Tokyo: Japan said on Tuesday it had complained to a French broadcaster after its presenter said “the Fukushima effect” was to blame for a picture showing the national football team’s goalkeeper with four arms.
After Eiji Kawashima helped Japan to a 1-0 victory over France in a friendly last week, a variety programme screened by France 2 showed a mock-up of the keeper with four arms, apparently in praise for him having kept a clean sheet.
Host Laurent Ruquier quipped that the extra limbs were due to “the Fukushima effect”, a reference to the huge radiation leaks that spewed from the tsunami-crippled nuclear power station in March 2011.
The Japanese embassy in Paris sent a letter of complaint to the broadcaster on Monday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told a news conference in Tokyo.
It was “inappropriate,” Fujimura said, adding: “The expression hurt the feelings of survivors and hampers efforts toward reconstruction.”
No one is officially recorded as having died as a direct result of the nuclear meltdowns, which forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people, but those living near the plant remain concerned about the long-term impact of radiation.
