CHAPTER 4
Japan’s Nuclear Safety Regulation Policy
Florentine Koppenborg
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
Accident 1 and Its Aftermath
On 11 March 2011, the so-called triple disaster (3/11) shook Japan’s
energy policy to its core. It consisted of a magnitude nine earthquake
and a resulting tsunami, which, together, caused a meltdown in three of
six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The nuclear
accident directly impacted Japan’s energy policy and, by extension,
Japan’s climate policy. It also caused large anti-nuclear demonstrations 2
(Hasegawa 2014) and a shift in public opinion towards a more critical
stance on nuclear power 3 (Shibata and Tomokiyo 2014). Around the
I would like to express my gratitude to the editors Paul Midford and Espen
Moe for the invitation to a book workshop in Trondheim in 2018. I am
immensely grateful for the comments I received from the editors and workshop
participants’ comments on an earlier version of the manuscript, although any
errors are my own. I thank Fiona Kinniburgh (Technical University Munich) for
assistance with English language editing.
F. Koppenborg (B)
Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany
© The Author(s) 2021
P. Midford and E. Moe (eds.), New Challenges and Solutions
for Renewable Energy, International Political Economy Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54514-7_4
77
Japan’s Nuclear Safety Regulation Policy
Florentine Koppenborg
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
Accident 1 and Its Aftermath
On 11 March 2011, the so-called triple disaster (3/11) shook Japan’s
energy policy to its core. It consisted of a magnitude nine earthquake
and a resulting tsunami, which, together, caused a meltdown in three of
six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The nuclear
accident directly impacted Japan’s energy policy and, by extension,
Japan’s climate policy. It also caused large anti-nuclear demonstrations 2
(Hasegawa 2014) and a shift in public opinion towards a more critical
stance on nuclear power 3 (Shibata and Tomokiyo 2014). Around the
I would like to express my gratitude to the editors Paul Midford and Espen
Moe for the invitation to a book workshop in Trondheim in 2018. I am
immensely grateful for the comments I received from the editors and workshop
participants’ comments on an earlier version of the manuscript, although any
errors are my own. I thank Fiona Kinniburgh (Technical University Munich) for
assistance with English language editing.
F. Koppenborg (B)
Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany
© The Author(s) 2021
P. Midford and E. Moe (eds.), New Challenges and Solutions
for Renewable Energy, International Political Economy Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54514-7_4
77