Powerful nuclear clique opposes Japan Prime Minister’s renewable energy push

Kan told reporters yesterday. “We should reduce nuclear dependency in a planned, step-by-step manner and eventually we can do without atomic energy.”

“Japan’s nuclear village is worried and they’re extremely well connected,” Kingston, head ofTemple University’s Asian Studies program at its Tokyo campus, said in a phone interview. “They’re out to get Kan and it’s not because he’s that incompetent. What worries them is that he’s been making provocative statements that trample on very powerful toes.”….“All these things hit at the heart of the nuclear village and they’re not going down without a fight,” said Kingston,

fight,” said Kingston,

Kan Takes on Japan’s ‘Nuclear Village’ in Renewable Energy Drive, Bloomberg, By Stuart Biggs and Kanoko Matsuyama – Jul 14, 2011 Toshinobu Hatsui’s protest against construction of a nuclear power plant split friends and families in his hometown. After the biggest atomic accident in 25 years, resentment has turned to gratitude. “Those of us who opposed the plant can finally be proud of what we did,” said Hatsui, a 62-year-old fisherman, recalling the anger among nuclear supporters in Hidaka, south of Osaka, who missed out on an economic windfall when the town rejected the plant in the 1970s. “Since the accident, people called to express their relief that it wasn’t built.” Opinion polls show more Japanese agree with Hatsui in demanding a future less reliant on atomic power, a pillar of energy policy for five decades. Getting what they want may depend on Prime Minister Naoto Kan surviving the backlash from the so-called “nuclear village” of politicians, bureaucrats and power utilities that promoted the industry’s rise, academics including Jeff Kingston said. “Japan’s nuclear village is worried and they’re extremely well connected,” Kingston, head ofTemple University’s Asian Studies program at its Tokyo campus, said in a phone interview. “They’re out to get Kan and it’s not because he’s that incompetent. What worries them is that he’s been making provocative statements that trample on very powerful toes.”….

Abandon Plan

After the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s plant in northern Japan and caused three reactors to meltdown, Kan said Japan should abandon plans to build 14 new reactors by 2030. He wants to pass a bill to promote renewable energy and questioned whether private companies should be running atomic plants. “When we consider the risk of nuclear energy, I’ve come to strongly feel that this is a technology that cannot be controlled by our conventional thinking of securing safety,” Kan told reporters yesterday. “We should reduce nuclear dependency in a planned, step-by-step manner and eventually we can do without atomic energy.” Other plans include separating Japan’s nuclear regulator from the industry’s chief promoter, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and ending the monopoly that utilities have over power production and transmission. “All these things hit at the heart of the nuclear village and they’re not going down without a fight,” said Kingston,…..http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-13/kan-takes-on-japan-s-nuclear-village-in-renewable-energy-drive.html

July 13, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, politics

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