Japanese energy policy started in 1953.We were stimulated by Eisenhower’s address in the UN in 1953,which was called “Atoms For Peace”. Japan was attacked by USA’s atomic bomb in 1945.Many Japanese people died. After WW2 we studied that the development of new energy would be necessary in order to overcome American and European countries. Many young students who studied technology were interested in nuclear energy and the government also thought that it was important for our country’s development to construct the nuclear plants.
In 1957 the first plant started on a trial basis in Tokai-mura of Ibaraki prefecture. We were pleased to have a nuclear plant and believed to catch up with American & European countries. But unfortunately there are many earthquakes and Tsunami in Japan. Nuclear power has itself high risk in our country. The Japanese government built a strong wall as a counterdefence. We have been accepting nuclear power’s risk trading off prosperity since 1957. Toyota and Mitsubishi,Toshiba・・・big companies which represented the core of Japanese industry sustained by nuclear power. And GDP has been increasing in direct corrrelation to enormous electricity.
After Fukushima’s disaster, we Japanese can’t make a decision whether to scrap the nuclear plant or not , change to a new energy policy, or go back to the Syowa era before industrialized life style.
The emotional side of public opinion leads to abandon nuclear power, but it is difficult for realists and scientists to scrap nuclear plant, which leads to a decline to the third class of industrialized countries.
Perhaps the time has come to reconsider the our life style. We need to pass on the lessons we have learnt from disaster.
