Trade minister Yukio Edano on Friday voiced his personal hope that Japan will end its dependence on nuclear power plants in light of the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
"I would like to break away from the reliance on nuclear plants and reduce dependence to zero as promptly as possible," Edano told a House of Representative panel, describing the remark as his personal opinion.
"The government has a clear policy of making maximum efforts to break away from dependence on nuclear plants," he said.
Edano made the remark as Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and other key policymakers were in the final stages of deciding to restart two offline reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi power station in Fukui Prefecture.
Edano, the minister of economy, trade and industry, repeated to the committee that even if the two units are restarted, electricity could still fall short of demand in Kansai Electric's service area this summer, including in Osaka.
Businesses and households should pare electricity consumption and Kepco should expand nonnuclear power generation, he said.
His remark on the nuclear phaseout could impact discussions at METI's Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy, which is attempting to revise national energy policy to reflect the fallout from the Fukushima disaster, which erupted in March 2011. Some on the panel have called for phasing out nuclear plants, while others have sought to retain them.
Edano later told reporters that it has been the government's policy to exert efforts to reduce Japan's dependency on nuclear power as much as possible since the crisis, which has triggered mass evacuations, ruined vast swaths of farmland, tainted the food supply and polluted the Pacific Ocean with radioactive material.