The Abe administration is considering boosting the subsidies that municipalities receive for hosting live nuclear plants in a bid to overcome local resistance to reactor restarts, sources said Monday.
The government is currently paying the cash even though all 48 of the nation's reactors remain offline.
The new policy would be a departure from uniform disbursement. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is expected to present the idea during an expert panel meeting Wednesday with the goal of putting it into practice in fiscal 2016, the sources said.
The subsidies system dates from 1974. It was designed to promote the construction of power plants — both nuclear and conventional. It involves the central government taxing utilities based on their sales of electricity and distributing that to local governments.