– #Radiation Outside Japan: (Rumor) Ministry of Foreign Affairs Planning to Use Fukushima Produce on Emperor’s Birthday Banquets (EX-SKF, Nov. 9, 2011):
From a tweet by an independent journalist who seems to be residing outside Japan:
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It seems Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to use produce from Fukushima in the receptions to be held in Japan’s embassies around the world for the emperor’s birthday in December. That’s understandable, considering the IAEA chief is a former bureaucrat of the Ministry. But foreigners are avoiding Japanese restaurants. What are they thinking?
As to the question of how the Ministry plans to bring in Fukushima produce to countries that ban the agricultural import from Japan (i.e. EU), he answers:
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The rumor says they will import [food from Fukushima] using the diplomatic immunity.
In later tweets, he says he personally knows the embassy people in charge, who are ashamed of the Ministry’s plan. He is most likely to attend the reception, as he has attended every year, he says, and will report.
Well, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is going to squander 1.1 billion yen inviting foreigners to Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate so that they can tweet “favorably”. Serving Fukushima vegetables and meat to dignitaries at Japan’s embassies around the world so that foreigners think “favorably” of Japan and Fukushima in particular is just as demented, therefore totally in line with their (lack of) thinking.
The Japanese government has dispatched the imperial family to disaster areas including high-radiation Fukushima City in April and May. They had the crown prince’s family spend summer in high-radiation Nasu, Gunma Prefecture. Now, they may use the emperor’s birthday to force foreigners to eat Fukushima food.
Are there any readers here who are regularly invited to the Japanese embassy events? The emperor’s birthday is December 23.