Koichi Kitazawa, who led a private-sector investigation panel on the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis, died of liver failure on Friday, Tokyo City University where Kitazawa served as president said Monday. He was 71.
The panel issued a report in February 2012, criticizing that in 2011 then Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his aides' direct intervention in efforts to contain the nuclear emergency "only caused unnecessary confusion and increased the risk of aggravating the situation."
The document is one of the key investigation reports on the nuclear accident in Japan. Other influential reports are those released by panels appointed by the government and the Diet.
A native of Nagano Prefecture, Kitazawa specialized in high-temperature superconductivity.
He had been a professor at the University of Tokyo before becoming the president of Tokyo City University last year. He was also a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo.