The government and power companies should take seriously the legal action launched by Hakodate. Hokkaido's third-largest city is seeking to halt construction of a nuclear power plant across the sea in Oma, Aomori Prefecture, on the grounds that it could be devastated in the event of a severe accident at the plant even though it has no say in its launch or operation.

In the first such action by a municipality in Japan, the Hakodate city government filed the lawsuit on April 3 with the Tokyo District Court to stop the project by Electric Power Development Co. (J-Power) to build a new plant that would run entirely on plutonium-uranium mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel.

The plant site near the tip of the Shimokita Peninsula is just 23 km away from the southern Hokkaido city across the Tsugaru Strait — a distance small enough that one coast can be seen from the other on a clear day. Hakodate Mayor Toshiki Kudo says the city's fisheries and tourism industries would be severely affected if the Oma plant, the world's first of its kind, is hit by a severe accident, especially given the planned use of MOX fuel.