backward region needed to be developed also became common, and local support
for projects such as NPPs became strong. In this context, Tohoku became the
primary provider of electric power for Tokyo, and the constructions of NPPs in
Fukushima was an extension of this historical trend.
8 (For more studies of
exploitation of the periphery by the center, see Kainuma [22], Takahashi [32],
Kawanishi [25]). With this unequal relationship as a backdrop, a sociotechnical
system and imaginary that isolate NPPs, their workers, and local residents from
urban areas came about, corroborated by narratives of nation-building as a noble
goal.
Fourth, although Japan’s science and technology nationalism preceded World
War II [27], after the defeat marked by the atomic bombs, narratives of nation-(re)
building through science and technology became an even more prominent constitutive element of government policy in various areas. Despite a number of debates
on the relationships between science, technology and society in the 1950s and
1960s, often carried out by preeminent scientists and engineers such as Hideki
Yukawa and Mitsuo Taketani (e.g., [8]), the ideas that science and technology
belong to the elite and experts prevailed and survived multiple challenges,
including pollution diseases and various NPP accidents both at home and abroad.
While this deficit model has been prevalent globally, in Japan it had a particular
elective affinity with the country’s tradition of powerful bureaucratic elite and
enduring scientific nationalism, contributing to the rise of safety myth and nuclear
village and the systematic exclusion of lay voices.
4 Nuclear Imaginaries in Japan: After Fukushima
The 2011 nuclear disaster was a colossal event in Japanese history that has
prompted unprecedented efforts to review and discuss what happened, how and
why, as well as where we should go as society. Issues of nuclear power, long
marginalized and depoliticized, have come into the spotlight in the Japanese public
discourse. Numerous TV programs, magazine and newspaper articles, blogs, films,
and books have explored a variety of issues, from historical backgrounds of Japan’s
NPPs to causes of the disaster to the effects of radiation on human health to the
energy future of Japan. Furthermore, there have been multiple large-scale efforts to
investigate the accident, while new regulatory framework was introduced (see
Juraku in this volume on post-disaster investigative efforts and their impact).
However, despite these efforts at reflection and momentary openness to change
that followed, much of the older imaginaries remain today, dictating policy and
political debates, as well as the way the public can engage with decision processes.
8
As an effort to unearth the region’s rich culture and history and understand what its reality says
about Japan’s past and present, noted folklorist Norio Akasaka has been advocating
“Tohoku-gaku,” or Tohoku Studies.
202
K. Sato
for projects such as NPPs became strong. In this context, Tohoku became the
primary provider of electric power for Tokyo, and the constructions of NPPs in
Fukushima was an extension of this historical trend.
8 (For more studies of
exploitation of the periphery by the center, see Kainuma [22], Takahashi [32],
Kawanishi [25]). With this unequal relationship as a backdrop, a sociotechnical
system and imaginary that isolate NPPs, their workers, and local residents from
urban areas came about, corroborated by narratives of nation-building as a noble
goal.
Fourth, although Japan’s science and technology nationalism preceded World
War II [27], after the defeat marked by the atomic bombs, narratives of nation-(re)
building through science and technology became an even more prominent constitutive element of government policy in various areas. Despite a number of debates
on the relationships between science, technology and society in the 1950s and
1960s, often carried out by preeminent scientists and engineers such as Hideki
Yukawa and Mitsuo Taketani (e.g., [8]), the ideas that science and technology
belong to the elite and experts prevailed and survived multiple challenges,
including pollution diseases and various NPP accidents both at home and abroad.
While this deficit model has been prevalent globally, in Japan it had a particular
elective affinity with the country’s tradition of powerful bureaucratic elite and
enduring scientific nationalism, contributing to the rise of safety myth and nuclear
village and the systematic exclusion of lay voices.
4 Nuclear Imaginaries in Japan: After Fukushima
The 2011 nuclear disaster was a colossal event in Japanese history that has
prompted unprecedented efforts to review and discuss what happened, how and
why, as well as where we should go as society. Issues of nuclear power, long
marginalized and depoliticized, have come into the spotlight in the Japanese public
discourse. Numerous TV programs, magazine and newspaper articles, blogs, films,
and books have explored a variety of issues, from historical backgrounds of Japan’s
NPPs to causes of the disaster to the effects of radiation on human health to the
energy future of Japan. Furthermore, there have been multiple large-scale efforts to
investigate the accident, while new regulatory framework was introduced (see
Juraku in this volume on post-disaster investigative efforts and their impact).
However, despite these efforts at reflection and momentary openness to change
that followed, much of the older imaginaries remain today, dictating policy and
political debates, as well as the way the public can engage with decision processes.
8
As an effort to unearth the region’s rich culture and history and understand what its reality says
about Japan’s past and present, noted folklorist Norio Akasaka has been advocating
“Tohoku-gaku,” or Tohoku Studies.
202
K. Sato