In the months after the tsunami-induced meltdowns at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station this spring, anti-nuclear sentiment swept Japan, which relied on atomic energy for about 30 percent of its electricity before the accident. Although devastated by their country's losses, Mizuho Fukushima and Yuichi Kaido were less surprised by the disaster. Fukushima, the lawmaker who leads Japan's Social Democratic Party, and her partner, Kaido, a public-interest lawyer, have spent three decades resisting Japan's nuclear rise in their respective arenas: parliament and court. But the cozy nuclear plant operators and government officials who make up Japan's so-called "nuclear village" largely ignored their efforts -- that is, until this year.
The Fukushima Daiichi disaster has now forced the island country to re-examine the safety of its nuclear facilities. Naoto Kan, Japan's prime minister until he resigned in August, called in July for Japan to wind down its nuclear program, and his successor, Yoshihiko Noda, agrees. Kan also requested the closure and upgrade of a power plant in the earthquake-prone coastal city of Hamaoka, a facility whose safety Kaido had called into question nearly a decade earlier. Had he won the Hamaoka case, Kaido said, this year's disaster "could have been prevented." Today, Fukushima and Kaido see a changed political horizon. As Fukushima told the New York Times in August, "Although I won't be able to change the past, I think I can change the future."
FUKUSHIMA
Muse Natalie Portman.
Stimulus or austerity? Stimulus.
America or China? Both.
Arab Spring or Arab Winter? Arab Spring.
Reading list A Suitable Amount of Crime, by Nils Christie; The Shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein; The Lie of Nuclear Power, by Hiroaki Koid
Best idea The decision of Naoto Kan, now ex-prime minister of Japan, to stop operating the Hamaoka nuclear power plant.
Worst idea News of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's melting down.
KAIDO
Muse Jessica Alba, especially in Dark Angel.
Stimulus or austerity? Stimulus.
America or China? Impossible selection.
Arab Spring or Arab Winter? Arab Spring.
Reading list The Lie of Nuclear Power, by Hiroaki Koide; The Shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein; Ultimate Punishment, by Scott Turow.
Best idea Gradual abolition of nuclear power and weapons; rapid introduction of green energy.
Worst idea The war on terror makes the world more unsafe and hostile.
@minorucchuジャーナリスト 田中稔
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