{"id":7852,"date":"2026-05-20T16:16:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T07:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/?p=7852"},"modified":"2026-05-20T16:19:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T07:19:22","slug":"host-municipalities-voice-concerns-at-zengenkyo-general-assembly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/news\/npps\/7852","title":{"rendered":"Host Municipalities Voice Concerns at Zen\u00adgenkyo General Assembly"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The assembly serves as a forum where mayors and other representatives from member and associate member municipalities hosting nuclear power facilities discuss proposals to the national government regarding nuclear and energy policy. This year\u2019s meeting was attended by representatives from 28 municipalities. In the latter half of the session, INO Toshiro, State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, and SHIMIZU Masato, Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, joined the discussions, along with numerous Diet members and officials from the Cabinet Office, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and other related agencies for exchanges of views with host communities.<\/p>\n

Regarding Japan\u2019s nuclear fuel cycle policy, SAITO Tomohiko, Deputy Mayor of Mutsu City, spoke about the interim spent fuel storage facility located in the city, describing it as \u201cnational infrastructure supporting Japan\u2019s nuclear fuel cycle policy.\u201d At the same time, he stated that \u201cunderstanding of the importance of backend facilities cannot be said to be sufficient,\u201d and called on the government to ensure \u201cfair treatment for all facilities supporting the fuel cycle.\u201d He also expressed views regarding the need for institutional support measures.<\/p>\n

On the issue of nuclear reactor restarts and legal interpretations, HIROSHIMA Kazutoshi, Chairman of the Kariwa Village Assembly, and SAKURAI Masahiro, Mayor of Kashiwazaki City, made particularly pointed proposals.<\/p>\n

Hiroshima evaluated the government\u2019s policy to extend the deadline for the installation of Specified Severe Accident Countermeasure Facilities (Tokuju facilities), which are anti-terrorism facilities required under Japan\u2019s post-Fukushima regulations, as \u201ca reasonable decision.\u201d However, regarding Unit 7 of the Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Plants<\/span><\/span>, which was excluded from the extension because its deadline had already expired, he questioned the rationale behind the decision, saying, \u201cI cannot understand that logic.\u201d He further argued that \u201cbeing unable to restart Kashiwazaki Kariwa Unit 7 is tantamount to leaving a valuable asset unused.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Sakurai also reflected on discussions surrounding the restart of the plant and referred to the phrase \u201cunderstanding of host communities\u201d included in Japan\u2019s Seventh Strategic Energy Plan. He pointed out that \u201cthere has been no clear definition of what geographical area constitutes the host community.\u201d<\/p>\n

While public hearings and consultations were conducted across all of Niigata Prefecture regarding the restart of the plant, Sakurai noted that \u201csome municipalities in the prefecture are located as far as 150 kilometers from the plant.\u201d He also referred to how such distances would compare with nuclear plants in other regions, including Fukui and Hokkaido, and questioned whether \u201cit is reasonable to uniformly require local consent on a prefectural basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

He further stated that \u201cit is abnormal for plants whose safety has been confirmed by the Nuclear Regulation Authority in accordance with the law to remain unable to operate for extended periods,\u201d warning that prolonged delays would amount to \u201ca national-level loss.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The assembly serves as a forum where mayors and other representatives from member and associate member municipalities hosting nuclear power facilities discuss proposals to the national government regarding nuclear and energy policy. This year\u2019s meeting was attended by representatives from 28 municipalities. In the latter half of the session, INO Toshiro, State Minister of Economy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[1513,1511,724,1510,978,1512,43,695,1184,19,741,1198,1509,1489,186,365],"class_list":["post-7852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-npps","category-policies","tag-anti-terrorism-facilities","tag-backend-facilities","tag-energy-policy","tag-host-municipalities","tag-interim-storage-facility","tag-japan-nra","tag-kashiwazaki-kariwa","tag-local-consent","tag-niigata-prefecture","tag-nra","tag-nuclear-energy","tag-nuclear-fuel-cycle","tag-nuclear-power-plants","tag-reactor-restart","tag-strategic-energy-plan","tag-zengenkyo"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7854,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7852\/revisions\/7854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}