Tokyo governor's election 2014
There is a Tokyo Metropolitan election being held on Sunday, February 9th to elect a new Tokyo Governor. Japanese elections are always held on a Sunday. The previous Governor, Naoki Inose, recently resigned in the middle of a corrupt political donation scandal: the usual reasons. Inose was the Vice Governor under former Governor Shintaro Ishihara who resigned his office a run in the last federal election. It was Ishihara and Inose together who brought the 2020 Olympic Games to Tokyo. Ishihara did the hard work then Inose took all the credit for it because the International Olympic Committee’s Tokyo decision was made during his tenure. Both will be on hand in 2020 to bask in the glory.
There are sixteen candidates in total. Some do not bother with campaign posters.
Regarding the Sunday, January 26, 2014 Japan Times article “Tokyo race focuses on nuke issue," I understand the strong public feeling against nuclear power that is a reaction to the 2011 Fukushima crisis. But I regard it more as a fad resulting from a situation that is currently occupying us. In the future something new will come along to occupy us. So the passion with which people defend their current interests contradicts their mutability. Anti-nuclear power polemics that rest on fear and avoidance of the real dangers associated with it are compromised by the fact that we knew that nuclear energy was dangerous before the ongoing crisis began. So what were all those people thinking then? You mean they didn’t know it was dangerous? Where were their heads?
Numbers don’t lie and statistically nuclear energy is the safest and the cleanest source of energy there is - that is if you can work your way around the whole radiation and nuclear waste bogeyman. By suspending nuclear generation Japan has had to rely on greater imports of fossil fuels - primarily but not exclusively petroleum and natural gas - to meet its energy needs. Burning fossil fuels is more polluting in the short term because of the release of soot and greenhouse gases. So the anti-nuclear voice cannot defend itself as an environmental choice. They hate the environment so they want to pollute it more. They might claim that the anti-nuclear option is genuinely environmental despite the greater pollution caused by fossil fuels because conscientious energy conservation by the population, plus greater fuel efficiency, plus greater use of renewable green energy will offset the difference. But that is not credible because it stupidly under states, or under estimates how much energy it really takes to power a society like this.
Finally there is the safety issue. Statistically nuclear energy has been tops in terms of workplace safety. Must I assume that those who advocate greater use of fossil fuels - despite attempt to offset it by conservation - are also advocating greater workplace danger? Do they hate workers just like they hate the environment? Or is the workplace safety issue just something else they didn’t bother to know about before the current crisis?
Maybe anti-nuclear industry people are terrorists in the sense that their animosity towards the environment and people are terrible.
Published in The Japan Times newspaper on Sunday, February 2, 2014 as “Anti-nuclear ‘fad’ belies passion.”
And the winner is former Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe, supported by the ruling pro-nuclear energy Liberal Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the national level. Opinion polls showed voter concern split between social welfare, nuclear power, disaster preparedness and the candidates' political credibility.