Rethinking civil society-state relations in Japan after the fukushima accident

Polity

Volumn 45, Issue 2, 2013, Pages 249-264

  Aldrich, Daniel P ^a  

^a PURDUE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

civil society; contentious politics; Fukushima; Japanese politics; nuclear power; public safety

Indexed keywords

EID: 84876789152     PISSN: 00323497     EISSN: 17441684     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1057/pol.2013.2     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (68)

1. National Police Agency of Japan (http://www.npa.go.jp/archive/keibi/biki/ higaijokyo-e.pdf )
2. Yomiuri Shinbun 9 February 2012. Some 2,700 remain missing as of late January, 2013.
3. Fewer than 6 percent of the fatalities after the earthquake were the result of building collapse; the vast majority (92 percent) of known deaths came about because of drowning. See Stephanie Chang, et al. "The March 11, 2011, Great Eastern Japan (Tohoku) Earthquake and Tsunami: Societal Dimensions," Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) Report (17 August 2011).
4. See a photo essay of the 16-mile exclusion zone by Kosuke Okahara at http://lens.blogs. nytimes.com/2012/09/25/fragments-of-fukushima/.
5. Akiko Fujita, "Japan's Nuclear Exclusion Zone Shows Few Signs of Life," ABC News (6 February 2012)
6. Nathalie-Kyoko Stucky, "The Buddha of Fukushima's Forbidden Zone: A Photo Essay," Japan Subculture Research Center (15 January 2012).
7. Daniel P. Aldrich, "Nuclear Power's Future in Japan and Abroad: The Fukushima Accident in Social and Political Perspective," ParisTech Review (25 August 2011).
8. Wall Street Journal (8 February 2012).
9. At the same time, the NRC has voted 4-1 to allow the private utility Southern Co. to construct new plants in Georgia (Reuters, 9 February 2012).
10. Michael Hiltzik, "A Nuclear Renaissance in U.S. was Unlikely Even before Japan Disaster," Los Angeles Times (23 March 2011).
11. Ken'ichi Ikeda and Sean Richey, Social Networks and Japanese Democracy: The Beneficial Impact of Interpersonal Communication in East Asia (London and New York: Routledge, 2011), 59.
12. Daniel P. Aldrich, "The Power of People: Social Capital's Role in Recovery from the 1995 Kobe Earthquake," Natural Hazards 56 (2010): 595-611.
13. Jacques Hymans, "Veto Players, Nuclear Energy, and Nonproliferation," International Security 36 (2011): 154-89.
14. Daniel P Aldrich, Site Fights: Divisive Facilities and Civil Society in Japan and the West (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2008).
15. Eisenhower delivered his first speech promoting the peaceful use of nuclear power in late 1953.
16. Takafumi Yoshida, "Yasuhiro Nakasone: Learn Lessons from Fukushima Crisis and Continue to Promote Nuclear Energy" Asahi Shinbun [Asahi Newspaper] 23 May 2011.
17. Martin Dusinberre and Daniel P Aldrich, "Hatoko Comes Home: Civil Society and Nuclear Power in Japan," Journal of Asian Studies 70 (August 2011): 686-87.
18. MITI, the Ministry for International Trade and Industry (Tsusho sangyo sho), has since 2001 become the Ministry of Economy Trade, and Industry Keizai sangyo sho, or METI.
19. S. Hayden Lesbirel, NIMBY Politics in Japan: Energy Siting and the Management of Environmental Conflict (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999).
20. Nihon Genshiryoku Sangyo Kaigi [Japan Atomic Industrial Forum] (Tokyo: Nihon Genshiryoku Sangyo Kaigi Vol. 14 No. 10): 26.
21. Daniel P Aldrich, "Location, Location, Location: Selecting Sites for Controversial Facilities," Singapore Economic Review 53 (2008): 145-72.
22. Daniel P Aldrich, "The Limits of Flexible and Adaptive Institutions: The Japanese Government's Role in Nuclear Power Plant Siting over the Post War Period," in Managing Conflict in Facility Siting, ed. S. Hayden Lesbirel and Daigee Shaw (London: Edward Elgar Publishers, 2005), 111-36.
23. Koichi Hasegawa, Constructing Civil Society in Japan: Voices of Environmental Movements (Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2004).
24. Martin Fackler and Norimitsu Onishi, "In Japan, a Culture that Promotes Nuclear Dependency," New York Times (30 May 2011).
25. Susan Pharr, "Targeting an Activist State," in The State of Civil Society in Japan, ed. Frank Schwartz and Susan Pharr (London: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 316-36.
26. Keiko Hirata, Civil Society in Japan: The Growing Role of NGOs in Tokyo's Aid Development Policy (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).
27. Richard Colignon and Chikako Usui, Amakudari: The Hidden Fabric of Japan's Economy (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2003).
28. Mindy Kotler and Ian Hillman, "Japanese Energy Security and Changing Global Energy Markets," James Baker Institute for Public Policy (Houston, TX: Center for Energy Studies, Rice University, 2000) http://www.bakerinstitute. org/programs/energy-forum/publications/energy-studies/japaneseenergysecurity. html.
29. Dorothy Nelkin, Nuclear Power and Its Critics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1971).
30. Hugh Gusterson, "How Not to Construct a Radioactive Waste Incinerator," Science, Technology, and Human Values 25 (2000): 332-51.
31. Gabrielle Hecht, The Radiance of France (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009).
32. The CNIC was founded by Jinzaburo Takagi, a nuclear chemist, and remains based in Tokyo.
33. Thomas Birkland, "The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill as Focusing Event: Politics, Policy, and Symbols," Prepared for Presentation at the Meeting of the American Studies Association, Washington DC (October 1997).
34. Hasegawa, Constructing Civil Society in Japan, 136.
35. Matthew Fuhrmann, "Splitting Atoms: Why Do Countries Build Nuclear Power Plants?," International Interactions 38 (2012): 1-28.
36. See Asahi Shinbun [Asahi Newspaper], 28 July 2012.
37. Suvendrini Kakuchi, "Civil Society Gaining Ground Following Quake," Inter-Press Service (21 April 2011).
38. Jeffrey Kluger, "Fear Goes Nuclear," Time Magazine (28 March 2011).
39. The released NRC emails are available at http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ ML1117/ML11175A275.pdf.
40. Kosuke So and Koji Kise, "Volunteers Wanted More than Ever for Disaster Areas," Asahi Shinbun [Asahi Newspaper] 14 July 2011.
41. Based on data available at http://www.saigaivc.com.
42. See Robert Pekkanen, Japan's Dual Civil Society: Members Without Advocates (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006).
43. Frank Schwartz, "What is Civil Society?," in The State of Civil Society in Japan, ed. Schwartz and Pharr, 23-41.
44. http://ccss.jhu.edu/for additional details.
45. Kakuchi, "Civil Society Gaining Ground."
46. Eisuke Sasaki, "METI Protestors Ignore Official Eviction Notice," Asahi Shinbun (28 January 2012).
47. See Bloomberg News (17 July 2012). The organizers have claimed that more than 170,000 people attended, while police estimates put the numbers closer to 80,000.
48. Steve Herman, "Anti-Nuclear Campaign in Japan Moves Forward, Acknowledges Struggles," Voice of America (8 February 2012).
49. Yoko Kubota, "Japan Group Seeks Local Referendum on Nuclear Power," Reuters (14 February 2012), and Mainichi Shinbun (14 February 2012).
50. Reuters (14 February 2012);
51. recent reports in January 2013 say that these referenda have failed to move forward.
52. Aldrich, "Limits of Flexible and Adaptive Institutions." Sixty percent of the voters in Maki-village in Niigata Prefecture voted against nuclear power in their 1996 referendum. The local mayor, using the vote as a guide, granted the remaining land, which was necessary for completion of the siting process, to members of the anti-nuclear group to use as they wish.
53. See http://kokumintohyo.com.
54. George Nishiyama, "Anti-Nuclear Tokyo Mayor Challenges Big Utilities," Wall Street Journal (6 February 2012).
55. Risa Maeda, "Japan Governor Wants Nuclear Safety Pledge in Writing," Reuters (2 February 2012).
56. Reuters (27 February 2012).
57. http://blog.safecast.org.
58. See Japan Times (18 July 2012).
59. Susan Pharr, Losing Face: Status Politics in Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).
60. Susan Tomita, "The Consequences of Belonging: Conflict Management Techniques among Japanese Americans," Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect 9.3 (1998): 41-68.
61. Ben Lewis, "The Legal Aftershocks of Fukushima," The Asian Lawyer (26 January 2012).
62. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v 1/4 rVuGwc9dlhQ for an example of this phenomenon.
63. Associated Press (29 September 2012).
64. Mari Yamaguchi, "Japan Nuke Chief Hints No Restarts Until Next Year," The World (11 October 2012).
65. Asahi Shinbun [Asahi Newspaper], 15 July 2011.
66. New York Times (28 May 2012).
67. Data at http://trust.edelman.com/trusts/path-forward/japan-trust/.
68. Daniel P. Aldrich, Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012).