In September 2006, Kansai Electric Power Co. restarted the aging No. 3 reactor at its Mihama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture and informed the town of plans to operate it for an additional decade.
In September 2006, Kansai Electric Power Co. restarted the aging No. 3 reactor at its Mihama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture and informed the town of plans to operate it for an additional decade.
In that fiscal year, after a dry spell of three years, Mihama received about 1.2 billion yen ($15.4 million) in anonymous donations. The following year, 1 billion yen in anonymous donations poured into the town.
Town officials have refused to say where the money came from. But an investigation by The Asahi Shimbun shows that electric power companies have provided a huge amount of anonymous donations not only to Mihama, but also to other municipalities that host nuclear power facilities in Fukui Prefecture.
Through requests for information disclosure, The Asahi Shimbun found that at least 50.2 billion yen in large anonymous donations were made over the years until fiscal 2010 to Fukui Prefecture and four municipalities.
The prefecture is home to 15 nuclear reactors, including one now being dismantled, the largest number in Japan.
About 30 percent of those donations, or 15 billion yen, came from Kansai Electric and other companies that operate nuclear facilities in the prefecture, according to the findings.
"There are almost no large anonymous donations from companies other than those connected to the electric power sector," a local government source said.
The large anonymous donations have continued even after the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, sources said.
And the anonymous donation to Mihama in fiscal 2006 came after the No. 3 reactor, which had been in operation for 30 years, was the site of an accident in August 2004 that killed five workers and injured six.
The donations to the local governments were made anonymously because the companies apparently do not want to reveal the extent of their influence. But they came on top of the huge government grants paid to municipalities that host nuclear power plants.
Between fiscal 1974 and 2009, the government paid 324.5 billion yen in grants from electric bills paid by corporate and household users.
The Asahi Shimbun determined that Kansai Electric donated 5.2 billion yen in fiscal 1992 for the construction of a Fukui prefectural university.
The company also made anonymous donations of 3 billion yen between fiscal 2005 and 2010 to convert electricity transmission to direct current for the JR Hokuriku and Kosei lines as well as donations of 5.7 billion yen between fiscal 2000 and 2004 for the electrification of the JR Obama Line.
Kansai Electric officials acknowledged that the company cooperated in those projects, but they did not divulge how much the utility actually donated.
Japan Atomic Power Co. and Hokuriku Electric Power Co. had earlier told The Asahi Shimbun that they also contributed some of the donations. But officials of the two companies said they could not respond to the latest questions.
Another case involves a donation in fiscal 1998 of 5.85 billion yen for the opening of the Wakasa Wan Energy Research Center.
Sources told The Asahi Shimbun that year that some of the money came from Kansai Electric. But officials of the prefectural government and electric power companies now say they cannot disclose any details.
Financial records after fiscal 1965 were also obtained for the city of Tsuruga, home to the Monju fast-breeder reactor operated by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency and the Tsuruga nuclear power plant run by Japan Atomic Power.
Between 1969, the year before the Tsuruga nuclear plant began operations, and 2011, a total of 7.55 billion yen in anonymous donations were made either individually or collectively to Tsuruga. Additional research found that those donations came from Japan Atomic Power, Hokuriku Electric, Kansai Electric and an entity that has since merged into the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.
Tsuruga also received 180 million yen in donations from Japan Atomic Power in March after the Fukushima nuclear accident started.
City officials said no documents with the names of the donors existed for all other donations.
Officials of Oi, which hosts Kansai Electric's Oi nuclear power plant, and Takahama, home to the Takahama nuclear power plant also operated by Kansai Electric, said they checked documents for the past 30 years.
Based on those documents, officials said donations from Kansai Electric totaled 900 million yen for Oi and 1.29 billion yen for Takahama.
Officials of Kansai Electric and Japan Atomic Power said they could not disclose details about corporate donations.
Mihama officials only said a total of 5.53 billion yen in anonymous donations had been received between fiscal 1991 and 2010. They did not reveal the donors' names.
As shown by the Mihama case, the anonymous donations to the four municipalities in Fukui Prefecture were often made when additional reactors were being built or immediately after accidents at a nuclear plant.
Another example is a 13.6-hectare athletic park in Oi, which has a population of about 8,800. The complex includes a baseball field with stands, a training gym, lighted artificial turf tennis courts as well as lodging facilities.
The predecessor to the current town agreed in 1985 to allow the construction of two additional reactors. Between fiscal 1985 and 2010, Oi received 4.72 billion yen in anonymous donations to go toward paying for landfill expenses and construction of the gymnasium.
The town received no such anonymous donations in the three years until fiscal 1984.
A town government official would not divulge where the anonymous donations came from, but only said, "We believe the donor understood the situation in the local community."
Kansai Electric officials said they could neither confirm nor deny that the company made donations for the park.