Reactor closures could leave Japan short of power--followup
Further to my comment at the end of last year, I finally saw a couple of TV adverts the other day. The odd thing to my mind is that they're being run by Tokyo Electric Power itself. Mention is made of the fact that the reactor shutdowns are the cause of the potential shortages, but there's no whiff of an apology. Not sure if this is a misjudged attempt to gloss over the affair--I can see the argument that apologising and then asking for help could get people's backs up even further--but still, the lack of anything but the bare fact of the shutdowns encourages the viewer to class them with nasty economic inevitabilities like deflation or unemployment, as something to be frowned at but borne mutely and powerlessly.
The adverts begin "in order to ensure safety and peace of mind, our reactors are currently shut down for inspection," and go on to ask for frugal use of power.
The company's website is somewhat more contrite, however, explicitly stating that the shutdown is the result of improprieties by Tepco itself.
Posted by aragoto at February 05, 2003 11:07 AMThe TV adverts have been changed again, to add an apology at the beginning stating that the power plant closures are the specific result of Tepco's improprieties.
Also, there's a March 21 article in The Times on the subject that may be of interest. Their site makes deep-linking impossible, but the article is called "Tokyo faces blackouts of Californian proportions", and searching on the terms "Japan California" should bring it up.
Posted by: aragoto on March 21, 2003 11:50 PM