On August 24, 2023, Tokyo Electric Power Corporation (TEPCO) began releasing water from its tanks within the premises of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS), which were processed through their Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) but which still contained radioactive nuclides. The actions leading to the commencement of release happened rapidly after the Government of Japan unilaterally decided at a 2021 closed-door cabinet meeting that they will pursue this as a national policy. Since then, the project was bulldozed through amid a lack of both domestic and international stakeholder dialogue, including those with Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific.

Meanwhile, banks that supported the two companies most involved in the dumping project and construction of the infrastructures to allow it to take place, have been largely silent. The banks were in a position to be able to leverage their finances to foster further dialogue but did not do so despite their public statements seeming to support Indigenous People’s Rights.

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