A high court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by local residents against a ruling last year allowing the restart of two reactors at a nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture.
The Fukuoka High Court's Miyazaki branch ruled that "it cannot be said that new nuclear safety standards are unreasonable." Japan tightened nuclear safety regulations in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis.
The facility in question is Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Sendai plant, where residents challenged the restarting of the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors.