japanese officials initially assessed the accident as level 4 on the international nuclear event scale (ines) despite the views of other international agencies that it should be higher. the level was later raised to 5 and eventually to 7, the maximum scale value. the japanese government and tepco have been criticized in the foreign press for poor communication with the public and improvised cleanup efforts. on 20 march, the chief cabinet secretary yukio edano announced that the plant would be decommissioned once the crisis was over.