A Study of Social Conflicts on Japanese Energy Policy and Nuclear Facilities

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Among advanced industrialized countries, only Japanese government keeps a project of nuclear fuel cycle which the US and Germany, for example, already banned. We mainly researched at Rokkasho Village, Aomori Prefecture. This small village with ten thousands population in northern point of mainland Japan, 650 km north from Tokyo is transformed to be the largest nuclear complex town among the world. Why the governor of the prefecture and the village chief at that point accepted this hazardous project in 1984? We analyzed the history of the project and the negotiation process between local government office, central government and electrical utilities industry by interviewing a lot of informants including pro- and anti-nuclear sides and journalists, and gathering data. Original project in this area was constructing a large petrochemical complex. But the two oil crisis, 1973 and 1979 made clear an optical illusion of the plan. Huge vacant land of 5200 ha and a debt of 140 billion yen had been left. Aomori's governor and Rokkasho's village chief decided to convert to a nuclear complex to break the deadlock of the project in spite of oppsition of farmers, trade unions and citizen groups. Recently uranium enrichment plant and burying center of low level radioactive waste, dump site of high level of radioactive waste are keeping operation. People in this village and surrounding area are afraid of hazard of leaking radiation.