"The decommissioning of nuclear plants is something the utilities should decide, but we cannot treat the Daini plant in the same manner as other plants when considering the sentiment of Fukushima residents," Motegi said at a parliamentary hearing.

Tokyo Electric, also known as Tepco, is working to contain radioactive water at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which suffered meltdowns and hydrogen explosions after it was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

(Reporting by Kentaro Hamada; Writing by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Edmund Klamann)