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2011 August 24 - 30 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Nuclear energy and political parties – DPJ (Part 2)

DPJ member of the House of Councilors Fujiwara Masashi has been defending TEPCO on his website, “Rumors of TEPCO’s guilt are being intentionally circulated,” and, “The main cause of the ongoing crisis is the earthquake and tsunamis.” He also argues in an interview with Asahi Shimbun (July 20) that renewable energy will not generate much power and that nuclear power generation is vital for a stable supply of power.

He used to be the chairman of a power industry workers’ union - the Federation of Electric Power Related Industry Workers Unions of Japan (Denryoku Soren), making up the core group of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo).

Denryoku Soren fielded 95 candidates on the DPJ ticket in nationwide local elections in 2007. In the House of Councilors election in 2010, it recommended 47 candidates as a means to bolster the DPJ’s nuclear energy policy.

Denryoku Soren has requested that the rate of utilization of existing nuclear reactors be improved, more nuclear plants be steadily constructed, and that plutonium-thermal projects be initiated.

In order to encourage the DPJ to include these items in its energy policy, Denryoku Soren has poured an enormous amount of political donations into the coffers of the DPJ and its Diet members. Between 2007 and 2009, Denryoku Soren provided nearly 92 million yen in donations to the DPJ. Of this, 33 million yen and 40 million yen went to the aforementioned Fujiwara Masashi and TEPCO official-turned DPJ politician Kobayashi Masao respectively.

Kawabata Tatsuo is another DPJ lawmaker supported by Denryoku Soren. When the DPJ was inaugurated in 1997, he played a key role in drawing up the party’s platform. He succeeded in inserting a nuclear promotion policy in the platform, calling for enhancing nuclear safety and building a national consensus on nuclear power generation.

Kawabata in 2006 had the party erase from its energy policy the phrase stating that nuclear is a transient energy source that should be carefully promoted. He instead urged the party to go ahead with a program to develop a plutonium breeder reactor. Representing a DPJ study group on energy, Kawabata demonstrated his initiative in making a major shift in the party’s energy policy. During the previous Cabinet led by Hatoyama Yukio, Kawabata held the ministerial portfolio of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in charge of nuclear energy research and fast breeder reactors.

DPJ power-broker Ozawa Ichiro also has a close connection with successive TEPCO chairmen. The late Hiraiwa Gaishi, ex-chair of TEPCO and of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), used to be a representative of Ozawa’s supporting group when Ozawa still belonged to the Liberal Democratic Party. Another ex-TEPCO Chairman, Araki Hiroshi who was also a former Nippon Keidanren chair was said to be a facilitator for Ozawa’s informal gatherings.

Based on a network of connections with the business circle, the electric power industry, and its union, the DPJ has promoted nuclear energy policies.

(End)