"Abenomics" Growth Strategy: "Government United as One" to Push for Nuclear Reactors Restart, By All Means Necessary

Reading the reference documents for Prime Minister Abe's "Competitiveness Committee" make your head spin, and make you think it is still 1960s Japan for them, right before the Tokyo Olympic (1964), with words like "striving to be the world number one", "international competition", "global leader".

And sure enough, at the core of this "international" growth strategy is nuclear power generation, just like in the 1960s.

Asahi Shinbun reports it has obtained the draft of the "Growth Strategy" of the Abe administration to be finalized and formally announced by mid June. The wording, from little what's reported in the article, confirms my suspicion that the Abe administration and LDP, whose members are second- and third-generation politicians and/or academics who have precious little experience in working in the "real" economy, are stuck in 1960s.

(Real economy? Isn't that another name for the stock market?)

From Asahi Shinbun (5/31/2013; part):

安倍政権が６月にまとめる成長戦略の素案に「原発の活用」を盛り込み、原発再稼働に向けて「政府一丸となって最大限取り組む」と約束することがわかった。東京電力福島第一原発事故を受けて脱原発を求める声は根強いが、安倍政権の経済政策「アベノミクス」で目指す経済成長には原発が欠かせないという姿勢を鮮明にする。

It has been revealed that the draft of the growth strategy to be finalized by the Abe administration in June will contain "utilization of nuclear power plants" and a promise that "the government united as one will make utmost effort" to restart the nuclear power plants. After the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, there is still a persistent view that Japan should move away from nuclear power. But the administration is going to make its stance clear that nuclear power is indispensable for the economic growth under "Abenomics", the economic policy under the Abe administration.

　素案は、成長戦略をまとめる産業競争力会議で５日に示され、１２日までに正式に決めたうえで、１４日にも政府方針として閣議決定する。成長戦略に「原発の活用」が入れば、中長期にわたって原発に頼る経済・社会を続けることになる。

The draft will be presented at the June 5 meeting of the Competitiveness Committee, which is in charge of compiling the growth strategy for Japan. The draft will be officially decided upon by June 12, and a formal cabinet decision will be made on June 14 to make this growth strategy as official government policy. If "utilization of nuclear power plant" is to be part of the growth strategy, that will mean Japanese economy and society will continue to depend on nuclear power in the medium to long term.

　朝日新聞は「成長戦略（素案）」を入手した。エネルギー政策では、成長を担う企業が活動しやすくするため、原発事故後の電力不足を解消したり、火力発電につかう燃料費がかさんで値上がりする電気料金を抑えたりする必要があると指摘している。

Asahin Shinbun has obtained the draft copy of the "Growth Strategy". In the section for energy policy, the strategy calls for measures to meet the electricity demand after a nuclear accident and to suppress the utility cost from rising because of the increasing fuel cost for thermal power generation so that growth companies can operate easily [without disruption].

　そのために必要な政策として「電力システム改革の断行」「高効率の火力発電の導入」などとともに「原子力発電の活用」を盛り込んだ。具体的には、原子力規制委員会が安全と判断した原発は「判断を尊重し、再稼働を進める」としたうえで、地元の理解や協力を得るために「政府一丸となって取り組む」と明記し、原発再稼働を積極的に進める方針を打ち出す。

The measures will include "resolutely carrying out electrical power system reform", "introducing high-efficiency thermal power generation", and "utilizing nuclear power". Specifically, those nuclear power plants deemed safe by the Nuclear Regulatory Authority "will be restarted, as the government honors the decision [by the NRA]", and "the government united as one do whatever necessary" to obtain the understanding and cooperation from the local communities [where the nuclear power plants are located]. The government will make it clear that its policy is to actively promote the restart of nuclear power plants.

The actual sentence in the draft that Asahi Shinbun quotes in the article:

原子力発電の活用
Utilization of nuclear power generation

「原子力規制委員会により安全と認められた場合には、その判断を尊重し原子力発電の再稼働を進める。その際、立地自治体等関係者の理解と協力を得るため、政府一丸となって最大限取り組む」

"If the Nuclear Regulatory Authority decides it is safe, the government will honor the decision and proceed to restart the nuclear power generation. In doing so, the government united as one will make utmost effort to win understanding and cooperation from the interested parties in the local municipalities where nuclear power plants are located.

The "interested parties" simply mean politicians and bureaucrats in the local municipalities.

There is another thing in the so-called "growth strategy" that I find it personally scary:

海底資源「メタンハイドレート」の商業化

Commercialization of methane hydrate

Of all nations, I want Japan to stay out of the risky venture like this.

But that aside, Japan's long-time obsession with "international" this and that is very funny to me, considering how little they actually care about the "international" community, as evidenced by the recent faux pas by Governor of Tokyo and Mayor of Osaka City.

Those foreign "macro" investors (those who invest based on the government and central bank policies of a nation) who have been pouring money into Tokyo Stock Exchange seem to have thoroughly confused these boys and girls of the Abe administration, who have taken the soaring Japanese stock market (until very recently) is the strongest endorsement from the world that so-called "Abenomics" is working.

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