Tokyo: Japan's Deputy Prime Minister says the government failed to take minutes of 10 meetings held to formulate its response to the country's nuclear crisis last year and called for officials to compile reports on the meetings retroactively.
The missing minutes have become a hot political debate, with opposition lawmakers saying they are necessary to provide a transparent record of the government's decisions after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami touched off the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.
Deputy Prime Minister Katsuya Okada confirmed on Friday at a news conference that the minutes were not recorded at the time and called for them to be written up, retroactively, by the end of next month.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, January 27, 2012, 13:27