著者

Didvalis Linas

出版者

国際基督教大学

雑誌

社会科学ジャーナル = The Journal of Social Science (ISSN:04542134)

巻号頁・発行日

no.77, pp.79-99, 2014-03-31

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The forestry industry in Fukushima is in a difficult position becauseradioactive contamination was spread over large areas during the accident at theDaiichi nuclear power plant. Forests inside the evacuation zone cannot be usedfor timber production, nor can they be properly maintained. Outside theevacuation zone, the forestry industry has been damaged by warnings aboutradioactive pollution, tests that showed their products were not suitable forconsumption, and distrust among consumers about the safety of Fukushima’sforests, all of which has led to a drop in prices.There is no quick and easy way to repair the damage. Although thegovernment has pledged to implement the Polluter Pays Principle (PPP) bydeclaring that the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is liable for thefinancial costs of the accident, governmental regulations only require the ownerof the nuclear power plant to be responsible for certain economic costs, with therest to be left for future consideration. As a result, forestry concerns are not onan equal footing with human environments or agriculture. Two and a half yearsafter the accident, there are still no criteria for how to evaluate damage tostanding forests, no plans to start forest decontamination, and no flexibility forindividual forest owners to decide which type of damage restoration isappropriate for their forest.In this article, I argue that implementation of the PPP for the radioactivecontamination of Fukushima’s forests has several major limitations. Theselimitations must be overcome if just compensation is to be made to theforest owners, workers in the forestry industry, and the residents ofFukushima. However, as TEPCO already finds itself in a very difficultfinancial position, implementing a comprehensive compensation mechanismfor forest damage may well be too much for the company to manage; theoutcome would be that pollution damage compensation is eventually paidby the forest owners themselves or covered by taxpayers’ money. If thatoccurs, the difficulty in applying the PPP in Fukushima’s case will becomean additional strong argument against the use of nuclear power.