Present state of the perception gap of nuclear energy between Japanese nuclear energy supplying region and an energy consuming region

Public opinion surveys have been carried out since 1998 on what phase and on what extent of the perception of nuclear energy differs between Japanese dwelling in energy supplying region and an energy-consuming region. Southern Fukui rural district where 15 nuclear reactors are now installed and Osaka urban region of about 100 km apart from Fukui were selected as the respective targets for the energy supplying and consuming regions. Analyses of the data of about 3000 samples have revealed the followings. (1) The public in the nuclear energy supplying region are very friendly to nuclear energy so that only about 20 and 39 of the public are resistive to the general promotion of nuclear energy in Japan and to the construction of another nuclear reactor in their dwelling region, respectively. (2) On the other hand, in the energy-consuming region those respective fractions are 41 and 70 implying strong resistance to nuclear energy in the urban region. (3) Both the degree of interest in and the degree of knowledge on nuclear energy are very low, whereas the extent of fear to nuclear is high for the urban public. (4) Not only the fraction of the public who are satisfied with their present life, but the public fraction who is eagerly support the thought of return-to-nature are very high in the urban region. (5) On the other hand, in the energy supplying region, many peoples eagerly want their life to become more convenient than it is now, and 6) all those trends (I)-(5) are revealed more pronouncedly in the woman than the man. The perception gap of nuclear energy thus became clear between Japanese dwelling in rural and urban regions. On the basis of this knowledge, discussions on the nature of the so-called NIMBY will be made from the socio-psychological viewpoint and propositions will also be made on the methods to dissolve the perception gap of that soft. (author)