In submitting the draft, Tatsuo Shiotani said that many residents were behind the construction of a nuclear facility in the area, and that the town assembly chairman had requested it.
The ordinance stipulates that a majority opinion in the plebiscite, which is likely to be held before the end of the year, would be respected.
Miyama, with a population of 10,000, is close to the towns of Nanto and Kisei in the same prefecture whose residents’ strong opposition forced Chubu Electric Power Company to abandon its plan to build a nuclear plant there. Chubu has considered Miyama as a candidate site in the 1960s, before deciding on Nanto and Kisei.
Since the 1980s, some members of the local business community have been pressing for the town to invite the company to build a nuclear power plant in Miyama to revive the area.
