nuclear-news

Powerful nuclear interests likely to prevail in Japanese elections

An LDP win would also signal successful lobbying by Japan’s “nuclear village”, a web of vested interests including utilities, bureaucrats and lawmakers that remains powerful despite the world’s worst radiation crisis in a quarter century.

Pro-nuclear party could win power in Japan TVNZ November 27, 2012, Japanese voters look likely to hand victory to a party that favours nuclear power in the first election since the March 2011 Fukushima radiation disaster.

But even if the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wins the December 16 election, it will not reflect any groundswell of popular support for nuclear power.

Instead, it would underline a lack of credible anti-nuclear political standard-bearers in Japan and the ability of the LDP to focus the debate on security matters and the stalled economy.

An LDP win would also signal successful lobbying by Japan’s “nuclear village”, a web of vested interests including utilities, bureaucrats and lawmakers that remains powerful despite the world’s worst radiation crisis in a quarter century…..
The small Japan Communist Party and tiny Social Democrats are firmly
against nuclear power but unlikely to win many seats given that few
voters back their anti-capitalist ideologies.

A group led by former DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa has made opposition to
nuclear power a key platform and could align itself with other small
parties – among them a new party that media say will be launched as
early as this week by Yukiko Kada, the female governor of Shiga
Prefecture in western Japan…..
Whether an LDP victory would spell business as usual for energy
policy, however, remains far from clear.

Some changes are already afoot, including the introduction of a
feed-in-tariff (FIT) programme under which utilities must buy power
from suppliers of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar
power at pre-set premiums for up to 20 years and moves toward more
competition in the utilities sector.

“There are a number of factors that would likely stand in the way of a
return to business as usual. But it’s not impossible,” DeWit said. “I
think we can’t dismiss the capacity of the nuclear village to ram
through a ‘back to the future’ scenario.”
http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/pro-nuclear-party-could-win-power-in-japan-5242767

November 27, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, politics