Tuesday's release of a study downplaying any danger from the nuclear accident at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Niigata Prefecture following the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake suggests there is a gap between public and official views of the incident.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry report officially categorized the risk as "level 0 minus"--the lowest level on the International Atomic Energy Agency's International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).

I will never forget the TV images of black smoke billowing from an electric transformer situated next to the plant's No. 3 reactor building immediately after the earthquake hit the area on July 16. No matter how long I sat and watched the TV images, it seemed that no one was trying extinguish the fire--something that naturally made me and anybody who saw those images feel anxious.