Mr. Murata's letter to Secretary-Genral Ban Ki-moon 4 June 2012

4 June, 2012

Dear Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,

Please allow me to express my admiration for your untiring devotion to the

cause of peace and humanity.

I am sending you the English version of the massage I have addressed to

Prime Minister Noda. Also attached is an Urgent International Appeal to

Stop the restart of the Ohi nuclear reactors by a civic organization.

I believe that the lesson of the Fukushima nuclear accident is that

the possibility of such tragedy totally unbearable to human society should be

made completely zero. Japan has now the historic duty to contribute to the realization

of true denuclearization, both civil and military.

The situation on the spot is aggravating. The International Community is becoming aware that the serious consequences of the Fukushima nuclear accident are threatening global security, and is demanding that the maximum efforts be made to cope with the critical situation. As you know, 324 civic organizations are calling for a total moratorium on all Japanese nuclear power and immediate intervention of the United Nations.

I am convinced that this critical issue deserves most serious consideration on your part.

Please allow me to count on your precious support.

With highest and warmest regards,

Mitsuhei Murata

６月１２日「大飯原発再稼動反対緊急デモ」

Urgent International Appeal Restart of Ohi Nuclear Power - A Threat to International Security 31 May 2012

Urgent International Appeal

Restart of Ohi Nuclear Power - A Threat to International Security

We call on all governments and citizens of the world to stand with us and express your appeals to Prime Minister Noda before he makes a final decision on the restart of Ohi nuclear power.

The critical condition of Fukushima Unit 4 is attracting international attention as the US military and defense newspaper “Stars and Stripes,” the Washington Street Journal and the New York Times began warning of its risks. Finally, even the Japanese media started to report on this issue.

Since the beginning of May, several international no-nukes and environmental organizations such as Abolition 2000, ISDE Italia Network, and civic groups in California have released international appeals regarding Japanese nuclear power policy calling for a total moratorium on all Japanese nuclear power and immediate intervention to secure the Fukushima Unit 4 spent fuel pool. On 29 May it was widely reported by international media that radioactive cesium from Fukushima was found in tuna caught off U.S. It is clear that Fukushima is not only a Japanese issue but also of international concern.

We jointly with Green・Action and the endorsement of 72 Japanese civil organizations worldwide have submitted our petition “An Urgent Request for UN Intervention to Stabilize the Fukushima Unit 4 Spent Nuclear Fuel” to Prime Minister Noda and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on April 30. As of today, the total number of civic organizations from all over the world which have endorsed the petition has reached 324. As a response to Prime Minister Noda’s announcement to restart the Ohi nuclear reactors, we appeal to Mr. Noda as follows:

1.        Stop the restart of the Ohi nuclear reactors to show that Japan is a responsible member of the international community.

2.        Acknowledge that restarting nuclear power is an issue of a totally different dimension from the supply and demand of electricity and take the decision to put an end to nuclear power.

Why this appeal?

1.        The Japanese government should put all its efforts into stabilizing the Fukushima Unit 4 spent fuel pool as a top priority.

2.        Japan as the country which is responsible for exposing the whole world to such a risk of radioactive contamination and which has failed to stabilize the Fukushima Unit 4 spent fuel pool is not qualified to generate any nuclear power.

3.        The biggest nuclear threat to the world today is not any North Korean nuclear weapon but rather the Japanese Fukushima Unit 4 spent fuel pool.

4.        The Japanese government is responsible for the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, creating 160,000 radiation refugees, exposing children to the risk of radiation, and destroying the lives of the 1.8 million residents who remain in Fukushima. Many more Japanese outside Fukushima are also forced to live with a high risk of radiation exposure. It is totally out of the question that the Japanese government which has so failed its people should restart any nuclear power, least of all, the Ohi nuclear reactors. 

5.        The Japanese government has not learned from the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. The fact that a restart of nuclear power is being discussed as a matter of simply providing sufficient electric power in itself proves this..

6.        A “nuclear dictatorship without ethics or responsibility” continues to exist to this date, and it still controls Japanese energy policy.

7.        If the restart of Ohi is forced to go ahead, the rest of the nuclear power plants in Japan will also be restarted.

8.        Some experts are warning that another big earthquake may happen this very year. If they are right, another Fukushima disaster will be inevitable.

9.        As a responsible member of the international community, the Japanese prime minister should not make a decision which exposes the world to a new risk of radioactive contamination.

10.      What Prime Minister Noda should do as the prime minister of the country which caused such a nuclear disaster is swiftly put an end to nuclear power.  Unless such a decision is taken, it will be impossible for the prime minister to regain the confidence of his own people or the international community.

We call on all governments and citizens of the world to stand with us and express your appeals to Prime Minister Noda before he makes a final decision on the restart of Ohi nuclear power.

May 31, 2012

Shut Tomari

1-2 Higashisapporo, Shiroishi-ku, Sapporo Japan

Post Box 003-0006   TEL:+81-(0)90-2695-1937  FAX:+81-(0)826-3796

Contact Details for Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda

●Prime Minister’s Office TEL:+81-3-3581-0101 FAX：+81-3-3581-3883

Opinion box to Prime Minister (in Japanese) https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/forms/goiken_ssl.html

●Diet Office TEL：+81-3-3508-7141 FAX：+81-3-3508-3441

●Local Office TEL：+81-47-496-1110 FAX：+81-47-496-1222

_____________

Press Release: Coalition Sends Urgent Request for UN Intervention to Stabilize the Fukushima Unit 4 Spent Nuclear Fuel, 30 April 2012

http://www.greenaction-japan.org/modules/wordpress0/index.php?p=95

Call for Coordinated International Protest against the Restart of Ohi

Dear Friends,

the Japanese Prime Minister Noda has announced his decision to order the restart two nuclear reactors in the town of Ohi in the prefecture of Fukui in Western Japan. He also claimed that nuclear energy will remain an important source of energy for Japan also in the future, thereby reconfirming Japans nuclear energy policy.

Despite all our efforts, despite the strong resistance in the region of Western Japan surrounding Ohi, and despite the fact that a majority of the Japanese people is against nuclear power, the Japanese government is bowing to pressures of the nuclear lobby in Japan. We have tried hard on our own, but now we believe that coordinated international pressure on the Japan government is essential to bring on real and substantial change. We believe that the Japanese government and the Japanese public will react very sensitively to international pressure, so we wish to ask you for your support to initiate and coordinate international protest against the Japanese government.

Specifically we suggest the following action within the following days (preferably on Wednesday to Friday this week / June 13~15, 2012):

1. Please assemble in front of the Japanese embassies in your capital to voice your protest against the decision and policy of Prime Minister Noda

2. Please try to submit a letter of protest -addressed to Prime Minister Noda- to the Japanese Ambassador in your country and request the Japanese Ambassador to forward this letter of protest to the Japanese Prime Minister

3. Please try to seek coverage of this action by your local and international media, especially Japanese media, as well as on the Internet

4. Please give us notice about your planned action, so we can organize a press event in Japan to reinforce your message to the Japanese government.

Please note that we wish these protests to be absolutely civil and peaceful, and to fully observe the sovereign rights of the Japanese embassies abroad.

A draft letter of protest is attached, so you just need to sign it.

We thank you for your support.  

Japan, June 11^th, 2012

Hideyuki BAN, Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center (CNIC)

Kanna MITSUTA, FoE Japan

Aileen Miok SMITH, Green Action

Daisuke SATO, No Nukes Asia Forum

Akira KAWASAKI, Peace Boat

Kaori IZUMI, Shut Tomari

Letter of Protest to Mr. Yoshihiko Noda, Prime Minister of Japan

Letter of Protest

To: Mr. Yoshihiko Noda, Prime Minister of Japan

“Shame on you, Mr. Noda  – listen to your people and act responsibly – Don’t restart Ohi reactors – Come up with a responsible energy policy based on conservation and renewable energy”

Dear Prime Minister,

We protest your decision to restart two nuclear power reactors in the town of Ohi in Fukui Prefecture. We ask you to reconsider and instead impose a moratorium on nuclear power in Japan. We ask you to come up with a responsible energy policy for a Japan without nuclear power and based on energy conservation and renewable energies.

Here are our reasons:

①      Your decision is undemocratic. The Japanese public is not supporting you. Many members and parliamentarians of your own party are not standing with you.

②      The full truth about the meltdown of the three reactors in Fukushima has not been established, yet.

③      The prevailing, temporary safety standards that have been applied by the stress tests and that you referred to when you declared the Ohi reactors to be safe, are insufficient. At present, essential safety measures that are required by the stress tests have not yet  been implemented in Ohi. It is not verified whether the reactors can be shut down safely if a serious earthquake were to occur.

④      Any new regime of safety standards must be formulated and overseen by a truly independent Nuclear Safety Agency. This agency has not yet been established, and parliamentary procedures have just been started.

⑤      The sharp increase in seismic activities in Japan since the earthquake and tsunami catastrophe of March 11 is alarming. The fact that there are active fault lines in the vicinity of the Ohi reactors, and perhaps even under the site is a major reason of concern.

You may reject this letter as an outside interference into the internal affairs of Japan. However, we know since Chernobyl and Fukushima that the fallout of nuclear accidents does not know national borders, but severely impacts the global environment and bears unknown risks to the health of all mankind. We believe it is our moral obligations to voice our concerns to you.

We also know that our concerns are shared by many people in your country and that a majority of your people does not agree with you. We have high respect for the people of Japan, for their sense of community and service in times of great harm. We believe in their creativity and strong will to overcome these difficult times, and to rebuild a Japan without nuclear power.

We, therefore, ask you to kindly reconsider the restart of the Ohi reactors and to declare a moratorium on nuclear power. We ask you to come up with a responsible energy policy for a Japan without nuclear power based on energy conservation and renewable energies.

Yours sincerely,

Date: