Already more than 12 full years have elapsed since the disastrous March 2011 accident at the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. On that day there were fire brigade members who had to leave their towns without being able to save people who had been hit by the tsunami and were seeking rescue. There were public employees who helped residents evacuate while praying that their own families, who were unreachable, had successfully evacuated. There were evacuees who were refused access to bathrooms just because “they’re from Fukushima.” Radiation showered down on the children who helped at soup kitchens for waves of evacuees, and it also fell on smiling babies in the arms of mothers who lined up at supermarkets to get food and water. Cesium was detected in breast milk, at water purification plants, and at sewage treatment plants, while farmers were affected by restrictions on shipping the produce they had painstakingly grown, and gave up spring planting.
After more than 12 years since that day, the restarting of nuclear power plants began and — in the name of the “Green Transformation” (GX), which means the transition to a “post-carbon society” — bills related to maximizing the use of nuclear power were passed by the Diet. Also at this time, TEPCO arbitrarily started the ocean discharge of ALPS-treated contaminated water, which continues to accumulate at the accident site. It was the Supreme Court decision of June 17, 2022 that played the role of providing official authorization to these initiatives. This decision claims that the Fukushima accident could not have been avoided even if the government had exercised its regulatory authority, and that therefore the government bears no liability. But to deny one’s past liability is to renounce one’s future obligations. With the Supreme Court decision as the basis, Japan has made a major course change toward once again promoting “national-policy, private-sector” nuclear power. Have the reflection on and lessons of that devastating nuclear accident been put to beneficial use in any way?
1. In order to prevent the reoccurrence of nuclear-power pollution, which causes severe and diverse human rights violations and environmental damage, we demand in particular that the Supreme Court fundamentally rectify the unjust decision which denies the government’s liability for bringing about this devastating accident.
2. We demand that the Japanese government proceed with initiatives which prioritize total relief and restoration for all damage, in view of the reality that the severe human rights violations and environmental damage resulting from the Fukushima nuclear accident still continue.
3. We also demand ceasing the ocean release of ALPS-treated contaminated water, which further magnifies this additional kind of nuclear-power pollution; the consideration of alternatives; and the immediate suspension of restarting aged reactors.
We hereby release “A Call for No More Nuclear Disasters!” and launch a unique citizens’ movement that aims to create a society which does not expose people to the threat and anxiety of nuclear-power pollution and nuclear disasters. We close our appeal by expressing our sincere hope that — in the quest for a better future — many people will endorse this appeal and the initiatives based upon it, and lend their cooperation, support, and other assistance.
November 1, 2023
