Opinion

Japan needs whistle-blowers

By Joseph LaPenta

A whistle-blower is someone who reveals wrongdoing within an organization to the public or to those in positions of authority. That person is usually a member of the organization but sometimes works with a journalist or a lawyer. Japan needs whistle-blowers.

For more than a decade, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) falsified inspection records to cover up proof of damage to its nuclear reactors. Such criminal negligence and lying could have endangered many lives. This was only the latest in a series of such scandals, but the nuclear power industry is not alone.

The use of HIV-taintedblood came to light only after thousands of hemophiliacs had been infected and many had died. Patients had been encouraged to use unheated blood products even though members of the former Ministry of Health and of the former Green Cross Pharmaceutical Company had been warned of the danger.

A similar tragedy is happening again. An estimated 2 million Japanese have been infected with the hepatitis C virus from tainted blood. Such an infection has been known to develop into liver cancer. Authorities were warned in 1977, but did nothing for 10 years. No Japanese had the courage to put human lives before personal security and company profits.

In Japan, whistle-blowers have generally been treated as criminals. During the Edo Period, peasants who petitioned the shogun with legitimate complaints against their lords were often executed along with their wives and children. While such practices are no longer

official government policy, old habits die hard. The Japanese proverb commonly quoted by foreign writers is: The nail that sticks out gets hammered in. To the outside world, Japan seems like a nation of timid conformists.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that the whistle-blower who exposed the TEPCO cover-ups was not a Japanese but a foreigner, a U.S. engineer. It has also been reported that the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency violated government policy by leaking the informant's name to TEPCO.

The United States has a long and noble tradition of whistle- blowing. Daniel Ellsberg, who released the "Pentagon Papers," showed that President Johnson and his advisors publicly lied about their Vietnam War plans.

During the Watergate affair, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein exposed the criminal acts that forced President Nixon to resign. Their informant was a whistle-blower known only as "Deep Throat."

Jeffrey Wigand, a research scientist, revealed the harmful properties of nicotine and other poisons deliberately used by cigarette makers. His struggle was the subject of the recent film, "The Insider" (1999), and he has become a public hero.

But others have not been so lucky. In the 1970s, Karen Silkwood tried to publicize wrongdoing at the nuclear power plant where she worked. She was killed in a suspicious car accident that many believe was murder.

No country, institution or industry is perfect, and only those on the inside can call attention to problems before they threaten people's lives. Sincere apologies and cash payments to victims or their families, while better than nothing, are always too little and too late.

Shukan ST: Oct. 11, 2002

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