Japan Votes to Restart World’s Largest Nuclear Plant Post-Fukushima

A Japanese regional assembly voted Monday to support restarting the world’s largest nuclear power plant, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, marking a major step toward its reopening for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
The vote follows the local governor’s approval last month and clears a key hurdle for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to seek final authorization from Japan’s nuclear regulator.
This move signals Japan’s strategic pivot back to nuclear energy to reduce its heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels, achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and meet growing electricity demands from sectors like artificial intelligence.
Pending regulatory approval, one of the plant’s seven reactors could restart as early as January, representing a significant shift in national energy policy over a decade after the Fukushima meltdown led to a widespread shutdown of nuclear facilities.
Japan is the world’s fifth-largest single-country emitter of carbon dioxide, after China, the United States, India and Russia, and is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels.
Nearly 70 percent of its power needs in 2023 were met by plants burning coal, gas and oil — a figure Tokyo wants to slash to 30-40 percent over the next 15 years.
Nuclear power generated about a third of Japan’s electricity before the 2011 quake and tsunami, which killed around 18,000 people, with fossil fuels contributing most of the rest.