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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
Japan is still struggling to deal with the hugely complex ramifications of the nuclear accident at Fukushima Dai-ichi. While there is often a hope that disasters may act as a major catalyst, following 3/11 it appears that there has been more continuity than change in Japanese politics. Hymans has identified a similar state of affairs, noting that debate about nuclear power has ‘gone around in circles’ with Japan failing to reach ‘a coherent long-term nuclear policy response.’ Yet the very serious political, economic and technical challenges that have emerged following the fateful events of 11 March 2011 are slowly forcing Japan to come to terms with the role nuclear energy might play in its future.
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10 On 11 June 2014 the United Nations University hosted a closed expert meeting with NRA Commissioner Oshima Kenzo and the NRA's three international advisors: Dr Richard Meserve (USA), Dr Mike Weightman (UK), and Mr. André-Claude Lacoste (France). A video of this meeting will be available soon. For a summary, see here.
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46 For a list of Andrew DeWit's publications in The Asia-Pacific Journal, see here.
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48 Chris Bryant, “Germany's Renewable Energy Experiment Comes at a Cost,” Financial Times, September 15, 2013.
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50 Jacques Hymans, “Veto Players and Japanese Nuclear Policy after Fukushima,” in Possible Futures for Japan (NYU Press, forthcoming).
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