Reversing his campaign pledge to reduce Japan’s reliance on
nuclear power, the newly elected prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, said he
would have more nuclear reactors built in Japan. "They will be completely different from those at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant," he claimed on national television. Putting what can be said to be at the very least a silver
lining on a rather gray, radioactive cloud, he added the following: “With
public understanding, we will be building anew.” The shift is notable because
the previous government, that of Yoshihiko Noda, had sought to phase out
nuclear power by 2040. In fact, Abe’s own party, the Liberal Democratic Party,
had in its platform an aim “to establish an economy and society that does not
need to rely on nuclear power.” How can this turn-around be explained? We may
not need to look far.
It is perhaps no accident that Japan’s biggest business
lobby, the Keidanren, was publicly lobbying for the government to restart the
closed nuclear reactors in Japan. One might add to the mix the political
influence of Tepco, the company that owns and ran the Fukushima Daiichi reactors.
Whether generally pro-business or in the more narrow interest of Tepco, Abe’s
turn-about may illustrate how powerful private interests can be at odds with
the public good—even the survival of a people. Put another way, profits before
people, or economic growth at the expense of the future, can operate as though tunnel
vision or even purblind. That a narrow perspective can ensue even within two
years of a major disaster points to the baleful nature of the power of money in
government. Indeed, Tepco’s political ties in the Japanese government can
explain why
the disaster occurred in the first place.
The lesson here is perhaps the lack of any learning curve—even
a sort of societal amnesia—when the political power of business is so much that
political leaders will undercut even their own word as though with impunity. Particularly
problematic is the scenario in which a “silent majority” bent on boosting
economic growth tacitly rewards the business lobby by refusing to hold a
political leader accountable for having turned on his or her own campaign
promise within days of being sworn into office. Without realizing the extent to
which business shapes the media-driven public discourse, the Japanese people may
have sold themselves out—literally risking their own extinction. Is the
underlying problem, therefore, a weakness of democracy or plutocracy (i.e., rule
by the monied interest)—or is democracy at risk for being manipulated by invisible
powers behind the throne in the name of democracy and the public good?
Sources:
Hiroko Tabuchi, “Japan’s
New Leader Endorses Nuclear Plants,” The
New York Times, December 30, 2012.
“An
Ethical Meltdown in Japan: On the Toxicity of Tepco’s Nuclear Power,” The
Worden Report. March 16, 2011.
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