What Eclipsed the “Zero-Nuclear” Policy? BY TETSUO JIMBO
September 30, 2012
Tetsuo Jimbo was born in 1961. He is a video journalist. He is the representative of the internet broadcasting channel “video.com”. He co-published the book “Media no Wana: Kenryoku ni Katan suru Shimbun, Terebi no Shinso”(Sangakusha) (Shackled Media: Newspapers and the TV’s Deep Alliance with the Power). Official blog: “Bideo jaanarisuto Shimbo Tetsuo no blog”: http://www.jimbo.tv/
Just a week ago on September 14, when the government’s Council on energy and the environment released the “Innovative Strategy for Energy and the Environment” determining the zero-nuclear policy objective for the 2030s, it looked as if Japan has finally chosen the path to zero nuclear power plants one year and a half after the accident at the Fukuchima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.
However, moot points emerged soon after. It was planned that the “Innovative Strategy for Energy and the Environment” adopted on the 14th would become the government’s official policy line, after its endorsement by the Cabinet on the 18th, but the ratification did not take place. Also, contrary to the plan to proscribe the construction and the increase of new nuclear power plants, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Mr. Edano declared that nuclear power plants under construction would be an exception. In a week time, the government’s plan for zero-nuclear power plants appears more and more unreliable.
Why, for God’s sake, are nuclear power plants which are but one means of electricity generation so difficult to get rid of?
As an economist, Masaru Kaneko, member of the New Nuclear Policy-planning Council of the Atomic Energy Commission, and professor at the Faculty of Economics of Keio University, indicated that the real problem with the zero-nuclear policy lies in the management of Electric Companies. Mr. Kaneko said that today’s Japan nuclear power plants issue bears the same meaning as the problem of bad loans faced by financial institutions in the 1990s. A nuclear accident might not necessarily occur in the future, but bad loans will continue to swell if they are not rapidly recovered. As a last resort, such bad loans are to be covered by the population through taxes and electricity bills.
However, if a resolute bad loans recovery plan is carried out, most Electric Companies will become insolvent. Also accumulated huge nuclear bad loans, hidden so far because of “nuclear vested interests,” will surface. Since nuclear vested interests and Electric Power interests are widely shared among the Japanese Establishment, the government’s strategy for zero-nuclear power plants, which means a bad loans recovery policy, upsets economic and administrative circles. This is the reason why there’s such uproar.
Besides, Toru Takeda, who has been vocal in stressing the importance to avoid two opposed sides in the management of the nuclear crisis explained the intention of Washington, which is said to be one of the reasons why the government’s plan is being dwarfed. He explained that according to the United States, Japan is seeking to maintain its political influence in Asia through creating a situation that would allow it to become a nuclear power that only the United States would be able to deter.
If Japan abandons its nuclear power plants and stops its nuclear fuel processing cycle, the huge amount of plutonium it owns will just be worth for making a nuclear weapon.
As it has been witnessed in Japan so far, a change of policy which is supposed to deeply affect security matters leads a large portion of administrative and financial circles to follow the view of the United States. Today, unnoticed the same situation seems to be occurring.
There is a wide gap between the government’s energy policy and the polls and the public comments which clearly indicate that the majority of the population is against nuclear power plants. Such a state of affairs is not unrelated to the incapacity of the Japanese center of power to shake off its high economic growth and cold war mindset embodied in Electric Companies, Nuclear Power Plants, and the US.
It means that so far Japan has been incapable of initiating policy changes and will be unable to do so in the future. In such a situation one would question the status of Japan as a democracy.
Why is the government’s zero-nuclear power policy being dwarfed? Who is behind? For whom is this being done? What can be done in order to properly convey the voice of the population to the government? With Mr. Kaneko and Mr. Takeda as guests, a debate was held on the matter between journalist Tetsuo Jimbo and Shinji Miyadai, a sociologist who has just come back home after a long sojourn abroad.
[Excerpt from the blog: “marugeki tooku on dimando” of September 22]
Guests:
MASARU KANEKO (Professor at the Faculty of Economics of Keio University)
TORU TAKEDA (Journalist)
Guests Profiles:
MASARU KANEKO was born in Tokyo in 1952. He is a professor at the Faculty of Economics of Keio University. He graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Tokyo in 1975. He attended the department of economics of the same university and completed the Graduate School of Economics. After serving as an Assistant Professor at the Social Sciences Research Center of the University of Tokyo, he became an ordinary professor at the Faculty of Economics at Hosei University. He has occupied his actual post since 2000. He is a specialist of institutional economics and public finance. He has published “Shin-Han Gurobarizumu Kinyu Shihonshugi wo Koete”(Beyond the Neo and Anti-Globalism Financial Capitalism), “ ‘Datsu Genpatsu’ Seichoron, Atarashii Sangyo Kakumei he” (The Growth Theory of ‘Zero Nuclear Power’: Towards a New Industrial Revolution) among other books.
TORU TAKEDA was born in Tokyo in 1958. He is a journalist. He received a BA in Liberal Arts from the International Christian University in 1982. He holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Cultural Studies from the same university since 1989. In 1984, on a commission basis, he worked for Nigensha as an editor and a writer. He became a freelance writer in 1989. Two of his publications are “Watashitachi wa Koshite ‘Genpatsu Taikoku’ wo Eranda” (We Have Chosen to Become a Big Nuclear Energy Power) and “Genpatsu Hodo to Media” (The Nuclear Crisis Coverage). He has also been a professor at the Faculty of Humanities of Keisen University since 2007.
(Translated from Japanese by Willy Lukebana Toko)
