A plan to construct a nuclear power plant in the town, in Kakumihama
district on the coastline, was offered by the Tohoku Power Electricity
Co. (Tohoku Denryoku) about a quarter of a century ago. The Tohoku
Denryoku had begun to acquire properties and compensated fishing rights
in the area, and went on with other necessary steps which would fulfill
the Ministry of International Trade and Industry's requirements to
construct a nuclear power plant.
However, a series of actions were forced to halt for a long time,
mainly because some residents who owned the land and had been against
the construction refused to sell their land to the company, and there
were town-owned land in the area.
Maki and neighboring towns in central Niigata Prefecture had been
notoriously known to the public for dirty politics. Assemblymen
connected to local constructing industries held great power, and local
politics were manipulated by those people which would bait the locals
with concession. Many of these local policymakers were member of the
Japan's ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party. In Maki, political
situations had been terrible. Two political factions both derived from
the LDP feuded each other, and corrupting the voters--sometimes with
cash--were publicly noticed in the mayoral elections in the past.
In such situation, people against the nuclear power plant fought on
tenaciously and received supports, but until 1982, they were only able to
collect about 2,500 votes at a mayoral election, when the opposing
candidate backed by the LDP polled 8,000 to 9,000. Activists were
somewhat exhausted by the results, and campaign to have a candidate
who was against the power plant had once ceased.
The activists worked in the town, holding meetings and speaking with
locals on the potential danger of nuclear power plant. Residents began to
change. In the mayor elections through 1980s, only two persons from
LDP groups above mentioned were candidates. But each election held in
1982 and 1986, the candidates who would enthusiastically support the
plan was defeated, and another who said in his campaign speeches that
he would support the plan but considered the matter more carefully was
elected. In 1990, both the two candidates appealed to the voters "I
would freeze the plan of the nuclear plant"! These changes were mainly
supported by younger voters, who did not become the part of the local
pork-barrel politics.
In 1994, situation began to move drastically. Tohoku Denryoku and
politicians who were supported by the electric company began the
offensive. Kanji Sato, a mayor who was elected in 1990 promising
to freeze the construction, changed his promise and announced he would
take steps forward for the construction.
It was a year for the mayoral election. Sato ran for his third term,
promising to support the construction. Another conservative, Muramatsu
announced to run for the office. Conventional anti-nuclear activists and
the Japan Socialist Party exchanged agreements with Haruo Muramatsu
to support him in the campaign, underestimating the power of the anger
of the local people opposing the plan. Another miscalculation for the
socialists were they changed their traditional national policy on nuclear
power plants, which drew much criticism even from long-time
supporters of the party. Younger generations, mainly in their 30s and
40s, managed to choose a candidate, Isao Aisaka, who announced he was
clearly against the plant.
Sato won the election. However, Aisaka polled about 4,400 and
Muramatsu polled about 6250. Adding up the votes of the two candidates,
it was much more than the votes Sato received. The result revealed that
there was a strong skepticism in the town to construct the plant, much
greater than everyone had ever imagined from previous elections.
People, mainly storekeepers and executives from small and medium
size corporations in town who had been basically considered neutral to
the argument of power plant, began to speak out. They called for a
referendum, which residents would vote and decide if the town should
agree on the construction of the power plant, rather than go on with a
seemingly endless political strife. They formed a group to hold a
referendum. It attracted many residents, since it was much different
from the conventional anti- or pro-nukes campaign.
The group proposed the town assembly to establish a town regulation
for a referendum to acquire legal validity. However the assembly,
consisting mostly of conservative lawmakers, declined the proposal. The
group took the initiative for a voluntary referendum in February 1995.
All the faction, including conventional anti-nukes groups, joined the
group to hold this referendum. With heavy snow and bad weather, it is
worst time of the year to go out, even to vote. In addition, factions
supporting the power plant began harassing and disturbing the group's
activity. Amazingly, about half of the eligible voters showed up to the
polling station, and over 90 percent of them voted against the
construction. It became once more obvious that the will of the town
residents were starting to change their minds about the power plant.
Two months later, election for the town assembly was held. Before the
election, only 2 out of 22 assemblymen stood against the nuclear power
plant. But encouraged by the voluntary referendum, several groups which
were against the construction, including the group which hosted the
referendum, supported candidates. The polling turned out to be majority
of the assembly were against the plant construction. It was a historic
moment.
The town assembly passed the regulation to hold referendum. Though
the referendum would be held immediately, mayor Sato and
conservatives managed to talk some of the assemblymen to amend the
regulation so that the mayor could put off the referendum.
The group which held the people's referendum in February called for the
recall of Sato in November 1995. The group collected signatures from
residents to support the recall. Sato was forced to resign before he was
recalled. Mayoral election followed, and Takaaki Sasaguchi, an executive
of a local sake brewery who had been leading the group, won.
Sasaguchi went on with his policy, and despite various interference
from the pro-plant assemblymen, the referendum to decide on the
construction was held in August 1996. Both groups, pro and con, held
meetings and study sessions throughout the town to discuss once more
about nuclear power plant. Factions supporting the construction did it
the old way--wining and dining people to talk into support the plan. But
people considered the claims of both sides and went to polling stations.
Women took important part in the campaign against the plant. Not only
younger women but also older women who had always been obscure
figure in any election campaigns stood up against the plan, worried about
the future of their grandchildren. Since Maki was close to heavily
populated area in the prefecture, many citizens groups from outside the
town joined the campaign to say no to the plant. A number of doctors,
dentists and nurses visited the town and gave lectures from their
professional point of view why they could not support to build a nuclear
power plant.
More than 80 percent of eligible voters turned out, and over 60 percent
said they did not want a nuclear power plant in the town. It was a first
time in Japan that the construction of the nuclear power plant was
turned down by a legal process. Even some of the supporters of the
nuclear power plants had to admit the remarkable achievement. It
showed the residents' pride for democracy, after decades of being target
of mockery by other citizens of corrupted elections. A noted journalist,
Masumi Ishikawa, commented the referendum was "a revival of
democracy from pork barrel politics."
Sasaguchi announced that Maki chose not to coexist with a nuclear
power plant. The mayor managed to abolish a section within the town
office to promote the construction of the power plant.
Recently, the group which originally held the voluntary referendum,
succeeded to recall a town assemblyman in September 7 for breaking his
election promise to support their activity. He lost the job instantly.
The town was able to back off the construction mainly because the
town owned pieces of land in the area where Tohoku Denryoku planned
to build the plant. What the residents indirectly showed in the
referendum was that they did not want to sell the town property
to the electric company. The company was forced to give up building
the plant. But this means if a mayor who had a strong will to sell
the property, the scrapped construction plan might emerge again in
the future. Generally, in constructing a nuclear power plant, the
prefectural government has the authority to agree, and the city or
the town where the plant is planned has no right to say if they were
for or against the plan.