When the leader of a country asks the company fighting to prevent a nuclear catastrophe “what the hell is going on?”, you know he has departed from the script.

Naoto Kan on Tuesday lost his temper with Tokyo Electric Power Company, the operator of the explosion-prone Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. He could not understand why he had not been told for a whole hour about a third explosion at the plant in the early hours of Tuesday morning. After hearing that Tepco was evacuating 740 “non-essential” staff from the complex – leaving only 50 technicians to fight the worst civil nuclear crisis in Japan’s history – it appeared to cross Mr Kan’s mind that Tepco might abandon the plant altogether. Conjuring the language of war, he is reported as saying: “Retreat is unthinkable.”

So far, the Japanese government has managed its rescue operation as well, perhaps even better, than could be expected. It has marshalled tens of thousands of Self Defence Force troops to the tsunami-pounded coastline and welcomed foreign rescue teams. This is a distinct improvement on 1995, the year of the Kobe earthquake, when it was more reticent on both counts.

Alas, the same cannot be said for efforts to contain the crisis unfolding in the gaseous innards of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility. Certainly, one must be careful about criticising the response to an unprecedented event. But Tepco, particularly in its communications, has looked more like the Keystone Kops than is desirable in an organisation struggling to prevent a nuclear meltdown.

Tepco’s attempt to impart information has left the public mostly confused and incredulous. At press conferences, anxious-looking junior executives hang their heads like naughty schoolboys, and apologise for “causing inconvenience”, a stock Japanese phrase. In matters of substance, they appear to know little.

“The public relations of Tepco is very poor,” said Shijuro Ogata, a retired Bank of Japan official who has hardly ventured outside his house in a Tokyo suburb since Friday’s earthquake struck. “It is very clumsy and they don’t seem to be so knowledgeable.”

Michael Cucek, a political analyst living in Tokyo, was more damning still about the nuclear agency and Tepco. “They have no crisis management because they were never ready for a crisis,” he said. “The fear is Tepco is not telling the whole truth. They are not in the habit of telling everything they know.”

When it comes to keeping the public informed, the record of Japan’s nuclear industry is not inspiring. In 1995, there was a cover-up of the extent of an accident at the Monju fast-breeder reactor. Four years later, three workers at the Tokaimura reactor suffered high doses of radiation when safety measures were circumvented. Then in 2002, Tepco was caught falsifying safety data. After a 2007 6.6-magnitude earthquake, Tepco admitted that another plant had not been designed to withstand such tremors. The industry, said Mr Cucek, has had “an attitude problem about safety”.

Ordinary Japanese have been almost as angry at Tepco over the handling of its rolling blackout schedule, the communications and execution of which have been patchy. On Monday, planned power cuts never materialised, enraging a public used to precision. “This was an unplanned, planned blackout,” joked Mr Ogata. “Isn’t it better to have the blackout as planned?”

The government has fared better. Yukio Edano, chief government spokesman, has won praise for speaking directly and regularly. Like Mr Kan he has taken to wearing a bomber jacket. Unlike Mr Kan, he has become a hero of the Twitter world, sending out regular updates to a public hungry for information.

Even so, one must ask why the government has not been better at extracting information from Tepco. Mr Kan was briefing opposition leaders on Tuesday unaware that a third blast had occurred. His subsequent decision to head a joint taskforce with Tepco appears to be an admission that the cabinet needs to take more control.

Many Japanese said they were unhappy with the management of the nuclear crisis. But some were more forgiving. One Tokyo resident said he was extremely nervous about the events at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant. But he thought the government, and even Tepco, was doing all it could. “Even Tepco has never faced anything like this before,” he said. “They are doing their best.”