investigating the nuclear accident

Japan's parliamentary panel investigating the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant says ministry officials handling the nuclear issue at that time lacked a sense of crisis.Panel chair Kiyoshi Kurokawa made the remark on Wednesday after testimony at a panel meeting by Kazuo Matsunaga, who was the administrative vice minister for economy, trade and industry at the time of the accident.Kurokawa said that during the meeting the former vice minister often declined to clarify his responsibility for taking preventive measures against possible disasters as well as emergency response measures after the accident.He also said the testimony made it clear that ministries in charge of the nuclear policy were not competent enough to bear the responsibility for such an issue.Kurokawa added that his panel aims to submit a final report in June on the cause of the accident and suggestions to prevent a recurrence.Earlier in the day, the former administrative vice minister was asked how he was involved in work to decide evacuation areas around the troubled plant.Matsunaga responded that he was aware that his ministry was leaving such a matter to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.Asked about responses by his ministry to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, he said that discussions might have been taking place within the agency. But he added that he doesn't believe he received a report on the matter.