North Korea fires two suspected missiles after branding Pompeo a ‘toxin’

Launch comes day after regime called US secretary of state impudent and questioned his ability in nuclear talks

North Korea fired two suspected short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Saturday in the seventh weapons launch in a month, South Koreas military said, a day after it threatened to remain Americas biggest threat in protest against US-led sanctions on the country.

The North had been expected to halt weapons tests because 10-day joint US-South Korean military exercises ended earlier this week. Pyongyang regards these drills as an invasion rehearsal.

Saturdays launches were made from north-eastern South Hamgyong province, South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff said. They flew about 380km at the maximum altitude of 97km, the military said.

The Japanese government said the suspected missiles caused no damage and did not land in its territorial waters.

South Koreas National Security Council expressed strong concern about the launches and urged North Korea to stop acts that raise military tensions. Council members said South Korea will launch diplomatic efforts to make North Korea return to nuclear talks with the United States, according to the presidents office.

The launch comes after Pyongyang made a scathing attack on Friday on US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, calling him a diehard toxin following the US diplomats comment that the US would continue the toughest sanctions on the North until the reclusive state denuclearised.

Foreign minister Ri Yong Ho also called Pompeo a poisonous plant of American diplomacy and vowed to shutter the absurd dream that sanctions will force a change in Pyongyang.

Ris blistering rhetoric and the missile launches may dim the prospect for an early resumption of nuclear negotiations between the countries. The top US envoy on North Korea, Stephen Biegun, said Wednesday that Washington was ready to restart the talks.

North Koreas anger over the US-South Korean military drills had focused on South Korea, not the United States. Starting in late July, North Korea has tested a slew of weapons, mostly short-range missiles and rockets. Some of the weapons revealed developments of a new rocket artillery system and two different short-range mobile ballistic missiles that experts say would expand its ability to strike targets throughout South Korea.

Many analysts said the tests were aimed at applying more pressure on the United States ahead of a possible resumption of nuclear talks.

US-led diplomacy to rid North Korea of nuclear weapons collapsed after president Donald Trump rejected North Korean leader Kim Jong Uns demand for widespread sanctions relief in return for partial disarmament steps during their second summit in Vietnam in February. Trump and Kim met again at the Korean border in late June and agreed to resume the talks.

Saturdays launches came two days after South Korea said it would terminate a military intelligence-sharing deal with Japan amid bitter trade and history disputes between the US allies.

The decision drew criticism that it would end up weakening South Koreas defence and reconnaissance capability at a time when North Koreas nuclear threats remain intact. The United States, which wants stronger trilateral security cooperation with Seoul and Tokyo, expressed disappointment at the South Korean decision.

South Koreas military said it will share information on the latest North Korean launches with Japan at Tokyos request as the intelligence deal is valid until November.

We want to continue the cooperation among Japan, the U.S. and South Korea, Japanese defence minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters. North Koreas repeated launches of projectiles and missiles show North Korea is working on developing such technology.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

‘Sick to my stomach’: dolphin and penguins locked in derelict Japan aquarium

Anger after hundreds of fish and reptiles have been left in tiny pools amid crumbling concrete since January

Anger is mounting in Japan after a dolphin, 46 penguins and hundreds of fish were found to have been abandoned for months in a derelict aquarium.

Animal rights campaigners have warned that the marine animals could die if they are not rescued from the Inubosaki marine park aquarium in the Pacific coastal town of Choshi north-east of Tokyo.

The plight of Honey, a female bottlenose dolphin, as well as scores of Humboldt penguins and hundreds of fish and reptiles, has triggered outrage following reports that they were abandoned when the facility closed seven months ago.

Images taken from outside the marine park in March this year show the solitary dolphin languishing in a tiny pool. In another photograph, dishevelled-looking penguins can be seen perched on a structure near what appear to be piles of loose concrete.

The marine park closed at the end of January following a dramatic drop in visitor numbers blamed on the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japans north-east in March 2011.

Reports said employees of the marine park were feeding the animals, although it is unclear how they are sourcing food and how much they have left.It is possible that the park still has large stocks of frozen food or that employees are purchasing fresh fish in Choshi, a fishing port.

Animal rights campaigners have been refused entry to the facility, while local authorities have been unable to contact its private owner, Inubosaki Marine Park. Calls to the parks owner went unanswered.

Penguins at the Inubosaki Marine Park Aquarium Photograph: Animal Rights Center Japan

I am worried that Honey will die if this situation continues, Akiko Mitsunobu, head of aquarium issues at the Animal Rights Centre Japan, told the Guardian.

Lately she has just been repeating the same movements dipping her head in and out of the water and is showing definite signs of stress.

Despite claims by the prefectures public health centre that the dolphin and penguins are being properly cared for, Mitsunobu said they needed to be seen by animal welfare experts who can offer a second opinion.

Sachiko Azuma, a representative of Japanese animal rights group Peace (Put an End to Animal Cruelty and Exploitation), said the former operators silence left her fearing the worst.

As a group that handles animals, they have a responsibility to explain what they intend to do with Honey and the other animals, she said. Compared to a year ago you can see that her condition has deteriorated. Its impossible to say that shes healthy.

Peace has launched a postcard campaign calling for Honey to be rescued, while the animals plight prompted a wave of criticism on social media. This makes me so sick to my stomach, one Twitter user wrote in a post with the hashtag #SaveHoney. Animals deserve much better than this. Another wrote: I beg the authorities to get in close contact with each other and push ahead with this.

By last week, the marine park had received more than 800 emails and letters demanding that the animals be moved to a new home.

The Mainichi Shimbun reported that the operator had been in talks with another aquarium about transferring Honey and the penguins but had abruptly ended negotiations and refused to respond to enquiries from the Choshi town government. Local officials are not legally entitled to enter the facility without permission and cannot compel the owner to relocate the animals, the newspaper said.

Honey was taken to the marine park in 2005 after being captured in Taiji, a town on the Pacific coast that drew international criticism after its hunts were featured in the 2009 Oscar-winning documentary The Cove.

The abandoned aquarium Photograph: HANDOUT/Reuters

In 2015, the Japan Association of Zoos and Aquariums agreed to stop buying dolphins from Taiji after it was threatened with expulsion from the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (Waza).

The move came after the Guardian revealed that Waza had been targeted in a court action launched by the conservation group Australia for Dolphins, which accused it of being complicit in the hunts by failing to take decisive action against Japanese aquariums.

Aquariums in Japan voted to stop buying live specimens from Taiji to avoid expulsion, but a facility in the town quit Jaza in protest, and local fishermen have vowed to continue the hunts.

In a typical hunt the fishermen pursue pods of dolphins across open seas, banging the top of metal poles that extend beneath the water to confuse their hypersensitive sonar and driving them into a narrow cove. Some are killed for their meat, which is sold in local supermarkets and restaurants, while the most attractive specimens are selected for sale to aquariums and sea parks.

The animal rights centre said it feared that Honey could be recaptured if she was returned to waters off Taiji. Instead, it is demanding that she be sent to a sanctuary that closely resembles her natural habitat.

Mitsunobu said Honeys plight reflects the lack of awareness people in Japan generally have about animal welfare and keeping animals in captivity. Aquariums and marine parks are still seen as places for families to have a fun day out.

The issue has been complicated by the fact that it is connected to the Taiji dolphin hunts, but for now this is about the need to do something to help Honey before it is too late.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

Japan leaves touching thank you note and a spotless locker room after World Cup loss

If the World Cup was determined strictly on the basis of sportsmanship, Japan’s team would win this thing no question.

SEE ALSO: Anime theme brings Japan and Senegal fans together at the World Cup

Sadly, though, that’s not how it goes — as Japan knows all too well. Their mens team lost Monday’s knock-out round contest to Belgium at almost the last possible moment, after holding a two-goal lead. 

That didn’t stop them from performing the ultimate class act, though. After warming the world’s hearts by remaining on the pitch to give thanks to their dedicated fan base despite the agonizing loss, Team Japan took things next level as evidenced by the below photo, reportedly shared by a FIFA official. 

Amazing from Japan.
This is how they left the changing room after losing v Belgium: cleaned it all.
And in the middle, have left a message to Russia: “Spasibo” (Thank you) pic.twitter.com/lrwoIZt2pR

— Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) July 3, 2018

That’s Japan’s locker room and, yes, it’s spotless. Just as their fans hung back after matches to clean stadiums, Team Japan cleaned up their locker room too.

And that note, left by the team, reads “Thank you” in Russian. 

If only the rest of the world could take a note from Japan’s World Cup contingent, than maybe the world would be a brighter, friendlier, and cleaner place.

Good on you, lads.

Read more: http://mashable.com/

Heavy Snowfall Hits Tokyo, And The Results Are Pretty Much What Youd Expect

Downtown Tokyo saw its heaviest snowfall for years this Monday, causing travel chaos throughout the city. Cars were stranded and abandoned on roads, trains stopped running and people were left stuck at the airport as 250 international flights were cancelled.

“It hasn’t snowed in Tokyo in four years,” Tokyo resident Yukimura, which coincidentally enough means ‘Snow Village’ in Japanese, told Bored Panda. “Four years ago we had even heavier snow and a lot less prep. This time everyone except me knew it was coming, apparently. Was a fun surprise for me though!”

What to do in the face of such a situation? Make snowmen of course! But wait, before you grab a carrot, some pebbles and a couple of sticks for arms, remember, this is Japan. Your three-ball standard fat guy snowman ain’t gonna cut it here. Yukimura explains the story behind the Japanese snowman. “The name for snowman, Yuki Daruma, doesn’t mean snowman, it means snow daruma,” she told us. “Daruma is from the Daruma doll, which is based on Bodhidharma, a Buddhist monk who, according to the tales, had his arms and legs fall off during meditation. That’s why Japanese snowmen have only two layers.”

It appears the Japanese attitude to snow sculptures is much more developed than what we are used to in Europe and North America. What else would you expect from the land that produces some of the most beautiful, creative and cool artworks and innovations in the world? Tokyo is dotted with snow sculptures that will put a smile on your face, and put old carrot nose in your backyard to shame. They are being shared on Twitter via the trending hashtag #雪だるま, and are proving to be wildly popular!

Did Yukimura get out and make a snowman herself? “I did! I had to clean up a bunch of snow outside of work today, and while I was waiting for a turn with the snow shovel I made up a little one for the sign leading to our cafe,” she told Bored Panda. “It’s not as cute as the rest though!”

Scroll down to check out some of the best examples out there, compiled for your convenience into a list by Bored Panda. Don’t forget to vote for your favourite, and let us know what you think in the comments!

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Read more: http://www.boredpanda.com/

Australian convict pirates in Japan: evidence of 1830 voyage unearthed

Exclusive: Fresh translations of samurai accounts of barbarian ship arriving at the height of Japans feudal isolation corroborate story long dismissed as fantasy

An amateur historian has unearthed compelling evidence that the first Australian maritime foray into Japanese waters was by convict pirates on an audacious escape from Tasmania almost two centuries ago.

Fresh translations of samurai accounts of a barbarian ship in 1830 give startling corroboration to a story modern scholars had long dismissed as convict fantasy: that a ragtag crew of criminals encountered a forbidden Japan at the height of its feudal isolation.

The brig Cyprus was hijacked by convicts bound for Hobart in 1829, in a mutiny that took them all the way to China.

Its maverick skipper was William Swallows, a onetime British cargo ship apprentice and naval conscript in the Napoleonic wars, who in a piracy trial in London the following year told of a samurai cannonball in Japan knocking a telescope from his hand.

Swallows fellow mutineers, two of whom were the last men hanged for piracy in Britain, backed his account of have been to Japan.

Western researchers, citing the lack of any Japanese record of the Cyprus, had since ruled the convicts story a fabrication.

But that conclusion has been shattered by Nick Russell, a Japan-based English teacher and history buff, in a remarkable piece of sleuthing that has won the endorsement of Australian diplomatic officials and Japanese and Australian archival experts.

Russell, after almost three years of puzzling over an obscure but meticulous record of an early samurai encounter with western interlopers, finally joined the dots with the Cyprus through a speculative Google search last month.

The British expatriate all but solved what was for the Japanese a 187-year mystery, while likely uncovering vivid new detail of an epic chapter of colonial Australian history.

If youd said I was going to go hunt and find a new pirate ship, Id have gone, youre crazy, Russell told Guardian Australia. I just stumbled on it. Boom. There it was on the screen in front of me.

I immediately knew and as soon as I started checking, everything just fitted so perfectly.

The ship anchored on 16 January 1830 off the town of Mugi, on Shikoku island, where Makita Hamaguchi, a samurai sent disguised as a fisherman to check the ship for weapons, noted an unbearable stench in the vicinity of the ship.

The site is about 900m from where Russells holiday house now stands.

It was Hamaguchis watercolour sketch of an unnamed ship with a British flag that first intrigued Russell when he saw it on the website of the Tokushima prefectural archive in 2014.

With the help of a local volunteer manuscript reading group, Russell has since worked at translating written accounts of the ships arrival by Hamaguchi and another samurai, Hirota, now held by the Tokushima prefectural archive. Hamaguchis is called Illustrated Account of the Arrival of a Foreign Ship, while Hirotas is A Foreign Ship Arrives Off Mugi Cove.

Russell first thought it may be a whaling ship, but the manuscript readers were skeptical. Having learned mutinies were common among whalers, Russell last month Googled the words mutiny 1829.

This stumbling upon a link between a samurai record and the story of the Cyprus was the research equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack, according to Warwick Hirst, the former curator of manuscripts at the State Library of New South Wales.

It was a fantastic find, Hirst, author of The Man Who Stole the Cyprus, told Guardian Australia. I have no doubt that the Japanese account describes the visit of the Cyprus.

What emerges is a picture of a desperate band of travellers, low on water and firewood, who provoked curiosity and suspicion among local warlords vexed by their appearance.

Bound to violently repel them by order of Japans ruling shogun, the samurai commanders showed some restraint, giving the foreigners advice on wind direction after raining down cannon balls and musket shot on their ship.

Hamaguchi wrote of sailors with long pointed noses who were not hostile, but asked in sign language for water and firewood. One had burst into tears and begun praying when an official rejected an earlier plea.

A skipper who looked 25 or 26 placed tobacco in a suspicious looking object, sucked and then breathed out smoke.

He had a scarlet woollen coat with cuffs embroidered with gold thread and the buttons were silver-plated, which was a thing of great beauty, but as clothing it was gaudy.

Hamaguchis watercolour sketch of the coat has what Russell said may be a telling detail on the sleeve: a bird that could be a swallow, the skippers own stamp on a British military officers jacket taken as a souvenir in the mutiny.

A watercolour by samurai Makita Hamaguchi showing one of the sailors with a dog from the ship that did not look like food. It looked like a pet. Photograph: Tokushima prefectural archive

The skipper gave instructions to a crew that in accordance with what appeared to be some mark of respect followed orders to remove their hats to the man, most of them revealing balding heads.

They exchanged words amongst themselves like birds twittering.

A dog on the ship did not look like food. It looked like a pet.

Another samurai chronicler called Hirota noted the crew offered gifts including an object he later drew, which looks like a boomerang.

One sailor bared his chest to the disguised samurai to reveal a tattoo of the upper body of a beautiful woman, Hamaguchi wrote.

Another produced a big glass of what appeared to be an alcoholic beverage and indicated that we should drink.

We declined by waving our hands, upon which they passed the glass around themselves, one by one tapping their heads as they drank to indicate the good feeling it brought them, and finished the lot.

Onshore, the samurai commanders were anxious to follow an 1825 edict by the shogun bolstering Japans isolationist policy.

It stated: All foreign vessels should be fired upon. Any foreigner who landed should be arrested or killed. Every interaction should be reported in the utmost detail.

Hamaguchi quoted Mima, a local commander, saying he had been suspicious of that ship since it arrived.

The men on the ship do not look hungry at all and in fact they seem to be mocking us by diving off the stern and climbing back onto the ship again, Mima said. It is very strange that everyone who goes out for a closer look returns feeling very sorry for them.

I think they are pirates. We should crush them!

Mima stayed up till dawn discussing what to do with his superior Yamanouchi, who decided: We should take out a large lead ball and tell them that if they dont leave immediately, we will fire on them and reduce them to matchwood.

Yamauchi later told an underling to give some water and firewood if the sailors agreed to leave.

The barbarians in sign language told the samurai go-betweens they needed five days to mend sails and paint the ship, one making a fist with one hand and put it under his cocked head indicating sleep.

When Yamauchi refused, the skipper asked for three days, then gave the samurai messengers a letter to pass on.

Commander Yamauchi was not happy. What did you accept a letter from them for? Take it back at once! Hamaguchi wrote.

When the ship did not raise its anchor, a cannon fired on the ship like a thunder clap followed by an eerie screeching noise as the old deeply pitted ball flew between the two masts of the barbarian ship.

Irritatingly, without sign of haste or panic, the crew leisurely spread one sail, Hamaguchi said.

The ship spread another sail but did not move, prompting an infuriated Yamauchi to order more cannon fire.

With little wind but an onshore breeze, the ship could not sail out to sea and instead, ignoring the hail of cannon and musketoon balls sailed west between two samurai firing positions.

Hamaguchi wrote that at about this time the feudal overseer realised it was a British ship and became extremely angry, ordering fire on the ships waterline.

Two cannon balls hit and shook the ship badly. The foreigners were standing and yelling.

Another cannon ball smashed into the ships hull, and one or two crew lay on the deck appearing killed or injured.

The watercolour picture of a British-flagged ship that arrived off the coast of Mugi, in Shikoku, Japan, by the samurai Hamaguchi. Photograph: Tokushima prefectural archive

The others turned towards commander Yamauchis boat, all removed their hats and appeared to be praying, Hamaguchi wrote.

Yamauchi asked an underling when the wind would improve, then was good enough to share this knowledge with the barbarians through sign language and they swiftly turned the brig across the wind.

The smaller samurai boats surrounded the foreigners and a foul stench was coming from the ship.

When a samurai musketeer showed his courage by brandishing his big gun in their faces, the barbarians looked worried, cried out and trembled with fear, Hamaguchi wrote.

A sketch of details of a British-flagged ship that arrived off the coast of Mugi, in Shikoku. Photograph: Hamaguchi Makita/Tokushima prefectural archive

Some of them even pointed to their sides and fell down praying. We took this to mean that one of Nishizawas musketoon balls had reached its mark and taken a life.

The crew bailed water and showed the samurai, who saw it appeared to be full of our shot.

The ship moved on and after dusk a strange pipe and singing could be heard before it sailed away.

The sound was like that made by a childs pennywhistle, nothing like a real flute. It was eerie, Hamaguchi said.

David Lawson, the Australian consul general in Osaka, said his office agreed there was strong evidence that the ship depicted in this account, as recorded by the people of Tokushima, was the brig Cyprus, which had been pirated by convicts escaping from the British penal colony which is now known as Hobart, Tasmania.

Takashi Tokuno, the chief curator at the Tokushima prefectural archive, has said there is a high probability the ship was the Cyprus.

Hirst said there were too many coincidences for it not to be true, given Swallows own written account of reaching Japan, held in the National Archives in London.

These included the date range, the search for water and firewood, the letter to the samurai commander, and the struggle to sail without wind while under cannon fire.

Even the dimensions of the ship given by the Japanese tallied with those in a bill of sale for the Cyprus held in the NSW State Library, Hirst said.

The other thing is I couldnt think of any reason why Swallow would have made up the visit to Japan. It didnt help his cause in any way in terms of the trial.

Theres clear evidence he got to Macau and Hong Kong, so why fabricate the Japanese visit?

Swallow, a cunning figure who convinced a jury hed been forced to sail the Cyprus as the only experienced seafarer, escape a piracy conviction that cost two of his crew their lives.

But he was sent back to Tasmania on a life sentence for his illegal escape, and died at Port Arthur just four years after his pioneering feat of seafaring.

He was recognised in the Australian folk ballad, The Cyprus Brig: For navigating smartly, Bill Swallow was the man, who laid a course out neatly to take us to Japan.

Hirst said the Cyprus in my opinion, must have been the first Australian ship to reach Japan.

I havent been able to find any other records of ships arriving in Japan and its not surprising because the Japanese actively discouraged all western shipping from coming to their country, he said.

This would have been well-known in seafaring circles and there would have been no point for ships to go to Japan.

Swallows landed there because they were absolutely desperate for wood and water and supplies, and the ship needed repairing as well.

I think we can say with a fair degree of certainty it was the first Australian ship.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

Dying robots and failing hope: Fukushima clean-up falters six years after tsunami

Exploration work inside the nuclear plants failed reactors has barely begun, with the scale of the task described as almost beyond comprehension

Barely a fifth of the way into their mission, the engineers monitoring the Scorpions progress conceded defeat. With a remote-controlled snip of its cable, the latest robot sent into the bowels of one of Fukushima Daiichis damaged reactors was cut loose, its progress stalled by lumps of fuel that overheated when the nuclear plant suffered a triple meltdown six years ago this week.

As the 60cm-long Toshiba robot, equipped with a pair of cameras and sensors to gauge radiation levels was left to its fate last month, the plants operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), attempted to play down the failure of yet another reconnaissance mission to determine the exact location and condition of the melted fuel.

Even though its mission had been aborted, the utility said, valuable information was obtained which will help us determine the methods to eventually remove fuel debris.

The Scorpion mishap, two hours into an exploration that was supposed to last 10 hours, underlined the scale and difficulty of decommissioning Fukushima Daiichi an unprecedented undertaking one expert has described as almost beyond comprehension.

Cleaning up the plant, scene of the worlds worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl after it was struck by a magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami on the afternoon of 11 March 2011, is expected to take 30 to 40 years, at a cost Japans trade and industry ministry recently estimated at 21.5tr yen ($189bn).

The figure, which includes compensating tens of thousands of evacuees, is nearly double an estimate released three years ago.

The tsunami killed almost 19,000 people, most of them in areas north of Fukushima, and forced 160,000 people living near the plant to flee their homes. Six years on, only a small number have returned to areas deemed safe by the authorities.

The tsunami on 11 March 2011 killed almost 19,000 people. Photograph: Kimimasa Mayama/EPA

Developing robots capable of penetrating the most dangerous parts of Fukushima Daiichis reactors and spending enough time there to obtain crucial data is proving a near-impossible challenge for Tepco. The Scorpion so called because of its camera-mounted folding tail died after stalling along a rail beneath the reactor pressure vessel, its path blocked by lumps of fuel and other debris.

The device, along with other robots, may also have been damaged by an unseen enemy: radiation. Before it was abandoned, its dosimeter indicated that radiation levels inside the No 2 containment vessel were at 250 sieverts an hour. In an earlier probe using a remote-controlled camera, radiation at about the same spot was as high as 650 sieverts an hour enough to kill a human within a minute.

Shunji Uchida, the Fukushima Daiichi plant manager, concedes that Tepco acquired limited knowledge about the state of the melted fuel. So far weve only managed to take a peek, as the last experiment with the robot didnt go well, he tells the Guardian and other media on a recent visit to the plant. But were not thinking of another approach at this moment.

Robotic mishaps aside, exploration work in the two other reactors, where radiation levels are even higher than in reactor No 2, has barely begun. There are plans to send a tiny waterproof robot into reactor No 1 in the next few weeks, but no date has been set for the more seriously damaged reactor No 3.

Naohiro Masuda, the president of Fukushima Daiichis decommissioning arm, says he wants another probe sent in before deciding on how to remove the melted fuel.

A Tepco employee speaks to the media at the companys Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Photograph: Reuters

Despite the setbacks, Tepco insists it will begin extracting the melted fuel in 2021 a decade after the disaster after consulting government officials this summer.

But Shaun Burnie, a senior nuclear specialist at Greenpeace Germany who is based in Japan, describes the challenge confronting the utility as unprecedented and almost beyond comprehension, adding that the decommissioning schedule was never realistic or credible.

The latest aborted exploration of reactor No 2 only reinforces that reality, Burnie says. Without a technical solution for dealing with unit one or three, unit two was seen as less challenging. So much of what is communicated to the public and media is speculation and wishful thinking on the part of industry and government.

The current schedule for the removal of hundreds of tons of molten nuclear fuel, the location and condition of which they still have no real understanding, was based on the timetable of prime minister [Shinzo] Abe in Tokyo and the nuclear industry not the reality on the ground and based on sound engineering and science.

Even Shunichi Tanaka, the chairman of Japans nuclear regulation authority, does not appear to share Tepcos optimism that it will stick to its decommissioning roadmap. It is still early to talk in such an optimistic way, he says. At the moment, we are still feeling around in the dark.

The situation is not under control

On the surface, much has changed since the Guardians first visit to Fukushima Daiichi five years ago.

Then, the site was still strewn with tsunami wreckage. Hoses, pipes and building materials covered the ground, as thousands of workers braved high radiation levels to bring a semblance of order to the scene of a nuclear disaster.

Six years later, damaged reactor buildings have been reinforced, and more than 1,300 spent fuel assemblies have been safely removed from a storage pool in reactor No 4. The ground has been covered with a special coating to prevent rainwater from adding to Tepcos water-management woes.

Workers who once had to change into protective gear before they approached Fukushima Daiichi now wear light clothing and simple surgical masks in most areas of the plant. The 6,000 workers, including thousands of contract staff, can now eat hot meals and take breaks at a rest house that opened in 2015.

But further up the hill from the coastline, row upon row of steel tanks are a reminder of the decommissioning efforts other great nemesis: contaminated water. The tanks now hold about 900,000 tons of water, with the quantity soon expected to reach 1m tons.

Tepcos once-vaunted underground ice wall, built at a cost of 24.5bn yen, has so far failed to completely prevent groundwater from leaking into the reactor basements and mixing with radioactive coolant water.

Much has changed in Fukushima since the disaster. Photograph: Franck Robichon/EPA

The structure, which freezes the soil to a depth of 30 metres, is still allowing 150 tonnes of groundwater to seep into the reactor basements every day, said Yuichi Okamura, a Tepco spokesman. Five sections have been kept open deliberately to prevent water inside the reactor basements from rising and flowing out more rapidly. We have to close the wall gradually, Okamura said. By April we want to keep the influx of groundwater to about 100 tonnes a day, and to eliminate all contaminated water on the site by 2020.

Critics of the clean-up note that 2020 is the year Tokyo is due to host the Olympics, having been awarded the Games after Abe assured the International Olympic Committee that Fukushima was under control.

Mitsuhiko Tanaka, a former Babcock-Hitachi nuclear engineer, accuses Abe and other government officials of playing down the severity of the decommissioning challenge in an attempt to win public support for the restart of nuclear reactors across the country.

Abe said Fukushima was under control when he went overseas to promote the Tokyo Olympics, but he never said anything like that in Japan, says Tanaka. Anyone here could see that the situation was not under control.

If people of Abes stature repeat something often enough, it becomes accepted as the truth.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us