Chiyoda District, Tokyo Electric Power Company headquarters building.
An emergency meeting about Fukushima was being held in the top-floor conference room.
The executives seated on both sides of the long table were all old men.
They were either high-ranking officials who had reached mandatory retirement age or officials who had resigned to take the blame for their superiors and were subsequently assigned to executive positions at Tokyo Electric Power Company. Their previous posts ranged from the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry to the Environmental Agency, and so on.
Thanks to their complex network of relationships, Tokyo Electric Power Company had managed to avoid annual safety inspections. Even after the nuclear plant accident, they continually falsified reports to the government, ensuring the ocean discharge plan remained entirely feasible.
