In this thread, there has been various references to the "nuclear village," and for those who would like to know more about how it works, please see Jeff Kingston's very interesting article on Japan Focus.
"Japan's Nuclear Village." (
http://www.japanfocus.org/-Jeff-Kingston/3822)

While giving some historical background to the machinations of the "village" pre-3.11, it also addresses some of the concerns about the role of public opinion in the formation of nuclear policy and the dynamics of oversight of regulation, compliance since
3.11 that have been mentioned by others here. Good article.

David Slater
Sophia U.

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David H. Slater, Ph.D.
Faculty of Liberal Arts

Sophia University, Tokyo