The endorsement that wasn’t

要約

The Noda Cabinet on Sept. 19 failed to endorse its new energy strategy announced five days earlier, which said that Japan will mobilize all available policy resources to achieve “zero operation” of nuclear power plants in the 2030s.

People will wonder what was the purpose of the government announcing the new strategy and suspect that it was only designed to get votes for the ruling Democratic Party of Japan in the coming Lower House election. What happened was deceptive.

The Cabinet’s failure to endorse the new strategy could result in scrapping the zero-nuclear goal.

In the Cabinet decision, the new nuclear energy strategy is only treated as reference material. The decision only says that, in reference to the new strategy, the government will hold talks with local governments concerned and the international community, and will carry out future energy and environment policy while getting people’s understanding, and flexibly and incessantly reviewing and re-examining the strategy.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said in a TV program Sept. 19 that the goal to end Japan’s reliance on nuclear power generation in the 2030s has not been changed. He also said that although four or five reactors will be online in the second half of the 2030s in accordance with a 40-year limit on the operation of reactors, there is the possibility that these reactors may be decommissioned earlier with the spread of the use of renewable energy.

But given the Cabinet’s failure to endorse the new strategy, his determination for the zero-nuclear goal appears suspect.

On Sept. 15, trade and industry minister Yukio Edano said three nuclear power plants under construction will not be abandoned, hinting that they will remain online at least into the 2050s.

It is clear that the Noda Cabinet has succumbed to the pressure from local governments hosting nuclear facilities, and from the United States, Britain and France, which are helping Japan with its nuclear fuel cycle.

Mr. Noda should take concrete actions to dispel suspicion that he is double-dealing and is not serious about ending Japan’s reliance on nuclear power generation.

日本語の抄訳はウィークリ10月6日号のP18に掲載されています。