Japan angry at Olympic cartoons linked to Fukushima disaster

Japan voiced anger on Thursday over cartoons published in a French newspaper that took aim at the decision to award the 2020 Olympics to Tokyo despite the ongoing nuclear crisis at Fukushima.

Satirical weekly published a cartoon depicting sumo wrestlers with extra limbs competing in front of a crippled nuclear plant, which said the disaster had made it a feasible Olympic sport.

Another cartoon showed two people standing in front of a pool of water while wearing nuclear protection suits and holding a Geiger counter, saying water sport facilities had already been built at Fukushima.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the satirical jabs give the wrong impression about Japan. The government has repeatedly claimed the accident and its waste water problem are under control and should not affect the Olympics.

Japan is traditionally sensitive to opinions about it expressed in foreign media and has been angered that a crisis that brought such human tragedy has become the subject of caricature.

“These kinds of satirical pictures hurt the victims of the disaster,” Suga told a news conference.