Three days before a vote to choose their region’s next governor, a handful of residents in Kashiwazaki, a sleepy coastal town in northern Japan, stood by a road to hear the race’s long-shot contender warning of the dangers of nuclear power. Four years ago, Naomi Katagiri, who is challenging the incumbent in an election on Sunday for governor of Niigata prefecture, might have drawn a bigger, more attentive crowd. Back then, when they chose their governor the last time, the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster was fresh in voters’ minds and policy on what was an important source of power for Japan was front-and-centre in a town that is home to the world’s largest nuclear power station, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, operated by Fukushima Daiichi owner Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco). Today, voters have other concerns. Economic pain from soaring energy costs and the COVID-19 pandemic […]