Tomoyo Nonaka knows how hard it can be to overcome resistance to new green thinking.
Tomoyo Nonaka knows how hard it can be to overcome resistance to new green thinking.
The former CEO of Sanyo Electric Co., who will preside over the main discussion sessions at the Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World in Yokohama on Jan. 14-15, tried to introduce a radical environmental strategy at Sanyo Electric between 2005 and 2007.
“I had a vision. But investors were eyeing quick returns instead,” she says, blaming a short-term focus on profits instead of long-term benefits for the chilly reception to her Think Gaia plan and her eventual departure from the company, which is wholly owned subsidiary of Panasonic Corp.
After integrating Sanyo Electric’s business arms to encourage horizontal technological cooperation and innovation, she oversaw the release of 12 industry-first products, including a washing machine that uses ozone technology instead of water, batteries that can be recharged 1,500 times, and solar-powered air conditioners.
Nonaka’s vision has been vindicated since she left, with the runaway success of Think Gaia products, including Sanyo’s highly efficient photovoltaic solar panels.
“Japanese technology is still amazing,” she says. “Look at the advances made with hybrid vehicles. But we need a vision to move forward.”
Nonaka, who now heads the environmental organization Gaia Initiative, hopes the Yokohama conference, the largest anti-nuclear gathering in Japan since the Fukushima disaster, will play a part in forming that vision.
“Nuclear power is not an appropriate technology for human beings,” she says. “Even if you agree that it’s usually safe and the earthquake and tsunami were unforeseeable, we produce so much nuclear waste that has to be taken care of for 100,000 years. How can we trust the next generation to do that?”
She says there are two things necessary to end our reliance on nuclear power: renewable energy solutions and vision.
“At Sanyo, we needed a vision to evolve,” she says. “The anti-nuclear movement’s vision is, ‘Let’s make a society that doesn’t rely on nuclear power.’ It’s not a matter of ideology or being right or left wing, it’s about the future of humanity.”
Activists, politicians and international experts will be descending on Yokohama to examine what happened at Fukushima and present a vision of a nuclear-power-free future by stimulating discussion in civil society, according to Tatsuya Yoshioka, the director of Peace Boat, which is organizing the event with NGOs including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Green Action.
More than 8,000 people have applied to attend more than 100 sessions, forums and performances spanning the weekend. Topics including protecting oneself from radiation exposure to energy policy and concrete plans for building a renewable energy future in Asia will be covered by industry experts, Diet members and local government leaders.
At the closing ceremony, Peace Boat and its partner NGOs will be among 311 signers of a declaration demanding a world free of nuclear power that they hope will form the basis of a global civil society network opposing nuclear power.
The timing of the conference is fortuitous, according to Aileen Mioko Smith, a journalist and environmental activist who also heads up co-organizers Green Action.
“In two days there will be only five nuclear power plants online in Japan, and by May it will be zero as long as there are no restarts. Never in the world has there been an opportunity to phase out nuclear power so rapidly,” Smith told a news conference in Tokyo on Jan. 11.
Preventing the reactors from going back online after undergoing stress tests is one of the objectives of the Yokohama conference and the anti-nuclear movement as a whole.
With 39 international speakers from countries such as China, Australia and Germany--which announced in 2011 that it would be phasing out nuclear power--the organizers hope to stimulate dialogue by sharing experiences and expertise on the topic.
The conference will feature question-and-answer sessions with international experts, a review of current anti-nuclear movements, presentations on renewable energy projects and discussion of the cozy cronyism between government officials, nuclear power utilities and academics that has supported the nuclear industry.
There will be an artist’s lounge, a film festival inspired by the anti-nuclear theme, and child-friendly workshops and activities particularly aimed at families invited from Fukushima Prefecture.
“There are people who are saying it’s impossible to quit our reliance on nuclear power,” says Nonaka. “But if people had told JFK it was impossible that a man could walk on the moon, it never would have happened. ... If you drag your feet, there’ll never be a revolution.”
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The Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World will be held at the Pacifico Yokohama on Jan. 14 and 15. See http://npfree.jp/english.html for more details.