nuclear-news

More than 16,000 activists gathered in the Japanese capital, speaking out against the September 10 decision by the country’s nuclear watchdog to restart two reactors at the Sendai plant in southern Japan. We don’t need nuclear plants,” was one of the main slogans protesters shouted as the demonstration marched through the capital, now more than three years after a triple reactor meltdown at Fukushima’s power plant in March 2011.

“Three and a half years has passed since the nuclear accident, but self-examination has yet to be made,”Nobel literature laureate Kenzaburo Oe told the Tokyo rally.

“[Japan’s government] is going ahead with the plan to resume operation at the Sendai plant without compiling sufficient anti-disaster plans,” Oe said, according to public broadcaster NHK…….http://rt.com/news/190068-japan-nuclear-energy-protest/

Abe has not been held a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping since taking office due to Sino-Japanese feuds over territory and wartime history. He has called on Xi to meet on the sidelines of an Asian-Pacific leaders gathering November.

Mrs. Abe said she hoped to meet Xi’s wife, Peng Liyuan, if possible, even if not one-on-one, since First Ladies could chat without the burden of national interests on their shoulders.

“I felt she is really beautiful and stylish and has an aura,” she said, referring to a meeting with Peng last year.

In another departure from her husband’s policies, Mrs. Abe reiterated that she believed Japan should exit nuclear power if alternate energy sources can be found, given the risks shown by the March 2011 Fukushima disaster, the world’s worst atomic accident since Chernobyl.

“Once an accident occurs, it is a terrible thing that cannot be undone,” she said. “If there are alternative sources of energy, I would like them to stop (nuclear power). I’d like them not to restart off-line reactors.”…….http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/04/us-japan-firstlady-idUSKBN0GZ07I20140904

One reason for the weakness of the movement in Kagoshima prefecture and beyond, Mr Mukohara says, is that its members are usually part-timers.

In Japan it took 15 months for mass anti-nuclear protests to emerge after the disaster of 2011, while thousands of miles away in Germany and elsewhere people took to the streets far sooner. When Japanese did mobilise, mainly in Tokyo, a large proportion were amateur protesters, including plenty of young mothers and unemployed youth. Their energy, and the size of rallies, diminished afterwards.

Since then the anti-nuclear movement has largely failed to gain political traction. Its nadir came in February this year when not even the backing of Junichiro Koizumi, Japan’s charismatic former prime minister, helped an anti-nuclear candidate win an election for governor of Tokyo. The movement has proven “stunningly ineffective”, says Jeff Kingston of Temple University in Tokyo.

There are some notable exceptions, such as Green Action, a Kyoto-based NGO. It is one of the few anti-nuclear organisations able to employ full-time professional staff. Aileen Mioko Smith, its director, says that the anti-nuclear movement has enjoyed a measure of success over the years. Local groups halted the construction of dozens of planned new reactors, including the Ashihama project in Mie prefecture, which wascancelled in 2000. Yet anti-nuclear groups have not managed effectively to lobby politicians or energy-industry leaders to shape government policy, she says, nor have they roused the general public to take action.

The fault may lie in the movement’s own structure. Eric Johnston, a journalist at the Japan Times, describes its elderly members as being out of touch with the media techniques of modern NGOs. Local groups in the regions are fragmented, parochial and suspicious of outsiders. They do not necessarily welcome the younger members who could bring fresh ideas. Potential recruits feel shut out by traditional groups’ seniority systems. And the movement is divided where it could be united. The organisations that demonstrate each year against nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain quiet on nuclear energy.

Anti-nuclear sentiment has made a strong impact in the politics of one prefecture, in addition to Fukushima itself. Last month, Taizo Mikazuki from the Democratic Party of Japan won an election for governor of Shiga prefecture after running a strongly anti-nuclear campaign. The public’s anger over the way in which Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, handled a change in national-security policy was crucial to his victory. But fears about more than a dozen reactors across the prefectural border in Fukui also played an important role. Polls of public opinion show that a consistent majority of Japanese, when asked, would prefer a total phase-out of nuclear power. With more modern and professional methods, the anti-nuclear movement might achieve more than it has.