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| Clean up work in Fukushima Prefecture |
Police arrested a businessman on Wednesday for sending a 15-year-old
boy to help clean up radioactive waste outside the wrecked Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear plant.
Aichi prefectural police said the boy, from Kita-Nagoya, was sent to
Fukushima to cut contaminated leaves and scrape up dirt in the disaster
zone last July.
Japan’s labor law prohibits people under 18 from working in radioactive areas.
The boy told the Asahi newspaper that he was introduced to his former
boss through a government-run employment agency and ordered to lie
about his age.
He said his former employer eventually lowered his wages to just 3,000 yen a day and hit him when he did not do well at his job.
Workers cleaning up villages in Fukushima are supposed to receive a
special hazard allowance equivalent to about 10,000 yen a day from the
government in addition to their wages.
An earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 destroyed the Fukushima
Daiichi plant, sparking triple nuclear meltdowns, forcing more than
160,000 residents to flee nearby towns and contaminating water, food and
air.
Thousands of workers have been clearing waste from towns closest to the plant in the past four years.
A Reuters investigation showed how Japan’s traditional subcontracting
structure in the construction industry opened up lucrative clean-up
contracts in Fukushima to multiple layers of small companies that
regularly skim workers’ pay.
Thomson Reuters
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