Opinion
polls show the Japanese people oppose nuclear plants going back into operation.
It underlines the scale of the problem facing the government in convincing
everyone that it's safe. Julian Ryall reports from Tokyo.
Before
October 16, Ryuichi Yoneyama had contested four regional elections and been
soundly beaten each time. Now, however, the 49-year-old qualified doctor and
lawyer is to be sworn in as governor of Niigata Prefecture after defeating a
candidate who had the backing of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and
was considered the firm favorite.
Yoneyama
worked hard for his victory over Tamio Mori, a former bureaucrat with the
construction ministry, but when the voters stepped into the voting booths there
was a single issue that occupied their minds.
Mori and
the LDP want to restart the world's largest nuclear power station, the
sprawling Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, which lies on the prefecture's coast. They
insist that as Japan moves towards the sixth anniversary of the March 2011
earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant,
triggering the second-worst nuclear crisis in history, new safety measures have
been implemented that ensure the same thing could not happen in Niigata.
The voters
did not agree, with 528,455 supporting Yoneyama's pledge to not grant approval
for Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s (TEPCO) Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant to be
restarted. In comparison, 465,044 voted for Mori.
Nationwide
opposition
Those
figures are broadly replicated across Japan, with a poll conducted by the Asahi
Shimbun newspaper on October 15 and 16 determining that 57 percent of the
public is against the nation's nuclear power plants being restarted, and just
29 percent supporting the resumption of reactors that have nearly all been
mothballed since 2011.
At present,
only two of the nation's 54 reactors have been restarted - and that after much
wrangling through the courts after local residents and environmental groups
expressed their opposition.
Nevertheless,
a report issued by the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ) in July
predicts that seven additional reactors will be on-line by the end of March
next year and a further 12 will be operational one year later.
But as the
opinion polls show, the majority of the public is against a policy that the
government tells them is in the nation's best interests.
 |
| Poll: 57 percent of the public is against the nuclear power plants being restarted |
"Since
the accident at Fukushima, many people have realized the negatives that go
along with the positives of nuclear power, and they simply do not want to take
that sort of risk again," said Hiroko Moriwaki, a librarian who lives in
Tokyo.
"And
many think that we do not need to," she added. "Since the disaster,
the reactors have not been operational and look around you; we have all the
electricity that we need, there are no blackouts and everything is normal.
"Just
after the earthquake, we were told to do everything we could to save energy,
but not any more," Moriwaki told DW.
"So
maybe we have reached the point where we don't actually need nuclear energy and
that this is in fact an opportunity that the country can take advantage
of," she said.
Japan is an
advanced and industrialized nation with vast amounts of skills and technologies
that could be put to use to develop and then commercialize new sources of safe,
environment-friendly energy, she said.
As well as
solar and wind power, which are already visible across Japan, there are moves
afoot to harness Japan's tidal and wave energy, while vast amounts of potential
geothermal energy remain virtually untapped.
"We
have so much technology, so wouldn't it be best to divert some of that away
from more investment in nuclear energy and put it into fuel sources that are
safer and do not harm the environment at all?" Moriwaki asked.
 |
The government says Japanese
industry needs a secure supply
of energy |
Japan's
energy needs
Critics of
this approach - of which the government is one - say Japanese industry needs a
secure supply of energy right now and that Japan is presently importing 84
percent of its energy needs, primarily in the form of coal, gas and oil. And
that is both expensive and to blame for the nation's emissions of carbon
dioxide and other harmful greenhouse gases climbing.
Still, the
Japanese public is far from convinced that nuclear energy is the answer.
"It's
complicated and we keep hearing from the government how important it is to have
the nuclear plants operating again, but after Fukushima, I think, a lot of
people no longer trust the operators or the government," said Kanako
Hosomura, a housewife whose family home is north of Tokyo and only about 250 km
from the Fukushima plant.
Inquiries
after the disaster revealed that TEPCO ignored experts' warnings about the
potential size and power of tsunami and had failed to take precautions such as
ensuring a backup power supply in the event the generators used to cool the
reactors were out of operation.
The
government also came under fire after the media reported that it did not have a
full understanding of the severity of the crisis, while it was also issuing
statements that the situation was completely under control at the same time as
drawing up plans to evacuate tens of millions of people from a huge swathe of
eastern Japan.
"When
it comes down to it, I have a young son and a family and their safety is my
number one priority," said Hosomura. "Maybe Japan was lucky the
Fukushima disaster was not worse than it was. Maybe next time we will
not be so lucky."
 |
Map showing Japan's nuclear plants (AFP Photo)
|
Related Articles:
"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)
“... Japan
Let us talk for a moment about Japan, and then I'll close the day of messages. There are thousands of souls on my side of the veil and they're just fine, more than fine. We have spoken so often of what happens at the Wind of Birth. I told you, before they even came in, they saw the potential. I looked in their eyes. "You may not last long. You know that, don't you? You're coming into this planet and you may not be here very long. And the passing that you will have with your family will not be pleasant, if any ever are. Why would you come in anyway?" I want to tell you what they said. When a soul has the mind of God, it understands fully what generates peace and what generates energy shift. You can clearly see what generates what the planet needs the most when you are about to arrive. So they said, "We're going to be part of one of the biggest compassion events the planet has ever seen." One earthquake, one tsunami. All of those who left that day will change the earth forever. And it already has. It was the same for the last tsunami as well.
Every single one of them on my side of the veil is getting ready to come back. Many old souls were involved, and just for a moment, if they could give you any information, if they could talk to you right now, if they could speak your language and look into your eyes, they would thank you for your compassion for them and those who are left. And they would say, "Be with those family members who are still alive. Enter their hearts every day and give them peace and keep them from crying, because we're OK."
Nuclear Power Revealed
So let me tell you what else they did. They just showed you what's wrong with nuclear power. "Safe to the maximum," they said. "Our devices are strong and cannot fail." But they did. They are no match for Gaia.
It seems that for more than 20 years, every single time we sit in the chair and speak of electric power, we tell you that hundreds of thousands of tons of push/pull energy on a regular schedule is available to you. It is moon-driven, forever. It can make all of the electricity for all of the cities on your planet, no matter how much you use. There's no environmental impact at all. Use the power of the tides, the oceans, the waves in clever ways. Use them in a bigger way than any designer has ever put together yet, to power your cities. The largest cities on your planet are on the coasts, and that's where the power source is. Hydro is the answer. It's not dangerous. You've ignored it because it seems harder to engineer and it's not in a controlled environment. Yet, you've chosen to build one of the most complex and dangerous steam engines on Earth - nuclear power.
We also have indicated that all you have to do is dig down deep enough and the planet will give you heat. It's right below the surface, not too far away all the time. You'll have a Gaia steam engine that way, too. There's no danger at all and you don't have to dig that far. All you have to do is heat fluid, and there are some fluids that boil far faster than water. So we say it again and again. Maybe this will show you what's wrong with what you've been doing, and this will turn the attitudes of your science to create something so beautiful and so powerful for your grandchildren. Why do you think you were given the moon? Now you know.
This benevolent Universe gave you an astral body that allows the waters in your ocean to push and pull and push on the most regular schedule of anything you know of. Yet there you sit enjoying just looking at it instead of using it. It could be enormous, free energy forever, ready to be converted when you design the methods of capturing it. It's time.
So in closing, do you understand what you're seeing? You're seeing intelligent design, quantum energy and high consciousness. You are seeing changes in Human nature. You're seeing countries putting things together instead of separating. You are seeing those who don't want war and instead want peace, good schools for their children, safety in their streets and a say in their government. We told you it was going to happen this way. I want my partner to teach these things that I have said in his 3D lectures for awhile. Many won't be able to know these things otherwise. …”
