Japan must up transparency after Fukushima

A year after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima on 11 March 2011, Japan is once more expecting its economic performance to grow this year. But the accident shows that Japan needs to open up more to the world, writes the conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: "The country has lost much trust internationally because it informed its Asian neighbours too late or not at all after Fukushima. Its own population no longer believes the declarations that the food is safe. Rumours thrive because there is a lack of open information in a culture that tends to hold back unpleasant news for too long. If the country became more open this could enforce greater transparency and would also promote competition in the heavily regulated Japanese economy. However many people in Tokyo's government district … see this as a threat rather than an opportunity even though opening up could unleash the immense potential that industry, trade, art, science and technology still have in Japan."

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