PM faces media criticism

  “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.”