Pacific Ocean is not a trash can for Japan's waste disposal

Saturday was Earth Day and also the World Law Day this year. Over the weekend, civil society and environmental groups around the world staged wide protests against the Japanese government's plan to release contaminated water from Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea.

Greenpeace issued a statement recently, criticizing the Japanese government's decision to discharge the contaminated water into the sea as violating international laws such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and accusing Japan of failing to fulfill its international obligations to assess the environmental impacts of the ocean discharge.

Since the Japanese government announced its plan to dump the toxic water into the sea two years ago, there has been fierce opposition and skepticism. Yet it has chosen to press ahead with the plan even before the International Atomic Energy Agency releases its assessment report.