Japan’s new premier pays tribute at Fukushima

NEw Japanese prime minister Yoshihiko Noda travelled to disaster-hit Fukushima yesterday, thanking military personnel involved in the clean-up of the crippled nuclear plant as one of his first official gestures less than a week after taking office.

Mr Noda, who said bringing the nuclear crisis under control as soon as possible was one of his top priorities, visited members of the military based not far from the Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima, 150 miles north-east of Tokyo.

He later went to the Dai-ichi plant itself, which was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami in March that left about 20,000 dead or missing.

“The world is hoping for this accident to be brought under control. This is our first and foremost and biggest issue and you are key to whether we can overcome this,” Mr Noda told workers at the plant.

Mr Noda’s predecessor, Naoto Kan, resigned after his voter support ratings plummeted in response to his handling of the nuclear crisis. Kan flew to Dai-ichi soon after the March disaster but it took him another three weeks to make his first visit to the tsunami-devastated regions.