On July 8, DPJ Secretary General Goshi Hosono responded to reporters’ questions while on the campaign trail. He commented on the news that five nuclear power plants had applied for safety assessments following the introduction of new reactor regulations, pointing out problems concerning the new standards. Hosono said, “What is important is whether the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) is able to make thoroughly independent and unbiased decisions. I am concerned that there is a movement visible within the LDP to attempt to apply pressure to an independent regulatory body. This is a problem. I believe that the backdrop to this is the movement to change the direction of Japan’s nuclear policy in a drip, drip, drip way.” He added, “At the time of last year’s general election, the LDP’s stance was that they would decide the best energy mix within the next ten years, in other words this was a position which seemed to suggest that they were moving in the direction of reducing the number of nuclear reactors. However, their manifesto for this House of Councillors election contains not one mention of reducing the number of reactors. It rather seems as though the movement towards maintaining nuclear power has been strengthened.” Hosono said that “This makes me feel extremely worried.”

Asked how the DPJ intended to differentiate itself in terms of nuclear policy during the current upper house campaign, Hosono said, “The DPJ is calling for the mobilization of all necessary policy resources with the aim of reducing the number of nuclear reactors to zero by the 2030s. If you have such a clear future direction, then you can proceed with reforms of the electric power system toward this goal, and in addition to this regions and corporations will end up investing in renewable energy. If this direction is changed as a kind of fait accompli, then as a result everyone will end up thinking that we will be relying on nuclear power, as so such investment will not go ahead. The LDP’s shifting of the goalposts on nuclear power policy in this fashion is an extremely serious problem.”