Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-bzg56 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-10T17:52:08.747Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hubris Punished: Japan as Nuclear State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Gavan McCormack
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

McCormack, an Australia-based expert in East Asian studies, neatly sums up his position in the title to his article: Japan's belief that nuclear power was a sustainable, safe source of energy was nothing but “hubris,” arrogance and pride. He extends his criticism to include other countries that rely on nuclear power.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 11 , Special Issue S5: Course Reader No. 5. Public Opinion on Nuclear Power in Japan after the Fukushima Disaster , January 2013 , pp. 24 - 32
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2013

References

Notes

1 “La maison Japon se fissure - Le Japon nucléaire ou l'hubris puni,” Le Monde Diplomatique, Online, April 2011, link.

2 Meaning it was responsible for a major release of at least tens of thousands of terabecquels of radioactivity that was likely to cause “acute health effects” over a wide area.

3 Ishibashi Katsuhiko is one Japanese critic who has consistently made this criticism. See, most recently, his essay, “Masa ni ‘genpatsu shinsai’ da,” Sekai, May 2011, pp. 126-133.

4 Jun Hongo, “World right to slam nuke program mismanagement: expert,” Japan Times, 14 April 2011.

5 Shut down for nearly two years following damage in the Chuetsu earthquake of July 2007.

6 For a Japanese newspaper editorial in similar vein: “Shinsaigo ‘tei-ene’ shakai Nihon moderu wa kano da,” Mainichi shimbun, 16 April 2011.

7 The DPJ government announced on 29 March 2011 that the existing “Energy Basic Plan” would now have to be fundamentally reviewed, and that green sources of energy, including solar, would be part of the review. (“14 ki no genpatsu zosetsu, minaoshi, taiyoko nado jushi e,” Yomiuri shimbun, 29 March 2011. The debate, of course, is just beginning.

8 Robert Alvarez, “Meltdowns grow more likely at the Fukushima reactors,” Institute for Policy Studies, 13 March 2011.

9 For a catalogue of TEPCO's and the Japanese government's technical and other errors in handling the Fukushima disaster and earlier nuclear accidents, see Vaclav Smil, “Japan's Crisis: Context and Outlook,” The American, April 16, 2011.