Fukushima has been a very painful experience and like a passing, it needs to be addressed and discussed so that it can be overcome.
For Japan to succeed and leave Fukushima behind -- though never forgotten -- more democratic space is needed. Valuable lessons from the nuclear crisis need to be learned and this knowledge taken into the future so another Fukushima cannot and will not happen again.
This, along with a decentralized yet civil society, is needed not only for power, but for energy too.
However, the Japanese government is yet to show it has reflected on Fukushima as it is still trying to sell nuclear technologies to emerging countries like India and Turkey.
In society, the role of international non-governmental organizations like Greenpeace involves the monitoring of governments and businesses.
While the freedom of the press is being tightened, there is more pressure on NGOs to investigate, expose and hold governments and companies accountable for their mismanagement and mistakes. Greenpeace takes on that role without hesitation.
Japan should not be a playground where politicians toy with nuclear energy. Three years on from Fukushima, Japan needs an Energy Revolution and is best placed to have one, in the interest of all its children.
Kumi Naidoo is the Executive Director of Greenpeace Internationa
Perreault Magazine - 57 -