Roughly 50 ruling LDP lawmakers call for end to nuclear power

Roughly 50 lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, or more than 10 percent of the party's members in parliament, have called for an end to nuclear power generation in Japan in the future, a senior party member said Friday.

Just four lawmakers were in favor of building new nuclear power plants in a survey of 407 LDP members in both chambers, with responses obtained from about 320.

Among the lawmakers who responded, more than 80 percent called for making use of renewable energy while maintaining nuclear plants to supply electricity to the country.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who heads the LDP, has criticized those advocating an end to nuclear power generation as "irresponsible," while expressing his readiness to reduce the country's reliance on nuclear power.

The senior party member who revealed the results of the internal survey said those calling for an end to nuclear power have a "larger than expected" presence in the party.

The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, the powerful trade group for the nation's power utilities, had lobbied LDP lawmakers to support new nuclear power plant construction in connection with the survey, sources close to the matter said Friday.

In a leaflet distributed to LDP lawmakers, the federation provided model answers to questions in the survey, the sources said, evidence of lobbying by the industry to maintain nuclear power generation in Japan.