Global Conference for a Nuclear Power-Free World, Yokohama

On January 11th, a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan kicked off the Global Conference for a Nuclear Power-Free World, held in Yokohama. The featured speakers included: Tatsuya Yoshioka (Chair of Executive Committee, Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World / Co-founder and Director, Peace Boat); Aileen Mioko Smith (Director, Green Action); Rebecca Harms (Member of the European Parliament, Green German Member of the European Parliament Spokesperson); and Mycle Schneider (Independent international consultant on energy and nuclear policy). The six co-sponsoring Japanese organizations, which had long called for a reassessement of Japan's love affair with the atom long before the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe, are: Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, FoE Japan, Green Action, Greenpeace Japan, the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies, and Peace Boat.