Rokkasho (六ヶ所村, Rokkasho-mura) is a village in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 March 2023[update], the village had an estimated population of 9,845 in 4988 households, and a population density of 40 persons per km².[1] The total area of the village is 252.68 square kilometres (97.56 sq mi).
The village has a warm summer Humid Continental Climate characterized by cool short summers and long cold winters with heavy snowfall (Köppen climate classificationDfb) bordering on the rare Oceanic Climate (Cfb). The average annual temperature in Rokkasho is 9.4 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1410 mm with August as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 21.3 °C, and lowest in January, at around -1.5 °C as per the Japan Meteorological Agency.[2]
Climate data for Rokkasho (1991−2020 normals, extremes 1982−present)
Per Japanese census data,[5] the population of Rokkasho has remained relatively stable over the past 70 years.
Historical population
Year
Pop.
±%
1920
5,802
—
1930
6,554
+13.0%
1940
7,977
+21.7%
1950
10,702
+34.2%
1960
13,523
+26.4%
1970
11,749
−13.1%
Year
Pop.
±%
1980
11,104
−5.5%
1990
10,071
−9.3%
2000
11,849
+17.7%
2010
11,095
−6.4%
2020
10,367
−6.6%
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
History
The area around Rokkasho was known for raising horses during the Kamakura period. During the Edo period, it was controlled by the Nanbu clan of Morioka Domain, becoming part of the territories of Shichinohe Domain in the latter half of the Edo period. With the establishment of the modern municipalities system after the start of the Meiji period, on April 1, 1889, the village of Rokkasho was created following the merger of six small hamlets.
Government
Rokkasho has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral village council of 18 members. Rokkasho is part of Kamikita District which contributes four members to the Aomori Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Aomori 2nd district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.
Education
Rokkasho has four public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the village government and one public high school operated by the Aomori Prefectural Board of Education.
Economy
The economy of Rokkasho has traditionally been dependent on agriculture and commercial fishing. From the 1980s onwards, the village has become a center for various energy developments, which now dominate the local economy.[6] Rokkasho's per capita income was $129,676 (1557,8000 Yen $1= 120.13 Yen )[7]
A high level nuclear waste temporary storage and monitoring facility
The Japan Atomic Energy Agency also has multiple facilities at the site like the Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator (LIPAc) devoted to the Fusion Energy Development Programme under the European Union-Japan Broader Approach agreement.
Since the 1970s, local opposition to plans to operate Japan's first large commercial plutonium plant at Rokkasho have focused on the threat of a large-scale release of radioactivity. During the 1990s anti-nuclear groups in Japan released studies showing the risks of routine operation of the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant. The facility in full operation is designed to separate as much as 8 tons of plutonium each year from spent reactor fuel from Japan's domestic nuclear reactors. As of 2006 Japan owned approximately 45 tons of separated plutonium.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]
In May, 2006, an international awareness campaign about the dangers of the Rokkasho reprocessing plant, Stop Rokkasho,[16] was launched by musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. Greenpeace has opposed operation of the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant under a campaign called "Wings of Peace: No more Hiroshima, Nagasaki. Stop Rokkasho",[17] since 2002 and has launched a cyberaction[18] to stop the project.
Rokkasho was a candidate to host the plasma fusion reactorITER, but lost out to Cadarache, France. Rokkasho has been hosting the Helios high-performance supercomputer[19] centre capable of performing complex plasma physics calculations for fusion research, since January 2012.[20]
^"International Exchange". List of Affiliation Partners within Prefectures. Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR). Archived from the original on 22 November 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
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