It is always sad to see a country not learn from the mistakes of the past. Japan sits firmly within the Pacific Ring of Fire which is highly susceptible to earthquakes and resulting Tsunami’s.
Nuclear Reactors by their nature require large amounts of water for cooling, so are mostly built near the ocean, as we have seen with Fukushima which leaves them vulnerable to the devastation of a Tsunami.
Now, it is worth noting, that I am not totally against Nuclear Energy, it has its use in medical treatment, and I believe it will one day prove to be an invaluable resource in terms of space exploration. I do not think it is bad, but nuclear reactors are dangerous and the spent radioactive waste is extremely lethal. I think it is a shame that it is used, before all other renewable energy sources have been exhausted.
Now I understand that Japan is a relatively small country in terms of land mass, which may present some problems with clean renewable energies, but I really think they need to fast track their solar, wind and tidal wave technologies to reduce their reliance on nuclear energy.
The timeline on this BBC article, indicates that Japan has been nuclear power free from May to September 2012 (approximately 4 months) and also from September 2013 to present, which is more than a year, so it can be done.
There are companies with very large amounts of money invested in these nuclear power plants and they will lobby government to restart them. The only ones who can stop it from happening is the Japanese people.