Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2015 December 9 - 15 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP Takahashi criticizes Reconstruction Minister for promoting restart of NPP located in Fukushima

Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Takahashi Chizuko on December 8 at a Diet committee meeting criticized Reconstruction Minister Takagi Tsuyoshi for promoting the restart of nuclear power plants in areas affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Disaster.

At the meeting of the House of Representatives Special Committee on Reconstruction after Great East Japan Earthquake held during the Diet recess, JCP Takahashi cited that Takagi has been calling for the early reactivation of idled nuclear reactors, and said that he is inappropriate to continue as the Reconstruction Minister. She pointed out that the minister in his first press conference stated that two offline nuclear power plants in the disaster-hit prefectures, the Fukushima Daini NPP in Fukushima and the Onagawa NPP in Miyagi, should be allowed to go back online if they are found to meet the new nuclear safety standards.

Noting that the Fukushima Prefectural Assembly adopted a resolution demanding the decommissioning of all nuclear reactors in the prefecture, JCP Takahashi stressed that the government should shut down all of them in accordance with the public demand and the prefectural government resolution.

In reply Takagi merely said that the operators of the nuclear power plants will consider various opinions and decide whether or not to resume their operations.