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The Residents Movement of Maki Town Resisting Nuclear Power Plant

Maki(pop. 30,000) is situated on the coastline of Sea of Japan, next to the prefectural capital city of Niigata. It is roughly divided into three sections--coastline with relatively low mountain range, wide plains with rural area, and a populated area with national road connecting the town to Niigata.

A plan to construct a nuclear power plant in the town, in Kakumihama district on the coastline, was offered by the Tohoku Power Electricity Co. (Tohoku Denryoku) about a quarter of a century ago. The Tohoku Denryoku had begun to acquire properties and compensated fishing rights in the area, and went on with other necessary steps which would fulfill the Ministry of International Trade and Industry's requirements to construct a nuclear power plant.

However, a series of actions were forced to halt for a long time, mainly because some residents who owned the land and had been against the construction refused to sell their land to the company, and there were town-owned land in the area.

Maki and neighboring towns in central Niigata Prefecture had been notoriously known to the public for dirty politics. Assemblymen connected to local constructing industries held great power, and local politics were manipulated by those people which would bait the locals with concession. Many of these local policymakers were member of the Japan's ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party. In Maki, political situations had been terrible. Two political factions both derived from the LDP feuded each other, and corrupting the voters--sometimes with cash--were publicly noticed in the mayoral elections in the past.

In such situation, people against the nuclear power plant fought on tenaciously and received supports, but until 1982, they were only able to collect about 2,500 votes at a mayoral election, when the opposing candidate backed by the LDP polled 8,000 to 9,000. Activists were somewhat exhausted by the results, and campaign to have a candidate who was against the power plant had once ceased.

The activists worked in the town, holding meetings and speaking with locals on the potential danger of nuclear power plant. Residents began to change. In the mayor elections through 1980s, only two persons from LDP groups above mentioned were candidates. But each election held in 1982 and 1986, the candidates who would enthusiastically support the plan was defeated, and another who said in his campaign speeches that he would support the plan but considered the matter more carefully was elected. In 1990, both the two candidates appealed to the voters "I would freeze the plan of the nuclear plant"! These changes were mainly supported by younger voters, who did not become the part of the local pork-barrel politics.

In 1994, situation began to move drastically. Tohoku Denryoku and politicians who were supported by the electric company began the offensive. Kanji Sato, a mayor who was elected in 1990 promising to freeze the construction, changed his promise and announced he would take steps forward for the construction.
It was a year for the mayoral election. Sato ran for his third term, promising to support the construction. Another conservative, Muramatsu announced to run for the office. Conventional anti-nuclear activists and the Japan Socialist Party exchanged agreements with Haruo Muramatsu to support him in the campaign, underestimating the power of the anger of the local people opposing the plan. Another miscalculation for the socialists were they changed their traditional national policy on nuclear power plants, which drew much criticism even from long-time supporters of the party. Younger generations, mainly in their 30s and 40s, managed to choose a candidate, Isao Aisaka, who announced he was clearly against the plant.
Sato won the election. However, Aisaka polled about 4,400 and Muramatsu polled about 6250. Adding up the votes of the two candidates, it was much more than the votes Sato received. The result revealed that there was a strong skepticism in the town to construct the plant, much greater than everyone had ever imagined from previous elections.

People, mainly storekeepers and executives from small and medium size corporations in town who had been basically considered neutral to the argument of power plant, began to speak out. They called for a referendum, which residents would vote and decide if the town should agree on the construction of the power plant, rather than go on with a seemingly endless political strife. They formed a group to hold a referendum. It attracted many residents, since it was much different from the conventional anti- or pro-nukes campaign.

The group proposed the town assembly to establish a town regulation for a referendum to acquire legal validity. However the assembly, consisting mostly of conservative lawmakers, declined the proposal. The group took the initiative for a voluntary referendum in February 1995. All the faction, including conventional anti-nukes groups, joined the group to hold this referendum. With heavy snow and bad weather, it is worst time of the year to go out, even to vote. In addition, factions supporting the power plant began harassing and disturbing the group's activity. Amazingly, about half of the eligible voters showed up to the polling station, and over 90 percent of them voted against the construction. It became once more obvious that the will of the town residents were starting to change their minds about the power plant.

Two months later, election for the town assembly was held. Before the election, only 2 out of 22 assemblymen stood against the nuclear power plant. But encouraged by the voluntary referendum, several groups which were against the construction, including the group which hosted the referendum, supported candidates. The polling turned out to be majority of the assembly were against the plant construction. It was a historic moment.

The town assembly passed the regulation to hold referendum. Though the referendum would be held immediately, mayor Sato and conservatives managed to talk some of the assemblymen to amend the regulation so that the mayor could put off the referendum.

The group which held the people's referendum in February called for the recall of Sato in November 1995. The group collected signatures from residents to support the recall. Sato was forced to resign before he was recalled. Mayoral election followed, and Takaaki Sasaguchi, an executive of a local sake brewery who had been leading the group, won.

Sasaguchi went on with his policy, and despite various interference from the pro-plant assemblymen, the referendum to decide on the construction was held in August 1996. Both groups, pro and con, held meetings and study sessions throughout the town to discuss once more about nuclear power plant. Factions supporting the construction did it the old way--wining and dining people to talk into support the plan. But people considered the claims of both sides and went to polling stations. Women took important part in the campaign against the plant. Not only younger women but also older women who had always been obscure figure in any election campaigns stood up against the plan, worried about the future of their grandchildren. Since Maki was close to heavily populated area in the prefecture, many citizens groups from outside the town joined the campaign to say no to the plant. A number of doctors, dentists and nurses visited the town and gave lectures from their professional point of view why they could not support to build a nuclear power plant.

More than 80 percent of eligible voters turned out, and over 60 percent said they did not want a nuclear power plant in the town. It was a first time in Japan that the construction of the nuclear power plant was turned down by a legal process. Even some of the supporters of the nuclear power plants had to admit the remarkable achievement. It showed the residents' pride for democracy, after decades of being target of mockery by other citizens of corrupted elections. A noted journalist, Masumi Ishikawa, commented the referendum was "a revival of democracy from pork barrel politics."

Sasaguchi announced that Maki chose not to coexist with a nuclear power plant. The mayor managed to abolish a section within the town office to promote the construction of the power plant.

Recently, the group which originally held the voluntary referendum, succeeded to recall a town assemblyman in September 7 for breaking his election promise to support their activity. He lost the job instantly.

The town was able to back off the construction mainly because the town owned pieces of land in the area where Tohoku Denryoku planned to build the plant. What the residents indirectly showed in the referendum was that they did not want to sell the town property to the electric company. The company was forced to give up building the plant. But this means if a mayor who had a strong will to sell the property, the scrapped construction plan might emerge again in the future. Generally, in constructing a nuclear power plant, the prefectural government has the authority to agree, and the city or the town where the plant is planned has no right to say if they were for or against the plan.


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