Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday (September 10) vowed to keep the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant "under control" as promised as they held their first cabinet-level meeting on the contaminated water issue at the reactors.

Tokyo pledged last week to spend nearly half a billion dollars cleaning up the plant, although critics said the announcement was aimed at the Olympic vote, which Tokyo won. Abe himself said during his IOC presentation that the situation was "under control."

To help tackle the problem, Japan held its first cabinet level meeting over the contaminated water issue at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Hundreds of tonnes of highly radioactive water have leaked from hastily constructed storage tanks in the past weeks.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) at its regular news conference on Monday (September 9) said that while there had been problems, it also believed that the situation was stable.

Tepco has said that the water which leaked from the tanks may have already reached groundwater, further complicating plans for a clean-up that is expected to take decades.

Presented by Adam Justice