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| Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso holds a glass of water in this poster created by professor Seo Kyung-duk of Sungshin Women's University, who launched an online campaign to counter Aso's claim that the wastewater from the disabled Fukushima nuclear plant is safe to drink. Courtesy of Seo Kyung-duk |
By Nam Hyun-woo
Professor Seo Kyung-duk of Sungshin Women's University said Thursday he has launched an online campaign urging Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso to drink wastewater from the disabled Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, in an attempt to counter Aso's repeated claims that the water is safe to drink.
Seo launched the campaign on social media platforms, uploading a poster of Aso holding a glass of water with text reading "You drink first!"
"Aso has said it is okay to drink the contaminated water from the Fukushima plant so he should demonstrate first," Seo said. "If he made the remark without the courage to do that, it would be improper behavior."
He added that the Japanese government should revoke its decision to discharge the wastewater into the Pacific Ocean as soon as possible in order to protect the environment.
Korea, China, Taiwan and other countries in the region have been demanding Tokyo withdraw its decision to dump the radioactive water from the Fukushima plant into the ocean beginning around two years from now.
Aso has been drawing criticisms from neighboring countries due to his repeated claims that the wastewater is safe to drink.
During a press conference last month, Aso said he is "sure that the water will be diluted so that (the tritium concentration) is one-seventh of the level safe for drinking water under the World Health Organization's guideline." He did not respond to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian's earlier demand that the deputy prime minister personally prove it.
Aso has been mired in multiple controversies in and outside of Japan due to his inappropriate remarks. Last year, he triggered a stir by saying the Tokyo Olympic Games are "cursed," and faced international criticism in 2013 for saying Japan could learn from the way Nazi Germany revised the country's Weimar Constitution. In 2003, he was criticized for falsely claiming that Koreans wanted to have Japanese names during Japan's 1910-45 occupation of Korea.
