Fukushima before Nuclear Power: Developmentalism, Substates, and the Landscape of Energy Extraction in Japan

This article offers an analysis of modern energy development in Fukushima, where the twenty-first century’s first major nuclear accident occurred in 2011. Challenging the dominant narrative of state-led energy development, the article foregrounds the interplay between national energy projects and subnational interest groups, including local politicians, entrepreneurs, and local fuel producers whose developmental visions often competed with those of the central government. By adopting an envirotechnical perspective, it also demonstrates how the sequence of past energy development projects, from wood fuel harvesting, charcoal production, and coal mining to hydropower dam construction, formed a landscape of extraction so as to enable energy export to Tokyo and ultimately paved the way for Fukushima’s nuclear power infrastructure, which was originally developed to compensate for the decline of the preexisting fuel industry.