Japan Press Weekly

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2016 August 24 - 30 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Is nuclear power really essential to curtail fossil fuel imports?

The Abe government and pro-nuclear power generation forces have been stressing the need to restart idled nuclear reactors on the grounds that if Japan increases its dependence on thermal power generation, it will need to import more fossil fuel and its national wealth will erode. However, this argument flies against the facts.

Japan Atomic Industrial Forum Chairman Imai Takashi in the forum’s annual conference in 2015 said that in the wake of the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, NPPs in the country suspended their operations one after another and thermal power plants produced more electricity to cover the “shortfall”. As a result, he went on to say, Japan has had to buy a large amount of fuel from overseas, which has “caused the outflow of national wealth of some four trillion yen each year”. Such an argument is found also in the government’s basic energy plan.

However, in reality, the value of fossil fuel imports has declined after peaking in 2014. The argument about the national wealth drain has lost ground. JAIF Chairman Imai did not mention this in his speech in the 2016 annual conference.

Japan’s oil imports decreased by 6.6 trillion yen in 2015 from a year earlier, and LNG imports decreased by 2.3 trillion yen during the same period. Coal imports also dropped by a total of 500 billion yen in the five years since 2011. The total amount of oil and coal imports in terms of value in 2015 was less than in 2010 before the Fukushima meltdown.

It is true that fossil fuel imports soared after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident. However, this was attributable less to the increase in amount and more to high international prices and the depreciation of the yen following the Abe government’s monetary easing policy, as shown in the fact that between 2010 and 2014 oil imports decreased in terms of volume but increased by 1.5 times in terms of value.

The volume of oil imports is on the decline after 2010 and LNG imports decreased after peaking in 2014. This is because energy saving efforts and renewable energy developments bore fruit after the 2011 nuclear accident.

Some insist that Japan’s national wealth will erode if the NPPs are kept offline, but they are clearly wrong. The need now is to promote energy saving efforts and renewable energy technologies.

Past related articles:
> Pro-nuke forces propagate groundless rumors regarding withdrawal from nuclear energy [April 25, 2015]
> Abe falsely claims 10 billion yen in national wealth lost every day due to nuclear reactors remaining offline [January 29, 2015]