#Antinuclear Japan: Nearly 90% of Public Comments on National Energy Policy Are "Zero Nuke"

That's the number from analyzing 7,000 comments from the public on the national energy policy. 80,000 more to go.

The committee members who have been analyzing the public comments have already started to stress the importance of "quality" over the "quantity".

From Mainichi Shinbun (8/22/2012):

パブリックコメント:原発ゼロ支持９割　７０００件分析

Support for "No nuclear plants" 90% of the 7000 public comments analyzed so far

政府は２２日、新たなエネルギー政策の策定に向けて実施したパブリックコメント（意見公募）の意見の約９割が原発ゼロを支持しているとの分析結果を明らかにした。

On August 22, the national government disclosed the result of the analysis on the public comments that it received regarding the formulation of a new national energy policy, and said that about 90% of the comments supported "zero nuclear power plant".

　同日の「国民的議論に関する検証会合」で報告した。

It was reported in the committee to analyze the national [citizens'] debate.

　寄せられた８万９１２４件のうち約７０００件を分析したところ、「ただちに原発ゼロ」が８１．０％、「段階的にゼロ」が８．６％だった。原発容認と支持は合わせて約４％にとどまった。残りの約８万件も集計が終わり次第、公表する。

7,000 comments out of 89,124 comments have been analyzed so far. 81.0% favor "zero nuke plants immediately", 8.6% favor "zero nuke plants over time". Only 4% favor or support nuclear power plants.

　委員からは「数値の解釈より、質的な分析、考え方の筋道を重視すべきではないか」「（７、８月）２カ月の国民的議論では（短すぎて）熟議できない」などの意見が出た。

Commissioners expressed their opinions, such as "We should pay more attention to qualitative analysis and thought process, rather than the numbers", and "National debate for two months (in July and August) is just (too short to) discuss [the policy] fully".

　検証会合は次回以降、パブリックコメントや討論型世論調査などに寄せられた意見をどう活用するのかを協議する。検証結果は政府のエネルギー・環境会議に報告。将来的な原発依存度を示す「エネルギー・環境戦略」作りに反映させることを目指す。

In the next meetings, the committee will consider how to utilize the opinions from the public comments and opinion surveys in a form of public discussions using focus groups. The result of the analysis will be reported to the Energy and Environment Committee of the national government. The aim is to reflect [these opinions] on the "Energy and Environment Strategy", which will decide the future reliance on the nuclear power plants.

If the commissioners actually said that, it is quite laughable. If they think that the public thought about nuclear power plants and nuclear power generation only in July and August this year, they must be from a different planet.

Besides, these commissioners are supposed to be the experts in the field of statistics. What do they care about "qualitative" aspects?　Looking at the list of commissioners, they are professors at prominent universities in Japan whose fields are law, political science, political economics, media, communications. I see. They must know how to massage the messages then, and that's "qualitative".

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