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Newsletter Vol. 3 Spring 2016

On 8th of February, the third symposium held by the Japanese Civilization Institute took place at Japan University of Economics in
Shibuya, Tokyo. Followed by Naoki Inose’s keynote speech, “The Role Fulfilled by Mr. Koizumi’s Structural Reform,” came former Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi presenting a special lecture entitled, “The Path that Japan Should Take—The Future of Japanese Civilization".

Third Symposium Keynote Speech“The Role Fulfilled
by Mr. Koizumi’s
Structural Reform”
by Naoki Inose
Tsuzuki: Thank you very much forattending everyone. It seems as
though this year marks the 400th Anniversary since William Shakespeare died. Our country compiled themagnificent “The Tale of Genji”—
over 600 years before the British Industrial Revolution—during the last yearsof 66th Emperor Ichijo’s reign.
“In a certain reign there was a lady notof the first rank, whom the emperor
loved more than any of the others.”
I’m sure many of you know that thisis the first chapter of “The Tale ofGenji” comprised of 54 chapters. In
this exceptional story, there is aphrase relating to how Genji’s son
Yugiri should be educated; “It isthrough ‘zae’ (scholarship) that Yamato-damashii (Japanese spirit) is
spread widely to the people.” “Zae”
here means “karazae” (Chinese
learning) referring to Chinese literature, Chinese study, and civilization on the continent.
This idea was later developed to create the philosophy of “Wakon Kansai (Japanese Spirit imbued with
About the groupJapanese Civilization InstituteEstablished in August 2015

Chinese learning),” and in the Edo
Period people like Norinaga Motoori, Shoin Yoshida and other
scholars of the Meiji Restoration
passed this learning down to future
generations, which underpins evenour spirits today.
70 years have passed since WWII,
and today being in an ambivalentera, we still wonder what Yamato
soul and Japanese spirit is. In suchcircumstances, the Japanese Civilization Institute looks to Japanese traditions and history from various angles to consider which path Japan
should take from here onwards. Today we have Mr. Junichiro Koizumi
attending the event to guide us theway that we should pave. I hope you
all enjoy the event until the end.
Thank you all for attending thisevent today.
＊＊＊

INOSE: It’ll probably take me about
three hours to go through all the details of what Koizumi Structural Reform achieved, so I’ll try and summarize it in 10 minutes. I met former

Kimiko Tsuzuki

Prime Minister Mr. Koizumi in 1996.
It was during the time I was writing
my book “Niponkoku no Kenkyu” (AReport of Japan) and I met with him
for the book. This is an extract fromthe book, describing that time:
Japan’s postal service needed to be
privatized in three areas—mail delivery, savings and insurance. Amongst
the three, an amount of 220 trillion
yen came from savings and insurance. The money went to what was

Address: 24-5 Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0031
Tel :03-5456-8082 Fax:03-5456-8388
Website: http://www.japancivilization.org/

Designed by artisan company

known to be a special public corporation—now known as an independent administrative corporation—asa kind of “fiscal investment loan
program.” There was nearly 400 trillion yen spent on postal savings andpensions, which was forcefully
loaned to former Japan Highway
Public Corp. and Japan Housing
Corp (UR today). A relationshiplike the phrase, “which came first?
The chicken or the egg?” existed between the fiscal investment loan program and public corporation. The
public corporation was able to pursue debt management because of the
fiscal investment loan program, andbecause public corporation lacked
finance, the fiscal investment loan
program made profit.
It was in such circumstances, that
Mr. Koizumi brought up the issue of
postal privatization. At the time,such a claim was unimaginable—
something the governing party
LDP, not to mention other members of the Diet, frankly took no notice of. However, whilst writing mybook “Niponkoku no Kenkyu” (AReport of Japan), I realized that Mr.
Koizumi’s proposal was somethingthat was absolutely necessary.
At the same time, I realized the needto reform both the fiscal investment
loan programs of postal savings—
the entrance to financials—and Japan Highway Public Corp.—thebiggest exit— simultaneously. So I
asked Mr. Koizumi at the time in aninterview, “What will happen if we
got rid of fiscal investment loan programs?” Mr. Koizumi replies quite
simply, “Government-affiliated corporations should simply collect theirown money.” From that time, hespoke directly using only one phrase.
I remember I wrote in my book:“After saying that, he tightened his
lips in a straight line and expanded
his nasal cavity. It was true. The
problem was the fact that what hewas saying was something that
couldn’t be done.”
I questioned him further, “In order todo that, maybe we need to find a different way?” He answered, “Japan

2

Highway Public Corp. should issue
bonds. If their business contents wereof standard, I’m sure there are people
out there who are willing to purchasetheir bonds.” To my question, “Buttheir business contents are not open
to the pubic,” he replied, “Then theyshould open them to the public.”

Japan Highway
Public Corp. repaying
their debt throughexpenditures
In 1996, postal privatization was considered as an empty theory. Japan
Highway Public Corp. increased
their rate at a regular basis and theirdebt expanded to 40 trillion yen.
Meanwhile, in April 2001, Prime
Minister Yoshiro Mori known forhaving the “brain of a shark,” retired
after a year. It was rumored that
Ryutaro Hashimoto was probably
going to be reappointed. However,when Mr. Koizumi came forward asa candidate, he gathered a lot of the
district votes and the Koizumi Cabinet was established.
At that moment, I realized something big had happened. After I
published my book “Nihonkoku no
Kenkyu” (A Report of Japan), I was
writing “Picaresque,” a critical biography of Osamu Dazai, and I completely forgot about what was goingon in Nagata-cho and Kasumigaseki, but I somehow knew that “thebirth of Koizumi as Prime Minister”
was a big event. However, in his commitment it said, “Postal privatization,
starting with administrative and financial reforms.” Privatization of Japan Highway Public Corp. wasn’t on
the list. So I contacted him.
“Mr. Koizumi, I don’t see privatizationof Japan Highway Public Corp. in you
commitment.” Again he replied in one
phrase, “Oh, right. You do it.”This is how I got involved in the privatization of Japan Highway PublicCorp. But back then there was no
atmosphere for carrying out any
kind of reform. To begin with, theofficial residents of Koizumi Administration were not at all in attractive modern glass buildings, butwere instead in old buildings thatwere built in the early Showa Era.
You had to climb up the stairs, walkby the secretary’s room to reachPrime Minister Koizumi’s office. The
room itself was very small, only about
5 meters in depth. I don’t know how
he managed to his duties in such aroom. He set about privatizing Japan
Highway Public Corp., but none ofthe diet members gave him a hand.
So he established a Privatization
Committee and sent in TV cameras
and made it an open conference. In
the beginning, there were membersof the committee that didn’t approveof bringing in the cameras, but hesoon made it open even to journalists
and freelance writers.
Under that principle of disclosure,
Mr. Koizumi slowly revealed thetruth as to how Japan Highway Public Corp. was being operated. The
most important discovery was thefact that despite Japan Highway
Public Corp. was mired in debt it
had a high amount of cash flow.
Japan Highway Public Corp. was returning 700 billion yen of debt every
year, but the money was brought
about not from profit but from expenditures. If it were a normal company, it could never pay its debt
through its expenditures. In otherwords, government affiliated corporations had different, special accounts. There was this scary situation in  that if nothing was done, thedebt of 30 trillion yen will soon expand to 40 trillion yen, and then to
50 trillion yen, and users of the
highway would have to pay for it.
In the course of clarifying these matters, it became clear that there wasactually quite an amount of money.
So if there’s money, it wasn’t correct
to say we shouldn’t build highways.
But instead we were able to see a way
to efficiently build highways
so that we could reduce fees along
the way.
Another accomplishment achievedby introduction of the principle ofcompetition to Japan Highway Public Corp. was the privatization ofservice areas and parking areas. Do
you remember service areas of 10
years ago? Shops lacked vitality,and poor-tasting curry and noodles
were served. This was all due to thecorporation’s family business structure, in which outsiders weren’t allowed to enter. If you introduce
some elements of competition, service areas and parking areas cantransform themselves into popular
entertainments spots like trendy
outlet malls.

10 years have past,and service areas
are now popular
excursion spots

when Prime Minister Koizumi faceddifficulties. There were members of
the Diet referred to as “doro-zoku (roadtribe),” who gathered regardless of
their party—including members of
the Japanese Communist Party—
and raised their voices to build highways for districts in their electoralzones. Prime Minister and his administration no doubt were isolated.
But Mr. Koizumi never changed his
mind. He fought until the end. This is
how privatization of Japan Highway
Public Corp. materialized. Soon thesituation reached a point inwhich the vice-president of Japan
Highway Public Corp. was arrested
for collusive bidding. Moreover the reelection of postal services led to a snap
general election, which made the privatization of postal service possible.

Presently, the number one place
where people gather in Japan today
is Tokyo Disneyland followed by
USJ (Universal Studio Japan) and at
third place comes Kariya Service Area near Nagoya.
Reform can be done. Debt amounting to 40 trillion yen, lessened 10
trillion yen to 30 trillion yen. But
there are still people who don’t understand and as soon as the Democratic Party took control, they started saying, “free highway.” How were
they to maintain if they were to
make highway free? Only one in 10
people use the highway, and making
it free would mean that the burden
wouldn’t be covered by highway users but by tax payers. There wereseveral drawbacks such as these, but
debt was smoothly paid and with thehelp of reduction in land prices,
places that were not connected before became connected.

KoizumiAdministration
legitimized theirpower by opening up
the process

Even so, there are still people out
there who still don’t get it. The other day, a journalist from the Asahi
Shimbun came to me for an interview commemorating the 10th Anniversary of privatizing Japan Highway Public Corp. The headlines
read, “Free Highway—a long way togo.” It’s silly, isn’t it? The problem
with this country has a lot to do withmedia too. However, it’s also truethat public opinion was created because they opened the Japan Highway Public Corp. Privatization
Committee to the media. During
these times, there were several times

There was the privatization of Japan
National Railway (JR today) and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public
Corporation (NTT today) in the
1980s, which led to the privatization of
postal service and the Japan Highway
Public Corp. during the 4 years from2001 to 2005. “Structural reform” isforgotten as something of the past, but
I think that Abe Administration should
continue with structural reform. The
budget, which was 83 trillion yen
during the Koizumi Administration,
has now expanded to 96 trillion yen.
Even if we increased taxes, they’re goingto use them all up. That’s not where

they should focus. There are many other areas that need structural reform.
Because I was involved in the battle
for privatizing Japan Highway PublicCorp., I have left the record in mybooks, “Doro no Kenryoku” (Authority of the Road) and “Doro no
Kettchaku” (Settlement of the Road).
The important thing is to expose thepolicy making process to the public
and record every detail of it. I’msure Abe Administration is going toundergo various reforms, but it’s necessary to expose the process of policy
making to the public and thereby
pursue reform involving its people.
The political style of Koizumi Administration was called “theatrical.” Because
it was dramatic, it was also known to bea “theatrical space.” Actually, I think
he created the basics of what politics
should be like in the future.
It’s the presidential election time for
America this year. The presidential
election I think is in a sense, a battle
that occurs once every four years togain the right to the throne. It’s as if
every four years that country is continuously experiencing an internal
disturbance similar to that of the
Civil War. Thoroughly giving out
various ideas legitimizes their power
as a result. By doing so, its people areable to follow the new throne, inother words, they follow orders thatcome from the new president.
Koizumi’s reform at the time I think
was a little similar to that. Koizumi
Administration legitimized theirpower by disclosing information as
much as they could and gained approval from its people. I myself understand it this way.

3

Keynote Lecture

The Future of Japanese Civilization,a lecture by Junichiro Koizumi

Structural Reform ofEnergy toward
zero-nuclear power
Structural reformachieved in anenvironment where
every party was in
opposition
Today I would like to talk about thepath Japan should take in the future,
centering around the issue of nuclear
power.
It was in 1996 that I first ran forgeneral election. In the beginning, it
was rumored that the election would
result in a clash head-on between theincumbent Prime Minister Yohei
Kono and newcomer Ryutaro
Hashimoto. Being in a position to
support Mr. Kono, I was planningto serve as master of ceremony thefollowing day in a ceremonial event
to kick off Mr. Kono’s election campaign. But when I returned home,
after participating in the election’s
strategy meeting, I received a phone
call from Mr. Kono. I thought it unusual that I got a phone call from
Mr. Kono. When I picked up thephone, he said he was going to “decline the general elections.” Was I
surprised!
The incumbent Prime Minister de-4clines, but we can’t have newcomer
Mr. Hashimoto become Prime Minister without a battle, so we tried tofind a rival candidate. Of course everyone refused. Nobody wants tofight a losing battle, in which eventhe incumbent Prime Minister has
declined. Then there were these people who started saying “Koizumi
won’t receive any damage even heloses.” At the time, recommendationfrom 30 Diet members of the LDP
was required to become a candidate.
I didn’t think they’d be able to gather that many. But then an enthusiastic colleague collected them all. Of
course, the election was a total defeat. Naturally, for I was claiming
for privatization of the postal service, which nobody cared about.
In the meantime, I lost my second
election to Mr. Keizo Obuchi. But
when Yoshiro Mori decided to resign the position of 19th Prime
Minister of Japan, I ran again for thethird time against Mr. Hashimoto.
“I lost two times, so this will be mythird,” I said. Even my family said tome, “Please don’t run because you’ll
lose again and it’ll be embarrassing.”
I told them that this would be thelast. Then funnily enough I won.
This is how I became Prime Minis-ter.
I read Mr. Inose’s book, “Niponkoku
no Kenkyu” (A Report of Japan) withdeep admiration, thinking, “Thisauthor is great!” I had also attended
Mr. Inose’s lectures, before becoming Prime Minister. Then, one day
after I’d become Prime Minister,
Mr. Inose contacted me. I met him
and we started talking about the privatization of the Japan Highway
Public Corp. First I said to him, “I
don’t think it’s possible.” Like theprivatization of the postal service,
the project would receive great opposition. I told him it seemed impossible to privatize both the postal
service and Japan Highway PublicCorp. during my tenure. But Mr.
Inose said, “No, we can do it.” “Areyou sure?” I asked him. “Yes,” hesaid. So I said to him, “Okay, let’s
do it then.”
Just as I thought, we met with great
conflict when I placed Mr. Inose as amember of the Committee for the
Promotion of the privatization of
the Japan Highway Public Corp.
However, none of the bureaucrats
and specialists could overthrow Mr.
Inose’s verification regarding theprivatization issues of the Japan
Highway Public Corp. Amongst the
many specialists who turned away
and left the committee, a very small
number of Diet members remained
and made a great effort. Also, critic
Ms. Eiko Ooya supported us very
well. Little by little, the people began to believe in us. It is because of
Mr. Inose that we were able to privatize Japan Highway Public Corp.,
despite oppositional forces.
Similarly, the privatization of postal
service met opposition from all parties. A foreign journalist once toldme, “I thought Japan was a democratic nation.” Not only were the
Democratic Party of Japan and Japanese Communist Party against me,
but also the majority of the LDP was
not in my favor. “Every party isagainst you. Prime Minster you
alone can’t pursue this, can you?” I
had no answer to this.
In 2005, the House of Representatives approved the Postal Service Privatization Act, in an ordinary sessionof the Diet by a slim margin of 5
votes. But then there was a rebellion
from LDP members and the Act was
rejected by the House of Councilors
and thus abandoned. Normally, thiswould have meant mass resignation.
I pursued a snap election, but they
told me that even if I dissolve theHouse of Representatives, and themembers approving of the privatization held a majority, I wouldn’t beable to dissolve the House of Councilors so they’d carry on rejecting theAct. They also said I lacked common
sense and that I was pursuing a sui-cidal dissolution. Moreover, they
told me that because LDP was splitin half, the opposition parties would
now have control. However, despite
all of this, the public supported us
during the snap election. I still think
it was extraordinary that we wereable to privatize the postal service
facing the opposition of all parties,
but it made me believe that if you
tried you can do it.

There is no
absolute safety,
so we should notpossess nuclear
power
Zero-nuclear power is, so to speak, astructural reform of energy. I’m often criticized for being irresponsible,
having promoted nuclear power
when I was Prime Minister andstressing zero now. But back then, I
totally believed in what the specialists were saying about nuclear power. The specialists were saying thatit’s safe, cheap, and clean. They also
said it was an energy source essential
for Japan, and we’re depending for
90% of energy on nuclear power.
Then we experienced the meltdown
of Fukushima nuclear reactor in theearthquake in the Tohoku region in
2011. I realized immediately thatsafety was a big lie. From then onwards I educated myself. I studied
the history of how nuclear power got
introduced and about nuclear power
plant accidents of Three Mile Island
and Chernobyl. I listened to boththe opinion of people who wereagainst nuclear power from before
the accident, and people who still
stress its necessity even after the accident.
Nuclear power started commercial
operations in 1966 with Tokai Power Station. Nearly 50 years havepassed since its introduction. During
these times, America’s Three Mileand Soviet Union’s Chernobyl haveexperienced great disasters. Even af-

ter the accidents, they said, “Japan isunlike Three Mile and Chernobyl.
Japan is extremely sensitive toward
safety and our technical experts arehighly skilled.”
Before the earthquake, the chairmanof the Nuclear Safety Commission
was brought in to the Diet and wasquestioned; “Are you sure that
Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant’ssafety is sufficient?” But the reply
was, “We have enough security measures. We have multiple layers ofprotection. Even if one accident
happens, we have a separate protection wall, so it’ll be okay. If we takefurther security measures, we won’t
be able to secure profitability.” A
few months after these words, there
was that accident. We could have
prevented that accident.
What were the people promoting
nuclear power saying before the accident,? They said Japan’s nuclear
power was different to that of Chernobyl because it had a reactor container that covered the reactor vesselthat carried the nuclear fuel uranium
and plutonium. They widely announced that because of the multiple layers of protection, radioactive
substances would not leak outside.
Former Science and Technology
Agency’s Atomic Energy Bureau
chief said, “A situation in which local people would have to evacuate toother prefectures will never happen.
With multiple protection layers, big
accidents will never happen.” This
statement remains on record.
Recently, people promoting nuclear
power are starting to say, “Well Mr.
Koizumi, there’s no machine or industry that’s absolutely safe.”
Whether it’s a machine or an industry, if we don’t take the risk of accidents, we won’t be able to benefit,
they say. It’s true, accidents happen,
be it airplanes or cars. But a nuclear
plant accident is incomparable inthe sense that it destroys a vast areaof land during a long period of time,
during which we are helpless and are
unable to recover. The nuclear power industry is an industry that we

5must never allow to cause accidents.
Japan is a country in which well over
100 million people live in a land as
small as California. There are several
countries that are in favor of nuclear
power, but whether its America,
China, India or Russia, they haveenormous land and under-populated areas. We can’t compare ourcountry to these countries that makethe most of nuclear power. If we areaware that there’s no absolute safety,
Japan should not possess nuclear
power.
What if one more nuclear reactor exploded in the meltdown of Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, 5 years
ago? A report describing the worst
results remains. If that should have
happened, people within the rangeof 250 km would have had to evacuate, including Fukushima, the wholeof Tohoku and Kanto region, obviously Tokyo too. Out of the 100
million Japanese population 50 million wouldn’t even have a place toevacuate to.
Today, the people of Odawara aretrying to live entirely on electricity
other than nuclear power. Vice president of Suzuhiro, famous for its“kamaboko (boiled fish paste)” took
action. He said kamaboko can only
be made from the rich spring waterof the Hakone mountains. We can’t
live anywhere else, so we’re not going to use electricity provided by nuclear power. People of Odawara assumed the worst and made zero-nuclear possible. This is not just thecase in Odawara. Japan Junior
Chambers and Chamber of Commerce and Industry nationwide aresearching for renewable energy thatis produced and consumed by locals,
and are able to take the place of nuclear power.
In Hakodate City, approximately 30
members of the municipal assembly,
including the governor and members from LDP to Japan Communist
Party, are against Oma Nuclear
Power Plant. In Oma, they are trying to make an innovative power
plant that burns radioactive waste

6

and recycles it. There was opposition and then there was breakdown,
so its construction has come to a
standstill after 40% of it was completed.
There’s over two hundred thousand
residents in Hakodate City. Oma
and Hakodate—just over on theside—are extremely close, so if people of Oma get sick they come to
Hakodate not Aomori. Hakodate
City is within 30 kilometers of Oma
Nuclear Power Plant, so it is required by law to have evacuationplans and evacuation route if an accident should happen. If anything of
the worst should happen, where will
the people of Hakodate evacuate to?
It is extremely difficult to find aplace to evacuate. But Hakodate
City does not have the right for consent or the right of veto regarding
Oma Nuclear Power Plant. Only the
local government of Oma has this.
It’s an one-sided law, so no wonder
the people are against it.

Dangerous andexpensive pollutionenergy“Monju” is in the center of the nuclear fuel cycle. It was built as a fast
breeder reactor that burns radioactive waste from nuclear power plants
and reproduces fuel. However, its
careless operation was revealed latelast year. It’s over 30 years since itbegan construction in 1983. 10
years later, its operation began only
to face an accident a few months later. Since then, it hasn’t recovered
operation for 20 years. The money
spent on the project during those 30
years, is 1 trillion 100 billion yen,
but its operation was merely a few
months. I don’t know how they cansay, “Nuclear power plants are thelowest priced.” Plus, the burden is
supported by taxes—in otherwords—the people. Moreover, even
if it doesn’t operate, it costs 50 million yen a day just for maintenance.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. cannot

even cover the compensation fee.
When a nuclear power plant is built,
the local government receives a hugeamount of government funds, butthat law was specifically made. Ultimately, local governments that are
financially poor took in the nuclear
power plants. Compensation fees
and government funds are coveredby tax, but they are not included in
the cost to run nuclear power. If Japan was to head for zero-nuclear
right now, it must make a decommissioned nuclear reactor and aninterim storage facility. Also, itneeds to develop technical ways tolessen radioactivity. How can it callitself the cheapest energy source
without including these costs?
I started emphasizing zero-nuclear
three years ago. People in business
who are promoting nuclear powersay, “We can’t suddenly go zero.
The Japanese economy will collapse.” They say we can’t bear thecold winter and hot summer andthat our heating expenses will go up
if we cut nuclear power.
In fact, from 11th March of 5 years
ago, until September 2 years later,
only 2 reactors were operating. After
that, until September last year, we
had zero nuclear power. Nonetheless, during September 2 years ago
until September last year, there wereno power cuts even in Tokyo whether it was freezing winter or sweltering summer. Today, we have 3 reactors back in operation, but if it’s just
3, I’m sure we can cover that output
with natural energy. Those promoting nuclear power emphasize that “If
we cut nuclear power, our trade deficit will increase 3 trillion 600 billion
yen due to oil import. It’s a loss to
our nation.” But import of our foodalways excels export, but they’venever stressed trade deficit, let alone
a loss to our nation, have they?
Just after the earthquake, nearly
3,000 workers a day were working at
the nuclear power plant for decontamination operations and countermeasures to the accident. Today,
there are 6,000 to 7,000 people aday entering the plant. They have torest their bodies after they absorb acertain amount of radiation. It’s very
hard to continuously find this number of workers.
Of course, these workers have towear protective clothing. Whether
its gloves or Wellington boots, they
can’t use them and then just pass on
to others. They throw them away after they wear them a day. Maybe thecompany making this protective
clothing is making profit, but this iscostly too. Of course there is no local
government that is willing to burnthese clothes. Tokyo Electric PowerCo. is now at last considering constructing a mechanism that willburn polluted protective clothes inside the facility so that radiation
won’t leak outside. It’s already 5
years since the earthquake and they
are at last starting to take measures.
Nuclear power is inexpensive is avery big lie. The cost spent on nuclear power is eating up our tax.
Just last year, Germany announced
that it would build a nation of zero-nuclear. Like Japan, Germany is acountry that lacks energy sources
like oil and coal, but if Germany can
do it, so can we. That is why I inspected the German situation. From
now on, various innovative technologies such as solar, wind power, biomass and geothermal energy will be
developed. Solar and wind power
generation is said to be affected by
the environment, but a brilliant accumulator is now being developed. I
believe we can come up with laborsaving, CO2 reducing substitutes forour energy needs.

Energy fromnature—living withnatureI also went to Olkiluoto Island in
Finland to inspect Onkalo, theworld’s only nuclear fuel repository
for the final disposal of spent nuclear
fuel. Finnish roads are all made fromsolid rock. Tunnels are simply holes

dug out from solid rock but they’retremendously strong. Onkalo is situated 400m underground, and there
is a spiral road that leads to it. Dig
400m underground and in Finland
you still find solid rock. There is a
2km square space underground,
where you dig a cave to bury radioactive waste, which can be stored fora hundred thousand years. But even
here, there is only space for output
from 2 reactors. Finland has 4 reactors, so it has yet to find a place for a
final disposal site for the remaining
2. Also, they are still at a testing stage
to examine if there might be a possibility for the damp on the walls of
the solid rock to condense into waterand flow to the outside world,
10,000 years from now.
Inspecting this facility made me realize that Japan would never be able
to find a place for a final disposalsite. If you dig 400m undergroundanywhere in Japan, I think you’ll
find water or a hot spring. Even if we
did find a place to build it, it would
be extremely expensive and to maintain it for a hundred thousand years
would be outrageously difficult.
Industrial waste disposal businessneeds to find a final disposal site orelse they cannot obtain permission
from governors of prefectures. Dangers caused by nuclear power are nocomparison to industrial waste, but
the government gives permission to
nuclear power companies to operate
even if they don’t find a final disposal site. Isn’t this wrong?
Nuclear power needs to burn nuclear fuel in order to create energy. In
order to cool this down, they gather
a huge amount of seawater withplankton and microbes offshore andsend it through a pipe to cool down
the reactors. Exploitation of seawater will lessen microbes, seaweed andfish, ultimately changing the ecosystem altogether. Moreover, if carcasses of microbes remain in the pipes,
the pipes get blocked, and this willpose a problem for cooling down thereactors. So they use chemicals to remove them. When they pump out

the water, they’re discharging warm
chemical water. Nuclear power energy is far from being a clean industry
that doesn’t discharge CO2 as theysay. It creates industrial pollution.
All 3 statements stressed by people
promoting nuclear power—safe,
cheap and clean energy—ended up
being a lie. But still, Japan is trying
to restart operations. Sendai Nuclear
Power Plant of Kyushu passed the
new standard after the accident andobtained permission to restart operations from the Nuclear Regulation
Authority. But even if they passed
the standard, it doesn’t mean they’re
absolutely safe. Who is going to takeresponsibility—the government, thenuclear power companies or the
Regulation Authority? Japan’s irresponsible structure is frightening indeed.
After the war, nuclear power was
promoted to make the lives of people richer.
During the war, people used oil preciously handling it like a “drop ofblood.” But after the war, people realized that oil was cheaper than fuelso they abandoned the coal mines.
Japan developed rapidly using cheap
oil. Then beginning with the Arab-Israeli conflict, oil-producing
countries found it unreasonable thatcountries selling oil were poor, andcountries that were fully using oil
were thriving, so they started using
oil as a weapon. In 1973, oil that was
about 2 dollars a barrel rose 4 to 5
times to about 10-11 dollars.

7

Kimiko Tsuzuki presented a bouquet of flowers to Mr. Koizumi

I was elected for House of Representatives in 1972, so I experienced theskyrocketing prices of the Oil Shockas a freshman. It was tough. The
prices go up everyday. At that time,
I didn’t think an era of deflation
would come.
From April, deregulation of electric
power will start. People promoting
nuclear power are now starting tosay, “Once the deregulation begins,
the government must fund nuclear
power or it won’t be able to succeed.” If it truly was an inexpensive
source of energy, it should be able tobeat out the competition. The truthis, the nuclear power industry can’t
get along without funding from thegovernment. Frankly speaking, people who are promoting nuclear power want to maintain nuclear powerno matter how much money it costs.
It’s no longer a means.
Fukushima Nuclear Disaster suffered from great damage. But I’mquite sure we can learn from this disaster and find a way to change thiscountry to a better one. I can’t thinkof a bigger project that’s got dreams
than this one—pursuing zero-nuclear and living on renewable energy.

8

And I think it’s an entirely possible
task if we try. Already, Denmark relies 50% of its electricity on renewable energy as well as Germany andSpain, which rely on just over 30%.
I don’t think it will take more than
20 years for Japan to rely on 30% on
renewable energy if we start now.
Up until now, the nuclear power industry has been monopolizing energy and blocking other energies coming in.
Once the goal is decided, Japanesepeople have the power to make it
happen. No matter how much thegovernment emphasizes the need fornuclear power, we have, in reality,
spent five years without it. Solar
power was said to destroy fields andrice fields, but recently solar panels
have become small about double theheight of humans. So it’s now become possible to plow fields and rice
fields and collect solar light at thesame time. There are farmers out
there, who produce and consume
energy locally using these devices.
Using nature for energy and thus
co-existing with nature. Maybe Japan needs to demonstrate to theworld a model that they can all be

proud of.
I have retired from the politicalworld. It’s a shame that I couldn’t
tackle this structural reform when I
was Prime Minister, but I thinkmaybe this was my destiny. I am determined to continue this zero-nuclear policy with persistence, and I
never intend to give up.
Reprinted from “Shukan Dokushojin” (18th March, 2016. 3132 issue)
Translation: Ayako Karino

Naoki Inose,“Nihonkoku no Kenkyu” (A Reportof Japan) Bubshun bunko, 1999.

Japan Civilization Institute 2016 4th Symposium
Human tastes is consisted of “sweetness,” “bitterness,” “sourness,” “saltiness” and “umami(pleasant savory taste).” UNESCO registered Japanese cuisine on its List of Intangible Cultural
Heritage of Humanity, due to the fact that this “umami” was discovered and developed during
the long history of Japanese food culture. It probably won’t take that long for Japanese sake tocome on equal terms with wine too. The symposium invites Mr. Hiroshi Sakurai, president of
Asahi Shuzo Co., the brewery for making Japanese sake Dassai, which is also popular amongpeople outside Japan, writer Mr. Tsuneyasu Takeda, known for his research of Kojiki (Japan’s
oldest historical record) and Mr. Katsuhiko Kitamoto, research professor of Nihon
Pharmaceutical University, known for his longtime study of fermentative bacteria, who will be
widely discussing on how Japanese have come to form a deep relationship with kobo (yeast).

▶ Panel discussion:“Why Japanese sake tastes good?”—Japanese cuisine leads the world
Moderator

Hiroshi Sakurai

Tsuneyasu Takeda Katsuhiko Kitamoto Naoki Inose(president of Asahi Shuzo Co.)

(writer)(research professor of Nihon
Pharmaceutical University)(writer, director of Japanese
Civilization Institute)

Date: 24th May 2016, 7 p.m.-9 p.m. (doors scheduled to open at 6:30 p.m.)
Venue: Japan University of Economics, Tokyo Shibuya Campus Hall (the hallseats approximately 100 people)
Address: 25-17, Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
How to attend: apply through the site below:		
http://www.japancivilization.org/
Contact: Japan Civilization Institute 03-5456-8082
Address: 24-5 Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0031