It’s a lazy Sunday here in Fukushima City in mid-August 2018. I just stepped out to our corner grocery store and came across two of my neighbors. They were both: “Oh, the weather has sure cooled down, hasn’t it!” When I left for America in July, Japan was having a horrible heatwave that continued until just before I arrived back in Japan. Oddly, the weather in Texas (which is normally blazing hot during the summer peak) was slightly cooler than usual (meaning it was hot rather than blazing hot.) So I’ve lucked out this summer weather-wise.

Anyway, I wanted to draw attention to this article (and other articles like it. All reputable news sources will have this sort of article.)

http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180817/p2g/00m/0dm/032000c

A while back, some Vietnamese workers complained about unknowingly being sent to dangerous conditions with high radiation. (Near the Exclusion Zone, or in the Exclusion Zone, I presume.) Futhermore, according to what I have read, their pay was a pittance and there were language issues. I don’t really know myself the exact facts. But anyway, perhaps in response, the United Nations has looked into the conditions of the workers in general. According to the article, three U.N. experts have criticized Japan for exploiting workers and putting them at risk.

Let me say, the workers who are doing tasks near or in the exclusion zone are both Japanese people and foreigners (from less economically advanced countries.)  The Japanese workers are mostly those who could not find work elsewhere, and thus they can easily taken be advantage of because they are probably desperate for an income.

I have not been keeping up adequately with these continuing stories about the workers, not due to lack of interest or due to unconcern for their well-being, but more because there is only so much I can keep up with. Even though I have not blogged about these stories, they’ve been written up in newspaper and so forth and I’ve been aware of them, although not as well as I would have liked.