Japan Press Weekly

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2015 February 18 - 24 [POLITICS]

Abe takes ‘No’ stance to no-nuke Japan

The Diet interpellation on February 18 made clear again that Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has absolutely no intention of allowing the creation of a no-nuke society.

During the day’s Upper House plenary session, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Yamashita Yoshiki pressed Abe to break with nuclear power generation and make a policy shift to renewable sources of energy. Abe talked about surging fuel imports, rising electricity rates, and the need to curb global warming and said, “Things are not going anywhere without nuclear power.”

Abe also proclaimed that he will push forward with the resumption of nuclear power plants if they meet new regulatory standards. He said this to Yamashita who criticized the government plan to restart nuclear power plants in Japan beginning with the Sendai NPP (Kagoshima Pref.) and the Takahama NPP (Fukui Pref.). However, the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi NPP (Fukushima Pref.) has yet to be brought under control and the cause of the 2011 nuclear accident has also yet to be determined.

Another issue the JCP lawmaker took up was in regard to the 3/11 victims. He said that 230,000 people are still living as evacuees and demanded that the construction of disaster public housing units be accelerated. He also demanded that financial support for house rebuilding be increased to more than five million yen and that free medical care be provided at hospitals for disaster sufferers. The prime minister in response said, “We should carefully examine” the feasibility of Yamashita’s points after “taking into account how to balance needs with the needs of other programs and the limit to the financial burdens the state and local governments can take on”.

Regarding a recovery of local businesses, Yamashita noted that TEPCO, the crippled plant operator, is planning to terminate compensation for business damages in February next year and that the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry is furious about this plan. He told the prime minister to direct the power company to continue compensating for lost business, but Abe took an irresponsible stance by leaving the issue to the utility saying, “TEPCO will conduct deliberations with the Resources and Energy Agency on compensation for operating losses.”