Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said yesterday that the country must gradually reduce its reliance on atomic power with the eventual goal of becoming nuclear-free.
Four months after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered the Fukushima nuclear accident, the world’s worst since Chernobyl 25 years ago, Kan has repeatedly argued that Japan must focus more on renewable sources of energy.
“By reducing its reliance on nuclear power gradually, we will aim to become a society which can exist without nuclear power,” Kan said at a televised press conference. “Considering the grave risk of nuclear accidents, we strongly feel that we cannot just carry on based on the belief that we must only try to ensure [nuclear] safety.”
Kan earlier announced a full review of Japan’s energy plan, under which atomic power had been set to meet more than half of demand by 2030.
Kan said he wants to make renewables such as solar, wind and geothermal a new “major pillar” of the industrial power’s energy mix.
“If everything goes as scheduled, a renewable energy bill will be discussed in the Diet [legislature] starting tomorrow,” Kan said.
The prime minister, Japan’s fifth in as many years, made the speech at a time when he is under intense pressure to step down from political adversaries who accuse him of having bungled Japan’s response to the tsunami.
Kan has butted heads with plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) over the Fukushima accident.
Kan’s skepticism about boosting nuclear power in the quake-prone nation has also set him on a collision course with pro-nuclear lawmakers, both in the conservative opposition and within his own party.
The earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima plant, which has suffered meltdowns, explosions and radiation leaks into the air, soil and sea.
With all but 19 of Japan’s 54 reactors now shut, mostly for regular checks, Japan is going through a power crunch in the sweltering summer months, and there are fears that outages could slow the already limping economy.
“There are worries about power supply in Japan,” Japanese Minister of Economy Kaoru Yosano said earlier yesterday. “Manufacturers may well consider moving plants to a country with a stable electricity supply or cheaper labor.”
Anti-nuclear sentiment in Japan has grown since the Fukushima disaster and thousands have since protested at a string of rallies against TEPCO and nuclear power and for a shift toward alternative energy.
Telecoms giant Softbank has announced plans to build 10 solar power plants. Softbank president Masayoshi Son and 36 of Japan’s 47 prefectures launched a council yesterday aimed at boosting renewable sources of energy.
The liberal, mass-circulation Asahi Shimbun yesterday called for a shift toward a nuclear-free society within two or three decades.
It pointed at an ongoing energy saving campaign, in which companies in Japan’s northeast are being asked to cut back use by 15 percent, adding that if it works, it proves that Japan can live without atomic power.
“How about setting a target of reducing [atomic power] to zero within 20 years, to urge people to make their utmost efforts, and to review the plan every few years?” the newspaper suggested in its editorial.
India yesterday summoned Canada’s high commissioner in India to “convey strong concern” over Sikh protesters in Canada and how they were allowed to breach the security of India’s diplomatic mission and consulates. Canadian media reported that hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the Indian consulate in Vancouver on Saturday over demands for an independent Sikh state, a simmering issue for decades that was triggered again in the past few weeks. Canada has the highest population of Sikhs outside their home state of Punjab in India. “It is expected that the Canadian government will take all steps which are required to ensure the
CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS: The US destroyer’s routine operations in the South China Sea would have ‘serious consequences,’ the defense ministry said China yesterday threatened “serious consequences” after the US Navy sailed a destroyer around the disputed Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) in the South China Sea for the second day in a row, in a move Beijing claimed was a breach of its sovereignty and security. The warning came amid growing tensions between China and the US in the region, as Washington pushes back at Beijing’s growingly assertive posture in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway it claims virtually in its entirety. On Thursday, after the US sailed the USS Milius guided-missile destroyer near the Paracel Islands, China said its navy and
The US Department of Justice on Friday unveiled spying charges against a Russian who, under a Brazilian alias, studied at a Washington university and then tried to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The indictment of Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov said it would try to contest his extradition to Russia from Brazil, where he is jailed on identity fraud charges. Cherkasov, 39, was detained at the beginning of April last year by Dutch authorities for using fake identity papers. He arrived in the country as Viktor Muller Ferreira, a Brazilian, to take a position at the ICC as a junior analyst. The
The Japanese government has made tackling its falling birthrate a top priority, but with few women involved in official debate on the issue, some are making themselves heard on social media. Japan recorded fewer than 800,000 births last year, the lowest in the nation of 125 million since records began. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has warned the trend threatens “whether we can continue to function as a society,” and fresh focus on the issue has sparked countless articles. However, one in particular, which said Japan has the highest ratio in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development of women aged 50
RSS