is an island of the

Inland Sea An inland sea (also known as an epeiric sea or an epicontinental sea) is a continental body of water which is very large in area and is either completely surrounded by dry land (landlocked), or connected to an ocean by a river, strait or " arm of ...

in Japan. With a total altitude of 82 m, it lies at the south-eastern edge of the

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). ...

(山口県, Yamaguchi-ken) at coordinates . The name is derived from the ancient ritual of passing travellers and is in fact home to a ceremonial fishing dance specific to the island as noted in the crew journey log of the Hokule‘a on their journey from

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of approximately 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Poly ...

to Japan. In 1982,

Chugoku Electric Power Company , trading as (Latin for "energy") is an electric utility with its exclusive operational area of Chūgoku region of Japan. It is the sixth largest by electricity sales among Japan's ten regional power utilities. It operates the Shimane Nuclear P ...

proposed building a

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP), also known as a nuclear power station (NPS), nuclear generating station (NGS) or atomic power station (APS) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power st ...

near Iwaishima, but many residents opposed the idea, and the island’s fishing cooperative voted overwhelmingly against the plans. In January 1983, almost 400 islanders staged a protest march, which was the first of more than 1,000 protests the islanders carried out. Since the

Fukushima nuclear disaster The Fukushima nuclear accident was a major nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan, which began on 11 March 2011. The cause of the accident was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which ...

in March 2011 there has been wider opposition to construction plans for the plant.

References

External links

''Nuclear power plants and biocultural renaissance: A case study of Iwaishima Island in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan'', ''Journal of Marine and Island Cultures'' Volume 1, Issue 2, December 2012, Pages 126–130
* https://web.archive.org/web/20111002112229/http://www.pref.yamaguchi.lg.jp/cms/a123003/island/iwaishima.html (in Japanese) {{Authority control Nuclear power in Japan Islands of Yamaguchi Prefecture Cat islands in Japan

See also

References

External links