As a man living in a prefecture that hosts nuclear plants, Fukushima, I was very interested in the April 12 editorial "Energy plan looks to the past."
Frankly it's very sad to realize that the Abe Cabinet apparently is not going to give much thought to the more than 135,000 refugees still scattered around Japan as a result of the March 2011 accidents at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. And still we have the massive amount of radiation-contaminated water to deal with at the crippled plant.
A winner writes the history of a loser. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has ignored the previous energy policy, put forth by the Democratic Party of Japan, of reducing reliance on nuclear energy and expanding renewable energy.
I remember the prewar Imperial army and navy. They didn't make road maps for achieving goals. They stuck to the philosophy of genba uchiawase shugi (think and do after something happens). From the very beginning — some four decades ago — Prime Ministers Kakuei Tanaka and Yasuhiro Nakasone didn't think about the places where nuclear waste should be deposited.
The LDP still seems just as thoughtless.
Three years ago the gigantic quake and tsunami hit the Fukushima plant at the end of its 40-year operational life. If the LDP continues with its energy plan over the objections of Fukushima people, Abe and his Cabinet members must be held criminally responsible for future nuclear-related catastrophes.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.
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