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2011 May 11 - 17 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

‘Nuclear power-mongering’ lawmakers and the industry

At around the time of the nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island (1979) and at Chernobyl (1986), special-interest legislators had come together in Japan mediated by the electric power industry.

In late 1981, politicians who promoted nuclear power generation held their first informal gathering with representatives of power companies, including TEPCO and KEPCO. Attending lawmakers were all middle-ranking LDP members of the House of Representatives, who later became LDP leaders: Watanabe Kozo (now DPJ), Kato Koichi, Yamasaki Taku, Yosano Kaoru (now economic and fiscal policy minister, independent), Kano Michihiko (now agriculture minister, DPJ), Nikai Toshihiro, and Nakagawa Hidenao.

Facing mounting public skepticism regarding nuclear energy due to the occurrence of Chernobyl crisis, the then TEPCO President Nasu Sho at the 1988 gathering said, “TEPCO sees this as a challenge to the nation’s economy and society and is taking all possible measures (to influence public opinion).” To the approving Dietmembers at this gathering, he frankly said, “What we are dealing with is machines. It is impossible for us to tell them not to make any mistake.”

The DPJ came to power in 2009. Are there any changes in nuclear administration?

The Council for Nuclear Fuel Cycle (CNFC) is a public-interest corporation promoting nuclear power generation. Out of its eleven board members, nine are active or former Dietmembers. LDP Vice President Oshima Tadamori, former Director General of the Defense Agency Nakatani Gen, and former Financial Service Minister Yamamoto Yuji have been members of the Board since its founding in March 1993. Land Minister Ohata Akihiro, a Socialist Party Dietmember at that time, was also one of the CNFC charter members.

TEPCO and the other 31 member entities pay annual membership dues to the CNFC, which accounts for most of its annual income of 37 million yen.

Its organ magazine “Plutonium” in the February 2011 edition carried an interview with Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) President Suzuki Atsuyuki boasting of Japan’s nuclear technology and praising pro-nuclear power politicians.

A CNFC partner organization exists in the Diet arena. It is a bipartisan study group involved in long-term policies regarding energy and natural resources, headed by former Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Amari Akira. Established in May 2004, the group is aimed at drawing up a national energy strategy, literally a forum of “nuclear-power-mongering” lawmakers. As of February 2011, 74 members in both chambers from the DPJ, the LDP, and the Komei, Your, and People’s New parties are involved in this group.

The group’s DPJ members are core leaders in the DPJ project team promoting nuclear power generation and nuclear power plants. Late last year, they succeeded in extending for another ten years the special measures law to promote the local economies where nuclear power plants are located. The DPJ is continuing with the nuclear promotion policy which the LDP maintained since its founding.

Prime Minister Kan Naoto is now expressing an intention to review the present nuclear policy. However, he has not yet expressed publicly what kind of review he intends to make.