Related News
Ex-PMs boost Japan’s anti-nuke campaign
Print Edition
Japan’s flagging anti-nuclear movement is getting a boost from two former prime ministers who are calling for atomic power to be phased out following the Fukushima disaster.
Former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi said yesterday that the current prime minister, Shinzo Abe, should take advantage of his high public support and sway in parliament to “do the right thing.”
“Prime Minister Abe should use the power given to him to do what the majority of the people want,” Koizumi said in a speech at the Japan Press Club in Tokyo. “It can be achieved. Why miss this chance?”
He said that with Japan’s nuclear plants all offline for safety checks it would be easiest to begin the phase-out soon.
Abe favors restarting the nuclear plants under safety guidelines revised after multiple meltdowns in Fukushima following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, contending that resource-scarce Japan cannot afford not to. His government is drawing up a national energy policy that will likely reverse a commitment by the previous government to phase out nuclear power over the next two decades.
Polls have shown the majority of the public, jittery over radiation risks, prefers to shift away from the nuclear plants that provided nearly a third of Japan’s power generation capacity before the accident at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, the worst since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Even within Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, opinions over the future for nuclear power are divided.
Japan’s rapid turnover in leadership over the past two decades means there are plenty of former prime ministers. At least three, including Koizumi, have said they support ending use of nuclear power.
Their support could help reinvigorate the anti-nuclear movement, which has lost some of its vitality nearly three years after the Fukushima accident.
Another former prime minister, Morihiro Hosokawa, told the Tokyo Shimbun daily yesterday that he also favors an end to reliance on nuclear power. “I can’t understand why they want restarts of the nuclear plants when there is no place to discard the nuclear waste. It would be a crime against future generations for our generation to restart nuclear plants without resolving this issue,” he said.
Koizumi likewise emphasized his concern over nuclear waste disposal, especially in a land-scarce country like Japan.
Experts have questioned whether earthquake-prone Japan can safely store nuclear waste under any scenario.
“I think it is too optimistic and irresponsible to assume we can find a final radioactive waste storage site in Japan, after the accident,” Koizumi said.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
