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DW
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- DW
Japan's nuclear revival and the fight over indigenous land – DW – 07/11/2025
Nuclear power is making a comeback in Japan. But in Hokkaido, indigenous Ainu communities are being sidelined as their ancestral land is eyed for nuclear waste storage. The Ainu musician Oki Kano leads a quiet resistance - raising questions about justice and who gets a say in the race to decarbonize. Transcript: In a dimly lit club in Kyoto, Japan, the sound of the Tonkori — a five-stringed instrument once silenced by cultural assimilation — cuts through the air. On stage is Oki Kano, a 68-year-old musician who's spent decades reviving the music and spirit of Japan's indigenous Ainu people. Oki Kano: "It's like salmon knows where they were born, always back to the same river. So I'm, I was one of the salmon. That's why I returned to my Ainu background.." Oki's music blends rock, dub, and traditional Ainu folk — a sound that's both a celebration and a protest. He doesn't call himself an activist, but his work speaks volumes about identity, survival, and resistance. Oki Kano: "My father was Aino, you know. And my parents divorced when I was like four years old. And my mother hid my Aino background, you know. Then I found out that I was in like a 20 something-" Stories like Oki's aren't unique. For generations, Ainu families were forced to hide who they were. After Japan annexed their homeland - the northern island of Hokkaido - in the late 19th century, the government banned traditional hunting, fishing, and language. Many Ainu were pushed into poverty and silence. Today, the exact number of Ainu in Japan is hard to pin down. A 2017 government survey identified around 13,000 in Hokkaido, but advocacy groups believe the true figure could be ten times higher. Oki Kano: "The time of my grandfather, they decided not telling Ainu language to the kids, my father's generation, you know. Four survived, you know, so Ainu needed to acting like a ordinary Japanese. That was the best way to survive in Japan." Today, Oki is one of the most well-known Ainu musicians in the world. He's helped bring Ainu culture back into public view - even as the legacy of colonization continues to cast a long shadow. And now, he's worried about a new and toxic threat to his homeland. Oki Kano: "Nuclear is totally against the Aino philosophy.' …the threat of his homeland being used as permanent storage site for nuclear waste. This week's episode of Living Planet brings you a story about energy, identity, and the cost of progress. It's about who gets to decide what happens to the land - and who gets left out of that decision. I'm Neil King. Music March 2011. A massive earthquake strikes off Japan's northeastern coast. The tsunami that follows devastates entire towns and triggers one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. At the Fukushima nuclear plant the tsunami wrecks the power supply and cooling systems. Three reactors melt down. Radiation leaks into the air, the soil, the sea. Over 24,000 people are forced to flee their homes. Following the disaster, all of Japan's nuclear reactors are shut down. And the shock ripples far beyond Japan. Germany and Switzerland announce nuclear phaseouts. Anti-nuclear sentiment surges across the globe. But more than a decade later, the tide is turning again. Japan, like many countries, is under pressure to decarbonize and fast. With few natural resources of its own and the specter of energy insecurity and inflation the Japanese public appears to be warming to nuclear energy again. Since 2015 it has gradually ramped up nuclear power to about 8.5% and the Japanese government is planning to get 20% of its electricity from nuclear by 2040. But there's still a problem no one has solved: what to do with the waste? Jacopo Buongiorno: The amount of high-level waste generated by nuclear reactors is exceptionally small. That's nuclear scientist Jacopo Buongiorno from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT. Jacopo Buongiorno: And that's because the energy density of uranium is exceptionally high. Just to give you a comparison, compare to, say, burning coal or natural gas, kilogram for a kilogram. If you are using uranium as your fuel, you get about 10, 20 million times, not just 10 to 20, but 10 to 20 million times more energy out of the same material… If an individual like myself or you would use only nuclear energy for all their energy needs throughout the lifetime, so not today, not a month, not a year, but our lifetime, say 80 years, then the amount of nuclear waste generated would fit within a coffee cup. That would be it. So that's the amount of energy, how energy dense that fuel is. And therefore, the amount of waste that you generate is exceedingly low. The bad news is that it's highly radioactive and it has to be sort of handled with care And that waste he's referring to - which essentially is the spent fuel rods - stays dangerous for tens of thousands of years. And it has to be stored somewhere, ideally underground. In 2020, two tiny fishing villages in Hokkaido — Suttsu and Kamoenai - volunteered to be studied as potential sites for Japan's first permanent nuclear waste repository. In exchange, they received millions in government subsidies. But there's a catch: these villages sit on traditional Ainu land. But the Ainu – who number about 25,000 in Japan were never asked. Ann-Elise Lewallen: 'This is Ainu land. And so technically speaking, running like the whole idea of having nuclear power anywhere in Japan is always an Ainu problem. Ann-Elise Lewallen is an American scholar who's spent years researching Ainu rights. She describes what's happening to the Ainu as 'energy colonialism' – that's when Indigenous lands are used for energy projects without consent. Ann-Elise Lewallen: "With energy colonialism, it's a particular kind of settler colonialism that is targeting some kind of resource. For example, it often involves both removing uranium or some other sort of raw material that will be made into nuclear fuel on the one end of the nuclear fuel cycle and then the other end is to sort of hollow out the land and use that land as a permanent wasting ground. In 2011, just months after Fukushima, Oki Kano stood before the United Nations in Geneva. He warned that nuclear energy was not just a safety issue - it was a justice issue. Ann-Elise Lewallen: 'And he was the first person that I recall having asked the question and really trying to sort of link this question of sort of who is really bearing the burden of nuclear waste' The answer, increasingly, seems to be Indigenous communities - not just in Japan, but around the world. Suttsu and Kamoenai - two quiet fishing villages on the western coast of Hokkaido. Combined, they're home to just over 3,600 people. Nearly half are over the age of 60. These towns have seen better days. The fishing industry is shrinking. Young people are moving away. So when the Japanese government offered billions of yen in subsidies to communities willing to be studied as potential nuclear waste sites - they said yes. The money has helped repair piers, build nursing homes, and fund local infrastructure. For some, it's a lifeline. For others, it's a gamble with the future. The Ainu weren't part of that decision. Not when the villages volunteered. Not when the studies began. Not even when the government's own agency - NUMO, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization - came to town. Since then NUMO have said they'd be happy to address any concerns. But critics say that's too little, too late. Ann-Elise Lewallen: "You can't sort of say, on the one hand, we support the UN DRP and we pass this new law, but Ainu have no right to speak about nuclear waste." Japan signed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples or UNDRIP in 2007. It explicitly states that hazardous materials should not be stored or disposed of on the lands or territories of Indigenous peoples without their free, prior and informed consent. Even if the declaration is not legally binding it is a moral commitment. But in Hokkaido, that principle appears to have been ignored. The decision to move forward now rests with the village mayors — and the governor of Hokkaido. The governor has voiced opposition, citing a 2000 ordinance that bans nuclear waste from the island. But under current law, the first phase of study can proceed without his approval. Deep beneath the surface of Hokkaido, Japan has been testing what it would take to store nuclear waste underground - permanently. The site is called Horonobe. It's an experimental facility meant to simulate what a real repository might look like. The facility includes shafts and tunnels that go down to 350 m, allowing research into hydrogeology and rock stability as well as radionuclide behavior in sedimentary formations But there's a problem: water. Shaun Burnie: "I think it was around 300 cubic meters of water per day were coming into their facility. That's underground water.' Shaun Burnie is a nuclear specialist with Greenpeace East Asia. He's worked in Japan and South Korea for over a decade. And he says water is a dealbreaker. Shaun Burnie: 'Water is a transport mechanism for radiological materials. So if you can't isolate your facility from water, I mean, the containers that the waste is put into, of course, that will corrode over potentially hundreds of years, certainly thousands of years. There will be no containment as such. And therefore the radionuclides will migrate through the water system, water course. So Hokkaido is completely unsuitable as a geological repository.' Japan is one of the most seismically active countries in the world. Earthquakes, groundwater, and long-term corrosion - these are not small risks when you're talking about waste that stays radioactive for tens of thousands of years. But not everyone agrees. At MIT, nuclear scientist Jacopo Buongiorno sees things differently. Jacopo Buongiorno: 'The radioactivity contained within these fuel rods is not particularly mobile. It doesn't really want to go anywhere…because it's 99% it's actually in solid form…so it's also very easy to shield.' He says the waste is stored in solid ceramic pellets, encased in steel and concrete. First, it cools in water pools for several years. Then it's sealed in dry canisters that can last a century or more. Jacopo Buongiorno: 'In fact, in all the environmental impact assessments, our assessment studies done for these repositories, you have to assume that at one point your containers are completely rusted away. So at one point you assume that there is complete failure. And so now you've got these radionuclides. They are maybe a couple of hundred meters underground. And then the question becomes, how do they diffuse underground? And so the bulk of the analysis and assessment that go into the licensing of the repository is exactly how are the radionuclides, once they are outside these canisters or these containers, how are they going to diffuse underground? And that's why the selection of the proper geology is very important.' The science, he says, is sound - if the geology is right. But that's exactly what critics like Burnie are questioning in Hokkaido. Shaun Burnie: 'The materials in there will be hazardous for millions and millions of years. It removes the problem from this generation, from this government, these scientists, these companies, for someone in the future to deal with the problem when it starts affecting them.' And that raises a deeper question: even if we can store nuclear waste safely, should we? Especially if the people most affected - like the Ainu - never agreed to it? Japan's nuclear future is still uncertain. The government wants nuclear to make up 20% of the country's energy mix by 2040. But experts disagree on whether that's realistic - or even wise. Shaun Burnie: 'If they get the best case scenario…they could possibly reach around 15% of national electricity from nuclear energy by 2030. And that assumes that there's not problems with the reactors... and they still have huge problems seismic problems design problems security problems.' Burnie believes Japan is clinging to a fading dream. He says nuclear energy diverts resources from renewables - and risks locking the country into fossil fuels when nuclear falls short. Shaun Burnie: 'The biggest problem I see with maintaining nuclear is that they will fail on the nuclear target…that's where there's a very close relationship between the nuclear industry and the fossil fuel industry um so the fossil plants will basically be retained uh of course. But when the gap becomes clear, it will be filled most likely by fossil fuel plants. So Japan will undermine its own decarbonization progress by maintaining a nuclear share. They need to signal that they can go fully 100% renewables, which they can.' But MIT's Jacopo Buongiorno sees nuclear as essential - not just for Japan, but for the world. Jacopo Buongiorno: 'If you're trying to decarbonize your grid exclusively with intermittent renewables such as solar and wind, the average cost, the aggregate cost of your grid goes up dramatically. Yes, it is true that a solar panel or a wind turbine have become cheaper. But if you don't have a reliable base load source like nuclear, and you're trying to meet your electricity demand 24-7, 365 days per year, no matter what the weather is, no matter what the load is, et cetera, then in order to meet that demand, you need to overbuild and overgrow the amount of solar and wind and, importantly, energy storage batteries that goes with it to meet that demand. And the aggregate cost of all that equipment far exceeds the cost of having also a nuclear baseload in the mix. It's really the combination of nuclear and renewables that gives you the least cost decarbonized system.' Two visions. One sees nuclear as a bridge to a cleaner future. The other sees it as a costly detour - one that risks repeating old mistakes. But all the experts interviewed for this episode agreed on one thing: communication matters. Jacopo Buongiorno: You can't simply say it's safe, therefore accept it. You got to engage them from the beginning, try to explain what the risks are, what the benefits are, what the value of nuclear is. Ann-Elise Lewallen: 'All Ainu need to be given an opportunity to participate in whatever way they feel is appropriate, which means there's many, many different groups and they need to be approached in good faith' Back in Kyoto, Oki Kano finishes his set. The crowd cheers. But his message lingers - a quiet reminder that this isn't just about energy policy. It's about respect. It's about balance. Oki Kano: 'We need to make some harmony in between people and nature… We get together and face up to the problem and do some activity …I think this is not only the Ainu issue, you know. Everybody's issue.'
Japan Times
06-07-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
Ainu land rights in crosshairs as Hokkaido communities debate nuclear waste
This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. Plucking the resonant strings of a tonkori — a broad, sword-shaped instrument that's been played by the Indigenous Ainu people for generations — Oki Kano, a Japanese musician of Ainu descent transformed a club in Kyoto into a vibrant tapestry of sound, mixing together rock, Ainu folk and dub music as part of a tour earlier this spring. Refusing to be labeled an activist, Kano has woven his rebellious spirit and a nod to Indigenous rights into his music, which moved anti-nuclear activists following the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Perhaps most notably, he made a speech at a United Nations meeting later that year that clued some people into the issue of using Indigenous land for nuclear plants and waste storage. Nuclear energy and waste are 'a poison,' Kano says, that don't fit into the philosophy of Ainu people, the Indigenous group which inhabited Hokkaido before it was annexed in 1869 by imperial Japan. These days, Indigenous land rights have added another layer to the division of opinions in Suttsu and Kamoenai, two wind-blown fishing communities in the prefecture, over whether to host a permanent underground repository for Japan's nuclear waste. Residents of the two municipalities, with fewer than 4,000 people combined, have expressed conflicting views on the prospect after their respective mayors volunteered for a feasibility study on the prospect in a bid to secure all-important subsidies. 'An Ainu problem' Kano's U.N. speech regarding Hokkaido and Japan's nuclear energy inspired American scholar ann-elise lewallen, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, specializing in modern Japan studies and Indigenous and environment rights, to start a yearslong research project into how a potential nuclear waste dumping ground in ancestral Ainu land might violate their rights. Although there are no current Ainu communities in these two villages, the professor told The Japan Times during her research trip in Hokkaido that any energy decisions in the prefecture are 'an Ainu problem' because of land rights issues. The professor decapitalizes her name as a gesture toward resisting hierarchy. Oki Kano, a musician of Ainu descent, plays the tonkori during a concert in Tokyo in April. | Chermaine Lee Vocal opponents like Kano aside, Ainu people have not raised the issue of nuclear waste en masse, with many more focused on salmon fishing rights. Still, lewallen says their consent is essential under United Nations principles to protect Indigenous rights. Without it, Japan is carrying out what she calls 'energy colonialism.' In 2007, Japan was among the 143 countries that voted in favor of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. The declaration states that governments shall 'take effective measures' to 'ensure that no storage or disposal of hazardous materials shall take place in the lands or territories of Indigenous people without their free, prior and informed consent.' But the declaration is nonbinding and Japanese law does not currently recognize the Ainu peoples' rights to Hokkaido's land, an issue that is currently a focal point in a high-profile court case over salmon fishing rights. It was only in March when the absence of Ainu consent on the nuclear waste study was mentioned for the first time during a meeting held by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan (NUMO) with Suttsu residents about the site, anti-nuclear activist and Suttsu resident Kazuyuki Tutiya said. Nobuyuki Kawashima, spokesperson for the nuclear waste authority NUMO, said the organization would be open to address Ainu people's concerns if raised, but stopped short of promising to obtain consent. The Hokkaido government's Ainu Policy Division said while currently there's no Ainu-specific measures on nuclear energy or waste, it stands with the prefecture's opposition to dumping nuclear waste on the island. The Ainu were nearly the sole inhabitants of Hokkaido prior to Japan's annexation but number less than 20,000 now. Like many places in Hokkaido, the names Suttsu and Kamoenai come from the Ainu language, according to Hiroshi Maruyama, director of the Sapporo-based Centre for Environmental and Minority Policy Studies. 'They feel closer to the land than Japanese settlers,' he said. Still, reaction to the idea of hosting a permanent nuclear waste storage site has been mixed. Fumio Kimura, an Ainu activist in Hokkaido, said that 'any nuclear waste on our land is horrible and our right to the land shouldn't be neglected.' 'Japanese people robbed our land, so why can't we make our voice heard?' he asked. Ainu activist Fumio Kimura stands in front of photos of his ancestors at his home in Biratori, Hokkaido, in April. | Chermaine Lee But Kazuaki Kaizawa, secretary-general of the government-funded Ainu Association of Hokkaido has a different view. He said that, as Hokkaido has been part of Japan for over a hundred years, land rights are no longer feasible. While storing nuclear waste is against Ainu philosophy, Kaizawa said that can't be fully applied in a world that is post-industrialization. 'The downside of any energy source is part of modernization. It's not only an issue Ainu are facing, but the whole of Japan and humanity.' Nuclear ambitions Nuclear power once held a crucial position in resource-poor Japan's energy mix, with nuclear power seen as a clean alternative to imports of fossil fuels and a way to ensure energy independence. After the 2011 meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, all of Japan's nuclear power stations were shut down while new safety standards were drawn up. Well over a decade on, only 14 of its 54 reactors have been restarted. Suttsu's large-scale wind farm was one of the first of its kind in Japan. | Chermaine Lee But as memories of Fukushima fade for some and global energy prices skyrocket, support for nuclear is again growing in Japan. In 2014, polls suggested 16% of Japanese people wanted an immediate phase-out of nuclear power but in 2024 that figure was just 5%. With this in mind, earlier this year Japan announced a contentious plan to boost nuclear energy in its mix from its current level of 8.5% to 20% by 2040, back up to its pre-Fukushima levels, as the country strives to realize its net-zero goal by 2050. Waste dumping ground Waste has always been an issue for nuclear power. When used up, the uranium rods that produce nuclear energy need to be disposed of. The rods are highly radioactive and hot, so they are usually buried — permanently — deep underground. This waste is currently being stored at an interim facility in Aomori Prefecture — despite some local opposition. This facility can only house the waste for 50 years and, despite less reliance on nuclear energy after the Fukushima disaster, 80% of the storage space was filled as of 2023. There had been a plan to reprocess the waste to recycle the energy, but the opening of the plant that would process the waste has faced delays and research took a hit after 2011, rendering the future of nuclear waste murky. Jacopo Buongiorno, professor of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that, although storing waste is 'actually pretty straightforward,' it is also often highly controversial around the world. He added that current technology can prevent leakages of high-level waste after they go underground, as long as the assessment for a site is done right. Takeshi Kuramochi, a climate policy researcher at the NewClimate Institute, said the waste issue is a 'showstopper' for nuclear development and that, if Japan fails to meet its nuclear targets, it will likely resort to fossil fuels to fill the gap. To convince local governments to volunteer to store it under their land, the Japanese government offered ¥2 billion ($14 million) to any municipality that consented to literature surveys, which include a deep study of past earthquake records. If the municipality is deemed to be a suitable site for storage, a further ¥7 billion will be paid out for entering the four-year second stage of the site selection process. The last stage, which lasts for 14 years, will see a more detailed assessment with test tunnels and mock facilities, but the subsidy amount has yet to be determined. Divided villages On visits to both villages in May, the nuclear waste issue was at the top of peoples' minds, although opinions on it differed sharply. Dotted with worn-down houses along a wavy coastline, the streets of Kamoenai were nearly deserted. At the tourist information center where she works, bespectacled Taeko Toritani said that 'nuclear waste isn't a big deal, but it has to be safe.' Besides, she added, 'It's set in stone already so no point in opposing.' Tazunori Sato, a silver-haired sushi chef, said the subsidy for the first stage helped with repairs of the fishing pier. Living near the Tomari nuclear plant for years has made villages accustomed to staying near nuclear facilities, so most people aren't too concerned, he added. But an hour's drive away in Suttsu, where one of the first wind farms in Japan was built, opinions were more polarized. Electrical store owner Noriyuki Tana noted that the money helps the village pay for resources like a dormitory for nursing workers and a school. Asked about Ainu land rights in Hokkaido and their consent of the site, he disputed the Indigenous people's ownership of the land and said they have no right to chime in on the villages' decisions because they are all Japanese. But Nobuka Miki, co-chair of a group fighting against nuclear waste and a mother to a teenage daughter, is worried that an underground disposal site would harm future generations and the reputation of the village's seafood industry. The harbor in Suttsu, where the fishing industry is a top employer. | Chermaine Lee Her view echoes that of Shaun Burnie, a nuclear specialist with Greenpeace East Asia. Burnie said nuclear waste containers would not be able to remain shut for tens of thousands of years — the amount of time the radioactivity in high-level waste needs to become neutralized. He added that any leakages or contamination of groundwater can lead to exposure to humans. Suttsu's nuclear fate may well be decided at the ballot box through November's mayoral elections. The current pro-waste mayor, who declined to be interviewed, is likely to be challenged by anti-waste 41-year-old Shingo Ogushi. Ogushi came to Suttsu in his early 30s to study the local cherry trout, but in 2020, in order to challenge the mayor's decision to volunteer for the site study, he quit his government job and eventually became a district counselor. He is concerned that a pier might have to be built to transport nuclear waste to the village, which could disturb the marine ecosystem and the fishing industry. NUMO has said that marine transportation is preferable if Suttsu is chosen for a nuclear waste facility. Ogushi added that Ainu people's rights to Hokkaido should be respected despite no known population of them in Suttsu. Shingo Ogushi, a former fish researcher in Suttsu who intends to run in November's mayoral election, has taken a stance against the village hosting nuclear waste. | Chermaine Lee A possible pathway for the Ainu people to participate in the nuclear waste site discussion, according to Morihiro Ichikawa, a Hokkaido-based lawyer focusing on nuclear waste and Ainu rights, is for the Ainu people who claim rights to Suttsu and Kamoenai to form a group and collectively decide on whether they agree to host the nuclear waste or not. 'If the Ainu group is reorganized, any development cannot take place without prior informed and free consent' under the 2007 U.N. declaration, Ichikawa said. Pro-nuclear voices argue that more needs to be done to win public support for nuclear energy and nuclear waste, while critics argue the technology should be dropped — at least in earthquake-prone Japan. Takatoshi Imada is a professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology who has published research on the public opinion of the nuclear waste system. He said that, to avoid the division seen in Suttsu and Kamoenai, an organization outside of government should select around 20 sites and engage their communities in 'deliberative dialogue' to win their support for waste storage. But Kuramochi said that finding a nuclear waste storage site far away from people will be next to impossible in Japan and that nuclear energy should not be relied on as legal battles, local opposition and safety inspections will slow down its deployment. 'There's a huge risk of spending so much money on nuclear and nothing coming out of it at the end,' he said, adding that 'if you are betting on nuclear, that means they are not committing fully to a modernized grid network that can accommodate a large amount of renewables' and that 'delays the whole transition of the entire electricity system.' On the other side of the argument are proponents who see flaws in relying exclusively on renewables as nations scramble to decarbonize. Nuclear power can provide around-the-clock clean power that solar and wind — which are reliant on mother nature — simply cannot, Buongiorno argued. Essentially, nuclear power enables a clean renewables-based electric grid, he said. Kawashima from NUMO, agreed, saying that nuclear power 'will lead to both ensuring a stable supply and decarbonization.' But the biggest challenge, he said, is to gain the understanding of the public. Translator Yang Zhao contributed to this report. This report was co-published with Climate Home News
