Nuclear Power in Japan - Anti-nuclear Movement

Anti-nuclear Movement

Long one of the world’s most committed promoters of civilian nuclear power, the negative impact of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster has changed attitudes in Japan. Political and energy experts describe "nothing short of a nationwide loss of faith, not only in Japan’s once-vaunted nuclear technology but also in the government, which many blame for allowing the accident to happen". Sixty thousand people marched in central Tokyo on 19 September 2011, chanting "Sayonara nuclear power" and waving banners, to call on Japan's government to abandon nuclear power, following the Fukushima disaster. Bishop of Osaka, Michael Goro Matsuura, has called on the solidarity of Christians worldwide to support this anti-nuclear campaign. In July 2012, 75,000 people gathered near in Tokyo for the capital’s largest anti-nuclear event yet. Organizers and participants said such demonstrations signal a fundamental change in attitudes in a nation where relatively few have been willing to engage in political protests since the 1960s.

Anti-nuclear groups include the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, Stop Rokkasho, Hidankyo, Sayonara Nuclear Power Plants, Women from Fukushima Against Nukes, Article 9 group, and the National Network of Parents to Protect Children from Radiation. People associated with the anti-nuclear movement include: Jinzaburo Takagi, Koide Hiroaki, Haruki Murakami, Kenzaburō Ōe, Nobuto Hosaka, Mizuho Fukushima, and Tetsunari Iida.

Thousands of protesters marched in Tokyo on March 11, 2013 calling on the government to reject nuclear power.