Nobel winner urges Japan to abandon nuclear power (AP)

TOKYO – Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe urged Japan's new prime minister on Tuesday to halt plans to restart nuclear power plants and instead abandon nuclear energy.

Oe cautioned Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda against prioritizing the economy over safety. Noda has said he will allow idled nuclear plants to resume operation when their safety is confirmed.

"The new prime minister seems to think that nuclear power plants are necessary for Japan's economy, and how to resume their operation is one of his key political agendas," Oe said. "We must make a big decision to abolish all nuclear plants."

Oe, who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1994, said the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant six months ago caused the Japanese public to want to reduce their dependence on nuclear power, but that feeling seems to be fading.

He spoke at news conference Tuesday about an anti-nuclear petition drive, accompanied by other members of the campaign.

The group, which is demanding that the government decommission aging reactors and promote renewable energy, aims to collect 10 million signatures and submit them to the government next March.

Oe has actively supported pacifist and anti-nuclear campaigns and written books about the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

Noda, who took office last Friday, becoming Japan's six prime minister in five years, has said he does not plan to build new nuclear plants and will decommission those that are aged. But he said he plans to restart plants whose safety is confirmed to relieve power shortages and help Japan's economic recovery. More than 30 of the country's 54 reactors are idled, forcing a nationwide conservation effort this summer.

The nuclear accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was like "a third atomic bombing" that Japan inflicted on itself, Oe said. "We already faced the major threat of radiation from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now, many children will have to live with radiation threats for 10, 20 or 30 years from now."

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Nobel winner urges Japan to abandon nuclear power - Houston Chronicle (blog)

Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe speaks during a press conference about an anti-nuclear petition drive in Tokyo. Oe urged Japan's new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to halt plans to restart nuclear power plants and instead abandon nuclear energy. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

TOKYO — Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe urged Japan’s new prime minister today to halt plans to restart nuclear power plants and instead abandon nuclear energy.

Oe cautioned Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda against prioritizing the economy over safety. Noda has said he will allow idled nuclear plants to resume operation when their safety is confirmed.

“The new prime minister seems to think that nuclear power plants are necessary for Japan’s economy, and how to resume their operation is one of his key political agendas,” Oe said. “We must make a big decision to abolish all nuclear plants.”

Oe, who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1994, said the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant six months ago caused the Japanese public to want to reduce their dependence on nuclear power, but that feeling seems to be fading.

He spoke at news conference today about an anti-nuclear petition drive, accompanied by other members of the campaign.

The group, which is demanding that the government decommission aging reactors and promote renewable energy, aims to collect 10 million signatures and submit them to the government next March.

Oe has actively supported pacifist and anti-nuclear campaigns and written books about the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

Noda, who took office last Friday, becoming Japan’s six prime minister in five years, has said he does not plan to build new nuclear plants and will decommission those that are aged. But he said he plans to restart plants whose safety is confirmed to relieve power shortages and help Japan’s economic recovery. More than 30 of the country’s 54 reactors are idled, forcing a nationwide conservation effort this summer.

The nuclear accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was like “a third atomic bombing” that Japan inflicted on itself, Oe said. “We already faced the major threat of radiation from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now, many children will have to live with radiation threats for 10, 20 or 30 years from now.”

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Japan PM race begins with no winner in sight - swissinfo.ch

By Tetsushi Kajimoto and Linda Sieg

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's ruling Democratic Party formally kicked off a leadership race to pick the next prime minister on Saturday, with no clear winner among five candidates in sight, as the country confronts a series of economic and energy ills.

The race to select Japan's sixth leader in five years is shaping up as a battle between allies and critics of party powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, a 69-year-old political mastermind who still wields clout despite facing trial on charges of misreporting political donations.

The successor to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who resigned on Friday as Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leader after months of criticism of his response to the March tsunami and the nuclear crisis it triggered, faces a mountain of challenges.

The next leader must grapple with a resurgent yen that threatens exports, rebuild from the disaster, forge a new energy policy while ending the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, and find funds to pay for the bulging social welfare costs of an ageing society while reining in public debt already twice the size of the $5 trillion (3.05 trillion pounds) economy.

The impression that power struggles, not policies, are dominating the race risks further denting support for the Democrats, who swept to power in 2009 promising change. Their ratings have sagged due to policy flipflops, indecision and charges of a bungled response to the disasters.

Five lawmakers, including fiscal conservative Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Trade Minister Banri Kaieda and former foreign minister Seiji Maehara, registered on Saturday to run in the August 29 party vote. The winner will become prime minister by virtue of the DPJ's majority in parliament's lower house.

In a debate on Saturday, all five ruled out immediate tax increases to fund reconstruction for fear of hurting a fragile recovery, but Noda left the door open to future rises.

All agreed that the decades-old Japan-U.S. security alliance is the pillar of Japan's diplomacy while urging better ties with Asia, but Noda warned against a rising China.

"Next year is a period of changes with a transition of leadership. They could meddle to fan nationalism," Noda told a news conference in apparent reference to Beijing.

Maehara, a security hawk, says beating deflation is a top priority, is the most popular with ordinary voters. An Asahi newspaper poll published on Saturday showed that 40 percent of voters surveyed preferred the 49-year-old lawmaker.

Only DPJ lawmakers can vote in the party poll, so Maehara faces a tough battle against Kaieda, 62, who on Friday secured the backing of Ozawa -- who heads the DPJ's biggest group -- and his ally, former prime minister Yukio Hatoyama.

To break deadlock in a divided parliament where opposition controls the upper house and can block bills, Maehara called for forming a "grand coalition" with opposition parties, drawing a stark contrast with Kaieda, who said he opposed the idea.

The outlook for a victory by Maehara, who stepped down as foreign minister in March after admitting he had unknowingly accepted donations from a Korean resident of Japan, is also clouded by Noda's candidacy, since their support bases overlap.

Accepting funds from foreign nationals is illegal if done so knowingly. Maehara said on Saturday that he had received a total of 590,000 yen (4,700 pounds) in contributions from four foreign individuals and a firm headed by a foreigner between 2005 and 2010, but was unaware of the donations or that the firm in question was headed by a foreigner, Japanese media reported.

If no candidate wins a majority in an initial vote, the two top candidates will square off in a second round and media said both Maehara and Kaieda were already jockeying to woo backing from other candidates if that happens.

(Additional reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Ed Lane)

Reuters

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Barcelona beats Real Madrid with late winner from Messi

BARCELONA, Spain — Lionel Messi scored a late winner as Barcelona won its 10th Spanish Supercup with a dramatic 3-2 victory over bitter rival Real Madrid on Wednesday that ended with players from both clubs brawling on the Nou Camp pitch.

Messi volleyed Adriano's cross past Iker Casillas in the 87th minute to finish off a move started by recent arrival Cesc Fabregas, who made his Barcelona debut as a late substitute and helped his new club to a 5-4 win on aggregate in the two-legged series.

But a dramatic, up-tempo match in which Messi scored two goals and Madrid twice rallied to equalize descended into a scrum in injury time as tensions on the hot, humid night reached a climax after Madrid defender Marcelo's hasty challenge on Fabregas.

Players pushed and shoved each other after the ugly tackle in front of the benches, with Madrid coach Jose Mourinho appearing to put his hand into Barcelona assistant coach Tito Vilanova's eye during the melee.

After the players and coaching staff were separated and three red cards were brandished, Barcelona lifted its record-equaling third straight Supercup and first in five tries against Madrid. That gave Pep Guardiola his 11th major piece of silverware, surpassing Johan Cruyff to become the Catalan club's most successful coach.

Guardiola praised his "mythical" players, labeling the victory an "honor" and a "privilege."

"For a preseason game to be played at this level? That was enormous," Guardiola said after the match. "Even when we won 5-0 against them last year I never thought we were so superior. It's always been a very difficult matchup for the history between the clubs."

Barcelona displayed all the verve of the beautiful game that guided it to Spanish league and Champions League triumphs last season while Madrid showed no capitulation after being held to a frustrating 2-2 draw in the first leg it dominated.

"I won't say we're not happy about not winning the Supercup because that would make me a hypocrite. (But) I'm very happy with the evolution of the team," said Mourinho.

Despite Cristiano Ronaldo nearly putting the visitors ahead in the opening seconds, Barcelona scored first as Messi slipped a perfect through ball for Andres Iniesta to chip over goalkeeper Iker Casillas for the 15th-minute opener as Barcelona's pinpoint passing — led by playmaker Xavi Hernandez — exploited the space between Madrid's defensive lines.

Madrid stormed back five minutes later as Ronaldo steered Benzema's low cross beyond goalkeeper Victor Valdes for the Portugal forward's first goal in his fifth visit to the Camp Nou.

Messi then capped a superb Barcelona move in the 45th as Gerard Pique sent a short backheel pass inside the box and into the path of the Argentina forward who continued his run toward the right corner before sending a shot back over Casillas and inside the far post.

Madrid recovered and, soon after Sergio Ramos headed wide, Benzema was in a perfect poaching position to equalize again in the 81st.

But Messi capped the spectacular and spiteful match with his record eighth Supercup goal to move two ahead of former Madrid striker Raul Gonzalez as all-time leading scorer in the preseason series.

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