Tohoku's Nuclear Villages: Small, Unsophisticated and Rich

In his very timely book Site Fights, Daniel Aldrich describes at length the subsidies, both exposed and hidden, that are used to persuade and reward villages that host nuclear plants. Martin Fackler reports that in 2009 alone, Tokyo gave $1.15 billion for public works projects to communities that have electric plants.


Using data from the 2005 census and 2007 data for fiscal strength (http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/eStatTopPortal.do), I plotted fiscal strength versus population for 271 municipalities in Tohoku, excluding Akita and Yamagata Prefectures, but adding Ibaraki and Chiba Prefectures.







The plot below labels with 'N' the nuclear villages. Labels 'S', 'C', 'P', and 'E' indicate that the municipality hosts major steel, chemical, petroleum and fossil-based energy facilities. Other well known municipalities and tsunami-hit municipalities are plotted for comparison.



Nuclear villages are striking for being small, having simpler village (mura) governments, and for being fiscally strong. The strongest are Rokkashomura and Tokaimura, where nuclear fuel processing takes place. Higashidori is new; its reactor started operation in 2005.

The gap between nuclear villages and non-nuclear villages is striking. There are few small towns with fiscal strength indices between 0.6 and 1.2. Many are clustered between 0.1 and 0.6. Oma is highlighted in the plot because, after many years of resistance (see Aldrich), its first reactor is under construction (Fackler).



Other than the nuclear villages, Narita and Urayasu (Disneyland), the only municipalities that are fiscally very strong (FS Index greater than 1.2) host steel plants and petrochemical works..







Show larger map of Tohoku's Nuclear Villages