Triggered by the massive fire in Itoigawa, Niigata, this essay contrasts the reality that nuclear power plants have never caused disaster with the hysteria of anti-nuclear sentiment. It examines the robustness of the Kashiwazaki plant, the man-made nature of the Fukushima accident, and the strategic interests of China and South Korea in promoting anti-nuclear movements in Japan.

What brought a major disaster to Niigata Prefecture today was not the Kashiwazaki nuclear power plant, but a fire that broke out from a Chinese restaurant.
2016-12-22
I returned home from an errand, turned on the television, and was shocked. A massive fire was raging in Itoigawa City, Niigata Prefecture.
What on earth had the governor, who was elected on an anti-nuclear platform, been doing until the fire reached such proportions.
The people of Niigata who elected him should also recognize this properly.
That the Kashiwazaki nuclear power plant has never once brought disaster to Niigata.
That far from causing disaster, it has continued to make enormous economic contributions to the local community.
To put it more severely, if a once-in-a-thousand-years earthquake and tsunami like that of 2011-3-11 were to strike Niigata, most buildings would not escape total destruction or loss, but the Kashiwazaki nuclear power plant alone would remain completely unshaken, and would without question become an evacuation site for nearby residents.
Earthquakes, lightning, fires, and fathers have from ancient times been sources of calamity.
Among all structures created by humankind, it is no exaggeration to say that only nuclear power plants, the most robust of all buildings, would remain standing.
As I was the first in the world to point out, Fukushima was a man-made disaster caused by the personal, human, and fatal political defects of the prime minister of the Democratic Party government, a government created by households subscribing to the Asahi Shimbun in a Japan dominated by 朝日新聞.
If there is such a thing as a blessing in disguise, it is this, and in light of it Japan implemented the highest-level safety measures in the world, making what was already the strongest structure created by humankind even safer.
Nevertheless, the foolishness of leaving almost all plants completely shut down even now is a level of stupidity equivalent to a kindergarten child’s hysteria, the foolishness and ugliness of pseudo-moralism.
The only countries that not only rejoice when Japanese people call for anti-nuclear policies but even provide funding to these forces are China, which possesses nuclear weapons, has officially decided on a massive expansion of nuclear power, and exports nuclear plant construction as a national strategy to countries such as the United Kingdom, and South Korea, which has decided to place all of its rapidly increasing nuclear power plants along the Sea of Japan coast.
The people of Niigata would do well to think about this once.
As I listened to the announcement that this truly historic fire began with a blaze at a Chinese restaurant, I even felt as though it carried some kind of ominous implication.
What brought a major disaster to Niigata Prefecture today was not the Kashiwazaki nuclear power plant, but a fire that broke out from a Chinese restaurant.