The coastal road that winds along the Tsuruga peninsula, a rugged outcropping on the Sea of Japan that is home to a few hundred families and a cluster of nuclear power plants, is two lanes wide and seems well-maintained. Yet its condition does not satisfy Jitaro Yamaguchi.
Mr Yamaguchi, mayor of the nearby town of Mihama, thinks the road is vulnerable to earthquakes and mudslides, which could leave the nuclear plants – two commercial facilities and an experimental fast-breeder reactor – cut off from help in an emergency.
To forestall an atomic disaster such as the one last year at Fukushima, he wants the government to pay for upgrades. “I’ve been asking about this for years, now I’m strongly demanding it,” he says.