Japan moves closer to restarting 1st nuclear reactors since tsunami Before the nuclear crisis - a triple-meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant that displaced some 100,000 - Japan was among the world's most nuclear-reliant countries. But its 50 working reactors have steadily come offline because of safety concerns and routine maintenance tests, with authorities in host communities blocking efforts to bring them back online. That resistance, only now, is easing - largely because the government forecasts severe summer energy shortages for some regions if the country remains nuclear-free, as it's been for the last six weeks. Thursday, Ohi Mayor Shinobu Tokioka said he'd accept Tokyo's plan to restart two of the four reactors at the Ohi nuclear power station. For months now, central government officials have said that units 3 and 4 at Ohi should be the first to resume operations, because they've already passed stress tests, computer simulations designed to gauge how they'll respond in emergencies. With the mayor's sign-off, only a series of formalities stand in the way of a restart. The regional governor must give his own consent, and he has already signaled his willingness to do so. Then, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda must give the final approval, something that could happen as early as Saturday, Japanese media said. Noda one week ago told the nation in a televised address that Japan "will not be able to function if there is a decision to permanently halt nuclear power generation." As reactors were shuttered in the wake of the Fukushima accident and Japan drew less power from atomic energy, the resource-poor country imported record amounts of fossil fuels, resulting in a 2011 trade deficit. Noda, in his speech last Friday, noted that Japan depends on the Middle East for 70 percent of its oil, leaving it vulnerable to shocks. "This is not only about summer electricity supply and demand in the short-term," Noda said in arguing for the restart. If our dependency on fossil fuels is increased and electricity prices rise sharply, this would affect retail shops and small- and medium-sized enterprises that are just managing to stay afloat, as well as households. This would accelerate the hollowing out of industry and lead to a loss of places for employment. The Ohi reactors are located in western Japan, just north of the industrial cities of Osaka and Kobe. That region, supplied by the Kansai Electric Power Co., was once the most nuclear-dependent in Japan. Without nuclear power, the government said, Kansai will be 16.3-percent short of peak demand this summer. Despite those forecasts, public wariness about nuclear power has continued to spread. Seventy percent of the Japanese think their country should reduce its reliance on nuclear energy, according to a recent poll from the Pew Research Center. That compares with 44 percent who believed as much in the weeks after the last year's meltdowns.