Japan PM's Fukushima remark backfires at home

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's reassurance to the International Olympic Committee that contaminated water leaks from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant are "under control" has backfired at home.

Just hours before Tokyo was chosen to host the 2020 Olympics, Abe gave an emphatic speech declaring that radioactive contaminants from the leakage had no impact to waters outside the bay near the plant and "will never do any damage to Tokyo".

Japanese media and opposition lawmakers have suggested that Abe's comments were overkill. "Contaminated water 'control' running astray," the Asahi newspaper said on its front page on Saturday. "Credibility of prime minister's message to overseas is shaking."

In a meeting with opposition lawmakers, senior Tokyo Electric Power Company official Kazuhiko Yamashita said the water situation was "not under control".

Tepco later issued a statement to explain that what Yamashita meant was isolated incidents such as tank leaks and did not dispute Abe's comment.

Japanese officials have acknowledged that the ground water contaminated with radioactive leaks from the melted reactors has been seeping into the ocean since soon after the March 2011 disaster. Recent leaks from storage tanks holding radioactive water have added to concerns.

The plant has been reporting spikes in radioactive tritium from underground water samples near a major tank leak last month. Tepco said on Saturday tritium in the latest sample measured 150,000 becquerels per litre, more than twice the limit allowed for release into the ocean.

Experts generally agree that impact from the contamination gets diluted and becomes negligible as it spreads into the sea.

Hikariko Ono, of the prime minister's office, cited offshore monitoring results showing undetectable radioactivity.