Long one of the world's most committed promoters of civilian nuclear power, Japan's nuclear industry was not hit as hard by the effects of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident (USA) or the 1986 Chernobyl disaster (USSR) as some other countries. Construction of new plants continued to be strong through the 1980s and into the 1990s. However, starting in the mid-1990s there were several nuclear related accidents and cover-ups in Japan that eroded public perception of the industry, resulting in protests and resistance to new plants. These accidents included the Tokaimura nuclear accident, the Mihama steam explosion, cover-ups after accidents at the Monju reactor, and the 21 month shut down of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant following an earthquake in 2007. Because of these events, Japan's nuclear industry has been scrutinized by the general public of the country.
The negative impact of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster has changed attitudes in Japan. Political and energy experts describe "nothing short of a nationwide loss of faith, not only in Japan's once-vaunted nuclear technology but also in the government, which many blame for allowing the accident to happen". Sixty thousand people marched in central Tokyo on 19 September 2011, chanting "Sayōnara nuclear power" and waving banners, to call on Japan's government to abandon nuclear power, following the Fukushima disaster. Bishop of Osaka, Michael Goro Matsuura, has called on the solidarity of Christians worldwide to support this anti-nuclear campaign. In July 2012, 75,000 people gathered near in Tokyo for the capital's largest anti-nuclear event yet. Organizers and participants said such demonstrations signal a fundamental change in attitudes in a nation where relatively few have been willing to engage in political protests since the 1960s.
Anti-nuclear groups include the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, Stop Rokkasho, Hidankyo, Sayonara Nuclear Power Plants, Women from Fukushima Against Nukes, and the Article 9 group. People associated with the anti-nuclear movement include: Jinzaburo Takagi, Haruki Murakami, Kenzaburō Ōe, Nobuto Hosaka, Mizuho Fukushima, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Tetsunari Iida.
As of September 2012, most Japanese people support the zero option on nuclear power, and Prime Minister Yoshihiko and the Japanese government announced a dramatic change of direction in energy policy, promising to make the country nuclear-free by the 2030s. There will be no new construction of nuclear power plants, a 40-year lifetime limit on existing nuclear plants, and any further nuclear plant restarts will need to meet tough safety standards of the new independent regulatory authority. The new approach to meeting energy needs will also involve investing $500 billion over 20 years to commercialize the use of renewable energy sources such as wind power and solar power.
Former Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, who was elected in 2012, has put nuclear energy back on the political agenda, with plans to restart as many reactors as possible. In July 2015, the government submitted its ideas for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the United Nations, and the proposal included a target for nuclear power to meet at least 20% of Japan's electricity consumption by 2030. Renewable energy sources, such as hydropower but also solar power, would contribute 22% or more. On 11 August 2015, the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant broke a four-year lull when it restarted one of its reactors. The restart is the first since Japan's nuclear power industry collapsed, following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster.Davide Castelvecchi, "Japan's nuclear revival won't lower carbon emissions enough", Nature, 11 August 2015.
As of March 10, 2020, out of Japan's 56 nuclear reactors, 24 are due to be decommissioned, 9 are currently working and 7 are ready to be restarted. 3 new reactors are under construction, in order to meet Japan's Fifth Energy Basic Plan (20%–22% nuclear energy by 2030).
History
The first nuclear reactor in Japan was built by the United Kingdom's GEC. In the 1970s, the first light water reactors were built in cooperation with American companies. Robert Jay Lifton has asked how Japan, after its experience with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, could "allow itself to draw so heavily on the same nuclear technology for the manufacture of about a third of its energy". He says: There was resistance, much of it from Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors. But there was also a pattern of denial, cover-up and cozy bureaucratic collusion between industry and government, the last especially notorious in Japan but by no means limited to that country. Even then, pro-nuclear power forces could prevail only by managing to instill in the minds of Japanese people a dichotomy between the physics of nuclear power and that of nuclear weapons, an illusory distinction made not only in Japan but throughout the world.
Japan's nuclear industry was not hit as hard by the effects of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident (USA) or the 1986 Chernobyl disaster (USSR) as some other countries. Construction of new plants continued to be strong through the 1980s and into the 1990s. However, starting in the mid-1990s there were several nuclear related accidents and cover-ups in Japan that eroded public perception of the industry, resulting in protests and resistance to new plants. These accidents included the Tokaimura nuclear accident, the Mihama steam explosion, and cover-ups after an accidents at the Monju reactor. More citizens subsequently became concerned about potential health impacts, the absence of a long-term nuclear waste storage facility, and nuclear weapons proliferation. The more recent Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant was completely shut down for 21 months following an earthquake in 2007. While exact details may be in dispute, it is clear that the safety culture in Japan's nuclear industry came under greater scrutiny.
Research results show that some 95 post-war attempts to site and build nuclear power plants resulted in only 54 completions. Many affected communities "fought back in highly publicized battles". Co-ordinated opposition groups, such as the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center and the anti-nuclear newspaper Hangenpatsu Shinbun have operated since the early 1980s. Cancelled plant orders included:
The Maki NPP at Maki, Niigata (Kambara)—Canceled in 2003 The Kushima NPP at Kushima, Miyazaki—1997 The Ashihama NPP at Ashihama, Mie Prefecture—2000 (the first Project at the site in the 1970s where realized at Hamaoka as Unit 1&2) The Hōhoku NPP at Hōhoku, Yamaguchi—1994 The Suzu NPP at Suzu, Ishikawa—2003
Genpatsu-shinsai, meaning nuclear power plant earthquake disaster is a term which was coined by Japanese seismologist Professor Katsuhiko Ishibashi in 1997.Genpatsu-Shinsai: Catastrophic Multiple Disaster of Earthquake and Quake-induced Nuclear Accident Anticipated in the Japanese Islands (Slides), Katsuhiko Ishibashi, 23rd. General Assembly of IUGG, 2003, Sapporo, Japan, accessed 2011-03-28 It describes a domino effect scenario in which a major earthquake causes a severe accident at a nuclear power plant near a major population centre, resulting in an uncontrollable release of radiation in which the radiation levels make damage control and rescue impossible, and earthquake damage severely impedes the evacuation of the population. Ishibashi envisages that such an event would have a global impact and a 'fatal' effect on Japan, seriously affecting future generations.Genpatsu-Shinsai: Catastrophic Multiple Disaster of Earthquake and Quake-induced Nuclear Accident Anticipated in the Japanese Islands (Abstract), Katsuhiko Ishibashi, 23rd. General Assembly of IUGG, 2003, Sapporo, Japan, accessed 2011-03-28
Groups The Citizens' Nuclear Information Center is an anti-nuclear public interest organization dedicated to securing a nuclear-free world. It was established in Tokyo in 1975 to collect and analyze information related to nuclear power, including safety, economic, and proliferation issues. Data compiled by the CNIC is presented to the media, citizens' groups and policy makers. The CNIC is independent from government and industry.Introducing CNIC In 1995, Jinzaburo Takagi, the late former director of the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, "warned about the dangers posed by the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Station and other old atomic plants", and also "cautioned the government and utilities about their policy of not assessing the safety risks for nuclear power stations beyond their assumed scenarios".
No Nukes Plaza Tokyo was established in 1989, after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, and is one of the oldest groups opposing nuclear power in Japan.
Green Action Japan is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that was established in 1991 and works to create a nuclear-power-free Japan.
In May 2006, an international awareness campaign about the dangers of the Rokkasho reprocessing plant, Stop Rokkasho,Stop Rokkasho was launched by musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. Greenpeace has also opposed the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant under a campaign called "Wings of Peace – No more Hiroshima Nagasaki",Wings of Peace – No more Hiroshima Nagasaki since 2002 and has launched a cyberaction to stop the project.
In 2008, members of hundreds of opposition groups demonstrated in central Tokyo to protest the building of the Rokkasho Plant, designed to allow commercial reprocessing of reactor waste to produce plutonium.
In July 2011, the Hidankyo, the group representing the 10,000 or so survivors of the atomic bombings in Japan, called for the first time for the elimination of civilian nuclear power. In its action plan for 2012, the group appealed for "halting construction of new nuclear plants and the gradual phasing out of Japan's 54 current reactors as energy alternatives are found".
The movement of "Women from Fukushima Against Nukes" (Genptasu iranai Fukushima kara no onnatachi) expresses views against nuclear power. Women's groups have been critical of the government's handling of the Fukushima aftermath—they object to the raising of the allowed radiation exposure rate from 1 to 20 mSv, poor identification of radiation "hotspots", calculation only of external radiation while omitting internal radiation, and patchy food supply arrangements. Fukushima has also highlighted earlier research showing a much greater risk of radiation-induced cancer for women and children. The women say the government should evacuate children from areas with consistently elevated radiation levels. Hundreds of women, from Fukushima and elsewhere, organized a sit-in protest at the Ministry of Economy headquarters from October 30 to November 5. Women have helped to follow through on the September 19 Tokyo protest where 60,000 marched. Some women have long participated in protest against the Fukushima TEPCO nuclear plants, but there were also many newcomers. Now, in the wake of March 11, 2011, they are airing their views nationwide. Greenpeace has reported on their activities in a blog entry.
The founders of the Article 9 group advocate the removal of nuclear power from the nation's energy policy in light of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution and the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Article 9 says that Japan forever renounces war, stating, "Land, sea and air forces as well as other war potential will never be maintained." Kenzaburō Ōe, one of the nine founders of the Article 9 Association, spoke at the group's national rally in Tokyo in November 2011, which drew about 700 people.