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Eisaku Satō (governor) - Wikipedia

  • ️Sat Jun 24 1939

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Eisaku Satō

佐藤 栄佐久

Eisaku Satō in 2006

Governor of Fukushima Prefecture
In office
19 September 1988 – 28 September 2006
Preceded byIsao Mastudaira
Succeeded byYūhei Satō
Member of the House of Councillors for Fukushima Prefecture
In office
3 July 1983 – 3 August 1988
Personal details
Born24 June 1939
Kōriyama, Fukushima, Japan
Died19 March 2025 (aged 85)
Kōriyama, Fukushima, Japan
Political partyLiberal Democratic Party
Alma materUniversity of Tokyo

Eisaku Satō (佐藤 栄佐久, Satō Eisaku, 24 June 1939 – 19 March 2025) was a Japanese politician who served as the governor of Fukushima Prefecture of Japan from 1988 to 2006.

Sato was initially an enthusiastic supporter of nuclear power. Like his predecessors he appreciated the jobs and subsidies associated with the nuclear plants in the prefecture. He believed it was part of Fukushima playing a role in the Japanese nation as a whole. In 1998, he conditionally agreed the controversial use of mixed oxide plutonium uranium fuel (MOX) at the Fukushima plant. He subsequently withdrew his support after discovering a cover-up of reactor malfunctions and cracks.

Between 2002 and 2006, twenty-one problems at the Fukushima plant were reported to his office.[1] The whistleblowers, including some employees at the plant, bypassed both Tepco and Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency because they feared that their information would go straight to Tepco. This was later shown to be a very justified fear. Sato became an increasingly bitter critic of the plant and Japan's entire energy policy as directed by NISA's powerful government overseer, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

In 2006, Sato was forced to step down and in 2008 was prosecuted and convicted on bribery charges.[2] He claimed the charges were politically motivated. Following his conviction, he wrote a book of his experiences called Annihilating a Governor explaining his concerns about nuclear power and how he was set up and wrongfully convicted. The book was largely ignored until the events of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster sent it rocketing up the bestseller list.

Satō died on 19 March 2025, at the age of 85 at a nursing home in Koriyama City, due to old age.[3][4]

  1. ^ "Fukushima Daiichi Accident - World Nuclear Association". world-nuclear.org. Retrieved 2025-03-19.
  2. ^ Hongo, Jun (2007-06-22). "Sato pleads innocent to bribery". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2025-03-19.
  3. ^ "Former Fukushima Governor Eisaku Sato Passes Away At 85". The Pinnacle Gazette. Retrieved 2025-03-19.
  4. ^ "元福島知事の佐藤栄佐久氏が死去 脱原発訴え、汚職事件で有罪判決も：朝日新聞". 朝日新聞 (in Japanese). 2025-03-19. Retrieved 2025-03-19.