Chubu Electric’s Data Cherry-Picking Discovered via Whistleblowing

Tokyo, Jan. 6 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said Tuesday that it learned of fraudulent data selection on earthquake risk by Chubu Electric Power Co. in February 2025 as a result of whistleblowing. The company had cherry-picked data underestimating earthquake risk for its Hamaoka nuclear power plant in the central Japan prefecture of Shizuoka to present it for the inspection by the authority to restart the plant. According to the NRA, information on the intentionally selected data was provided for the authority from a report by the public interest reporting system under the nuclear reactor regulation law. The organization repeatedly discussed the issue with Chubu Electric from May 2025 to check facts. In December of the same year, the company said that it had confirmed fraudulent acts. While having basically made public all of its interactions with power companies, the NRA hesitated from announcing the Chubu Electric case to protect the whistleblower and to allow it to carefully investigate the case to support the report. The authority will discuss its responses to the case at its regular meeting on Wednesday. Meeting members are expected to talk about how to conduct the procedure to inspect the Hamaoka power plant after receiving reports on the fraudulent case from the NRA. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]