Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said yesterday that the country must gradually reduce its reliance on atomic power with the eventual goal of becoming nuclear-free.
Four months after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered the Fukushima nuclear accident, the world’s worst since Chernobyl 25 years ago, Kan has repeatedly argued that Japan must focus more on renewable sources of energy.
“By reducing its reliance on nuclear power gradually, we will aim to become a society which can exist without nuclear power,” Kan said at a televised press conference. “Considering the grave risk of nuclear accidents, we strongly feel that we cannot just carry on based on the belief that we must only try to ensure [nuclear] safety.”
Kan earlier announced a full review of Japan’s energy plan, under which atomic power had been set to meet more than half of demand by 2030.
Kan said he wants to make renewables such as solar, wind and geothermal a new “major pillar” of the industrial power’s energy mix.
“If everything goes as scheduled, a renewable energy bill will be discussed in the Diet [legislature] starting tomorrow,” Kan said.
The prime minister, Japan’s fifth in as many years, made the speech at a time when he is under intense pressure to step down from political adversaries who accuse him of having bungled Japan’s response to the tsunami.
Kan has butted heads with plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) over the Fukushima accident.
Kan’s skepticism about boosting nuclear power in the quake-prone nation has also set him on a collision course with pro-nuclear lawmakers, both in the conservative opposition and within his own party.
The earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima plant, which has suffered meltdowns, explosions and radiation leaks into the air, soil and sea.
With all but 19 of Japan’s 54 reactors now shut, mostly for regular checks, Japan is going through a power crunch in the sweltering summer months, and there are fears that outages could slow the already limping economy.
“There are worries about power supply in Japan,” Japanese Minister of Economy Kaoru Yosano said earlier yesterday. “Manufacturers may well consider moving plants to a country with a stable electricity supply or cheaper labor.”
Anti-nuclear sentiment in Japan has grown since the Fukushima disaster and thousands have since protested at a string of rallies against TEPCO and nuclear power and for a shift toward alternative energy.
Telecoms giant Softbank has announced plans to build 10 solar power plants. Softbank president Masayoshi Son and 36 of Japan’s 47 prefectures launched a council yesterday aimed at boosting renewable sources of energy.
The liberal, mass-circulation Asahi Shimbun yesterday called for a shift toward a nuclear-free society within two or three decades.
It pointed at an ongoing energy saving campaign, in which companies in Japan’s northeast are being asked to cut back use by 15 percent, adding that if it works, it proves that Japan can live without atomic power.
“How about setting a target of reducing [atomic power] to zero within 20 years, to urge people to make their utmost efforts, and to review the plan every few years?” the newspaper suggested in its editorial.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to