ASSESSMENTS

Six Years After Fukushima, Japan Tries to Quell Its Energy Angst

Jul 14, 2017 | 12:52 GMT

A lone house sits on the scarred landscape, inside the exclusion zone, close to the devastated Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan. More than six years after the disaster, Japan is apparently on its way to restoring nuclear energy as one of the major sources of electric power.

A lone house sits on the scarred landscape, inside the exclusion zone, close to the devastated Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan. More than six years after the disaster, Japan is apparently on its way to restoring nuclear energy as one of its major sources of electric power. How will this development and other factors such as the rise of renewable energy affect Japan's longtime desire for energy independence?

(Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Forecast Highlights

  • Japan will not abandon nuclear energy entirely, and its reactors are slowly restarting. But it will not return to the level it saw before the Fukushima disaster anytime soon, if ever.
  • Japan's long-standing quest for energy independence will be largely unrealized in the medium term.
  • The trajectory of the country's renewable energy sources will be a critical source of uncertainty that bears watching in the long run.

More than six years after the disaster at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, Japan is apparently on its way to restoring nuclear energy as one of its major sources of electric power. Five nuclear reactors in the country have been restarted and a June court ruling cleared the way for two more to open as well. But 43 of Japan's 54 original reactors still remain shut. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, for his part, has promoted a policy of restarts, but he's politically weaker now than at any time since his 2012 return to power. Thus, it's worthwhile to assess how far the Japanese nuclear revival could go, and how it and other factors, such as the rise of renewable energy, may affect Japan’s longtime desire for energy independence....

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