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Kaminoseki village election a pointer to nuclear power’s future in Japan

With the national government feeble and divided, the future of nuclear power now is being shaped more in communities where reactors are located or planned. 

Nuclear Power Drives Japan Village Election, Mayor Who Has Backed Reactor Plan Faces Anti-Nuke Challenger, WSJ, By JAMES SIMMS, 22 Sept 11 KAMINOSEKI, Japan—This small fishing village has become the next front in Japan’s battle over nuclear power, with an anti-nuke protester threatening to oust the pro-nuke mayor in an election Sunday.

At stake: the fate of a long-planned reactor for which ground-breaking is supposed to take place next year.

More broadly, the defeat of a mayor whose economic development strategy has centered around a controversial power plant could fuel the country’s increasingly influential anti-nuclear movement.

“What’s often said is that we need nuclear-power money to run Kaminoseki,” challenger Sadao Yamato, 61 years old, told a few dozen supporters as he formally kicked off his campaign Tuesday. Standing on a beer crate at his campaign office in front of the Murotsu port, he went on, “Should we sacrifice the precious livelihoods and lives of our villagers for money?”

Mr. Yamato’s answer is clear. His election poster, which shows him posed in front of solar panels and wearing a white polo shirt, is captioned “Graduate from Nuclear Power!”

Activists have been fighting Chugoku Electric Power Co.’s plan for a Kaminoseki plant since it was first broached in 1982, and all eight mayoral elections since then have been fought mainly over the issue. But all eight times, the pro-nuclear camp won.

September 23, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, politics