A senior government official visited Shiga Prefecture on Monday to win support for reactivating two offline reactors at the Oi nuclear plant in neighboring Fukui Prefecture.
Senior vice trade minister Seishu Makino explained to Shiga Gov. Yukiko Kada the central government believes the two idled reactors are safe to use again and that it is necessary to do so to secure the electricity supply this summer. Makino then went on to visit Kyoto later in the day to hold a similar conversation with Kyoto Gov. Keiji Yamada.
In response, Kada said she was concerned and that the disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 plant is "not someone else's problem."