126 P. MIDFORD
Notes
1. The date of the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami, and the nuclear
accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
2. The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the first accident that seriously
challenged public trust in the safety of nuclear power. In response,
Japanese regulators imposed new safety rules that required more frequent
and longer reactor shutdowns for safety inspections, thereby reducing
utilization rates of nuclear power plants.
3. Regarding the rise and fall of support for nuclear power before 2011 see
Midford (2014), Shibata and Tomokiyo (2014).
4. 「原発に依存しない社会を目指すべき」. Kan claims he began thinking
that Japan needed to abandon nuclear power a week after the Fukushima
nuclear accident (Shizen enerugi- kenky¯ ukai 2012, pp. 68–69).
5. See Ohta’s chapter for greater detail.
6. Some politicians in the ruling DPJ, notably former Prime Minister Kan,
had a more ambitious plan. He formed a “Zero Nuclear Roadmap Study
League” within the DPJ and came up with a proposal for phasing out
nuclear power by 2025 (Shizen enerugi- kenky¯ ukai 2012, pp. 90–94).
7. This image for policy incompetence was created by Hatoyama Yukio, the
DPJ’s first prime minister, and Kan and Noda, despite their best efforts,
were unable to rebuild the party’s image (Midford 2013).
8. Abe allies, such as right-wing journalist Sakurai Yoshiko, have railed
against the NRA’s strict regulations as not being based on science
and “erasing Japan’s vitality.” She also criticized “evil” solar PV for
contributing to landslides on hillsides where they are deployed and falsely
claiming that China and Germany are moving away from solar (Sakurai
2018, 2020). Her views are probably close to Abe’s personal views,
although not his policies.
9. By 2019, this amount had reached 767 Yen per average household per
month (about USD 80 per year) (Mainichi 2019).
10. METI’s actual 2015 estimate was 17–18% for nuclear power and 19–20%
for renewables, but it raised the number for both based on assuming
energy conservation (METI 2015, p. 8).
11. The figure shows essentially the same results regarding opposition to
restarts, but the Yomiuri poll has a somewhat higher support rate for
restarts than does the Asahi poll, although that higher rate is nonetheless
a decided minority.
12. However, the distinction between installed capacity and electricity generation needs to be remembered. Solar produces almost no electricity at
night, and at a significantly reduced level on a cloudy day. Depending
on the average solar radiance for a particular location, and the type of
PV facility (e.g., whether it has panels that rotate to follow the sun),
Notes
1. The date of the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami, and the nuclear
accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
2. The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the first accident that seriously
challenged public trust in the safety of nuclear power. In response,
Japanese regulators imposed new safety rules that required more frequent
and longer reactor shutdowns for safety inspections, thereby reducing
utilization rates of nuclear power plants.
3. Regarding the rise and fall of support for nuclear power before 2011 see
Midford (2014), Shibata and Tomokiyo (2014).
4. 「原発に依存しない社会を目指すべき」. Kan claims he began thinking
that Japan needed to abandon nuclear power a week after the Fukushima
nuclear accident (Shizen enerugi- kenky¯ ukai 2012, pp. 68–69).
5. See Ohta’s chapter for greater detail.
6. Some politicians in the ruling DPJ, notably former Prime Minister Kan,
had a more ambitious plan. He formed a “Zero Nuclear Roadmap Study
League” within the DPJ and came up with a proposal for phasing out
nuclear power by 2025 (Shizen enerugi- kenky¯ ukai 2012, pp. 90–94).
7. This image for policy incompetence was created by Hatoyama Yukio, the
DPJ’s first prime minister, and Kan and Noda, despite their best efforts,
were unable to rebuild the party’s image (Midford 2013).
8. Abe allies, such as right-wing journalist Sakurai Yoshiko, have railed
against the NRA’s strict regulations as not being based on science
and “erasing Japan’s vitality.” She also criticized “evil” solar PV for
contributing to landslides on hillsides where they are deployed and falsely
claiming that China and Germany are moving away from solar (Sakurai
2018, 2020). Her views are probably close to Abe’s personal views,
although not his policies.
9. By 2019, this amount had reached 767 Yen per average household per
month (about USD 80 per year) (Mainichi 2019).
10. METI’s actual 2015 estimate was 17–18% for nuclear power and 19–20%
for renewables, but it raised the number for both based on assuming
energy conservation (METI 2015, p. 8).
11. The figure shows essentially the same results regarding opposition to
restarts, but the Yomiuri poll has a somewhat higher support rate for
restarts than does the Asahi poll, although that higher rate is nonetheless
a decided minority.
12. However, the distinction between installed capacity and electricity generation needs to be remembered. Solar produces almost no electricity at
night, and at a significantly reduced level on a cloudy day. Depending
on the average solar radiance for a particular location, and the type of
PV facility (e.g., whether it has panels that rotate to follow the sun),