The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has begun a review of the government's Basic Energy Plan — three years after its last update in 2014 by the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The current plan, the first adopted in the wake of the March 2011 catastrophe at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, lacks clear direction and features apparent inconsistencies, such as its call for reducing "as much as possible" the nation's dependence on nuclear power as a source of electricity while at the same time characterizing nuclear energy as an "important baseload power source" that contributes to a stable energy supply. Under this policy, the Abe administration and the power companies have pushed for restarting nuclear reactors taken offline after the 2011 crisis once they have cleared screening by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA).
In the review to be completed by the end of the current fiscal year, METI reportedly intends to keep the basic outline of the current plan intact — because of the political sensitivities surrounding nuclear power six years after the 2011 disaster. However, the government should overhaul the plan with a more pragmatic assessment of the prospect of nuclear power in this country, which could also affect Japan's commitment to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, and a greater emphasis on renewable energy.
Based on the 2014 plan, the government envisages an energy mix in 2030 where nuclear power will account for 20 to 22 percent of the nation's electricity output — compared with nearly 29 percent in 2010, the last year before the Fukushima crisis. Since power companies have decommissioned several aging reactors under the tightened safety regulations, that target would likely not be achieved unless almost all of the remaining reactors — including the four at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima No. 2 plant — are restarted and the operations of many of them are extended beyond the 40-year rule to the maximum 60 years allowed as "exceptions.