information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise
4 Février 2014
February 3, 2014
The ruling coalition is going all out to defeat former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa in the Feb. 9 Tokyo gubernatorial election and stifle his flamboyant supporter’s calls for Japan to abolish nuclear energy.
The strategy appears to be working, according to an Asahi Shimbun poll.
“The Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito are throwing all their weight behind him,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in Tokyo’s Ginza district Feb. 2 while canvassing support for Yoichi Masuzoe, 65.
New Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi chimed in, standing side by side with Abe and Masuzoe on the campaign vehicle.
“The metropolitan government and the national government will join hands to make Tokyo No. 1 in the world,” he said.
Abe and Yamaguchi hit the streets for Masuzoe, a former welfare minister, for the first time since campaigning started Jan. 23 to ensure his victory over Hosokawa, 76, and other rivals.
Hosokawa is focusing on a zero-nuclear platform, and is backed by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, another staunch opponent to the Abe administration’s pro-nuclear policy.
“We expect the election to prove that whether to phase out nuclear energy will not become a point of contention anymore,” a senior LDP official said.
A senior coalition official said the government feels that Masuzoe must prevail at any cost because the election outcome will be tantamount to a midterm report card for the Abe administration.
A victory by Hosokawa could deal a serious blow to the administration’s policy to restart idled reactors once they are declared safe by nuclear regulators.
Government and coalition officials have downplayed the nuclear energy debate, emphasizing it is not the only issue in the election.
Masuzoe, Abe and Yamaguchi all skirted the nuclear energy issue Feb. 2.
“Tokyo is facing a number of challenges,” Yamaguchi said. “A single-issue election will make Tokyo residents unhappy.”
Ministers of the Abe Cabinet, as well as LDP Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba, began campaigning for Masuzoe in late January after opinion polls indicated he was in the lead.
An Asahi Shimbun survey conducted Feb. 1-2 showed that Masuzoe has maintained the momentum shown in the previous survey Jan. 25-26.
Masuzoe, who is broadly backed by LDP and New Komeito supporters, has gained support from 40 percent of unaffiliated voters, according to the survey.
Hosokawa has secured backing from some supporters of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, but support among unaffiliated voters remains at 20 percent.
Government officials hope that a landslide victory by Masuzoe will silence the increasingly vociferous Koizumi, whom one senior official described as an “eyesore.”
“If Hosokawa loses, Koizumi will not be able to come out in front anymore,” a senior government official said.
On Feb. 2, 30 minutes after Abe left, Hosokawa and Koizumi addressed thousands of voters in Ginza.
Hosokawa compared the Tokyo election to an attempt to change the direction of Japanese civilization.
“We will have Japan develop without nuclear plants,” Koizumi said.
Although Hosokawa is drawing large crowds for his speeches, a senior official in his camp is worried about his chances in the election.
“People come to see and hear Koizumi,” the official said. “Support for zero nuclear plants has not necessarily become widespread.”
Media opinion polls have shown that the economy and welfare are greater concerns among Tokyo voters.
Hosokawa has recently spoken more about issues other than nuclear energy, such as measures to deal with Japan’s declining birthrate and the aging of society.
Candidate Kenji Utsunomiya, 67, former president of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, is also calling for a move away from nuclear energy.
A senior official of his camp said the anti-nuclear vote has been split between Utsunomiya and Hosokawa.
Utsunomiya garnered 960,000 votes in the 2012 Tokyo gubernatorial election. But the official said it appears that he will be unable to gain as many votes if support fails to widen.
February 2, 2014
Tokyo election goes nuclear
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/02/02/national/tokyo-election-goes-nuclear/#.Uu9LXrTrV1s
Staff Writer
Whether the powers that be liked it or not, nuclear power took center stage in a debate involving four major candidates for the Tokyo gubernatorial election that was streamed live on the Internet Saturday.
Three of the candidates came out firmly against atomic power.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration has done its best to keep the issue out of voters’ minds ahead of Sunday’s race, framing it as a national, rather than local, concern.
Packed with Abe allies, public broadcaster NHK appears to be downplaying the matter. A noted economics professor resigned last week as a commentator after being told not to discuss the nuclear issue until after the election on Sunday “to ensure fairness.”
But the debate, hosted by seven online firms including Dwango Co., Ustream Asia Inc. and Yahoo Japan Corp., has shown that nuclear power is very much an issue outside the mainstream.
“We have to break away from the system that depends on nuclear energy in the long run, considering the dismal state (caused by the Fukushima crisis),” former health minister Yoichi Masuzoe, 65, said during the 90-minute debate, which, according to the organizers, was seen by some 170,000 people.
Previously noncommittal on the issue, Masuzoe said new energy sources, including shale gas and renewables, could be developed to reduce Japan’s dependence on atomic power.
Former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, running on an anti-nuclear platform, stressed that the issue is relevant to Tokyo residents.
“The principal duty of the Tokyo governor is to protect the lives of its citizens. . . . The nuclear issue would directly affect the people’s lives,” Hosokawa, 76, said.
If elected, Hosokawa said the metropolitan government would ask Tokyo Electric Power Co. to start using more renewable energy sources to replace nuclear power.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is the fourth-largest shareholder in the utility, with a stake of 1.20 percent.
Another opponent is Kenji Utsunomiya, former chairman of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations.
“Nuclear power generation is not suitable in Japan, which has been hit by many earthquakes and tsunami,” the 67-year-old said. “We should not restart the idled reactors.”
Utsunomiya warned of the possibility of huge expenditures being needed to compensate nuclear accident victims and the high cost of decommissioning any reactors involved in a nuclear power plant accident.
Taking the opposite view, Toshio Tamogami, a former chief of the Air Self-Defense Force, said that nuclear power has been made sufficiently safe and was vital to Japan from an economic perspective.
The higher electricity rates stemming from the cost of importing fuel for the traditional power plants being used to offset the absence of atomic power is weighting heavily on small and midsize firms, the 65-year-old Tamagami said.
“I think many of those firms would go bankrupt” if the reactors are kept offline, Tamogami argued. “We could provide enough energy with the use of nuclear power plants and it could contribute to growth of the nation’s gross domestic product.”
Another issue the candidates debated was the proposal to legalize casinos. Some lawmakers want to build casino resorts in time for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.
Hosokawa and Utsunomiya are firmly against the idea, citing the detrimental influence they would have on young people and the threat of gambling addiction.
Tamogami, on the other hand, said casinos would attract wealthy tourists from around the world.
Masuzoe hedged, saying only that the matter needs further study and debate.
Turning to the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, Masuzoe said he would like the Olympics and Paralympics to be the best and most hospitable ever and urged all citizens to cooperate.
“I’d like participating countries to hold training camps in the Tama area (west of the 23 wards). . . . I also urge citizens to learn English so that all can be a guide (to visiting athletes and guests),” he said.
Tamogami said by holding a “lavish” Olympics he would like to hear foreign athletes and guests say they want to return to Tokyo.
“Japan has been suffering from deflation, and spending on public works projects could contribute to the economic recovery. I’d like to hold the best-ever Olympics in history by investing heavily (in key facilities),” he said.
Hosokawa said he would like to hold a “sustainable” Olympics, indicating plans to review the extravagant facilities being planned, and bring about a successful Olympics that makes use of renewable energy instead of nuclear power.
Hosokawa also said he would like to share the benefits from the Olympics and Paralympics with the people of Tohoku.
Lawyer Utsunomiya said he sees the need to make the Olympics simple and environmentally friendly without spending large amounts of money and by refurbishing existing facilities.
Utsunomiya also pointed to the need to make the city easier for the disabled to live in to have a successful Paralympics. Efforts should be made to make the city more barrier-free, he said.
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