2016 Volume 12 Pages 149-154
From History of Japan’s Trade and Industry Policy, the official history of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), the positioning of nuclear technology in Japan was discussed. The nuclear power generation had the economy that could compete with thermal in the 1960s, and the power companies began to introduce. Along with this, domestic production of nuclear equipment, the location of nuclear power plants, and securing of nuclear fuel had become issues of MITI. Since many initial failures occurred, the improvement and standardization of nuclear equipment had become issues of the industrial technology policy of MITI. This policy was pushed forward in the 1970s. The result remained only a marginal, because it was required the consent of the American company that had developed the technology. The nuclear technology was no longer a critical part of the policy after the 1980s and is hard to expect the innovation in Japan. However, it would not become the factor avoiding the accident of Fukushima even if the technology mentioned above made progress. The cause of the accident is that the emergency diesel generator was destroyed by the tsunami. It is regretted that measures to defend it against the tsunami were not taken in advance.
