Japan deserves international scorn for mismanaging its nuclear power program and unless the government acts quickly the odds of further catastrophes remain high, a leading seismologist said Wednesday.
"It was a matter of course that attempts by the Japanese government to operate nuclear power plants failed miserably," Kobe University professor Katsuhiko Ishibashi, who decades ago coined the term "Genpatsu-Shinsai" (Quake and Nuclear Disaster Complex), told a joint interview in Tokyo.
Ignoring the fact that approximately 10 percent of all the earthquakes on the planet take place near the archipelago was a fatal error, he said, adding that there is no such thing as comprehensive measures against quakes of the magnitude that struck the Tohoku region.