TORONTO – A top government spokesman said Japan will officially lodge a protest Friday after a French newspaper published cartoons taking aim at the decision to award the 2020 Olympics to Tokyo, despite the ongoing nuclear crisis at Fukushima.
Published in the satirical weekly paper Le Canard Enchaine, one sketch shows two sumo wrestlers with extra limbs at the crippled nuclear plant while a sports commentator says that thanks to Fukushima, sumo is now an Olympic sport.
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Suga said Japan will officially file the complaint Friday.
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake and tsunami hit Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and led to meltdowns at three of its reactors. Fukushima’s operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., has recently acknowledged that for more than two years, radioactive water has been flowing into the Pacific.
Another cartoon published in the paper says a water sports facility has already been created at Fukushima as two people are seen standing in front of a pool of water wearing nuclear protection suits.
Reports of recent leaks from tanks storing the radioactive water have raised concerns that the amount of contaminated water seeping is getting “out of control.”
READ MORE: Tokyo wins bid to host 2020 Olympics over Istanbul and Madrid
Tokyo won the bid last week to host the 2020 Olympics, beating out Madrid and Istanbul.
– With files from The Associated Press
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