Trade and industry minister Yukio Edano was quoted by a major vernacular paper earlier this year as saying that the government is contemplating changing the policy of promoting nuclear power generation as a national project in which operations are entrusted to private sector electric power companies.

According to the Jan. 6 issue of Yomiuri Shimbun, Edano said in an interview that the government will consider entrusting the operation of nuclear power plants to public-sector organizations and changing the form of ownership of nuclear power stations.

The law on compensation for damage from nuclear power generation obliges an electric power company to pay full indemnities to those who suffer from an accident at a nuclear power plant.