Mayor Who Has Backed Reactor Plan Faces Anti-Nuke Challenger
KAMINOSEKI, Japan—This small fishing village has become the next front in Japan’s battle over nuclear power, with an anti-nuclear protester threatening to oust the pro-nuclear mayor in an election Sunday.
At stake: the fate of a long-planned reactor for which ground-breaking is supposed to take place next year.
More broadly, the defeat of a mayor whose economic development strategy has centered on a controversial power plant could fuel the country’s increasingly influential anti-nuclear movement.
“What’s often said is that we need nuclear-power money to run Kaminoseki,” challenger Sadao Yamato, 61 years old, told a few dozen supporters as he formally kicked off his campaign on Tuesday.
Continue reading at Japan Vote Hinges on Nuclear Energy
◇ more articles in Japanese:
・上関町長選あす投開票 原発、町づくりに審判 via 山口新聞
・選挙：山口・上関町長選 あす告示 「原発抜き」の将来像争点 via mainichi.jp
・山口・上関町長選２０日告示 原発頼みの町、揺れる via MSN産経ニュース
