tell Toshiba what it's doing.

Suzuki stated that the mainstream Japanese press has ignored this story and that is why he had turned to the foreign press, giving his extensive talk to the club in hopes of getting his information out.

The full press conference, with translation is here: