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CellBioGuy comments on Open Thread April 16 - April 22, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Japan and Germany are interesting cases, both for the same reason: rich nations with little or declining fossil fuels. Germany's buildout of nuclear power corresponds to the timing of the beginning of the decline in the production of high-quality coal in that country, and Japan has no fossil fuels of its own so nuclear was far more competitive. With plentiful fossil fuels around nobody does nuclear since it's harder, though even the nations which use nuclear invariably have quite a lot of fossil fuel use which I would wager 'subsidizes' it.
What do you mean by "competitive"? Shipping coal adds very little to its cost, so the economic calculation is hardly different for countries that have it and countries that don't. Perhaps national governments view domestic industries very differently than economists, but you haven't said how to take this into account. I think Japan explicitly invoked "self-sufficiency" in its decision, perhaps meaning concerns about wartime.