Starting July 13, the workers at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant will have to pay for food at the J-Village, a staging area for the work at the plant.
For the umpteenth time since the triple disasters of earthquake/tsunami/nuke struck, I am rather ashamed and disappointed to be Japanese. The first time was when the Japanese government had TEPCO dump the contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean, and the government made a middle manager at TEPCO announce, who was in tears, while PM Kan hid and said nothing.
I was disappointed with the cowardice and pettiness of TPTB in Japan.
And now, more pettiness. I don't know whether it's the sole decision of TEPCO (highly possible, with the chairman still at the helm who is known for his relentless cost-cutting) or with NISA.
The information is from a tweet of a worker at the plant. He could be wrong, and it could be just a "baseless rumor" floating at the plant (I hope so).
But he says:
Looks like we'll have to pay for food at J-Village from July 13. It's been free. I hope water will still be free. My group has been paying for Bento [lunch box] to eat, but there are many workers who get their food for free there.
People reading his tweets are shocked that he's been paying for his own food.
He is worried that some workers may skip breakfast as the result before coming to the plant for the work. He also speculates on the cost aspect, as "manufacturers have been raising unit costs".
With a cost-conscious company like TEPCO, cutting cost by cutting the free food may not be so surprising. What's truly disappointing is the government that continues to look the other way, as if this nuclear disaster is nothing but an extensive repair job on a nuclear power plant owned by TEPCO.
Instead, they are busy concocting the laughable "stress test" for the nuclear plants in Japan so that they can restart the plants ASAP. Just a bunch of petty, coward, myopic people.