Characteristic of the high-profile and high-stakes discussions about the future of nuclear power in Japan are two adjacent articles on Wednesday, October 23 in one of the world’s largest daily newspapers, the Yomiuri Shinbun: in one article, “Zero Nuclear Energy Society Best for Japan”, popular former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi argues that Japan should remain non-nuclear. Koizumi wrote his article in reaction to a pro-nuclear editorial in the Yumiuri Shinbun on October 8. Koizumi uses two main points to argue for a non-nuclear future for Japan:

A zero nuclear policy for Japan can “unify the people” to transform Japan into a society using natural energy sources, and there is no solution now and for the foreseeable future for the long-term storage of spent-fuel, because there is too much opposition in Japan against constructing long-term storage facilities

Placed next to Prime Minister Koizumi’s article, Yomiuri Shinbun Editorial Writer Yuzuru Endo argued strongly for a resumption of nuclear power in Japan.

These articles represent the division of Japanese society in people against nuclear power, including Prime Minister Koizumi, industry leader Masayoshi Son, Nobel Prize Winner Kenzaburo Oe, against supporters of restarting and keeping nuclear power, which includes the current Japanese Goverment.

The fact is that on Sunday, September 15, 2013, Kansai Electric Power (KEPCO) started to shut-down Japan’s last remaining nuclear power reactor (Oi No. 4 reactor), and stopped its operation in the morning of September 16, 2013. Therefore Japan is non-nuclear since September 16, 2013.

To understand Japan’s current energy situation, it is important to understand why Japan is non-nuclear at this time, and for the foreseeable future.

Japan is not non-nuclear because of a clear Government decision to switch off nuclear power. There is no Japanese Government decision to go non-nuclear at this time. On the contrary, the current Japanese government is decidedly pro-nuclear and expresses the wish to restart nuclear power plants as soon as possible.

The reason why all Japanese nuclear power plants are switched off is that in Japan, all nuclear power plants must be switched off for maintenance and checks after each period of 13 months. After maintenance and checks are completed, nuclear reactors are switched on again with approval of the local authorities and the nuclear regulators. Before the Fukushima accident, these approvals were typically granted without any problems. However, after Fukushima, it has proven impossible to obtain these approvals to restart reactors after maintenance.

The fact that Japan is non-nuclear in Japan is not the result of a unified policy, but its the expression and the consequence of the deep division in Japanese society about the future of nuclear energy. The fact that Japan is nuclear-free today also demonstrates the power of local government leaders in Japan’s democratic processes.

Although the present Government of Japan is decidedly pro-nuclear, at this moment in time it is impossible to predict whether nuclear power will ever be switched back on in Japan. Japan is a very democratic country – whether nuclear power will ever be used again in Japan will be the result of Japan’s democratic processes.