Forty years have passed since the town of Kaminoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture announced its bid to host a nuclear power plant. However, Chugoku Electric Power*s plan to build the Kaminoseki Nuclear Power Station has been stalled ever since preparation work was halted in the immediate aftermath of the March 2011 Fukushima No. 1 meltdown.

Coupled with a sharply declining government subsidy for nuclear power, depopulation and an aging society are further exacerbating the plight of the town.

On June 29, 1982, then-Mayor Arata Kano announced a plan to bring a nuclear power plant to the town, during a local assembly meeting. Chugoku Electric applied to the prefectural government and the town for the construction of the plant in 1996 and began preparation work in 2009.