Effect of transparency on changing views regarding nuclear energy before and after Fukushima accident

Using cross-country data, this paper examines the influence of government transparency on changing views regarding nuclear energy before and after Japan’s natural and nuclear disasters of 2011. It was observed that in the majority of countries the rate of favoring nuclear energy declined after the disaster. However, empirical results have shown that this rate is less likely to decrease in a more transparent country, even after a disaster. This implies that views regarding nuclear energy were less elastic to the news of the Fukushima incident when people were more certain about nuclear energy prior to the Fukushima incident.