Forty years have passed since the town of Kaminoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture announced its bid to host a nuclear power plant. However, Chugoku Electric Power’s plan to build the Kaminoseki Nuclear Power Station has been stalled ever since preparation work was halted in the immediate aftermath of the March 2011 Fukushima No. 1 meltdown.
Coupled with a sharply declining government subsidy for nuclear power, depopulation and an aging society are further exacerbating the plight of the town.
On June 29, 1982, then-Mayor Arata Kano announced a plan to bring a nuclear power plant to the town, during a local assembly meeting. Chugoku Electric applied to the prefectural government and the town for the construction of the plant in 1996 and began preparation work in 2009.