Although Germany loudly promotes its “nuclear phase-out,” it still operates reactors, relies heavily on coal—including its abundant domestic lignite—and stabilizes its grid by dumping excess renewable electricity onto neighboring countries. Japan, by contrast, has no lignite at all and must import the world’s most expensive fossil fuels. Visiting Chubu Electric’s Hekinan plant, Kawaguchi notes that 6–9-ton coal carriers shuttle endlessly from Australia and Indonesia, burning ten million tons annually—pure national wealth going up in smoke. She argues that the stagnation of Abenomics is partly rooted in this misguided energy policy. Germany can afford experiments because it is surrounded by interconnected European grids; Japan, an island nation with no such buffers, cannot. Imitating Germany’s model would jeopardize Japan’s economic foundation.

June 22, 2024.

Below is from the dialogue book published on October 30, 2016, titled Japan, America, Germany — Which Country Will Still Be Alive Ten Years from Now?
It is something that every Japanese person, and indeed people around the world, must read.

From page 112, “The Future of Japan’s Economy Is Bright, But…”

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Germany Has Not Actually “Phased Out Nuclear Power” Yet!

Kawaguchi
German media sometimes write things like “the Abe administration, which loves nuclear power.”
In order to justify their own “nuclear phase-out,” they write as though Prime Minister Abe were restarting nuclear plants against the will of the people.

Takayama
Come to think of it, Germany was the one that gave an award to Naoto Kan.

Kawaguchi
I follow German news fairly closely, but I learned about that from Japanese news for the first time.

Takayama
Germany has been unable to fully carry out its nuclear phase-out policy, and in fact there are still reactors operating inside Germany.

Kawaguchi
Of course.
At the recent COP21 conference held in Paris, they made grand announcements such as “We will raise renewable energy to 80 percent within the next 30 years” and “By 2050 we will bring CO₂ emissions to net-zero.”
Whether any of this is feasible is highly questionable.
But what is impressive is that they manage to make the world believe it.
They always receive applause and admiration.

Takayama
Chancellor Merkel can proclaim a nuclear phase-out and then step down, so perhaps it is fine for her, but looking at the current situation, it clearly cannot be achieved.

Kawaguchi
Still, I do not mind if Germany spends money and conducts massive experiments that they know are wasteful.
Perhaps in one hundred years renewable energy that can replace nuclear power will become usable.
Merkel acting as though she is saving the planet is somewhat off the mark, but that too is their business.
The problem is Japan trying to imitate them.

Germany, even if it has too much renewable electricity or too little, can buy or sell power with neighboring countries—or even pay money to have excess electricity taken off its hands.
Japan can never do such a thing.

And Germany’s thermal power plants can, if necessary, run on cheap domestic lignite.
No matter where Japan digs, no lignite will ever be found.
Japan buys the most expensive fuel in the world from all over.

Recently, I visited Chubu Electric’s Hekinan Thermal Power Plant.
Ships of 60,000 to 90,000 tons bring coal from Australia and Indonesia.
It takes two or three days to unload a single ship, and there are about 130 ships a year, practically lined up in a constant shuttle.
I will never forget that sight.
It is staggering.

This plant generates 4.1 million kilowatts of electricity and uses about ten million tons of coal each year.
All of it is burned and gone.
Aside from air pollution, it is simply too wasteful.
This is Japan’s national wealth.
No matter how hard Japanese people work, they cannot become wealthy under such conditions.

I believe one of the reasons Abenomics is not succeeding is this energy policy.
The economic harm is greater than that from earthquakes or tsunamis.

Takayama
By the way, is there a word for “earthquake” in German?

Kawaguchi
They say “Erdbeben.”
“Erd (Erde)” means earth, and “Beben” means shaking.
But in Germany there was only one earthquake in the 1980s, and I have not heard of one since.
Most Germans have never experienced an earthquake.

In other European countries with many volcanoes, like Spain or Italy, there are earthquakes.
There was one recently in Italy.
Since the buildings were not quake-resistant, an entire town disappeared.
New buildings also collapsed completely, even though plenty of EU funds had been provided for seismic reinforcement—and no one knows where the money went.
It is now a major scandal.

Takayama
Rudyard Kipling wrote in his memoirs that when he was in Japan there was an earthquake.
He said he was so shaken that everything around him began dancing.
He was terrified and rushed outside, only to be told by Japanese people, “It’s already over,” with a laugh.
Kipling wrote, “The Japanese could probably laugh their way through even the Last Judgment.”

Kawaguchi
Everyone is so dramatic.
When my husband first came to Japan, there was a small earthquake in the morning.
It was nothing worth getting up for, but he jumped up and began desperately searching for his wallet, so I wondered what he was doing.

Takayama
It is absurd to compare reactors in a country with almost no earthquakes to reactors in Japan, where massive quakes and tsunamis occur frequently.
And then Germany simply says, “We will quit,” which makes even less sense.

Kawaguchi
Japan’s reactors have not been damaged by earthquakes at all.
It was the tsunami that caused the Fukushima accident.
Earthquake-prone countries surely understand that Japanese reactors can withstand quakes.