Feb 01 2019

East Asia Research Project of Faculty of Law, Niigata University, held an international symposium with the theme of "Public Participation and Nuclear Power" on Sunday, January 13.

In recent years, public participation has drawn attention in the fields of environmental law, and heated discussions have been taking place about how public opinions can have affects on policy making in the field of nuclear power.

The symposium was composed of reports on research outcomes and a panel discussion with the participants invited from local government and NPO working on public participation.

In the first session, the report on "Current Status and Issues of Public Participation Systems and Nuclear Power" was presented by Associate Professor Yoshihiro Tanaka of Faculty of Law, Niigata University to introduce experience in Japan. In the second session, reports on overseas public participation systems were given by the researchers from Japan, Taiwan, Korea, China and other countries followed by a panel discussion.

In the panel discussion, the panelists examined the legal framework for public participation in the field of nuclear power inside and outside of Japan, the content of the past public participation, some efforts that the government and local government are making as well as the ideal legislation to realize appropriate public participation.

About 80 participants including students and researchers listened eagerly at the venue.
East Asia Research Project will continue to engage in research on East Asia Regions including comparative research on nuclear power legislation and to provide the research results.