Hippalus comments

The start up of the nuclear plants is necessary to help Japan keep down the costs of imported oil and gas to run them. The cost alone is going through the roof, but it also means Japan has to keep importing oil from Iran. That is okay for the moment, but sooner or later the U.S. and E.U. will demand that all imports stop from Iran -- or else. For more, see http://oildiplomacy.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/japan-to-continue-to-import-irans-oil/

Japan needs nuclear energy because supplies of oil and LNG are getting too expensive and because alternative sources of power -- wind, geothermal, solar -- are too few or too underdeveloped to make up the shortfall.

This is good news for Japan and for Canada. The project has been viewed as part of a game-changer, with East Asia now looking east for its supplies of energy instead of west, to the Middle East.

The government is under pressure from two sides: international organizations like the OECD and World Economic Forum to restart the nuclear facilities, if deemed safe, and popular opinion in Japan, which is consistently opposed. It is really a tough call, and the government is temporizing at the moment, uncertain what to do. As a stop-gap measure, imports of liquefied natural gas are on the rise. But prices will rise, too, and that also will be unpopular. For more on this issue, see https://oildiplomacy.wordpress.com/?s=Japan