Japan's Tokyo Electric Power on Friday posted a record $15 billion loss and its under-fire president resigned to take responsibility for the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago.
The beleaguered utility posted an annual net loss of 1.247 trillion yen ($15 billion), the biggest ever for a non-financial Japanese firm. The company did not give an earnings forecast for the current financial year.
With compensation liabilities estimated at tens of billions of US dollars, the utility warned the "significant deterioration" in its financial position "raises substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern".
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Its heavily criticised president Masataka Shimizu resigned over the crisis at its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, after earlier saying he would likely step down at an appropriate time.
"The public has lost confidence in nuclear power," Shimizu told a press conference. "It is the right way for the top manager to take the ultimate responsibility." Sakae Muto, head of TEPCO's nuclear division, also resigned.
Managing director Toshio Nishizawa will replace Shimizu effective after a June shareholders meeting. He said he accepted it was his "fate to lead our efforts in this difficult time," as he apologised for the emergency.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the United Nations would undertake "a U.N. system-wide study on the implications of the Fukushima accident" and present the findings at a high-level meeting on the implications of the crisis to be held during the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting in September.
The report "will address a variety of areas, including environment, health, food security, sustainable development and the nexus between nuclear safety and nuclear security," Ban said in a statement.
"It will also present system-wide views on how to improve disaster risk preparedness," he said. "In producing this study, it is my intention to highlight the need to strengthen the capacity of the relevant international organizations, particularly the IAEA, recognizing its central role."
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukio Amano, said on Thursday that the Japanese nuclear crisis remained very serious though there were some signs of progress.
The IAEA, the World Health Organization and the World Food Program are among the U.N. agencies that will be carrying out the study.
The earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan in March triggered the accident at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the worst nuclear crisis in 25 years, raising questions about the future of nuclear energy and fueling public fears about the risks of atomic power plants.
But its losses so far do not include compensation claims. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to relocate from the area around the plant, and the livelihoods of nearby farmers and fishermen have been threatened.
Tokyo Electric said it would sell off at least $7.3 billion in assets — including real estate and a stake in one of Japan’s largest telecommunications companies — to help meet compensation payments. The company’s board promised to take no pay, and other executives will return 40 to 60 percent of their paychecks.
The company also said it would not pay dividends for this fiscal year. Still, it was impossible to forecast earnings for the year, the company said.
Moody’s Japan has warned that it could downgrade its debt rating for Tokyo Electric to junk bond status.
Speaking after Tokyo Electric’s announcement, Yukio Edano, the top government spokesman, called for the company to increase efforts to squeeze out funds for compensation payments.
“This is just the start. There must be more scrutiny and more effort,” Mr. Edano said.
During the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, it became clear that Mr. Shimizu would have to go as the nuclear complex was exposed as woefully unprotected against tsunami risks.
Tokyo Electric has also come under intense criticism for its handling of the accident. Revelations this month that three of the plant’s reactors may have suffered meltdowns in the early days of the crisis have added to the furor.
Mr. Shimizu had been particularly criticized for largely disappearing from the public eye just as the crisis worsened. He checked himself into a hospital for a week after the disaster, and has rarely appeared at news conferences since.
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