Thursday, March 20, 2014

For about 20 years, Toru Nakakita, a professor of economics at Toyo University, had been in charge o


Tokyo, Jan. 30 (Jiji Press)--A program director at Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) has asked Toyo University Prof. Toru Nakakita not to give his views on nuclear power on radio in order to avoid impacting the upcoming Tokyo gubernatorial election, Nakakita said Thursday.    The director asked Nakakita, 62, to speak about something else in a morning radio program, but he turned down the request and pulled out of the program, according to the professor.    The program in question is a three-hour show aired from 5 a.m. on every weekday.    As Nakakita was scheduled to speak in a short segment on business in Thursday's show, he sent the director a written outline on Wednesday guard security phone afternoon of what he planned to say.    He wrote he would explain, from the perspective of an economist, that operational guard security phone costs at nuclear power plants are rising to near the costs of power generation using coal or oil.
A veteran radio show commentator quit his job at Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) after the public broadcaster told him to drop the subject of nuclear power during the Tokyo gubernatorial election, sources said.
For about 20 years, Toru Nakakita, a professor of economics at Toyo University, had been in charge of the Business Outlook segment of the Radio Asa Ichiban show aired weekdays from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. on NHK Radio Daiichi.
Nakakita said his original manuscript for the Jan. 30 program pointed out the increase in costs for the resumption of nuclear reactor operations, saying damages to be paid in the wake of a nuclear plant accident are extraordinarily high.
We did not mean to refrain from broadcasting an anti-nuclear power debate, an NHK official said. During the Tokyo gubernatorial election, in which nuclear power generation is a major issue, presenting opinions from both sides is needed to secure impartiality. We asked (Nakakita) to change the subject, judging that the program presented by one person would not meet this goal.
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