Reviewing Nuclear Energy Policies from a Wider Scope in the Japanese Context

Japan’s “S+3E” framework of energy policy cannot accommodate policy discussions of climate change and sustainability

The goal of Japan’s energy policy of the past few decades has been to optimize the balance between the three key policy aims, namely the “3Es” or Energy security, Economic Efficiency, and the Environment. Following the Fukushima Daiichi accident of 2011, the importance of “Safety” as a precondition for the realization of the 3Es became more pronounced, and the acronym was duly changed to “S+3E” to denote that safety always comes first.

Historically, a key aim of the “S+3E” framework has been to propel Japan’s efforts in domestic nuclear development programs. This can also be inferred from the fact that the obvious conclusion of this policy framework is that nuclear is an optimal energy source for Japan, so long as safety can be assured.

This framework, while succinct and efficient as a tool to break down Japan’s energy policy amidst the historic interplay of issues, does not appropriately capture the wider policy discourse relating to emerging issues like climate change, decarbonization and sustainability. In addition, policy debate organized around this framework has generally been restricted because each term (Energy Security, Economic Efficiency and Environment) is effectively defined and understood in the context of an era now passed –an era of GDP growth, demand/population growth, efficiency-oriented, centralized growth poles, with visible, toxic pollution and direct environmental destruction as the counter effects. It is only a slight stretch to say that the 3Es effectively signified Fuel (Oil) Security, Prioritization of Large Industries Based in Metropolises, and Anti-pollution or Conservation. Most of these issues have not lost their significance, however, the global causes and consequences of climate change, with its links to the complex and philosophical agenda of fairness, justice, civilization, modernity and “development”, cannot be adequately discussed within this frame of mind .

Hence, the problem that this article would like to raise is that Japan is attempting to promote new energy technologies and innovations based on distinctly domestic, partly outdated and fundamentally incompatible rhetoric. It can be argued that Japan needs to deepen its debate on climate change and sustainability, from which we can expect a renewed policy framework/platform; one that complements or replaces the “S+3E” principles while encompassing broader societal values and addressing the increasingly complex, socio-technical, global-national-local and near-to-long-term risks that Japan faces today.

Discourse on the “3Es” publicly appeared in the 1970s, gained traction in the 1990s and was adopted in official policy documents by the early 2000s. Note that Japan’s “3Es” differ from the majority of global discourse on the “3Es” on energy, as it does not include energy equity.