The Monju accident triggered a significant shift in Japan’s fast breeder reactor program. After the accident, the JAEC established an ad-hoc "Roundtable Committee on FBR" to develop new policies. Prof. J. Nishizawa of Tohoku University, who was not a fast breeder reactor expert, chaired the committee. The Committee also included experts from outside the nuclear community, including Mr. Yukio Okamoto (ex. Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Prof. Sawako Takeuchi, an economist, and Prof. Hitoshi Yoshioka of Kyushu University, a nuclear critic. Although the Committee confirmed the continuation of fast breeder reactor development, it recommended a more realistic and flexible approach, declaring that the fast breeder reactor should be considered as a promising option (rather than the ultimate goal) and suggested "periodic review of R&D programs from the standpoint of technological and economic feasibility."5 It also endorsed a more diversified R&D program to explore technical alternatives to existing fast breeder reactor technologies.

Following this report, the JAEC’s Long Term Plan, published in 2000, established a goal "to maintain the technological option of the fast breeder reactor and its associated fuel cycle…in order to prepare for future energy problems," and recommended programs to explore "various alternatives to currently developed sodium-type fast breeder reactor and PUREX (wet) reprocessing technology."6