On March 11 2011, 2:46 P.M, a large 9.0 magnitude earthquake with its epicenter 130km off the coast of Sendai struck Japan. The earthquake itself actually caused minimal damage to Japan because most buildings in Japan are by law required to be earthquake proof. However, the ensuing tsunami was a complete disaster. Over 30,000 people lost their lives and 100’s of billions of dollars worth of damage was inflicted upon the country. As if to make matters worse, the tsunami also caused a nuclear reactor in Fukushima to fail and explode, leaking radioactive particles that can still be detected 100’s of miles away. Today, the Fukushima nuclear disaster is pretty much as infamous as Chernobyl. In fact, it was so infamous that the nuclear disaster
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Ever since then a large string of opposition has followed. “Local citizens opposed to building nuclear reactors in their backyards used the court system to sue, used land titles to prevent power companies from building, challenged the licensing process, and tried to legally block plants from going and staying online”. As a result of all of these efforts, 41 of the 95 proposed building projects of nuclear reactors have been blocked. However, that means 54 of the attempts succeeded even though nearly all of them had faced local opposition. That fact showcases how the unitary style of government can sometimes disregard local feelings. In fact, This sentiment is partially why the LDP rose to prominence as a party. In Sherry Murphy’s Article about grassroots movements in Japan she said that “At the height of Japan’s developmental state, clientelism and fiscal centralization in a unitary system sustained LDP dominance, especially in rural districts with smaller independent tax bases”. Another example of this fact is that in 1996 Makicho (Nagiita prefecture) issued a referendum to see whether or not the town should a nuclear power plant. About 60% of the people who voted had voted against having the nuclear power plant built. In the end, no nuclear power plant was built in Makicho. However, it wasn’t because of the referendum vote that was issued. As a result of Japan’s unitary form of government, local referendums actually …show more content…
In America, Donald Trump won the election because many working class americans were worried about their jobs and saw him as the answer. Like America, Japan has started to recommission its nuclear reactors for the same sort of populist anxiety over the economy. The shutdown of the nuclear power had actually lead to a large increase in the price of electricity because Japan was forced to start importing coal into the country to make up for the lost production of the nuclear power plants. The prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, has expressed interest in raising the percent of electricity produced by nuclear power plants in the country to be raised to 22% from its current 1% by the year of 2030. [3] Since then, in 2015, the government has approved the restart of 2 nuclear power plants within the country. They will be the first two nuclear plants to run since 2012. Even though this may seem like the grassroot movement has once again been pushed aside there are still a few things that grassroots activists can celebrate about. There are now much stricter regulations in the country on nuclear power plant safety. In addition the nuclear power plants are constantly going under vigorous “stress tests”. [1] As a result, the much older power plants in the country which do not
Ever since then a large string of opposition has followed. “Local citizens opposed to building nuclear reactors in their backyards used the court system to sue, used land titles to prevent power companies from building, challenged the licensing process, and tried to legally block plants from going and staying online”. As a result of all of these efforts, 41 of the 95 proposed building projects of nuclear reactors have been blocked. However, that means 54 of the attempts succeeded even though nearly all of them had faced local opposition. That fact showcases how the unitary style of government can sometimes disregard local feelings. In fact, This sentiment is partially why the LDP rose to prominence as a party. In Sherry Murphy’s Article about grassroots movements in Japan she said that “At the height of Japan’s developmental state, clientelism and fiscal centralization in a unitary system sustained LDP dominance, especially in rural districts with smaller independent tax bases”. Another example of this fact is that in 1996 Makicho (Nagiita prefecture) issued a referendum to see whether or not the town should a nuclear power plant. About 60% of the people who voted had voted against having the nuclear power plant built. In the end, no nuclear power plant was built in Makicho. However, it wasn’t because of the referendum vote that was issued. As a result of Japan’s unitary form of government, local referendums actually …show more content…
In America, Donald Trump won the election because many working class americans were worried about their jobs and saw him as the answer. Like America, Japan has started to recommission its nuclear reactors for the same sort of populist anxiety over the economy. The shutdown of the nuclear power had actually lead to a large increase in the price of electricity because Japan was forced to start importing coal into the country to make up for the lost production of the nuclear power plants. The prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, has expressed interest in raising the percent of electricity produced by nuclear power plants in the country to be raised to 22% from its current 1% by the year of 2030. [3] Since then, in 2015, the government has approved the restart of 2 nuclear power plants within the country. They will be the first two nuclear plants to run since 2012. Even though this may seem like the grassroot movement has once again been pushed aside there are still a few things that grassroots activists can celebrate about. There are now much stricter regulations in the country on nuclear power plant safety. In addition the nuclear power plants are constantly going under vigorous “stress tests”. [1] As a result, the much older power plants in the country which do not