Protecting people's livelihoods, restarting nuclear reactors: ‘risk recalibration’ in Prime Minister Noda's 8 June 2012 national address

Abstract

Given popular concerns about nuclear accidents in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, the Japanese state shut down the last of its fifty-four reactors for inspections on 5 May 2012, the first time the country had been without nuclear energy since May 1970. However, on 8 June 2012, in a nationwide address, Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko justified a resumption of nuclear power generation at the Oi nuclear plant in Oimachi, Fukui Prefecture. This article examines Noda's speech as an example of ‘risk recalibration’. The first section outlines the underlying theoretical assumptions, while the second section provides the context behind the speech. This involved the input of political, economic and social actors as they vied for policy influence. The third section then analyses the risk rationality used in the speech itself. The argument is that while the speech is an important example of risk rationality operating through discourse as a medium of power, the overall ‘recalibration’ runs contrary to what recent studies have shown in other areas. In short, it is held that the speech follows a more traditional paternalistic logic of centralized risk management rather than a neoliberal logic of ‘individual responsibility’.

Keywords:

• risk
• nuclear energy
• discourse
• Japanese politics

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Hiroko Takeda, Glenn Hook, Andrew Dewit, Miori Nagashima, Hugo Dobson, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments and input at various stages. Thanks also to Jiro Yamaguchi for his remarks in response to a presentation of an early draft of this work at the BAJS Mini-Conference held at Hokkaido University in November 2012.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

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Piers R. Williamson

Piers Williamson is in the Research Faculty of Media and Communication, Hokkaido University, North 17, West 8, North Ward, S221, Sapporo, Hokkaido, JP 060-0817. He may be contacted at [email protected].