Your main leader on Japan’s earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent troubles with the nuclear complex at Fukushima is exemplary in its measured summary followed by wise advice (“The Fallout,” March 19, 2011). As you argue, its dysfunctional political system, which contributes to the misinformation about the goings-on in the nuclear complex, may change in uncharted ways, but a call for democratic institutions may follow the disaster. Japan would be better served, at any rate. Indeed, democracies are better at providing nuclear safety. Moreover, “democracies would be wrong to turn their back on nuclear power.” Accidents will happen, but they can be mitigated by greater accountability and transparency. It can thus be hoped that Japan’s handling of the disaster will have an impact on China, as well, where twenty-seven reactors are being built at the moment, and where fifty more are on the drawing board. Although the country is also investing in gas and wind power, its thirst for energy cannot be quelled by such alternatives. And this is true in a number of emerging economies, where democratic institutions are still wanting. Nuclear power and democracy go hand in hand. That is the lesson of Fukushima.