From Fearsome Pollution to Fukushima

Environmental Activism and the Nuclear Blind Spot in Contemporary Japan

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12450952
AutoresSimon Avenell (Japanese Circulation Society, autor correspondente)
Ano2012
Volume17
Fascículo2
Páginas244-276
Data de publicação2012-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEnvironmental History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1084-5453 • E-ISSN: 1930-8892
EditoraUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1093/envhis/emr154
OpenAlexW1987969416
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas26
Referências citadas2

On September 19, 2011, sixty thousand people gathered in Tokyo to protest against nuclear power and radiation pollution after reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Their protest evoked memories of the 1960s when Japan was among the most polluted locations on the planet with hazardous levels of air, water, and ground contamination. Observers at the time described the country as a polluters' paradise and advised tourists to pack a gas mask. By the early 1970s, however, the Japanese had addressed many their thorniest pollution problems and the country possessed some of the strictest regulatory standards in the world. In this article I analyze the activities of an influential group of natural and social scientists, the Pollution Research Committee, which spearheaded the struggle against pollution. I make two claims. First, on the positive side, the committee played a decisive role in Japan's pollution turnaround through its field research, pollution victim advocacy, and extensive international activities. But, second, the reactive victim-centered environmental agenda of the committee and other contemporary groups never developed into a preventive movement capable of identifying and scrutinizing potential forms of pollution such as radiation. The result was a nuclear blind spot in Japanese environmental activism only made visible with the Fukushima disaster of 2011

Environmental planning · Environmental pollution · Environmental protection · Geography · Nuclear power · Political science · Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies · Risk Perception and Management · Pollution