Business & Economics
Niigata Assembly Green-Lights Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Restart
On 22 Dec 2025, Niigata’s 53-seat prefectural assembly endorsed Governor Hideyo Hanazumi’s pro-restart stance, giving Tokyo Electric Power Co. final local consent to bring the first reactor at the 7-unit Kashiwazaki-Kariwa complex back online after 14 years offline.
Focusing Facts
- TEPCO plans to power up the 1.35-GW No. 6 reactor around 20 Jan 2026, pending Nuclear Regulation Authority approval.
- The utility has promised a 100 billion-yen (≈US$641 million) community investment package spread over 10 years.
- An October 2025 prefectural survey found 60 % of residents believe restart conditions remain unmet and 70 % distrust TEPCO as operator.
Context
Japan last faced a comparable dilemma when Three Mile Island Unit-1 was cleared to restart in 1985—six years after the 1979 meltdown next door—illustrating how societies gradually trade acute accident trauma for long-term energy imperatives. Today’s vote echoes that pattern: a resource-poor, aging Japan is squeezed between the geopolitical cost of importing ¥10 trn of fossil fuels each year and the carbon limits of a warming planet, while data-center demand surges. The decision slots into a broader 21st-century nuclear re-entrenchment visible from France’s EPR relaunch to China’s fast-reactor build-out, yet it also revives the governance question that felled TEPCO in 2011—corporate transparency and local consent. Whether the restart proves routine or becomes another cautionary tale will shape public tolerance for large reactors well beyond Japan; on a 100-year horizon it may mark either the inflection where big-nuke technology regained legitimacy in an era of decarbonisation, or the moment a society, again, underestimated low-probability, high-impact risk.
Perspectives
Mainstream business-focused media
e.g., The Straits Times, News.az — Present the Niigata vote as a pivotal milestone that will bolster Japan’s energy security, curb fossil-fuel imports and help meet carbon-neutrality targets. Their coverage hews closely to government and corporate talking points, downplaying persistent local safety fears and TEPCO’s poor track record in order to keep a pro-growth, investor-friendly narrative front and center.
Outlets foregrounding Fukushima survivors and protest movements
e.g., Hindustan Times, Yahoo News — Cast the restart as a risky decision widely opposed by residents still traumatized by Fukushima, emphasizing street protests and lingering doubts about TEPCO’s ability to operate safely. By spotlighting emotional testimony and anti-nuclear activism, they may understate Japan’s pressing energy-supply concerns and recent safety upgrades, because fear-laden narratives attract readership and align with a precautionary stance on nuclear power.