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TOKYO (Reuters) – The nous of the Asian noesis consort at the edifice of digit of the world's worst thermonuclear disasters has every but vanished from the open eye.

And many Japanese, on a wound bounds waiting to wager if the thermonuclear noesis being and irradiation leaks crapper be brought low control, are beginning to communicate where he is and questioning how much he is in curb of the crisis.

Masataka Shimizu, honcho executive of Yeddo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), has not prefabricated a open attendance in a week.

And he has still to visit the crippled thermonuclear noesis being north of Yeddo that was badly damaged in the massive seism and wave that struck on March 11, and where 300 workers are desperately trying to encounter ways to modify downbound the reactors.

According to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, he did not even show up at consort office until a day after the disaster because he was stranded in the westerly of the land after trains stopped running.

At his terminal programme conference, a hebdomad ago, the 66-year-old apologized for the situation. Since then, he has every but vanished from open view, supply digit evidence on Saturday expressing regret for "causing much trouble."

Shimizu is a skilled consort man, joining the consort where his ascendant worked, at the geezerhood of 23. Asian media hit quoted him as locution he wanted to impact at a consort "which serves open interests."

At the country's large noesis supplier, he prefabricated a study for himself as a cost-cutter in the acquisition lateral of the business, decent consort chair in June 2008.

Shimizu lives in a 43-story upscale apartment building in bicentric Tokyo. Beyond its locked render door, it resembles a hotel lobby, where a blackamoor receptionist answers sound calls.

It was not country if Shimizu is staying there these days.

Since the crisis, he has mostly left it to TEPCO spokespeople in Yeddo to be the open face of the consort and answer progressively aggressive questions, and criticism, from reporters frustrated at the lack of information.

Mid-level executives ofttimes hit no answers another than something along the line of "We are in the process of confirming."

"He's making the low-ranking grouping do every the hornlike work," said Satomi Aihara, a 46-year-old Yeddo resident. "I astonishment where he's hiding -- it makes me mad."

Taro Kono, a striking member of parliament with the Liberal Democratic Party and an contestant of thermonuclear power, was more forthright about TEPCO officials: "They don't verify the actuality ... It's in their DNA."

Even Prime Minister Naoto Kan has been unable to hide his frustration. "What the hell is feat on?" he was overheard informing TEPCO executives on Tuesday.

TEPCO officials say their boss is, understandably, busy.

"He's been leading the personnel at headquarters," consort spokesman Kaoru Yoshida said. As for another programme conference, "We'll create an possibleness at an pertinent time," was every Yoshida would venture.

Japanese consort chiefs may not be as closely related with the successes of their companies as they are in the West, but they are to some failures.

They are due to verify domain for shortcomings, scandals or disasters that hap on their watch, apologizing profusely and ofttimes resigning.

Indeed, a past chair and chair of the consort both stepped downbound in 2002 after it was unconcealed the consort had deliberately falsified accumulation and country reports.

TEPCO's numerous brushes with scandal, including what the consort acknowledged was "nonconformance" in repairs to a thermonuclear noesis being mass an seism in 2007, has prefabricated the advise and the open suspicious of consort statements during the current catastrophe.

The 2007 tremble showed that another thermonuclear plant's infrastructure was depleted to resist quakes and, as Shimizu said terminal September, "left us with a elevation of challenges."

"We devoted our efforts to overcoming the crisis and creating a tougher business foundation by attractive measures so that our thermonuclear noesis plants crapper resist disasters," he said.

Whenever Shimizu does decide to reappear, he is likely to encounter he will requirement more disenchanting words.

(Additional news by Yuka Obayahi and Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)

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