March 31, 2012

An Unquiet People

/TIME, March 19, 2012, Page 40-42/

Introduction

   This article is remarkable especially for Japanese. It reveals the rising civil society in Japan, the diversity of opinions related to nuclear power, and a domestic conflict between pro-nuke and anti-nuke groups. Conflict itself has been unconsciously avoided because of our traditional value that put emphasis on harmony and consensus. But this topic suggests that is not any more. 

Briefing

   An Earthquake and Tsunami 1 year ago, and a following nuclear disaster has changed ordinary people into civil activists. They used to be a house wife, a businessman, or a scholar before, but now they fight over the nuclear power plant, government’s ability in emergency, and massive debris caused by the disaster. 

   Major opinion regarding nukes is that it should be reduced or phased out, but not everyone is against nuclear power. Some activists, like Kyoto University assistant professor, Mr. Koide, makes up a campaign against nukes, but some activists in Fukushima insist that health risk is overestimated and such a misunderstandings are destroying rural economy. 

   Japan has to decide whether to maintain nuclear power or not, however, economical conflicts will not make it easily. Shifting to fossil fuel is not realistic solution because that costs too much. Another problem is how many rural community subsidized for neighbor nuclear plant can survive without nuclear industry. 

Opinion

    I cannot tell you which is a better way, because there are too many stakeholders in this problem, and it is not clear about how much benefit or risk we will gain by the decision, it may be even impossible to calculate. I think we are facing a huge problem beyond our government’s control, and this is the very reason why each individuals should discuss the problem and demonstrate our own opinions to the government. In other words, we need to use the civil activity to build up a new decision making system based on people’s opinion.