August 21 & 22, 2011

The opinion of Japanese business circles is reflected in the Democratic Party of Japan-led government’s basic energy policy.

On March 16, 2010, the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) published a policy proposal entitled, “Achieving Growth through Green Innovation,” calling for “new construction and expansion of high-safety nuclear power plants at a consistent pace and maximization of their capacity utilization.”

In the April 7, 2010 statement, Nippon Keidanren again stated that nuclear energy should be a key energy source in the national energy strategy and that steady promotion of nuclear power generation based on a premise of ensuring the safety is necessary.

One month later, the Kan Cabinet approved its basic energy policy in which the government plans to construct more than 14 nuclear reactors in order to increase the share of power demands to more than 50% by 2030. The Cabinet also expressed a stance to promote exports of nuclear power plants.

Pressure from business circles

In policies for the 2003 and the 2005 House of Representatives general elections, the DPJ defined nuclear power as “transitional energy” and said that it “will carefully promote nuclear power generation.” However, the DPJ changed its position. In the background lies pressure from the business world.

Since 2005, every year Nippon Keidanren holds talks with the Liberal Democratic Party and the DPJ respectively in order to evaluate them on their attitude toward the business community’s priorities. The financial world uses this evaluation as means to “buy politics”. Keidanren recommends its member companies give the two parties donations based on the evaluation.

On May 22, 2006, at talks with the DPJ, Keidanren’s vice chair and Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO)’s president at the time, Katsumata Tsunehisa, said, “Utilization of nuclear power should be promoted as a national policy regarding both the environment and energy.”

DPJ’ policy research committee acting chair Naoshima Masayuki replied, “Without using nuclear power, a steady supply of energy will be impossible.”

Just after the talks, on July 18, 2006, Prime Minister Kan Naoto, who was the acting president of the DPJ, said, “I’m still not sure that renewable energy sources can supply 100% of the electricity needs, though the amount of power generated by wind and other renewable sources has increased. While maintaining safety, nuclear energy should be regarded as one of key energy sources in the future.”

This remark was made as an answer to a question from a TEPCO executive at a seminar organized by a research institute of the power industry consisting of about 300 major companies, including power companies, major construction companies, and NPP-related manufacturers. These companies form the “community of interest” benefitting from NPPs.

The DPJ in September that year clearly changed its stance toward nuclear power from “transitional energy” to a “major power source.”

As a result, Keidanren in 2007 gave the DPJ a better rating than the previous year.

Japan Atomic Industrial Forum President Hattori Takuya welcomed the DPJ’s policy change by saying, “The DPJ shows little difference from the LDP in terms of promoting nuclear power generation. The DPJ in its basic understanding makes a fair assessment on nuclear power.”

After the Fukushima accident, on March 31 in a meeting with Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo, Prime Minister Kan said that he will reexamine the plan to construct more nuclear reactors with a “clean slate.”

However, the DPJ still continues its policy of relying on nuclear power generation. The party’s project team regarding growth strategy and economic measures on July 28, 2011 issued an interim report stating, “Nuclear power should be utilized for a while longer. Nuclear power plants, which are under suspension, will be allowed to restart operations after confirming their safety.”

Policy enthusiastic about NPP exports

The government led by Prime Minister Kan on August 5 made it clear that it was continuing negotiations for the export of nuclear power plants (NPPs) with Vietnam, Jordan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates by stating, “If there are requests from foreign countries to use our nuclear technology, we should offer them the one with the highest safety standards.”

The DPJ is now seeking Diet approval for a Japan-Jordan nuclear agreement within the ongoing Diet session.

In regard to measures to secure the safety in the countries where Japan is to build nuclear power plants, the government says, “Primarily, these host countries judge what to do on their own responsibility.”

“As a result of my sales pitch…”

In January of 2011 Prime Minister Kan, at his New Year policy speech, proudly stated, “As a result of my own sales pitch to the Vietnamese prime minister, an overseas advance of Japanese NPP facilities has come about for the first time.”

Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Kaieda Banri at a press conference on March 30 expressed his intention to continue to facilitate the export of NPPs, saying, “As we strengthen the safety measures for NPPs, we will find a way to build up trust among countries in the world.”

Close consultation between Japan and the United States

While the financial circle led by NPP-related corporations drives the export of nuclear facilities, this move coincides with a similar policy trend in the U.S. government.

The then Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio, at an Upper House Budget Committee meeting on March 5, 2010 said, “I think it is also important to sell Japan’s nuclear technologies to other countries around the world.” This statement was based on close consultation with the United States.

On November 2009, just after the inauguration of his cabinet, Hatoyama agreed with U.S. President Barack Obama on “Japan-U.S. Cooperation on Clean Energy Technologies,” which states that “both countries play an important role in global expansion of peaceful uses of nuclear energy” as well as help a third country introduce it.

In addition to this, the two countries came to an agreement that they will promote joint research and development in the fields of “advanced fuel cycle technologies and effective use of existing facilities.” Japan also promised that it will provide more support for the construction of new NPPs in the United States under the pretext of cutting CO2 emissions.

In January 2010, President Obama in his State of the Union address called for “building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants,” showing a policy shift away from the previous one, which was less enthusiastic about the expansion of nuclear energy.

(To be continued)