Taiwanese environmental activists and a legislator yesterday supported a call by Japanese environmental groups to join an international lawsuit against the builders of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant for compensation for mental anguish as a means to stop nuclear power plant construction.
Representatives of Taiwanese groups including the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU), Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association, Gongliao Anti-Nuclear Self-Help Association, and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) yesterday accompanied the Japanese representatives at a press conference at the Legislative Yuan.
The Japanese representatives — Daisuke Sato of the No Nukes Asia Forum, Seungkoo Choi (崔勝久) of No-Nukes Asian Action and Akihiro Shima (島昭宏), their lawyer, attended discussions with the Taiwanese groups in the past few days, and invited them to file the international lawsuit together against companies including GE, Hitachi and Toshiba.
TEPU founding chairperson and veteran anti-nuclear activist Shih Hsin-min (施信民) said the lawyers’ group believes people have “no-nukes rights” that allow them to “avoid living in the fear of nuclear disasters.”
“It’s a weird situation that only the operating company — Tokyo Electric Power Co — has to shoulder the responsibility for dealing with damage caused by the disaster, while the builders of the plants do not,” Shima said, adding that it is unfair that the builders do not have to pay compensation.
Urging all clients to demand ￥1 million (US$9,574) from the manufacturing companies as compensation for mental anguish, the lawyers’ group said the main point of asking for compensation is to make the companies bear responsibility for what they build.
As the builders of the plants are exempted from responsibility, they may focus only on economic benefits, rather than nuclear safety, Shih said, adding that regulations in Taiwan also only require the operating company and government to take the blame in the event of a nuclear disaster.
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
A 14-legged giant isopod is the highlight of a new dish at a ramen restaurant in Taipei and it has people lining up — both for pictures and for a bite from this bowl of noodles. Since “The Ramen Boy” launched the limited-edition noodle bowl on Monday last week, declaring in a social media post that it had “finally got this dream ingredient,” more than 100 people have joined a waiting list to dine at the restaurant. “It is so attractive because of its appearance — it looks very cute,” said the 37-year-old owner of the restaurant, who wanted to be
A promotional event for the launch of a drinks store led to police questioning a 26-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), the Taichung Police Department said yesterday. Police said that they questioned Chang and forwarded the case to prosecutors, accusing her of producing, distributing, broadcasting or selling pornography. Police said she faces charges related to the alleged distribution of indecent photographs on Twitter and using overtly sexual innuendos to promote the store on Monday night. Officers stumbled upon the content during a routine Internet “patrol.” Chang faces a prison sentence of up to two years and up to a NT$90,000 fine if found guilty
RSS