Ex-premier Koizumi accuses Abe of lying about safety of Fukushima nuclear plant

Tokyo

FORMER Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi on Wednesday launched a strong attack on the country's continuing use of nuclear power, and claimed that current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had "lied" in giving assurances that the situation at the Fukushima nuclear plant was "under control" when Tokyo bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games.

The maverick and sometimes fiery Mr Koizumi (who was Japan's political leader from 2001 to 2006) told the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in Tokyo that he was "ashamed" of the fact that he allowed himself to be persuaded by his advisers when he was prime minister that nuclear power was "safe".

The subsequent nuclear fuel meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear reactor complex on Japan's northeast coast in March 2011 persuaded him to study more closely assurances given to him that nuclear is a "safe, clean and cheap" form of power gener…