Japan’s nuclear plans need shifting out of ice age

Chubu Electric Power

14/09/2026 13:00

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
By Hudson Lockett
HONG KONG, Sept 14 (Reuters Breakingviews) - A simple way to both improve Japan's energy security as well as charge up the pace of its energy transition is staring Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in the face. Fossil fuels, most of them imported, account for some 80% of the country’s power sources. The disruption to oil and gas supplies courtesy of the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran has proven that a costly strategy, with the value of those brought into the country in July up 88% from a year ago. Yet the glacial pace of restarting nuclear reactors has left more than a dozen of them languishing unused. It would take just a sliver of Takaichi's unprecedented $2 trillion investment plan to get them up and running. It's time she grasped the opportunity.
Japan shut down all 54 of its reactors after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster. Only half of the 33 still operable have been brought back online and account for roughly 10% of electricity production. A longstanding official target to double that by 2030 is impossible at the current pace of recommissioning. The Renewable Energy Institute estimates Japan can hit 20% by 2040, but only if the dormant power stations are switched on at a much faster clip.
A big obstacle is the up to $1 billion cost to utilities of bringing each reactor back online, per World Nuclear Association estimates. Takaichi’s administration has helped clear the path this year with reforms allowing public financing for loans to renewable and nuclear energy projects.
Basic maths suggest full up-front financing of remaining restarts is eminently affordable: even at $1 billion a pop, loans for the next 15-odd reactivations would be less than the $20 billion Takaichi’s government set aside in May to cap domestic fuel costs. And unlike the cash burned on those subsidies, the loans will be paid back with interest.
Regulatory roadblocks have also piled up, with some restarts abandoned or delayed as labour shortages hindered construction of mandatory security features. Japan’s nuclear watchdog has eased deadlines, preventing one shutdown, but a larger foreign workforce is needed to hasten building of seawalls and other infrastructure mandated after the Fukushima disaster.
Recent reforms extending the permitted operating lifetime for reactors and plans to rebuild ageing plants will help prevent a sharp drop-off in output. Such relaxations must be balanced with holding firms to account for governance failures like those at Chubu Electric Power 9502.T, which Nikkei reports, plans to replace its president and withdraw requests for pre-restart inspections following revelations it tampered with seismic data used to assess plant safety.
But power demand is still growing thanks to increasing numbers of electric vehicles and plans for new data centres. Restarting existing facilities can also help mitigate lags in Japan's renewables buildout.
Some cost overruns will be inevitable, but the consequences of not capitalising on Japan’s nuclear potential have already arrived. The cost of solving that problem, by comparison, would be a drop in the $2 trillion bucket.
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CONTEXT NEWS
Japanese imports hit a monthly record of 12.1 trillion yen ($79 billion) in July, official data released on August 20 showed, as the value of crude oil purchases jumped 88% from a year ago thanks to elevated prices and larger shipments from the United States.

(Editing by Antony Currie; Production by Ujjaini Dutta)
((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on LOCKETT/ hudson.lockett@thomsonreuters.com))