Interest is fading in the weekly anti-nuclear protests near the prime minister's office that once attracted thousands of people and pressed the government to adopt a policy of phasing out nuclear power in Japan.
Interest is fading in the weekly anti-nuclear protests near the prime minister's office that once attracted thousands of people and pressed the government to adopt a policy of phasing out nuclear power in Japan.
On March 1, only 200 to 300 people joined the protest outside the Diet building in central Tokyo.
Despite the decreasing number of protesters, illustrator Misao Redwolf, one of the main organizers of the rallies held every Friday, said they must continue delivering their message to the government, which is now led by the pro-nuclear Liberal Democratic Party.
“We’d like to remind people at the center of government that there is something we should never forget,” Redwolf said. “However, it is true that it is becoming difficult for everyone to continue to be interested in the nuclear issue two years after the accident. I am most worried about public interest fading away over time.”
The protests started about a year after the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on March 11, 2011.
The protest size peaked in the summer last year, when reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture were restarted. Several tens of thousands of people, including parents with children, homemakers, students, senior citizens and employees on their way back from work, crowded the area around the government buildings.
“No restarts,” they shouted. “Don’t bring nuclear power plants back online.”
Public opposition toward nuclear power prompted the previous administration of the Democratic Party of Japan to adopt an energy policy to halt operations of nuclear power plants by the 2030s.
According to the DPJ government's "deliberative poll" conducted last summer, nearly half of the respondents supported a nuclear phaseout by 2030. The government also received opinions by fax and other means, in which almost 90 percent backed a no-nuclear policy.
The DPJ administration initially assumed that nuclear power would still account for 15 percent of Japan’s electricity supply in 2030.
However, the LDP trounced the DPJ in the Lower House election on Dec. 16.
The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised to bring back the policy to promote nuclear energy that the LDP pursued before it was ousted from power four years ago.
“We will have nuclear power reactors restarted when they are confirmed to be safe," Abe told an Upper House plenary session on March 6. "We will review from scratch the previous administration's policy to enable halting the operations of all nuclear power plants by the 2030s.”