In a bid to restore public confidence, the government has unveiled plans to reform the nuclear regulatory agency, separating it from the ministry in charge of promoting atomic power.
But critics say it is only the first and easiest of many necessary reforms, and whether the additional changes are actually made will be a key test of Japan's willingness to transform the collusive government-industry culture that thrived before the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear emergency.
The Cabinet's outline, released earlier this month, for creating a competent safety agency to replace the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency sets out several of the challenges. Too few people at the current agency know much about nuclear engineering, and agency officials parachute frequently into industry jobs, dissolving the border between regulator and operator.