60% of Japanese Youths Support Increasing Dependence on Nuclear Power: Poll

To look into young Japanese people’s thinking about soaring energy costs and the government’s call for reduced electricity consumption this summer, The Nippon Foundation conducted a survey on the subject of “Energy” from July 29 to August 2.

The online poll, covering 1,000 men and women aged between 17 and 19 across the nation, found that more than half of respondents (54.4%) were either very or somewhat interested in Japan’s energy policy. By gender, a lot more males (22.2%) were very interested in it than females (10.3%).

It also showed that two in three (67.0%) were taking concrete steps to conserve electricity on a daily basis, including review of their usage of air conditioning and lighting, while almost 40% (39.2%) believed the government’s save-energy campaign has been effective in enhancing their awareness of electricity conservation.

The Japanese government called on businesses and households to cut electricity consumption from July to September amid the power crunch due in part to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

However, only less than one in five (17.3%) have heard of and understand the point system introduced by the government and some electricity suppliers to reward households that implement energy-saving measures. Almost two in five (38.9%) have heard of it but do not understand the details, and still more (43.8%) have not heard of the system at all.

Over two in three (69.7%) were aware that Japan’s energy self-sufficiency ratio was low. Of these,14.2% knew the specific figure (around 12%) and the remaining 55.5% knew it was low but did not know the number.

Asked about the surcharge levied on households to help finance development of renewable energy on top of regular electricity bills, respondents were divided, with about one in four (24.1%) calling for the introduction of more renewables even if it means a higher surcharge and about one third (32.2%) being against the introduction of more renewables if accompanied by a higher levy; 43.7% had no opinion. The surcharge, revised annually, stands at 3.45 yen/kWh or about 2.4 cents for the period from May 2022 to April 2023.

Regarding efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, 55.8% cited the introduction of renewable energy sources to power public transport as the most promising, followed by environmentally friendly city development (55.1%) and forest management and urban greening (55.0%).

To achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, the Japanese government’s sixth Strategic Energy Plan, announced in October 2021, aims at increasing the nation’s dependence on nuclear power to 20-22% of the total energy consumption by 2030 from 6% envisaged in the previous energy mix worked out in 2019.

When asked to what extent the nation should depend on nuclear power for its energy needs, more than 60% (61.2%) either approved of the government target or advocated going higher still. By gender, far more males (25.5%) are in favor of exceeding the government target for dependence on nuclear power than are females (9.3%).

On the other hand, 23.7% said the target should be lower than the 20-22% range, while 15.1% called for getting rid of nuclear power generation altogether.

Nuclear power remains a difficult issue in Japan, which has kept most of its nuclear plants idled in the decade since a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 triggered a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

As of March this year, or 11 years after the crisis, just six of Japan’s more than 30 nuclear power plants are operating, accounting for just 3.7% of energy use in 2020, down from 26% in 2010.

Nuclear energy, which was deeply opposed by the public after the Fukushima crisis, is now seen by some in the government and the business community as a component for “green transformation.”

In April this year, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Japan will restart more idled nuclear plants and look at developing next-generation reactors, setting the stage for a major policy shift on nuclear energy more than a decade after the Fukushima disaster.

The findings of the latest survey seemed to highlight how the soaring energy costs, especially in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, as well as the government’s call for saving electricity this summer, have forced young Japanese people to rethink the country’s energy security and nuclear power.