The vote, which is not legally binding, will be held on Sunday.

"We are asking for more understanding of the MOX fuel plan because it is essential for Japan's energy policy," the message said, adding Japan's nuclear policy remains unchanged under the new government led by popular Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

MOX fuel - a blend of uranium and plutonium recycled from spent nuclear fuel - is a cornerstone of resource-poor Japan's energy policy, which relies on nuclear energy for a third of its power supply.

Anti-nuclear activists said the message highlights policymakers' fears that Japan's nuclear policy, including its plan to use MOX, is being threatened.

"I think there is a fear that Japan's nuclear policy is about to fall apart," said Baku Nishio, an official at anti-nuclear group Citizens Nuclear Information Centre.

He added the public - many of whom are distrustful of the nuclear industry after a series of accidents - was unlikely to change its mind about nuclear power despite the message.

"It blurs the line of where the responsibility for safety lies - is it TEPCO's or is it the government's?" he said.

KARIWA ATTRACTS NUCLEAR DEBATE

Proponents of MOX fuel have been descending on the village in droves this week in an attempt to try to win over the inhabitants.

Hirobumi Kawano, head of the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy, and other trade ministry officials visited Kariwa to attend a public debate with the villagers on the issue on Tuesday.

Yesterday, TEPCO President Nobuya Minami travelled to the village to talk to local inhabitants and hold a news conference.

Kengo Ishiguro, a local anti-nuclear activist, said he believed Tuesday's debate might have helped sway some people who were undecided to vote against the use of MOX.

"I think this was the first time that many of them had heard all the details about nuclear fuel and the unsolved problems related to its use, like what to do with nuclear waste," he said.

"I think the magnitude of the issue struck them, yesterday," he said.

Whatever decision the village's 4,141 eligible voters make, Japan will go ahead with plans to use MOX, a government official told reporters yesterday.

TEPCO has given no specific start date for MOX, which has yet to be used by any commercial plant in Japan.

"Even if (the village) votes against the plan, we do not have the slightest intention of changing our policy," Atsushi Ohi, director general for the electricity and gas department at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), told reporters.

"We have been promoting the plan to use MOX fuel as a very important step for Japan's energy policy." he said.

Anti-nuclear sentiment has been strong after the nation's worst nuclear accident in September 1999 at a uranium processing facility in Tokaimura, 140 km (90 miles) northeast of Tokyo. Two plant workers were killed in the accident.

Distrust of nuclear energy grew further after state-owned British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) falsified data on MOX fuel shipped to Japan's second-largest power utility, Kansai Electric Power Co Inc, in late 1999.