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January 27, 2014

[SSJ: 8428] Next DIJ Social Science Study Group, February 13: The Impact of 3-11 on Japanese Public Opinion toward Energy

From: Phoebe Holdgruen
Date: 2014/01/27

You are cordially invited to the next

DIJ Social Science Study Group, held on Wednesday, February 13, 18.30:

Paul Midford, University of Science and Technology,
Trondheim:

The Impact of 3-11 on Japanese Public Opinion toward Energy

This presentation examines how the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami, and especially the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant of March 2011, have affected public opinion, and how this in turn has impacted Japan’s energy policy. It traces how Japanese public opinion emerged as being perhaps the most pro-nuclear public in the world in the 1970s, and how public support gradually eroded from the end of the 1970s as concerns about safety grew. Growing public concern after the 1986 Chernobyl accident and especially the 1999 Tokaimura accident, corresponded with significant reverses, and eventual stagnation, in Japan’s policy of promoting nuclear power. In the years leading up to 3-11 Japanese public opinion continued to support nuclear power, but support was accompanied by growing concerns about the safety of nuclear power. Cover ups of accidents especially undermined trust in the industry. In the wake of the
3-11 quake public support for nuclear power, which was still evenly divided as late as April 2011, gradually declined while support for replacing nuclear power with renewable forms of energy, especially solar and wind, grew. This reflected a change in underlying attitudes about the safety and effectiveness of nuclear power.
Consequently, an overwhelming majority has come to support replacing nuclear power with renewable energy.
Yet, the public is more ambivalent about restarting some nuclear reactors in the short-run, with a significant minority that verges on a plurality in some polls supporting some nuclear restarts under stringent conditions. This suggests that the Abe administration has some scope to restart some nuclear reactors, but not to build new reactors or expand nuclear power.

Paul Midford is Professor, and Director of the Japan Program, at the Norwegian University for Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. He received his doctorate in Political Science from Columbia University. Midford is the author of Rethinking Japanese Public Opinion and Security: From Pacifism to Realism? (Stanford University Press, 2011).

Please be also reminded of our upcoming DIJ Social Science Study Group, held on Wednesday, January 29, 18.30:

Aline Henninger, INALCO, Waseda University:

Gender socialization at primary school in contemporary Japan

The DIJ Social Science Study Group is organized by P.
Holdgruen and C. Hommerich.

All are welcome to attend, but registration
(holdgruen@dijtokyo.org) is appreciated.
German Institute for Japanese Studies Tokyo (DIJ) Jochi Kioizaka Bldg. 2F, 7-1 Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0094, Phone: 03-3222-5077 For a map please refer to www.dijtokyo.org
--
Dr. des. Phoebe Stella Holdgrün

Senior Research Fellow

Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien
Jochi Kioizaka Bldg. 2F
7-1 Kioicho
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
102-0094 Japan

Tel: +81-(0)3-3222-5077
+81-(0)3-3222-5943 (direct)
Fax: +81-(0)3-3222-5420
holdgruen@dijtokyo.org
http://www.dijtokyo.org

Approved by ssjmod at 11:55 AM