ABSTRACT
This chapter brings a human security lens to bear on the energy mix in post-Fukushima Japan. In particular, two of the four elements of human security identified in the 1994 Human Development Report (HDR), prevention and people-centeredness, are mobilized. Using a human security framework, we consider the economic security dimension of the arguments for and against the use of nuclear power, and weigh the result of this consideration against a concern with the six other elements of human security identified in the 1994 HDR. The HDR identified seven categories of threat to human security, all of which are relevant when considering Fukushima and nuclear power in Japan: economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security and political security. The notion of prevention, so central to the concept of human security, performs a further 'trumping' function, in leading people to put a premium on the downside risk of the use of nuclear energy.
