The Great East Japan Earthquake and the nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima of March 11, 2011, resulted in increased public distrust of decision makers and expert advisers. Part of the reason for this increased distrust is the confusion caused by the fact that (a) the decision makers did not sufficiently explain the basis of their decision making and (b) various experts expressed different opinions with regard to safety concerns. The objective of this paper is to introduce an old but new innovative approach, joint fact-finding (JFF), and explore its usefulness in the context of Japan, particularly after Fukushima. It considers what JFF can offer for decision making and its merits and challenges for institutionalization.