Backlash

Within Noda's own ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), opinion is also divided on the restarting of the reactors, with some politicians echoing the majority of the public's view that energy conservation should be mandated in the short-term and government efforts to move towards renewable energy sources be shifted into top gear.

"Most of the public are of the opinion that we should overcome this summer's energy needs through conservation and flexibility," said a recent local editorial on the matter.

The editorial went on to highlight the fact that many of the politicians campaigning against Noda's proposal to restart the No. 3 and 4 reactors at the Oi nuclear power plant, were also members of a powerful intraparty group led by political heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa, who has been a vocal critic of a number of Noda's policies - - none more so than his signature sales tax hike bill, which Noda hopes will see the doubling of Japan's sales tax to 10 percent by 2015.

Whether or not Noda and his nuclear disaster management minister Goshi Hosono have done enough to convince the public that the Oi plant is safe enough to bring back online remains to be seen, but this may be something of a moot point.

According to chief government spokesman Osamu Fujimura, the decision to fire up the plant is the prime minister's alone, and talks with local officials were solely to try and garner local support from people living in the plant's vicinity and the wider population who are hoping for a nuclear-free Japan.

Noda himself and four other Cabinet ministers are likely to agree and announce the restart of the reactors next week, with both the No. 3 and 4 reactors at the Oi plant likely to be online in a matter of days following Noda's decision.

According to sources close to the matter, Nishikawa is also in support of the reactors being restarted and following his prefectural government's nuclear safety committee giving the all clear, and having listened to the opinions of Oi Mayor Shinobu Tokioka, Nishikawa will almost certainly sign off on the reactors' restarting.

As local consent is not a legal requirement for restarting the idled reactors here and with much of Japan facing similar power shortages this summer, the reactors at the Oi facility being brought back online could serve as a litmus test to gauge the public's reaction to potential restarts of reactors in other parts of the nation, sources close to the matter have suggested.