Japan's New Prime Minister Visits Crippled Fukushima Nuclear Plant

TOKYO (Sputnik) - On Sunday, Japan's newly-elected Prime Minister Fumio Kishida travelled to the defunct Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the country's quake-and-tsunami-hit northeast.

This is the former foreign minister's first trip to the crisis-hit area since he was sworn in as Japan's 100th prime minister in early October. He arrived in the area on Saturday.

"Decommissioning of the plant is a precondition for the reconstruction [of Fukushima]. I want you to proceed with the decommissioning work by attaching importance to a relationship of trust with local communities", Kishida told Fukushima's operator TEPCO.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivers his first policy speech during an extraordinary Diet session at the lower house of parliament Friday, Oct. 8, 2021, in Tokyo.

© AP Photo / Eugene Hoshiko

The prime minister laid flowers at a shrine honouring the victims of the 2011 disaster in the town of Namie, not far from the crippled nuclear plant. The catastrophe killed more than 15,000 people, displaced thousands more, and caused a meltdown at the power plant.