The 10th day of November, 2014CE
Addressed to:Governor Yuichiro Itoh of Kagoshima Prefecture,
The honorable members of the Prefectural Assembly of Kagoshima,
Issued by:
TheRight

Reverend

IchiroShibusawa,

Chairperson, the Peace and Justice Committeeof Nippon Sei Ko Kai (the Anglican-Episcopal
Church in Japan)
The Reverend Kiyoshi Nomura, Executive
Chairperson, the No-Nuke Project of Nippon
Sei Ko Kai

Statement of Protest against
the “local consents”
given by the Governor of Kagoshima Prefecture
and the Prefectural Assembly of Kagoshima
to the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant’s restart
On November 7th, 2014, the Prefectural Assembly of Kagoshima passed the petition to restart theSendai Nuclear Power Plant. This was followed by the prefecture’s Governor Yuichiro Itoh, whoexpressed his consent to the restart. These facts took us, the committee and the Project issuing thisStatement, by sheer surprise, as something incredible. Voices are loud pointing out how disastrousand hazardous nuclear energy and radiation truly are, both in and out of Japan. While you, theGovernor and the Assembly, are obliged to protect the lives and livelihood of your prefecture’scitizens, your consent to the restart proves you are more concerned with economy than with citizens’
lives – this is the impression shared by numerous people of the world.
We are certain that you all know very well the explosions and radiation leakage at the Fukushima
Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of March 2011 forced countless citizens out of their beloved
hometowns. Even today, many of them are still living in temporary housings as evacuees. Yetanother disaster that is still happening today is that some gigantic quantities of radioactive
substances are leaking out of the Nuclear Plant, contaminating the ocean, soil, and air, and we aresure you are aware of this disaster as well. Furthermore, in much of Fukushima, the radioactive soil
collected by the “decontamination” work there is simply piled up at numerous places in theprefecture, since we, humans, have yet to find out a technology to process radioactive substancessafely. We are certain you are well aware of this danger as well. These are some of the harm nuclear
power stations can do. While many are aware of those dangers, what necessity is there to restart anuclear power plant and expose people to such grave dangers?
Moreover, in your own prefecture, many municipalities close to the Sendai Plant, for instanceIchikikushino City, have adopted a resolution to oppose the Plant’s restart, according to media
reports. Elsewhere, the Volcanological Society of Japan called for a reconsideration of the volcanic
effects evaluation guide on the Nuclear Plant prepared by the Nuclear Regulation Authority of Japan,
which presumed that it was feasible to predict a major volcanic eruption. While Governor Itoh said
the volcanic risks were not an issue, following explanations given by Kyushu Electric Power, theVolcanological Society is criticizing it, saying such a no-problem recognition is diagonally opposedto the current scientific knowledge.
Your decision of the consent to the nuclear plant restart, while all those oppositions and questions areroaring, is an act of betrayal to your own people and of disregard to safety. We have to say, inconsenting to the restart, you have abandoned your duty to protect your own people’s lives.
We, Nippon Sei Ko Kai (the Anglican-Episcopal Church in Japan), adopted a statement titled “For aWorld without Nuclear Power Plants,” at our general Synod convened in May 2012. The heart of its
message is that we must not threaten any lives created by God. We, humans, need to repent of ourpast, in which we allowed for nuclear power plants, a major threat to lives. It is high time we shouldchange our energy policies to eliminate this source of dangers and turn to safer renewable sources ofenergy. We are convinced that this demand is shared not just by Christians but by many othercitizens as well.
Standing upon the viewpoints described above, we hereby issue this Statement of Protest against tothe Governor and the Prefectural Assembly of Kagoshima Prefecture, demanding that you should
define and implement policies whose top priority is your own people’s lives.