Japan Press Weekly

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2012 August 22 - 28 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

90% of public support ‘zero’ nuclear plants

The government on August 22 announced that nearly 90% of the submitted public comments on the country’s energy policy support “zero” nuclear power generation.

The results show that 89.1% think “nuclear energy is unnecessary,” and 81% “immediately” seek “zero” dependence on atomic power while 8.6% seek “gradual” cuts in the dependence to “zero”.

The government from July 2 and August 12 solicited public comments in drawing up a new energy policy, and a total of 89,124 people submitted their opinions.

Hearing of the results, business executives soon made a hostile remark concerning the majority opinion, demonstrating once again that they themselves are nuclear power promoters.

Hasegawa Yasuchika, chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai), said that the result is “extremely regrettable”. Chairman of the Japan Chamber and Commerce and Industry Tadashi Okamura said, “I wonder if they accurately understand what the zero nuclear option would bring about.”