The disaster at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant began on 11 March 2011, shook and terrorized not only Japan but the entire world. For the first time in Japan’s history, the nuclear accident has caused tremendous damages to Fukushima and other areas, and even after a decade, the accident continues to cause extreme suffering, both physical and mental to the radioactively contaminated land and its inhabitants. In other words, the nuclear accident, it’s still starting.
The only way to resolve this accident is for the government to come out in full force and hold a debate at the national parliament on how to phase-out nuclear power, but the government keeps running away from the debate. The national government is forcing and leaving local governments to make decisions without taking responsibility for their own actions, saying that they should just pay money to the people in the affected areas to rebuild and leave it to the local governments to make decisions. This is a cowardly act of leaving decisions to others, not only to the ministries and the members of the parliament but also industries, corporations. The silence of opinion in this country, afraid to make a choice, is chilling.
TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster revealed that renewable energy is necessary and essential to society, and driven us to establish the Aizu Electric Power Company. A decade has since passed. At last, Japan’s once meandering energy policy debate has begun to take direction with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s carbon-free statement.
Aizu Electric Power Company and Aizu Energy Inc. generate and retail the five colors of electricity: solar (Red), hydropower (light blue), wind (blue), biomass (green), and geothermal power (earthy color), produce as much electricity as necessary in a decentralized manner. Just as it is important to think about who, where, and what kind of electricity is being produced, it is the relationship between who is generating the electricity, how it is being generated, and what kind of electricity is being purchased by consumers that will change the structure of the world's electricity. I believe that the power of consumers to choose and purchase genuine products, rather than being seduced by corporate PR and marketing, will change energy policies and improve politics and society.
While there is growing trend towards nuclear power phase-out and energy self-sufficiency, the country has a major choice to make: whether the Japanese government will aggressively pursue the trend or put the brakes on it. We ask for the support of local electric power companies to create the future, not through price competition, by mobilizing local capital, and we intend to live up to those expectations.
I also predict that Japan's regional independence will become possible through energy policy.
The only way to resolve this accident is for the government to come out in full force and hold a debate at the national parliament on how to phase-out nuclear power, but the government keeps running away from the debate. The national government is forcing and leaving local governments to make decisions without taking responsibility for their own actions, saying that they should just pay money to the people in the affected areas to rebuild and leave it to the local governments to make decisions. This is a cowardly act of leaving decisions to others, not only to the ministries and the members of the parliament but also industries, corporations. The silence of opinion in this country, afraid to make a choice, is chilling.
TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster revealed that renewable energy is necessary and essential to society, and driven us to establish the Aizu Electric Power Company. A decade has since passed. At last, Japan’s once meandering energy policy debate has begun to take direction with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s carbon-free statement.
Aizu Electric Power Company and Aizu Energy Inc. generate and retail the five colors of electricity: solar (Red), hydropower (light blue), wind (blue), biomass (green), and geothermal power (earthy color), produce as much electricity as necessary in a decentralized manner. Just as it is important to think about who, where, and what kind of electricity is being produced, it is the relationship between who is generating the electricity, how it is being generated, and what kind of electricity is being purchased by consumers that will change the structure of the world's electricity. I believe that the power of consumers to choose and purchase genuine products, rather than being seduced by corporate PR and marketing, will change energy policies and improve politics and society.
While there is growing trend towards nuclear power phase-out and energy self-sufficiency, the country has a major choice to make: whether the Japanese government will aggressively pursue the trend or put the brakes on it. We ask for the support of local electric power companies to create the future, not through price competition, by mobilizing local capital, and we intend to live up to those expectations.
I also predict that Japan's regional independence will become possible through energy policy.
