HTH -- Haiti Earthquake

April 18, 2011. Post-earthquake political truce breaks down in Japan; officials struggle to cool reactor

SOURCE: Altegrity Risk International

The fragile truce between the embattled Democratic Party of Japan-led (DPJ) government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan and the opposition broke down on April 14th with the head of the opposition calling on Kan to resign over his handling of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami, as well as the nuclear power plant crisis. The head of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Sadakazu Tanigaki, said that Kan must resign if he is to achieve his goal of forging a grand national coalition of the LDP and DPJ to lead Japan through its biggest reconstruction project since the Second World War. The speaker of the Upper House, DPJ leader and known Kan critic Takeo Nishioka, also called for Kan to resign. Kan, however, is unlikely to leave power easily and could benefit from public good will if the opposition attempts to take disaster budgets hostage.

Meanwhile, officials struggled to find a way to cool reactor no. 2 at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor, with the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) saying it was "highly likely" that a hole existed in the suppression unit.