Fukushima
'decontamination troops' often exploited, shunned
Heaving radiated dirt and
wiping off houses, the 26,000 men toiling in Fukushima's arduous clean-up
campaign are from the very bottom of Japan's murky, many-layered subcontractor
system
By Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press | Associated Press – 2
hours 3 minutes ago
10 Mar 2016
Ricky L • Remove
Fukushima soil and water is still highly contaminated with nuclear radiation.Reply
Why is Japan Foreign Ministry pressing Singapore to buy the Fukushima foodstuff - and risking Singapore's lives with radiation contaminated food that will cause cancer?
MINAMISOMA, Japan (AP)
-- The ashes of half a dozen unidentified laborers ended up at a Buddhist
temple in this town just north of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Some of
the dead men had no papers, others left no emergency contacts. Their names
could not be confirmed and no family members had been tracked down to claim
their remains.
They were simply
labeled "decontamination troops" — unknown soldiers in Japan's
massive cleanup campaign to make Fukushima livable again five years after
radiation poisoned the fertile countryside.
The men were among the
26,000 workers — many in their 50s and 60s from the margins of society with no
special skills or close family ties — tasked with removing the contaminated
topsoil and stuffing it into tens of thousands of black bags lining the fields
and roads. They wipe off roofs, clean out gutters and chop down trees in a
seemingly endless routine.
Coming from across
Japan to do a dirty, risky and undesirable job, the workers make up the very
bottom of the nation's murky, caste-like subcontractor system long criticized
for labor violations. Vulnerable to exploitation and shunned by local
residents, they typically work on three-to-six-month contracts with little or
no benefits, living in makeshift company barracks. And the government is not
even making sure that their radiation levels are individually tested.
"They're cleaning
up radiation in Fukushima, doing sometimes unsafe work, and yet they can't be
proud of what they do or even considered legitimate workers," said Mitsuo
Nakamura, a former day laborer who now heads a citizens' group supporting
decontamination laborers. "They are exploited by the vested interests that
have grown in the massive project."
Residents of still
partly deserted towns such as Minamisoma, where 8,000 laborers are based, worry
that neighborhoods have turned into workers' ghettos with deteriorating safety.
Police data shows arrests among laborers since 2011 have climbed steadily from
just one to 210 last year, including a dozen yakuza, or gangsters, police
official Katsuhiko Ishida told a prefectural assembly. Residents are spooked by
rumors that some laborers sport tattoos linked with yakuza, and by reports that
a suspect in serial killings arrested in Osaka last year had worked in the
area.
"Their massive
presence has simply intimidated residents," said Mayor Katsunobu Sakurai.
"Frankly, the residents need their help but don't want any trouble."
Most of the men work
for small subcontractors that are many layers beneath the few giants at the top
of the construction food chain. Major projects such as this one are divided up
among contractors, which then subcontract jobs to smaller outfits, some of
which have dubious records.
The Ministry of Health,
Labor and Welfare examined more than 300 companies doing Fukushima
decontamination work and found that nearly 70 committed violations in the first
half of last year, including underpayment of wages and overtime and failure to
do compulsory radiation checks. Those companies were randomly chosen among
thousands believed to be working in the area.
"Violations are so
widespread in this multilayer subcontract system. It's like a whack-a-mole
situation," said Mitsuaki Karino, a city assemblyman in Iwaki, a Fukushima
city where his civil group has helped workers with complaints about employers.
Karino said workers are
sometimes charged for meals or housing they were told would be free, he said,
and if they lose jobs or contracts aren't renewed, some go homeless.
"It's a serious
concern, particularly for workers who don't have families or lost ties with
them," he said.
Government officials
say they see no other way than to depend on the contracting system to clean up
the radiated zone, a project whose ballooning cost is now estimated at 5
trillion yen ($44 billion).
"That's how the
construction industry has long operated. In order to accomplish
decontamination, we need to rely on the practice," said Tadashi Mouri, a
health and labor ministry official in charge of nuclear workers' health. He
said the ministry has instructed top contractors to improve oversight of
subcontractors.
Several arrests have
been made in recent months over alleged labor violations.
A complaint filed by a
worker with labor officials led to the October arrest of a construction company
president who had allegedly dispatched workers to Fukushima under misleading
circumstances. The investigation found that the worker had been offered pay of
17,000 yen ($150) per day, but after middlemen took a cut he was getting only
8,000 yen ($70).
In another case, a
supervisor and a crane operator were arrested in July for alleged illegal
dumping of radiated plant debris in Minamisoma. Five companies heading the
project were suspended for six weeks.
Most workers keep their
mouths shut for fear of losing their jobs. One laborer in a gray jacket and
baggy pants, carrying cans of beer on his way home, said he was instructed
never to talk to reporters.
A 62-year-old seasonal
worker, Munenori Kagaya, said he had trouble finding jobs after he and his
fellow workers fought for and won unpaid daily "danger" allowance of
10,000 yen ($88) for work in Tamura city in 2012.
Officials keep close
tabs on journalists. Minutes after chatting with some workers in Minamisoma,
Associated Press journalists received a call from a city official warning them
not to talk to decontamination crews.
Beyond the work's
arduous nature, the men also face radiation exposure risks. Inhaling
radioactive particles could trigger lung cancer, said Junji Kato, a doctor who
provides health checks for some workers.
Although most laborers
working in residential areas use protective gear properly, others in remote
areas are not monitored closely, according to workers and Nakamura, the leader
of the radiation workers support group. Many are not given compulsory training
or education about dealing with radiation, he said.
Though group leaders'
radiation exposure levels are regularly checked, decontamination workers'
individual levels have not been systematically recorded. The government
introduced a system in 2013 but only for a fee, and many lower subcontractor
workers are likely not covered. Even non-alarmist experts say that workers
doses must be kept individually for their own records as well as for studies of
low-dose radiation impact.
Mouri, the government
official, said decontamination workers' average annual dose fell to 0.7
millisievert last year, a fraction of the 20-millisievert annual limit for
those working at the nuclear plant, and is not a concern.
Though no
radiation-induced illness has been detected, workers have developed diabetes,
cerebral and respiratory problems, often long untreated due to lack of money,
awareness and social ties, local hospital intern Toyoaki Sawano said in a
medical magazine last month.
Having trouble making
ends meet, a growing number of laborers are seeking welfare assistance, local
authorities say. The officials worry that they may end up staying on, like
construction laborers did in Osaka and Tokyo after the 1960s building boom,
forming Japan's poorest ghettos.
Police and volunteers
have started neighborhood patrols amid concerns about safety. Some big
construction companies have taken steps to address concerns. Hazama Ando Corp.
imposed an 11 p.m. curfew on workers.
Residents say they
avoid convenience stores in the evenings, when many laborers stop by after work
to buy snacks, bento boxes or beer on their way home. Some of them used to
discard their contaminated gloves and masks in garbage bins there, triggering
complaints from the neighborhood and prompting the government to launch a
"manner" campaign in December.
At a convenience store
in Minamisoma on a recent evening, workers came in waves, waiting quietly in
line to pay for food and other items.
"The workers face
heartless rumors as if they are all reckless outlaws. They are the same human
beings. Like anywhere, there are good guys and bad guys," said Nakamura,
the support group leader.
One resident grateful
for the workers is Hideaki Kinoshita, a Buddhist monk who keeps the
unidentified laborers' ashes at his temple, in wooden boxes and wrapped in
white cloth.
"We owe a lot to
those who clean this town, doing the work that locals don't even want to,"
he said.
Minamisoma city
official Tomoyuki Ohwada said the worker population should decline next year,
when intensive decontamination efforts are scheduled to end. But Kinoshita
believes many will still be needed, given the amount of work left to do.
"There is no end
to this job," Kinoshita said. "Five years from now, the workers will
still be around. And more unclaimed ashes may end up here."
___
Follow Mari Yamaguchi
at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi
Also at
http://bigstory.ap.org/content/mari-yamaguchi
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