June 1, 2023

A bundle of five bills promoting nuclear power generation, named Green Transformation (GX) Power Supply legislation, became law in the House of Councilors plenary session on May 31 by the majority vote of the ruling parties, the "Ishin" party, and the Democratic Party for the People. The Japanese Communist Party and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan voted against the package bill.

The new law will make the utilization of nuclear energy "a government duty" and will make it possible to extend the operating limit of nuclear reactors to more than 60 years.

Prior to the vote, JCP legislator Iwabuchi Tomo criticized the GX package for ignoring the lessons learned from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown accident and for reviving the "nuclear safety myth" propaganda.

Iwabuchi pointed out that the government policy of promoting nuclear power generation is preventing renewables from being extensively introduced and comprehensive energy-saving efforts from being made. She presented a UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report which shows that the cost of nuclear power is higher than that of renewable sources of energy and that nuclear power has less CO2 reduction effects than renewables.

She demanded that the government break with nuclear energy, put top priority on the introduction of a large quantity of renewables, and tackle global warming as "an imminent threat".

Past related article:
> Upper House enters into discussions on GX bundle bill [May 11, 2023]