Uranium juniors as far away as Australia have long touted Japan’s expected nuclear re-start as the catalyst for their stock, but the Asian country has been facing delays with Japanese utility TEPCO struggling to deal with a continuous flood of radioactive water four years after the catastrophic tsunami in March 2011.

This latest delay comes as local residents have complained that Kansai and Japan’s National Regulatory Administration had not adequately considered and planned for earthquakes, nor had Kansai developed through evacuation plans, locals charged.

The court wrote that the NRA’s standards for safety “lack rationality,” which analysts fear could send shock waves through the country’s ability to bring back nuclear power, especially with more court rulings looming in the coming weeks, including an April 22 decision on Kyushu Electric Power’s effort to restart its Sendai reactors.

Kansai decided to decommission its Mihama No1 and 2 reactors a month ago due to the high cost of safety upgrades, which points to the magnitude of the task ahead for other utilities to get their reactors up to scratch for a sensitive public, let alone foreign investment.

Operator Japan Atomic Power also decided recently to shelve one of its units permanently, sparking fears that it could all become too hard and other facets of Abe’s electricity generation plan will have to kick in.

Under Abe’s plan, Japan’s plans to increase electricity from its traditional power sources of nuclear, coal and hydroelectricity from 40% of the existing power mix to 60% by 2030 are expected to be finalised in the near future.

While there was official confirmation last week that cesium-134 and cesium-137 isotope radiation from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster had been detected on the coast of Canada’s British Columbia, environmental groups appear to be opposed about plans to ramp up coal-fired power.

Japanese environmental groups claim that up to 43 coal power plants were on the drawing board or already under construction, which ran counter to the country’s efforts to tackle climate change.

Japan’s definition of what constitutes “fighting climate change”, however, has been the subject of some angst as it has been funnelling $US1 billion ($A1.28 billion) earmarked for climate finance for plants in Indonesia alone – and more on the way in India and Bangladesh.