Shareholders of the nation's nine regional utilities with nuclear power plants rejected calls for a nuclear-free Japan at their annual meetings on June 25, while management reaffirmed plans to restart the reactors as soon as possible.
Shareholders of the nation's nine regional utilities with nuclear power plants rejected calls for a nuclear-free Japan at their annual meetings on June 25, while management reaffirmed plans to restart the reactors as soon as possible.
This year, as in 2014, some shareholders demanded the companies abolish their nuclear facilities, but all those proposals were dismissed.
Nuclear plant operators across Japan are seeking to restart their reactors, which have been taken off-line for safety inspections due to the Fukushima nuclear crisis triggered by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has insisted that Japan needs to maintain its dependence on nuclear power for a portion of the nation's energy needs.
At the June 25 shareholders' meeting of Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, a group of 400 shareholders, named the Nuclear Phase-out TEPCO Shareholders' Movement, called on the utility to include “a plan to withdraw from nuclear power” in its articles of incorporation.
“TEPCO failed to prevent the nuclear accident,” said Katsutaka Idogawa, a member of the group who was serving as the mayor of Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture when the nuclear disaster unfurled. “It should give up operating reactors because they are not safe.”
Even after his allotted three minutes for speaking ran out, Idogawa continued, “When can we return to our homes? We cannot wait any longer.”
Meanwhile, the Osaka and Kyoto municipal governments, which hold shares in Kansai Electric Power Co., proposed that the utility abolish its reactors.
“The Japanese people hope to realize a society independent from nuclear power,” Kyoto Mayor Daisaku Kadokawa said at the meeting.
But the proposal was voted down by shareholders.
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto was not in attendance, although he delivered a speech that lasted nearly 10 minutes at last year’s general meeting.