From Asahi Shinbun (newspaper) Digital: Madarame is resigning end of March

"Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today.” -Mahatma Gandhi

This is a translation of news from Asahi Shinbun (newspaper) Digital posted on 3/12/2012 where Haruki Madarame, chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission states he has the intention of resigning his position at the end of March.

内閣府の原子力安全委員会の班目（まだらめ）春樹委員長は１２日、「精神的にも少しやや限界かなと思っている。どこかで区切りをつけたい」と述べ、４月１日に予定される原子力規制庁の発足が遅れた場合でも、３月末で退任する意向を明らかにした。

Chairman of the Nuclear safety Comission, Haruki Madarame stated on the 12th that "I think I am reaching my mental limit. I would like to put things to an end at some point,"  he said, even if the launching of the planned Atomic Energy Regulation Agency on the April 1st is delayed, he clarified that he was intending to resign at the end of March.

　野田政権は、３月末に原子力安全委を廃止して、原発の安全規制を担う「原子力規制庁」を環境省内に新設することをめざしている。しかし、年度内の法案成立は難しい状況で、４月以降も原子力安全委が存続する可能性が高い。

The Noda administration is aiming to abolish the Nuclear safety Commission at the end of March and newly establish the Atomic Energy Regulation Agency within the Ministry of Environment. However, the passing of this law within this fiscal year will be very difficult, and there is a very high possibility that the Nuclear safety Commission will continue to exist after April.

　班目氏は１２日の会見で、原発の耐震指針などの見直しの作業が３月末で終わる点も挙げて退任する考えを説明。一方で、「委員の人事は国会の同意が必要で重いもの」として、今後、ほかの委員らと相談したうえで決めるという。

At the interview on the 12th, Madarame explained his resignation by pointing out  that the review of the nuclear power plant guidelines for resistance to earthquakes will be finished at the end of March. On the one hand, "Committee members' human resource changes require congress's approval and are serious," and I will decide after I discuss with other committee members.

According to Wikipedia, Madarame became an assistant professor of the atomic energy engineering research institution from August of 1989. I assume he has been involved with the nuclear industry as a staunch nuclear power supporter since then. It has been only a year since the accident. It must be very convenient for him, after over 20 years of helping Japan get into this situation (and benefiting monetarily in the process), to simply be able to say that he would, "like to put things to an end at some point." There are many, many of us who would like to say the same thing but cannot. Everyday we continue to have to deal with the mess he helped create, and watch with dread at the leaning reactor building four, knowing that we are on the edge of things getting much, much worse.

There are people in Fukushima who have lost everything due to this accident. They are still in the middle of this tragedy and will continue to suffer for the foreseeable future with minimal government support. I have a difficult time imagining how Madarame's "mental limit" could come anywhere close to their's. All the years he tricked rural towns to accept nuclear plants with empty promises of safe, cheap energy and all the jobs that would follow . . . in the end, his risk when something went wrong was nothing compared to the risk faced by those he tricked.

It reminds me from a line from a pop-culture film, "with great power comes great responsibility." People from the nuclear industry like Madarame have not risen up to assume the great responsibility that came with nuclear power. That industry failed the Japanese people. His leaving now just adds on to that failure to assume a responsibility equal to the power they received over all those years. However, perhaps such a power is too much for any one person (or group of people) to bear, and Japan should have understood that before trusting charlatans like Madarame.

If you would like to read the original Japanese news article, here is the URL:
http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0312/TKY201203120543.html