Japan is the only country to have suffered a full-scale nuclear attack, and the only country to have suffered massive casualties from radioactive fallout.

It seems odd, then, that it is so addicted to nuclear energy, operating more reactors than any other country after the United States and France.

And it seems especially odd in view of the country's vulnerability to natural disasters like earthquakes.

JAPAN'S NUCLEAR SETBACKS 1999 - Two workers killed in explosion at Tokaimura plant 2003 - 17 Tepco plants shut down over falsified safety records 2004 - Five workers killed by steam from corroded pipe at Mihama 2007 - Damage inflicted on Kashiwazaki plant from earthquake

The real catalyst for the growth of the anti-nuclear movement in Japan has been a string of accidents, safety lapses and cover-ups which have led to a collapse of public confidence in the way the industry is run.

The accident at Tokaimura set off a self-sustaining nuclear reaction

In 1999 two workers were killed and hundreds of homes had to be evacuated after an uncontrolled nuclear reaction took place at the Tokaimura plant north of Tokyo.

It turned out that the workers had been mixing dangerous quantities of uranium in an open tank, in clear defiance of safety regulations. They were Japan's first nuclear casualties since 1945.

Three and a half years later Tepco, Tokyo's electricity provider, had to shut down all 17 of its reactors after admitting it falsified its inspection reports.

And Japan's worst accident at a nuclear facility took place at Mihama, on the west coast, in March 2004, when five workers were killed by scalding steam from a corroded pipe. The pipe had not been inspected for eight years.

After every incident Japan's nuclear operators have promised to improve safety procedures, but only this year all 12 power companies admitted to thousands of irregularities in reporting past problems.

They point out that during the great Hanshin earthquake of 1995, which flattened the city of Kobe and killed more than 6,000 people, none of the nuclear power plants in the area were badly damaged.

But Japan's record suggests that future accidents are more likely to arise from human error than natural disasters.

Opponents of nuclear power also worry that Japan might use its civilian industry as the basis for developing nuclear weapons, in response to the threat from North Korea, although the constitution currently bars such a move.

The urgent need to reduce carbon emissions in the world's second-largest economy will probably eclipse all these concerns, and Japan is certain to continue relying on nuclear power for the foreseeable future.

Its citizens can only pray that it does so with a more entrenched culture of safety than it has shown in the past.