“The way the government provided information is questionable,” the Yomiuri Shimbun said in an editorial.

Radiation leaked from the plant, but the government moved to calm fears of a meltdown, saying the blast did not rupture the container surrounding the reactor. The Asahi Shimbun criticising the government for indecision and delaying an expansion of evacuation areas, said in a headline: “Crisis management all mixed up. Evacuation instructions were not firm.”

The Mainichi Shimbun criticised Tokyo Electric Power, the operator of the reactor, over insufficient counter-measures against serious accidents, saying the firm had merely repeated: “This was beyond our imagination.”