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Nuclear power's reputation is tarnished though by high profile disasters, where radioactive material has been released into the environment - including in Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986 and Fukushima in Japan, in 2011.

It led to a major accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant along the coast.

When handing down the ruling, presiding judge Keiko Fukushima noted that "targeting a serving prime minister caused significant anxiety to society as a whole."

It comes as the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster from 14 years ago continues to hang over the country, conjuring painful memories.

In March 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake near Japan's north-east coast spawned a tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people, wiping out entire towns and flooding the reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.