As a resource poor country, Japan needs to import 84% of its energy requirements. In 2010, Japan generated 1,080 billion kWh gross - with 27% from coal, 27% from gas, 27% from nuclear, 9% from oil and 7% from hydro. Following the March 2011 Fukushima meltdown disaster, 70% of Japanese citizens in 2012 want nuclear power to be reduced and 80% disapprove of the Government's handling of the Fukushima crisis. Business interests emphasize the inexpensive cost of nuclear generated electricity compared to other sources - in terms of the 859.7 billion kWh of electrictiy consumed in Japan in 2010, nuclear generated electricity was 1.06 times cheaper than coal; 12 times cheaper than LNG; and 40 times cheaper than oil. Such arguments, however, are wearing very thin in the public mind. Some 20,000 protestors gathered outside the Diet Building on 29 July 2012 to insist on ending all nuclear energy. Feeling was so high that the protestors broke through police barriers in political demonstrations the nature of which have not been seen since the 1960s. Japan presently has the capability to generate 222 GW of electricity from wind turbines; 70 GW from geothermal plants; 26.5 GW from additional hydro capacity; and 4.8 GW from solar energy - a potential total of 323.3 GW or 115% of Japan's 2010 energy usage. In 2010, Japan generated 282 GW of total installed electricity; the third highest level of consumption in the world behind only the United States and the People's Republic of China
