Reason 5: Build democracy: Majority of Japanese want an end to nuclear power in Japan.

The Mainichi Shinbun (毎日新聞) in Japan, with a circulation of over three million daily reported in a survey of March 13, 2017 that in Japan

• 55% oppose restarting nuclear reactors
• 26% in favor

That means the clear majority of Japanese citizens continues to oppose nuclear energy even more than 5 years after the 3.11 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, and only one quarter is in favor of nuclear energy.

After 3.11 a strong civilian protest movement with regular mass demonstrations in Tokyo against nuclear energy arose.

Protest in Tokyo against nuclear energy (19 Sep. 2011) with 60000 participants changing: Sayonara nuclear power.

Japanese Lawyer Hideki Kawai decided to elucidate the complex issues surrounding nuclear power in Japan in the documentary Movie Nuclear Japan, released in 2014. He says:

… in a democracy, a fair legal process is obviously important to protect our rights, especially for minority issues. Lawsuits in a democracy function as safety valves. Justice is justice. I shall stand up to protect life and Japan in courts, even if I would be alone. But to share the idea of nuclear zero nationwide, we need a movie.

Hiroyuki Kawai

ICU is proud to declare about itself: ICU’s educational mission is based on Christian and democratic principles.

Can an institution like ICU “based on democratic principles” rightfully ignore the manifest will of the majority of Japanese citizens and continue to buy electricity from power generation companies that have a history of operating nuclear power plants and the declared will (*) to continue to do so? Does this way of electricity procurement not mean to support the nuclear energy industry in Japan – against the democratic will of Japanese citzens?

(*) TEPCO: … nuclear power is an indispensable energy source for ensuring a stable supply of energy … (last accessed: 07 July 2020)

Reason 4: Stop financing war, e.g. the war between oil exporting nations Saudi Arabia and Iran in Yemen.

UNICEF 2018: 2200 dead war children in Yemen. 11M children in Yemen need help getting food, treatment, education, water and sanitation, UNICEF executive director says.

Yemeni civilian carrying a shirt of child killed by Saudi airstrike

World top arms importer 2018 was Saudi Arabia: 3.81 billion USD!

The 10 commandments say: Thou shalt not kill. (The Bible, Exodus 20:13, KJV)

Do we really want to continue to buy oil and gas for fossil fuel power stations (their use increased greatly in Japan after 3.11) and send billions of USD to countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran to enable them to buy unimaginable amounts of arms and continue to kill innocent civilians, yes even thousands of children every year? Would you call this the right ethical use of our financial resources and ethical consumption of energy?

Share of various energy sources in Japan (2019)

The graph shows that 73 % of Japan’s national energy supply in 2019 was from liquid natural gas (LNG), coal, oil and uranium. Thus as much as 73% of electricity International Christian University buys from the grid may come from fossil fuel or uranium.

By reducing LNG and oil imports, Japan can obviously stop financing war, reduce the funds for buying arms and thus make the lives of civilians and children in particular safer. Ultimately every individual and every institution bears the full ethical responsibility for where its money goes, how it is used, and how it affects the lives of other people on the planet.

Buy supplying itself 100% with renewable energy, ICU can stop buying fossil based electricity, and therefore reduce the income of oil exporting and massively arms purchasing nations like Saudi Arabia and Iran. This is a very direct and tangible contribution to world peace and for saving the lives of countless innocent civilians and children. Knowledge of these facts means we have responsibility for what we do.