The Japanese never used to be this awkward. On May 27th the residents of the village of Kariwa on the Japan Sea coast voted in a referendum against the use of MOX, a new type of fuel, in the local nuclear power plant, the world's largest. The village's mayor put the project on hold, at a stroke imperiling Japan's multi billion dollar plans to use plutonium in as many as 18 of the country's 51 nuclear reactors.