Japan Flooded With Terror Phones After Release Of Radioactive Waste Water PLTN Fukushima, Cabinet Secretary: Very Regrettable

PLTN Fukushima Japan. (Wikimedia Commons/IAEA Imagebank/Tokyo Electric Power Co., TEPCO)

JAKARTA - The Japanese authorities said they received a lot of terror phone calls that were very disturbing, after the release of the Fukushima PLTN radioactive waste water that had been processed started last week.

On the other hand, the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo said it had also received interference calls from Japan.

Japan began disposal of wastewater on Thursday, as an important step towards deactivating the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which experienced three leaks after being hit by Earthquakes and tsunamis in 2011, the world's worst PLTN disaster since Chernobyl 25 years earlier.

"Many harassment phone calls are believed to have come from China in Japan... This development is very regrettable and we are concerned," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, the government's lead spokesman.

The terror phone call prompted the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Masataka Okano to summon the Chinese Ambassador, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that his party did not know about the matter when asked about the allegations mentioned by Tokyo.

On the other hand, the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo issued a statement regarding a phone call against its embassy and consulate in the Land of the Rising Sun which was considered disturbing.

"The summons has caused serious disruption in the normal operations of the embassy and consulate", said Ambassador Wu Jianghao according to an embassy statement.

In a statement, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said similar calls also took place at Japanese facilities in China, and urged the government to ensure the safety of Japanese nationals.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his government "firmly" asked Beijing to urge its citizens to act "calmly and responsibly", after the stone-throwing incident was also reported at a Japanese school and embassy.

Earlier, Fukushima City Hall began receiving calls with the Chinese state code +86 on Thursday and the number of calls exceeded 200 the following day, flooding telephone lines and disrupting city employee daily work, a city official said.

"On the same day, elementary schools and junior high schools in the city, 60 km (38 miles) northwest of the paralyzed PLTN, received 65 similar calls," he said.

He said a caller commented, "Why did you release polluted water into the Pacific Ocean, which is an ocean for everyone?".

Other cities, hotels and restaurants also received similar calls, the domestic media said.

Separately, an executive on the Japanese restaurant operator network said branches in downtown Tokyo often received calls from Mandarin-speaking people number +86. The company has reported the incident to police, the executive said, speaking without a mention.

In China, a stone was thrown at a Japanese school in the coastal city of Qingdao on Thursday, according to the Japanese Consulate General in the city.

When asked about the incident in Qingdao and the call for harassment, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin defended China's track record in maintaining the security of foreigners.

"Anyway, always maintain the safety and rights and interests of foreign nationals in China in accordance with the law," said Wang.

It is known, before the disposal began, the operator of the Fukushima Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) power plant had filtered contaminated water to remove isotopes, leaving only tritium, hydrogen radioactive isotopes that were difficult to separate and had received the green light from the IAEA.

However, China says Japan has not proven the water is safe, issuing a comprehensive ban on all seafood products from Japan.