The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.Poll: Japanese opposition to nuclear power stronger
By Malcolm Foster TOKYO©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
32 Comments
Login to comment
tmarie
So? Does that mean people actually think the government will care and do as the public wishes? Nope. Those brown envelopes are worth much more to them than public support.
nath
I thought everybody knows this, except of course the greedy politicians, nuclear village and careless nuke companies! Nuke electricity is just being forced down the throats of people.
Heda_Madness
I thought that Japan was now totally anti-nuclear, at least from reading comments on here. However it seems that 70% want to reduce the reliance on nuclear energy, not remove it completely.
tokyokawasaki
Will the government listen to these polls and it's citizens concerns??? A government for the people and of the people... Hang on, that applies to a democracy. I keep forgetting this Japan and the government represents it's own interests first, shortly followed by big business CEO's demands, brown paper bags and the promise of lucrative post retirement jobs...
Hence we will see the reactors fired up pretty soon. As for the people of Japan? No hope until the current system of government is removed/overthrown by force.
Thomas Anderson
You know that nuclear will eventually be completely removed. It's inevitable since they can't construct new ones anymore.
realmind
It is not a good idea of stopping all the N-electricity. Slowly change to solar. First make a reasonable solar powered car. Only Japan can do this
Christina O'Neill
When Polititions fail to adhere to the wishes of those they are entrusted to represent perhaps they should remember, the electorate voted them in, they may just as easily vote them out.. Put the case of the continuonce of nuclear power as the major source of energy production forward in a referendom, then comply with the result
saru_au
I'd like to see some TV shows about the SDF and what they have been doing, would make for some good TV ratings too by the sounds of it
redsac
I'm guessin most of the 70% who want less reliance on nuclear power are also part of the 93% who believe the economy to be in a bad state and none are seeing the connection. You can't fix the economy without cheap power. They are not mutually exclusive. So which do you want, no nuclear power + worsening economy OR nuclear power + stable economy?
sf2k
government selling out to the people, then television letting everyone down selling out to government needs. Is it any wonder the media trust bubble has burst?
Japan can go for solar much quicker than other nations, because flat screen TVs are the same technologies. If it cut in half the TV production and replaced it with solar panels then there would be a new economy. Solar doesn't solve everything, but actually doing something tends to solve most things. Time to start demanding more solar panels.
Instead clutching defeat from the jaws of victory at every opportunity by selling out to industry interests just ensures continued pessimism. The disaster apparently wasn't enough of a wake up call !!??
sf2k
replace people with industry first line
Ah_so
I think that they are recognising that the risks posed by having nuclear power in an earthquake zone are so great that you may have to sacrifice some economic growth.
Economic growth is great, but if the risks outweigh the rewards, it is not worth it.
bajhista65
AT LAST.... JT got the balls to post this since JT is a part of the media. Applause...
herefornow
Wow, reality has finally managed to penetrate the Wa. Now if this will just translate into the population actually rising up and doing something about the malaise, Japan might be able to turn things around.
Thunderbird2
I hope all of those people aren't expecting a new form of power generation anytime soon.
Disillusioned
You only have to look at my user name to understand the general feeling of the Japanese public. The J-Gov's inaction and TEPCO's BS destroyed any confidence the public had in either of these two rstaishments. The fact they are intending to restart two of the reactors without any changes made to their safety just intensifies the general oublic's disillusionment.
Fadamor
Turning the reactors back on would not guarantee the economy would stabilize. Look at all the countries with operating reactors who are still struggling with their economies.
This article is an Associated Press (i.e. American) article about a Washington-based Research Center's survey, so the odds of the Japanese public reading it are slim to none unless they read JT.
Thunderbird2
Which I hope they don't do... that would make them even less likely to talk to non-Japanese with all of the nasty comments on this site about them.
akoppa
Is there any other feasible alternative to nuclear power in Japan? I'm listening.
basroil
akoppa, higher electric rates and twice the amount of CO2 released.
Asking a bunch of uneducated nobodies about nuclear power is like asking them if 1=x^4 has an answer. Most don't understand anything, some of those that do will mistakenly believe 2. (by the way, it has four)
Jimizo
@herefornow ''the population actually rising up' - we may get a few protesters down at Hibiya Park but the majority look at them with the usual bafflement.
Fadamor
With all the hot springs and volcanic activity in the Japanese islands, geothermal power is a very feasible alternative. They just have to figure out how to prevent the deep wells from being damaged during earthquakes.
whiskeysour
So where shall they get the energy from ? Burning coal ? Or borrow power from China or Korea ?
YuriOtani
The answer would be to raise rates to match supply. The money going for the cleanup. Make it too expensive to run anything beyond a few lights and the refrigerator. If not this put a circuit breaker that can not be tampered with to go at a small load. ten thousand yen charge to reset. Second have the industrial plants close and move to China. The solution of all the greedy corps. Who cares if the home team has jobs? Who cares as long as the dangerous atomic plants are offline. Never mind coal plants release radiation and mercury. Who cares if the cities waterways are filled with industrial sludge. As long as "I am not exposed to radiation" mentality is going to destroy Japan.
gaijinTechie
Japan had its economy in a crash spiral decades before the nuclear disaster, when the nuclear plants were still "operational".
There is no causality between a stable economy and nuclear power, as recent history of Japan clearly demonstrates.
kurisupisu
The Fukushima plant is still in crisis. It will be for years to come......
Heda_Madness
Zichi,
That's because they've increased their reliance on fossil fuels. Are we now supposed to believe that fossil fuels are safe for the environment? Because their not... not by any stretch of the imagination.
Fadamor
But Heda! Haven't you heard?! They use CLEAN coal and CLEAN oil now! CLEAN gas too! (OK, natural gas really IS clean). How can anything with the word CLEAN slapped on the front of it in capital letters be anything BUT good for the environment?! (/sarcasm)
JaneM
Sf2k The media trust bubble has burst because some of the media spread some of the not-so-true information after the following nuclear crisis. Many of the media also saw this as a chance to improve their ratings, and unfortunately, we witnessed the switch from responsible investigative journalism to commercialized journalism – higher ratings better revenue from advertisements, right?
Regrettably, some media still continue to present the news one-sidedly, which is a great means of manipulating public opinion, too.
nath
As kurisupisu said, it's still unfolding. It may not hold the attention of the media anymore, but it is far from over.
This is a great opportunity for the Japanese to create a whole new element to the economy and revitalise industry by implementing existing renewable energy technology and developing new technology.