Flicking the on switch

Events over the past month or so have pretty much ensured that 2014 will see the restarting of some of the nuclear power stations in Japan. First up was the victory of Yoichi Masuzoe in Tokyo's recent mayoral election. Ostensibly an 'independent' (the word has little meaning in Japanese politics) he was supported by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and like them and their leader the prime minster Shinzo Abe, he is very much in favor of getting the currently dormant nuclear reactors up and spinning their atoms again.
The second influence was the record snowfalls Tokyo and surrounding regions received for two weeks in a row. Unlike us winter weary veterans up here in Hokkaido, the effeminate denizens of Japan's Big Smoke basically don't have a clue how to deal with more than a couple centimeters of the white stuff. 19 people died, over 5000 households were cut off by roads being rendered impassable, and a section of highway was closed for three days leaving hundreds of motorists stranded in their vehicles the entire time. All this bad weather meant that heaters were cranked up to 11, there was a surge in power consumption which in turn meant the various electricity utilities had to burn an awful lot of oil, gas and coal. As they have been doing since 2011. Japan doesn't have any oil, gas nor coal so it has to import pretty much everything it burns. And this in turn is costing a colossal amount of yen.
Which brings me to the third factor: Japan's eye-wateringly huge trade deficit. In January (the most recent published figures), the deficit stood at 2.79 trillion yen (27.4 billion US dollars) - January also marked the nineteenth month in a row that saw a deficit. Much of this is a result of Abe's deliberate weakening of the yen to boost the earnings and profits of the major Japanese exporting companies which in turn, it was presumed by the wise heads in the 財務省 (Ministry of Finance) would lead to an overall boost to the Japanese economy. This hasn't happened. And is unlikely to happen as a sales tax in April from 5% to 8% is going to seriously dampen consumer spending for a long while (just ask Sanae).
The obvious and immediate way to reduce the deficit would be to cut back on imports of oil, gas and coal which in turn will require alternative sources of energy production. Which will can only come from, all together now, restarting those expensively mothballed nuclear power stations. You know where you read it first.