Japan's Prime
Minister Yoshihiko Noda promised on Tuesday to rid Japan of nuclear
energy in coming decades as he set out his party's platform before next
month's general election.
Noda
also pledged to conduct "calm and realistic" diplomatic and defence
policies, as he tried to counter claims by his opponents that his
Democratic Party of Japan does not stand up to foreign powers.
"After the nuclear accident (in Fukushima), we believe
the Japanese people wish for and are resolved to have a society that
does not rely on nuclear power plants," Noda told reporters.
"We will put all available policy resources into building a path toward that goal," he said.
The pledge amounted to a slight hardening of
announcements made earlier this year when his cabinet said it would work
towards scrapping nuclear power by the end of the 2030s.
A vocal section of Japan's public has turned against
atomic power in the aftermath of the disaster at Fukushima, where
reactors were sent into meltdown after cooling systems were knocked out
by a tsunami.
However, many in the business community say Japan needs nuclear to power its industries.
In a document that was short on specifics, the DPJ
said it would also try to end deflation during fiscal 2014 by working
with the Bank of Japan and promised a "large-scale" extra budget in
early 2013.
It reiterated a desire to deepen Japan's alliance with
the US, and promised to "promote" Japan's involvement in talks on the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, a wide-ranging free trade agreement that is
anathema to the country's cosseted farmers.
The manifesto stands in sharp contrast with the
party's 2009 campaign platform that offered a number of specific
promises, many of which it failed to deliver on.
In 2009 the DPJ promised to build equal ties with the
United States, to scrap highway fees and to stop the construction of a
huge dam, among other pledges.
The party failed to make good on many of them and is
expected to suffer as voters desert it in favour of the main opposition
Liberal Democratic Party or smaller, newly-formed groupings.
"Looking back at the past three years, there are
promises that we were able to keep, and unfortunately there are things
we could not deliver," Noda said.
"With deep apologies to the Japanese people, and lessons learned from our shortcomings, we drafted this," he said
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