The Japanese public is growing increasingly skeptical over Tokyo's handling of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, with noisy rumours about unused dosimeters becoming one of the latest points of contention with the government.
The continuing crisis has put the government under immense pressure and could yet lead to the resignation of Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
The government is also facing hard questions from a distrustful public, including those stemming from recent allegations that Tokyo failed to put into service tens of thousands of dosimeters donated by Western countries in the wake of the nuclear crisis.
Â鶹´«Ã½ has learned that all of the dosimeters Canada sent to Japan have been distributed.
Jung-Suk Ryu, a press liaison for the Japanese embassy in Ottawa, told Â鶹´«Ã½ in a telephone interview on Friday morning that the 5,000 dosimeters sent from Canada were "immediately" distributed upon arrival in Japan.
However, Ryu said he could not offer comment on the dosimeters sent from other countries.
In Japan, David Wagner, the director of crisis communications for the U.S.-based Country Risk Solutions, has followed the claims of the missing dosimeters closely, but has not been able to confirm any details himself.
But he recently wrote about the claims on Huffington Post, describing the video he saw of a Japanese lawmaker questioning government officials about why 40,000 dosimeters are "sitting in a warehouse at Narita airport" instead of behind handed out to people near the nuclear plant.
"Why no one is writing about this, especially since it became very public in a YouTube video involving Social (Democratic) Party Leader Mizuho Fukushima is beyond me," Wagner said in a recent email sent to Â鶹´«Ã½.
Wagner said demand for dosimeters and personal Geiger counters soared as the public began to grasp the implications of the chaos at the Fukushima plant.
"In the beginning of the crisis in mid-March, they were sold out everywhere. Even overseas it was difficult to acquire," Wagner said.
Gordon Edwards, the president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, said dosimeters provide a measure of how much external radiation a person is exposed to and can provide insights as to whether further medical testing is needed for individuals.
"They are vitally important in keeping any track on radiation exposure," Edwards told Â鶹´«Ã½ during a telephone interview from Montreal.
To date, some 80,000 people living in Japan have been forced to evacuate towns that have been contaminated by the radiation-leaking plant in Fukushima.
With files from The Associated Press
