The Abe administration has started a "review from the zero base" of the predecessor Democratic Party of Japan government's energy policy, whose centerpiece was ending Japan's reliance on nuclear power in the 2030s.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has criticized a move to phase out nuclear power generation as "irresponsible" and is seeking to restart nuclear power plants, dropping the policy of eventually ending nuclear power.
The experience of the catastrophe at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant should be basis of Japan's energy policy. The lesson from the nuclear crisis is clear: Nuclear power generation is a technology that is extremely difficult to control, especially in this quake-prone country.