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By Nishio Baku
The Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center (CNIC) celebrates its 50th anniversary in September 2025. Taking this opportunity, I would like to review the events of CNIC’s early days for the record. These are my personal notes. There may be many lapses in my memory and omissions in my collection of information.
1975
In August 1975, in Kyoto, the first nationwide anti-nuke gathering was held: “National Anti-Nuke Rally — Nuclear Power Endangers Our Survival.” From various places across the entire country, such as Hyogo, Mie, and Niigata, 51 local organizations as well as about 600 citizens and researchers participated. In advance of this a gathering, “Anti-Nuke Citizens’ Rally” was held in Tokyo by such organizations as Pollution Problem Research Group, Consumers Union of Japan, and Japan Congress Against A- and H-Bombs (hereinafter Gensuikin). Dr. Takagi Jinzaburo, former Director of Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center (CNIC) contributed an article, “Review of Plutonium Toxicity,” to the May issue of the science journal Kagaku, and engaged himself in the organization of the Tokyo rally. He had already started to work actively on his lifelong theme: plutonium. In September, CNIC was established in Tsukasa-cho Building in Kanda Tsukasa-cho, Chiyoda City, Tokyo. The year was symbolic as a turning point in the anti-nuke movement in Japan. The movement was changed from a conflict between NPP-site locals versus nuclear power operators to that between NPP-site locals and citizens in power-consuming areas versus the government and nuclear power operators.
Because resistance by NPP-site locals prevented the new siting of nuclear power plants, the Japanese government enacted “three acts for power supply development” in June 1974, initiating the promotion of the siting of nuclear power plants: The government attempted to break through the stalemate, by giving host municipalities a great amount of regional development subsidies. The government also came up with the idea of holding public hearing meetings in NPP candidate areas, promoting NPPs not as private business but as national projects. On the other hand, in September 1974, the Nuclear Ship Mutsu was found to be leaking radiation. This incident produced distrust in nuclear power in civil society. The consumers’ movement thus joined the anti-nuke movement, partially because power tariffs were raised in May of the same year. With NPP-site locals, laborers and scientists joined by the anti-pollution movement and urban residents, the major figures in the anti-nuke movement in Japan united at the 1975 national gathering in Kyoto.
CNIC was born the next month, but there are no official records, and all that is known is that the establishment took place in September 1975. In his autobiography, Living as a Citizen Scientist (Iwanami Shoten, Publishers), former Director Takagi wrote: “Neither records nor memory is clear, but before the summer of 1975, we had several discussions. It was finally agreed that Prof. Taketani Mitsuo would be named director, and that I, sort of unemployed at that time, became a dedicated staff member (without salary) with the title of ‘caretaker.’ CNIC was thus scheduled to start up in September on the fifth floor of the building in Tsukasa-cho.”
Two years previously, Dr. Takagi had left Tokyo Metropolitan University, where he had been an associate professor, and following that he was typically engaged in writing for the monthly magazine Kagaku, where he penned a serial essay on the trends of science. The fifth floor of the building in Tsukasa-cho was a small room built on the roof of the four-story building in Tsukasa-cho. Gensuikin was a tenant on the fourth floor and had secured the use of the small room as a literature storeroom. At that time the author (Nishio Baku) was dedicated to criticizing the advertisements by nuclear power companies and the like under the title of “anti-advertisement forum,” and I frequented the Gensuikin office (to be honest, my main purpose of the visits was to use the copying machine). I was actually not a founding member of CNIC. I had the impression that the group consisted of scientists and that I was not the kind of person who would be a member.
I would like to quote one of the persons who proposed the establishment of CNIC: Inoue Hiraku, then Gensuikin deputy secretary. Please bear with the slightly long quote. In 20 Years for Freedom from Nuclear Power Generation (CNIC, 1995), he wrote:
CNIC, whose Japanese name is actually “Nuclear Information Office,” is today regarded without any furrowed eyebrows as an information center against nuclear plants and for freedom from nuclear power; however, 20 years ago, we decided to name it “Office” instead of “Center.” This is the background story to the decision:
In those days, as a group that spread information about the problems of nuclear power to the local people where NPPs were planned and to encourage the movement against the plan, there was a National Union of Nuclear Scientists and Engineers (Zengenren), which consisted of young scientists from such institutions as the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University and Tohoku University. The members were enthusiastically engaged in the local anti-nuke movement; for example, these scientists and the anti-nuke locals lived together under a single roof. The group played a huge role in expanding the anti-nuke movement from that time on. Gensuikin brought such locals’ anti-nuke movement into the anti-nuclear movement, and began to commit itself to the local anti-nuke movement, regarding that these movements should be included in its scope of action.
A nationwide gathering of anti-nuke activists was held in Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture, in 1972. The Gensuikin branches of individual prefectures and locals’ groups participated and decided to form the National Joint Action against NPPs and Reprocessing Plants and establish an information center. Around the time of these decisions, such experts as Dr. Kume Sanshiro, Dr. Mito Iwao and Dr. Ichikawa Sadao as well as Zengenren members started to help local residents’ anti-nuke movements actively with technical knowledge, and the movement rapidly expanded.
With local movements as the core, Gensuikin established the Anti-NPP and Anti-Reprocessing Plant Action Information Center aiming to form a nationwide joint movement organization with prefectural Gensuikin branches and labor unions, and started to issue the Anti-Nuke Struggle Information as an information guide for the movement. However, many negative opinions were received regarding the “Information Center,” such as “There are significant differences among experts,” “A center might become a command center,” and so on. Finally, an agreement was reached that it would be best to form a group that was independent of the movement, as a “crossroads” and “joint work forum” of experts with various ways of thinking. Dr. Takagi Jinzaburo agreed to work as a caretaker who would actually facilitate the group’s operations, and thus CNIC was established as the “Nuclear Information Office,” represented by Prof. Taketani Mitsuo in 1975.
Taketani Mitsuo, Kume Sanshiro, and Inoue Hiraku proposed the establishment of the “Nuclear Information Office.” I hear that that was in June 1975.
1976
The Anti-NPP and Anti-Reprocessing Plant Action Information Center released the first issue of Anti-Nuke Struggle Information in November 1972. It was its 18th issue, published in January 1976, that CNIC started to edit and issue as a newsletter. It was changed in size from a B4 flier-like leaflet to a B5, 8-page booklet, which became a monthly for which subscriptions were solicited.
In June 1976, immediately after the start-up of the organization, Director Taketani decided to resign. In an article regretting the passing away of Director Taketani, “In Memory of Dr. Taketani Mitsuo,” Dr. Takagi later wrote that the cause of the resignation was a “Clock and Hammer Dispute” between the two (CNIC Newsletter Tsushin, May 2000 issue).
Taketani: “Scientists have their own role to play while the movement has its role to play. If a clock is used as a hammer, it will break and cannot work as either a clock or a hammer.”
Takagi: “I would at least like to try to be a clock with a hammer” (from Living as a Citizen Scientist).
However, Director Takagi wrote in the memorial article: “It was not that there was tension between Prof. Taketani and I, because he was a theorist oriented toward specialized knowledge, while I was an activist oriented toward the movement.” After the resignation of Director Taketani, CNIC shifted to a steering committee system.
1979
The Three Mile Island accident occurred in March 1979. It was in the same year when a new, “integrated” nuclear power administration system started in Japan: The authority for licensing and approving nuclear matters were compartmentalized. Nuclear power plants were placed under the control of the Minister of International Trade and Industry, the nuclear ship was under the Minister of Transportation, and research and development stage technology was under the Prime Minister. To fend off criticism over the new administrative system as aiming to promote nuclear developments, the Nuclear Safety Commission was newly established along with the Japan Atomic Energy Commission. The duty of the Nuclear Safety Commission was to double-check the evaluation of administrative agencies when individual ministers in charge issued a license or approval. The first job of the Nuclear Safety Commission was to respond to the Three Mile Island accident.
Immediately after the accident, CNIC started to play a major role in communicating information and leading the anti-nuclear movement. CNIC participated almost every day in resistance rallies and statement submission meetings at the Science and Technology Agency, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, and Tokyo Electric Power Company. It was also engaged in the preparation and co-organization of urgent gatherings. On April 5, with people from around the nation who gathered in response to the call from the Hassei Association against Ikata NPP, Ehime Prefecture, CNIC joined the all-night negotiation with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, demanding the shutdown of all NPPs. CNIC also committed itself to communicating with anti-nuke groups and researchers in the U.S. by postal mail, telephone and facsimile. In the previous year it had been decided that the English name of CNIC would be the “Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center.”
Because the scope of our activities had expanded, CNIC decided to invite various people to be supporting members in addition to the existing members (mostly scientists) at the plenary meeting in May 1981.
1984
In April 1984, the Federation of Electric Power Companies requested Aomori Prefecture to help secure a location for nuclear fuel cycle facilities. In July, the federation submitted an official proposal to Aomori Prefecture and Rokkasho Village concerning the siting of the facilities there. In response to this move, the “Aomori Prefectural Residents’ Symposium to Examine the Issue of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Facilities” was held in December, and CNIC was fully committed to organizing the symposium.
On April 9, 1985, at a discussion meeting attended by all Aomori prefectural assembly members, Aomori Prefecture revealed that it had agreed with the siting of the nuclear fuel cycle facilities in Rokkasho Village, Aomori. Since then, in Aomori, the “April 9 Anti-Nuke Day” Action has been held annually, and CNIC has been one of the main organizers. In July, CNIC fully cooperated with the organization of the International Gathering against the Nuclear Fuel Cycle. Thereafter, action against the nuclear fuel cycle and plutonium has been one of the most important issues on the CNIC agenda.
1986
In April 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred, which further increased the work volume of CNIC, which committed to exchanging information mainly with German groups.
The office became too small, and we moved in March 1987 to Higashi-Ueno, Taito City. We also renamed our monthly Anti-Nuke Struggle Information to CNIC Newsletter Tsushin. At the plenary meeting in May, Dr. Takagi took over the directorship. When the CNIC moved, in May 1978, the All-Japan Anti-Nuclear Liaison Association which had started to issue the Hangenpatsu-Shinbun (“Anti-Nuclear Newspaper”), jointly occupied CNIC’s office from Shimbashi, Minato City, Tokyo. Thereafter CNIC moved several times and the Hangenpatsu-Shinbun always moved together with CNIC.
Director Takagi reminisced on those days in May 1999 CNIC Newsletter Tsushin No. 300. Please bear with the rather long quotation:
Faced with the Chernobyl shock, many people read CNIC’s Lethal Ash on the Dining Table, and support for CNIC increased. The situation was beyond the dimension where the word “struggle” could represent its activities. Radioactivity spread over the common people, and in fact radioactivity was “served” on dining tables. I started to feel that we must face such a situation as a whole. It was a very big turning point for CNIC. When we established CNIC, we were not thinking about becoming a national center or principal information transmitter; we intended to be one of many activities that various groups and people are committed to, but after Chernobyl, we reviewed our position in Japan and thought, not that we should be ambitious, but that it would be better to act more positively, assuming some sort of responsibility for the entire circumstances. We closely reviewed changes in what surrounded the movement, in the people who supported our movement, and in social needs.
Lethal Ash on the Dining Table — Food Contamination Caused by the Chernobyl Accident, in which this quote appeared, was issued in April. Lethal Ash on the Dining Table — Part 2 was issued in August.
Our bimonthly English newsletter Nuke Info Tokyo started up in October with help of Yamaka Junko and others.
1988
In April 1988, “Stop Nukes! 10,000 People’s Action (renamed Stop Nukes! 20,000 People’s Action in accordance with the number of actual participants)” was held and CNIC worked as the secretariat. In addition, we increasingly engaged ourselves in the establishment of an anti-nuke law. A movement to establish an anti-nuke law started in January 1989. CNIC was fully committed to this movement. In April 1990, we submitted our proposal to the national Diet with the first volume of people’s signatures, and again in April 1991, with the second volume of signatures. The total number of signatures was more than 3.28 million. However, to our regret, it was left undiscussed until the end of the Diet session and withdrawn. We were too ignorant about the Diet and Diet members, which we regret very much. This movement did not gain any specific results, and we had a strong feeling of defeat. We cannot deny that this failure set back the anti-nuke movement thereafter.
1993
From 1993, CNIC started to prepare to register as a juridical entity. In Why Do Nuclear Plant Accidents Repeat? (Iwanami Shoten, Publishers, 2000), Director. Takagi wrote as follows. Again, please bear with the rather long quote.
We started to talk about becoming a juridical entity about 1993, but at that time there was no NPO legislation, and to be a juridical entity, we needed to become a corporate or foundational juridical entity.
To be a corporate juridical entity, we would have had to apply to the Science and Technology Agency (STA) because STA administered nuclear power. We then visited the agency with the aim of becoming a corporate juridical entity. The biggest problem indicated by the STA for CNIC to be a juridical entity was whether CNIC was for the public interest, or whether it would contribute to the common good.
In the Articles of Organization, CNIC declares that it aims to achieve freedom from nuclear power generation. We have no intention of changing these Articles. We might use different expressions to make it easier to pass the bureaucratic review, but we had no intention of changing our principal raison d’être, which is to achieve freedom from nuclear power. However, STA officials bluntly said that, because the basic policy of the government was to promote nuclear power, promoting nuclear power was for the public interest and promoting freedom from nuclear power was against the public interest.
A big snip.
We then told them that we would actually criticize governmental policy, but if we could propose a sounder energy policy by criticizing the nuclear administration, it would not be against public interest. The STA agreed with us in this regard.
In December 1995, however, the prototype fast-breeder reactor Monju sodium-leak fire accident occurred. Some STA officials worked hard for us in the negotiations, but because of the accident, both the agency and CNIC became busy, STA officials were transferred in regular reassignments, and our plan of becoming a juridical entity ran aground.
In March 1998, the Act on Promotion of Specified Non-profit Activities was voted on and passed the House of Representatives. At the plenary meeting, CNIC decided to give up attempting to become a corporate juridical entity and steer toward becoming a juridical entity as a non-profit organization. CNIC was approved as a juridical entity in September 1999. Before that, we used personal names to rent the office and install the telephone. We were thus able to extricate ourselves from this situation and build a basis for future activities.
1994
In March 1994, Director Takagi attended JAEC’s “A Gathering for Listening to Opinions about Long-term Nuclear Power Plant” and delivered opinions. After that, not only the director but also other CNIC members started to speak at the gatherings of the same kind. There was criticism that CNIC had become closer to the government, but we were readily aware that such criticisms would be voiced when participating in governmental meetings. On the other hand, Director Takagi turned down the invitations to be a member of the JAEC high-level radioactive waste disposal discussion meeting and fast-breeder reactor discussion meeting, saying that they were not fora where the entire nuclear policy would be discussed.
Later, then Co-Director Ban Hideyuki participated in the JAEC’s new plan planning committee in June 2004, regarding it as a forum for the discussion of the entire nuclear policy. This opened the way for CNIC members to participate in governmental meetings.
1998
In August 1998, Dr. Takagi, who was found to have cancer, resigned from the director’s position. CNIC then shifted to assume a co-directorship. Dr. Takagi passed away in October 2000, as if reassured by the start of CNIC as a non-profit juridical entity as well as its new organizational structure and the expansion of activities. In January 2001, the ministries and agencies of the central government were reorganized, and the center of nuclear administration shifted from the former Science and Technology Agency to the stronger Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. This remains unchanged as of today.
