A citizens’ advocacy group set up to press for referendums on the use of nuclear power says it has collected enough signatures in Osaka to petition the city government for a vote on the issue.
A citizens’ advocacy group set up to press for referendums on the use of nuclear power says it has collected enough signatures in Osaka to petition the city government for a vote on the issue.
The group, called Minnadekimeyo Genpatsu Kokumintohyo (Let’s have referendums to decide on nuclear power), will submit its list of 50,000 signatures to the city’s board of elections on Jan. 16.
If the board confirms the list, the group will be able to officially petition Mayor Toru Hashimoto to submit the ordinances necessary for a referendum. A direct popular vote would also need the backing of the city’s assembly.
The group began gathering signatures on Dec. 10 in Tokyo and Osaka, with a Jan. 9 deadline imposed in Osaka. It said the number of signatures reached 50,000, more than the 2 percent of voters, or 42,673 signatures, required to press for a referendum, as of Jan. 9. The total is expected to grow to about 53,500, according to the group.
The group is still well short of the support it needs to press for a vote in Tokyo. With just one month left before the deadline for submitting signatures on Feb. 9, only 78,240 signatures had been collected as of Jan. 8. That was less than one-third of the 214,236 required to petition the governor of Tokyo to adopt referendum ordinances, the group said at a Jan. 9 meeting in Tokyo.
The group is still targeting 300,000 signatures in the capital.
“We are aware that we are in a difficult position to achieve our target, but we can still make it if we try even harder,” a representative from its administrative office said.
A referendum in Osaka would be the first direct popular vote in Japan on the nuclear power issue outside of municipalities hosting or considering hosting nuclear power plants.