Nuclear issues weigh heavily in Northern Japan election

giving up the perks that come with nuclear-power plants is a difficult decision for people

Japan Poll Hinges On Nuclear Policy YUKA HAYASHI 4 June 11, HIGASHIDORI, Japan—Japan’s troubled nuclear-energy industry faces its first major ballot-box test since the Fukushima Daiichi accident, in the northern prefecture of Aomori on Sunday, when voters choose between a conservative pronuclear governor seeking a third term and a challenger who wants to freeze all existing plans for new facilities…….

Even after the March 11 disasters, giving up the perks that come with nuclear-power plants is a difficult decision for people in Aomori, located on the northern end of the tsunami-ravaged coast in the Tohoku region.

Aomori is an ideal place to take the temperature of local communities on the issue of nuclear power. In addition to the Higashidori reactor, the prefecture also has the nation’s only nuclear-reprocessing plant at Rokkasho. It was set to be the site of four of 14 new reactors Japan planned to build by 2030.

Two facilities in the area were under construction before March 11: one in Higashidori and another in the nearby town of Oma. With long-term plans under review, construction has been suspended, leaving these communities in a limbo.

Aomori is also one of the poorest prefectures, with an unemployment rate among the highest in Japan……

Leading the antinuclear charge here is independent candidate Takashi Yamauchi, a former prefectural assembly member endorsed by Mr. Kan’s ruling Democratic Party of Japan. He was until recently an advocate of a nuclear buildup, but now has stepped up his calls for putting existing plans on hold.

“I firmly believed that an accident like this would never happen in Japan,” Mr. Yamauchi said in an interview after a recent campaign rally. “For that, I am ashamed.”…..

“The plight of farmers in Fukushima—watching those farmers who had to abandon their cows as they fled—just broke our hearts,” said Kiyohiko Narumi, a 53-year-old apple farmer who heads the prefectural agricultural union’s political arm. “The same could happen to our apples and rice. There is no guarantee the nuclear plants in Aomori can withstand a huge tsunami.”….

Japan Poll Hinges On Nuclear Policy – WSJ.com