Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has removed Hidehiko Nishiyama from his position as the spokesman for the agency on June 29 and sent him packing back to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), because his love affair with a young woman (almost his daughter's age) has become a distraction, hindering the proper function of the agency. The woman also works at METI.
At the press conference on June 23, Nishiyama, 54-year-old career elite bureaucrat (Tokyo University Law School - Harvard Law School) married with 2 adult children (the daughter works for TEPCO, I don't know about the son), expressed regret that his private life was revealed in a major weekly magazine Shukan Shincho, but denied that he would resign his post as the NISA's spokesman.
He has been the familiar face of the Fukushima I Nuke Plant Accident, ever since he became the third NISA spokesman on March 13. The first spokesman was quickly removed from the job after he said during the March 12 press conference that the fuel inside the Reactor 1 was probably melted. The second spokesman was also quickly removed when he said on the March 13 morning press conference, "I don't want to do this but I was told to do it so here I am."
Well, Nishiyama is gone now. His successor is Yoshinori Moriyama.
Ah, the end of an era.