EDITORIAL: It's time for the people to speak out on energy policy

In a popular referendum held in Italy, more than 90 percent of Italians said "no" to the resumption of nuclear power generation in their country.

With Germany decommissioning all its nuclear power plants by 2020 and Switzerland scrapping its reactors by 2034, the result of the Italian plebiscite was another instance of vehement opposition to nuclear power generation dictating politics in Europe.

Since the March meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, public opinion has swung markedly against nuclear power generation.

But how about Japan?

Gubernatorial elections were held in April in Fukui and Saga prefectures, and then in Aomori in June. All three prefectures have nuclear power plants, but whether to keep or discontinue them did not become a focal election issue, leaving anti-nuclear voters without a rallying point.

How do we explain this gap in voter behavior between Japan and Europe?

In May, Prime Minister Naoto Kan asked the Hamaoka nuclear power plant to be shut down, but this was only to be a temporary measure until the facility's safety from tsunami could be secured. As such, his decision had nothing to do with the country's overall energy policy.

The Diet is just as indecisive. Every political party supports greater reliance on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, but the Diet has not even begun deliberating on a bill to introduce a system that will let power companies purchase electricity generated by sun, wind and other sources at high prices.

This state of politics owes to the fact that Japan has always pursued nuclear power generation as a national policy.

We've always had central government officials and their allies in the "nuclear village" jointly making policy decisions and getting local residents to support their decisions by offering them subsidies and promises of absolute safety.

And it is also a fact that voters rarely had to think seriously about nuclear power generation because both the Democratic Party of Japan and the Liberal Democratic Party support it.

But nobody today believes in the "safety myth." Monetary damages the Fukushima meltdown has caused the locals are far greater than the subsidies they have received. Moreover, the locals are now being made acutely aware that their children and grandchildren will also likely suffer the consequences.

We, the people, must not remain silent any longer. Our country's energy policy will decide our future. How can we ever leave such a crucial decision to the "authorities" and whichever way the political wind may blow? It is up to us to choose our energy policy and accept responsibility for it.

People who think along these lines are now coming together, reorganizing what began sporadically as local anti-nuclear rallies into nationwide demonstrations.

How are the political parties going to deal with this unprecedented surge of popular anti-nuclear sentiment? We will closely watch the progress of a suprapartisan study group that was formed recently in the Diet.

But more importantly, we must deepen our discourse and speak out more.

It will not be easy to hold a popular referendum. But if it's just about nuclear power generation, the former town of Maki (currently the city of Niigata) in Niigata Prefecture has already experienced one.

Concerning nuclear power plants that are currently out of operation, we suggest that all nearby cities, towns and villages take part in plebiscites to determine whether the plants should be reopened.

Our future is ours to decide, and we cannot stress this enough.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 15