Some 55 percent of Japanese agree with former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s call for an end to nuclear power generation in Japan, a Mainichi opinion poll has found.

According to the survey conducted on Nov. 9-10, just 34 percent of those polled said they did not agree with abolishing nuclear power. Meanwhile, anti-nuclear sentiment ran particularly high among female respondents, at 60 percent. Only 27 percent of women disagreed with a zero-nuclear policy.

Even among respondents who said they support the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — which is considering replacing aging reactors with new ones — 49 percent said they favored a zero-nuclear policy. Forty-two percent said they were against the idea. Among supporters of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party as a whole, the for and against camps came out nearly even, at 44 percent versus 46 percent, respectively.

Among supporters of the opposition parties, 59 percent of respondents backing the Democratic Party of Japan favored an end to nuclear power, as did 74 percent of Japan Restoration Party supporters, 67 percent of Your Party supporters, and 79 percent of Japanese Communist Party backers.

Among independents, 56 percent of respondents wanted atomic power abolished, versus 30 percent who said they were against such a move.

Mainichi Shimbun, November 13, 2013