Nuclear ‘bribery’ backlash in Japan over restart plan for world’s largest plant

Critics call Tepco’s US$654 million offer to residents living near the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant a cynical attempt to buy public consent

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An aerial view of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata prefecture, northern Japan, in 2021. Photo: Kyodo/AP

Published: 8:00am, 15 Oct 2025Updated: 1:15pm, 17 Oct 2025

Japan’s largest power company is reportedly dangling a 100 billion yen (US$654 million) payout for locals to restart its long-dormant Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in a move critics have called “bribery”.

The unprecedented financial support package, originally reported by the Nikkei business newspaper, reflects Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (Tepco) mounting desperation to revive the world’s largest nuclear site more than a decade after the Fukushima disaster, according to analysts.

A sprawling complex spread across the coast of the Sea of Japan in Niigata prefecture, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa has stood idle since 2011, when a magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami triggered catastrophic meltdowns at Tepco’s Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Although Kashiwazaki-Kariwa was spared in 2011, it had previously sustained damage during an earthquake in 2007, raising questions about its future.

Black smoke billows from the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant following an earthquake in July 2007. Photo: Japan Coast Guard/EPA

Previous efforts to restart the facility have stalled amid safety lapses and regulatory breaches, including Tepco’s admission that it left an intruder detection system unrepaired to cut costs.

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