The ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) put forward to the Japanese government on September 7 a proposal for the country’s mid- and long-term energy policy, which has been compiled based on the opinions put together at DPJ’s energy and environment research committee. While the proposal commits to the future goal of zero-nuclear society, it leaves some latitude in the timetable by setting a broad date of the 2030s as the target for achieving the goal. Although it touches on several issues to be addressed in the future, including the expansion of energy conservation efforts and renewable energy use along with nuclear fuel cycle and global warming countermeasures, the practicability of the proposed policy appears to be questionable as it lacks concrete plans for implementation.
The committee began its discussions on August 24 after the government completed a national debate process on the energy policy. General and executive meetings were held almost every day to work out the proposal. Following a hearing to receive governmental views, the committee held discussions from September 4 based on the draft proposal that had been narrowed down to key items at the executive meetings. While several new items were added during the process, the basic policy to pursue zero-nuclear society remained in the proposal.
During the final stages of the discussions, opinions were divided among the committee members over the wording for the timetable for a transition to zero-nuclear power. Even after it was decided at a general meeting to entrust the matter to the executive members, the subsequent executive meeting did not proceed smoothly. After a lengthy discussion that lasted over two hours, the party finally resolved on stating the timetable as “the 2030s.”
Makoto Yagi, chairman of the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, released his comments saying that the DPJ’s policy was “extremely alarming.” He believes that eliminating the option of nuclear power “will inevitably have a grave impact” on various aspects including energy security, economy, national life, global environmental issues, and securing human resources for the nuclear power industry. Yagi also expressed his concern that the DPJ policy ignored the sentiments of nuclear power plant hosting communities that have been rendering their cooperation under the past national policy [to promote nuclear power], and the proposed policy may pose a threat of losing the trust of such communities. He firmly urged the government to avoid eliminating the option of nuclear power when developing the national energy policy in the coming weeks.
