The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster has been a painful reminder of the exploitative nature of the Japanese government’s development policy that aggravates coreperiphery relations; nuclear power is generated in outlying areas, which are denied the possibility of self-reliant development and are subjected to potentially grave nuclear hazards. The field of development studies in Japan has long been silent on the atrocious state of the government’s policy and has instead tended to focus on dissecting the wrongs in ‘developing’ countries, often drawing on Japan’s path to development as a model to be emulated. In this paper, I explore means of rectifying this misguided stance and identify three possible keys to reinventing development studies. First, the infra-ideology haunting development studies, which pits backward’ against ‘advanced’ areas, should be discarded so that development no longer targets ‘backward’ areas exclusively. This infra-ideology has served to justify top-down projects that bring in plans and resources from ‘advanced’ areas, often wreaking social and environmental havoc in ‘backward’ areas (as attested to by the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster) . Second, the mechanistic worldview that artificially exaggerates the feasibility of social engineering needs to be dropped, in favor of an incrementalistic approach continually seeking to improve and innovate remedial actions. The mechanistic worldview has thus far justified the proliferation of quick-fix development practices (including ongoing disaster response by the Japanese government) and disguised serious social problems that are not amenable to quick fixes. Third, Japan’s submission to US political and commercial interests must be critically reviewed so as to bring forth self-reliant development that values the people’s well-being. Extant development projects help the US to defend its hegemonic role at the cost of people’s wellbeing (as illustrated by the US-made nuclear reactor, which the Japanese government, irrespective of the defects identified in the US, introduced to the Fukushima Daiichi Plant).