January 5, 2012
Members of advisory panels to the government, which have the task of reviewing the current energy policy and formulate a new one following the Fukushima NPP accident, are moving against public opinion calling for a halt to nuclear power generation and are pushing for further development of nuclear energy.
These panels belong to the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, the Cabinet Office, and the national strategy office.
The METI’s subcommittee on the basics of energy resources, starting last October, discussed various energy options such as thermal and nuclear power, and is to formulate a basic energy program by the coming summer. The committee’s chair is Mimura Akio, president of the Nippon Steel Corporation, one of the major corporations supporting and benefitting from nuclear power generation.
The subcommittee last December summed up the discussion and proposed that the dependency on nuclear energy be reduced as much as possible. However, Sakakibara Sadayuki, president of the Toray Industries Inc., objected by saying that he did not consider a reduced dependency to be a majority opinion. He further stated that he will continue to regard nuclear energy as a key energy source in Japan in the future. He even made the following request, “Promoting nuclear power generating-technology should be the most important subject of study, and the national research and development budget should be allocated to promote this in a drastically adjusted system.”
Sakakibara was vice president of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) between May 2007 and May 2011.
Also in the METI subcommittee, Mitsui & Co. Ltd. President Utsuda Shoei stressed, “Nuclear power generation is one of few mega-technologies of which Japan can be proud.”
Toyoda Masakazu, chief director of the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEE, Japan) said that if Japan reduces its dependence on NPPs, other countries may misunderstand that Japan is moving away from nuclear energy. Toyoda joined the MITI (currently METI) in 1973, served in the Energy Conservation and Alternative Energy Policy Division of the MITI-affiliated Agency of Natural Resources and Energy, and later became an adviser to METI.
In the Cabinet Office-affiliated committee tasked with formulating a new outline on long-term energy policy, Ebihara Shin, counselor to Sumitomo Corporation, stressed that Japan should contribute to increasing the safety of nuclear energy plants and coping with global climate change with its sophisticated technology. He went so far as to say that Japan’s international contribution would be enhanced by exporting NPPs.
These panels belong to the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, the Cabinet Office, and the national strategy office.
The METI’s subcommittee on the basics of energy resources, starting last October, discussed various energy options such as thermal and nuclear power, and is to formulate a basic energy program by the coming summer. The committee’s chair is Mimura Akio, president of the Nippon Steel Corporation, one of the major corporations supporting and benefitting from nuclear power generation.
The subcommittee last December summed up the discussion and proposed that the dependency on nuclear energy be reduced as much as possible. However, Sakakibara Sadayuki, president of the Toray Industries Inc., objected by saying that he did not consider a reduced dependency to be a majority opinion. He further stated that he will continue to regard nuclear energy as a key energy source in Japan in the future. He even made the following request, “Promoting nuclear power generating-technology should be the most important subject of study, and the national research and development budget should be allocated to promote this in a drastically adjusted system.”
Sakakibara was vice president of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) between May 2007 and May 2011.
Also in the METI subcommittee, Mitsui & Co. Ltd. President Utsuda Shoei stressed, “Nuclear power generation is one of few mega-technologies of which Japan can be proud.”
Toyoda Masakazu, chief director of the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEE, Japan) said that if Japan reduces its dependence on NPPs, other countries may misunderstand that Japan is moving away from nuclear energy. Toyoda joined the MITI (currently METI) in 1973, served in the Energy Conservation and Alternative Energy Policy Division of the MITI-affiliated Agency of Natural Resources and Energy, and later became an adviser to METI.
In the Cabinet Office-affiliated committee tasked with formulating a new outline on long-term energy policy, Ebihara Shin, counselor to Sumitomo Corporation, stressed that Japan should contribute to increasing the safety of nuclear energy plants and coping with global climate change with its sophisticated technology. He went so far as to say that Japan’s international contribution would be enhanced by exporting NPPs.
