[Fukushima History] Fukushima's Nuclear Coast - Japan's version of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

Fewer than ten pages into his 364-page history of Fukushima Prefecture, Kaichiro Oishi states two features of Fukushima's history that are relevant to how Fukushima got into its current nuclear position and to how Fukushima will proceed into it future.

First, with the exception of the Aizu district in western Fukushima in the late 19th century, Fukushima has almost never endeavored towards regional development independent of the central national government and central national sources of capital.

Second, the development of Fukushima's nuclear coast was Japan's version of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in the United States with one major difference. While TVA embraced grass roots populism, Japan's plan for Fukushima contained none. It was only a means of supplying electricity to the center of economic recovery, the Tokyo-Yokohama area.

Source:

福島県の百年 (県民100年史)

Oishi, Kaichiro, Fukushimaken no Hyakunen (Fukushima Prefecture's One Hundred Years, Yamakawa Insatsu, Tokyo, 1992