Japan’s Niigata prefectural assembly on Tuesday approved a plan to allow the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station—the world’s largest—to resume operations, marking a pivotal step in the country’s return to nuclear energy nearly 15 years after the Fukushima disaster.
The vote advances Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s first nuclear restart since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami crippled its Fukushima Daiichi plant and led to a nationwide shutdown of 54 reactors. Since then, Japan has permanently retired some units and restarted 14 of the 33 that remain operable as it seeks to curb reliance on imported fossil fuels.
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Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, about 220 kilometers northwest of Tokyo on the Sea of Japan coast, has seven reactors with a total capacity of 8.2 gigawatts—enough to power a few million homes. TEPCO is considering bringing one 1.36-gigawatt reactor online as early as January 20, public broadcaster NHK reported, with another similarly sized unit targeted around 2030. Japan’s trade ministry has estimated that restarting the first reactor alone could boost electricity supply to the Tokyo area by about 2 percent.
“This is a milestone, but this is not the end,” Niigata Governor Hideyo Hanazumi told reporters after the vote. “There is no end in terms of ensuring the safety of Niigata residents.” While the assembly backed the governor’s plan, the session laid bare community divisions. Outside the chamber, about 300 protesters stood in the cold behind banners reading “No Nukes” and “We oppose the restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa.”
TEPCO has tried to rebuild public trust after Fukushima, pledging 100 billion yen (about $641 million) in community investments over the next decade. Yet skepticism runs deep. A prefectural survey in October found 60 percent of residents felt conditions for a restart had not been met, and nearly 70 percent expressed concern about TEPCO operating the plant.
“We know firsthand the risk of a nuclear accident and cannot dismiss it,” said Niigata resident and farmer Ayako Oga, who fled the Fukushima exclusion zone in 2011. “As a victim of the Fukushima nuclear accident, I wish that no one, whether in Japan or anywhere in the world, ever again suffers the damage of a nuclear accident.”
TEPCO spokesperson Masakatsu Takata said the utility remains “firmly committed to never repeating such an accident and ensuring Niigata residents never experience anything similar,” but declined to comment on a restart date. TEPCO shares closed up 2 percent in Tokyo, outpacing the broader Nikkei, which rose 1.8 percent.
The restart is central to Japan’s energy-security strategy. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has backed bringing reactors back online to counter high fuel costs and reduce dependence on imported coal and liquefied natural gas, which still generate 60 to 70 percent of the nation’s electricity. Japan spent 10.7 trillion yen (about $68 billion) on LNG and coal imports last year—roughly a tenth of total import costs.
Despite a shrinking population, power demand is expected to climb this decade amid a boom in energy-hungry AI data centers. To meet those needs and decarbonization pledges, Tokyo aims to double nuclear’s share in the electricity mix to 20 percent by 2040. Public acceptance of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa’s restart would be “a critical milestone” toward those goals, said Joshua Ngu, vice chairman for Asia Pacific at consultancy Wood Mackenzie.
Even as the government and utilities move ahead—Kansai Electric said in July it would begin surveys for what would be the first new reactor since Fukushima—apprehension persists in Niigata. “I want to see an era where we don’t have to rely on energy sources that cause anxiety,” Governor Hanazumi said last month.
On Tuesday, a veteran protester from Niigata summed up the local mood as the assembly voted. “If something was to happen at the plant,” he said, “we would be the ones to suffer the consequences.”
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
