Former Japan Premier Koizumi Criticizes Nuclear Push

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Source: Wall Street Journal

Junichiro Koizumi, a former prime minister and onetime nuclear power supporter, is questioning a push by his former protégé and the current premier, Shinzo Abe, to restart Japan's nuclear facilities.

On Tuesday, Mr. Koizumi held his first news conference since retiring from politics in 2008, potentially reopening the energy debate that appeared to have all but disappeared since Mr. Abe's landslide electoral victories brought the legislature under his party's control.

In a thinly veiled criticism of the sitting prime minister, Mr. Koizumi called the pro-nuclear power camp "irresponsible and overly optimistic" for campaigning for reactor restarts without building a spent-fuel repository. He appealed for an immediate ban on nuclear power.

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"This is an extremely rare opportunity for the prime minister to use his authority for good," Mr. Koizumi, 71 years old, told a packed room of 350 reporters in Tokyo.

With the opposition parties and popular opinion already in line for a nuclear-free Japan, Mr. Koizumi said that all it would take is for Mr. Abe's shifting of gears to persuade his pro-business Liberal Democratic Party to come on board.

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Read more: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303460004579193241845041068

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1. Koizumi issues strong call for abandonment of nuclear power

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/38dd2194-4b86-11e3-8203-00144feabdc0.html

Koizumi issues strong call for abandonment of nuclear power
By Jonathan Soble in Tokyo
November 12, 2013 11:48 am

From a jittery public to the problem-plagued clean-up effort at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station, Shinzo Abe’s attempt to revive Japan’s atomic-power industry faced formidable obstacles from the start.

Now, the Japanese prime minister is being forced to contend with an unexpected new roadblock: his own political mentor, the still-popular former premier Junichiro Koizumi.

On Tuesday, in a speech at Japan’s national press club, Mr Koizumi made his most forceful and direct public appeal yet for his country to abandon atomic energy.

And, clarifying a point on which he had previously been vague, he said such a policy should be implemented “immediately” – meaning that plants that have been shut for safety evaluations should not be restarted, even as a stopgap measure while alternative energy sources are developed.

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