No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
Indignez-vous! Get angry, resist and fight against the blatant social injustices in our world! Thus Stéphane Hessel, the 93-year old French former Resistance fighter, called on the youth in France, and everywhere else, in his inspirational pamphlet published in France in 2010. It has since been translated into dozens of languages, though not yet into Japanese. Indignation, for Hessel, provided the fundamental motivation for the Resistance movement in Nazi-occupied France, and he finds plenty of reasons for outrage today.
1 Image of ‘ikari’ flags of the Fukushima participants at the Sayonara Gempatsu demonstration on September 19, 2011 – courtesy of this source.
2 Stéphane Hessel (October, 2010), Indignez vous! Montpellier: Indigène editions. The English edition appeared in February 2011; the American edition: Time for Outrage: Indignez vous! was published by Hachette Book Group in September 2011. Worldwide sales of Hessel's pamphlet have topped 3.5 million.
3 Baruch Spinoza (1677), Political Treatise, III, 9.
4 Political Treatise, IV, 1. Emphasis added.
5 Political Treatise, III, 9.
6 See for example Mōri Yoshitaka's thoughts in his article ‘From Shaking Islands: A Nation Divided’ in Cultural Anthropology – Hot Spots: 3.11 Politics in Japan; 2011-07-27 available here - last accessed 2011-09-13. ‘Do not forget’ was also very much the tenor in the speeches by Ochiai Keiko and Mutō Ruiko at the rally on September 19.
7 ‘Demo suru koto de demo suru shakai wo tsukureru desu.‘ Karatani Kōjin speech at Shinjuku Alta, September 11, available on YouTube last accessed 2011-09-13.
8 ‘Atomic village’ – gempatsu mura – refers to the collusion between nuclear power industry, government, regulatory bodies, allied scientists (the so-called goyō-gakusha), and the mass media. The lawyer Utsunomiya considers the jurisdiction (courts and judges) to be part of the ‘atomic village, ‘too.
9 This is one motto of OurPlanet-TV, on which more below.
10 Negri/Hardt (2009), Commonwealth. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, p. 236.
11 Coined by Dan Gillmor, a pioneer of participatory journalism and author of We the Media (2004) and the said Mediactive (2010).
12 For (self-)reflections on the role of new media in the wake of 3.11 see for example the volume Riarutaimu media ga ugokasu shakai edited by Yagi Nobuyo et.al. (Tokyo Shoseki, September 2011) as well as Jiyū Hōdō Kyōkai ga otta 3.11 edited by the Free Press Association of Japan (Fusosha, October 2011).
13 Manuel Castells (1996), The Rise of the Network Society. And (1997), The Power of Identity; both Oxford: Blackwell.
14 Mario Diani (2003), ‘Networks and social movements: A research programme. ‘In Diani and Doug McAdam (eds.), Social movements and networks: Relational approaches to collective action. Oxford University Press, pp. 299-319.
15 Wim van de Donk, Brian D. Loader, Paul G. Nixon and Dieter Rucht (eds.) (2004), Cyberprotest: New Media, citizens and social movements. London and New York: Routledge.
16 Richard Kahn and Douglas Kellner (2004), ‘New media and internet activism: From the ‘Battle of Seattle' to blogging.' In New Media & Society, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 87-95. And (2005), ‘Oppositional Politics and the Internet: A Critical/Reconstructive Approach' reprinted in Leah A. Lievrouw and Sonia Livingstone (2009), New Media, Vol. IV: Social Institutions, Structures, Arrangements. Sage Publications; pp. 270-291.
17 Chris Atton (2004), An Alternative Internet. Columbia University Press.
18 Nick Couldry and James Curran (2003), Contesting Media Power: Alternative Media in a Networked World. Rowman and Littlefield.
19 Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis (2003), WeMedia: How audiences are shaping the future of news and information. Reston, VA: The Media Center at the American Press Institute. Retrieved November 2, 2011: http://www.hypergene.net/wemedia/
20 Victor W. Pickard (2006), ‘United yet autonomous: Indymedia and the struggle to sustain a radical democratic network’ in Media, Culture & Society Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 315-336.
21 Leah A. Lievrouw (2011), Alternative and Activist New Media. Cambridge: Polity Press.
22 Mark Deuze (2006), ‘Participation, Remediation and Bricolage: Considering Principal Components of a Digital Culture’ in The Information Society No. 22, pp. 63-75.
23 Manuel Castells (2009), Communication Power. Oxford University Press, p. 416.
24 Castells (2009), p. 53.
25 Castells (2009), p. 45.
26 Castells (2009), p. 53.
27 Castells (2009), p. 4.
28 Castells (2009), p. 431.
29 Castells (2009), p. 5.
30 Castells (2009), p. 4.
31 D. Leege and K. Wald (2007), ‘Meaning, cultural symbols, and campaign strategies’ quoted in Castells (2009), p. 191.
32 See Ulrich Beck (2009), World at Risk. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 27-9.
33 See, for example, Kodama's contributions on the two-hour program ‘Radiation and food’ on Asahi Newstar of October 1, 2011 (link)
34 Beck (2009), pp. 193-4; emphasis in original. For other important perspectives on the issue of ‘irresponsibility’ in relation to the nuclear disaster see for instance the article by Takahashi Tetsuya, ‘Gempatsu to iu gisei no shisutemu’ [The sacrificing system of nuclear power] in Asahi Journal, no. 5071, 2011-06-05, pp. 10-14; the conversation between Nishitani Osamu and Jean-Pierre Dupuy, ‘“Fukushima” ga aburidasu watashitachi no kyōtsū no mirai’ [Our common future that ‘Fukushima’ has brought to light] in Sekai, no. 821, 9-2011, pp. 70-78.
35 Beck (2009), pp. 30 and 27. At first, however, it was not so much Beck's concept of a global ‘risk society’ that came to my mind, when reflecting upon conversations with anxious parents and angry eco-farmers in Fukushima, but Giorgio Agamben's thoughts, in his Homo Sacer (1998), on how ‘good life’ (in the Aristotelian sense) comes to be stripped ‘bare’ in a state of exception.
36 For a compelling critique of the role of the mass media in the expression of ‘organized irresponsibility’ see Sakai Naoki, ‘“Musekinin no taikei” mitabi’ [‘The system of irresponsibility’ third time round] in Gendai Shisō, vol. 39-7, no. 5, 2011, pp. 26-33.
37 Uesugi Takashi and Ugaya Hiromichi (July 2011), Hōdō saigai ‘gempatsu-hen‘ Tokyo: Gentosha.
38 Among the first to investigate the area around Fukushima Daiichi from March 12/13 were Hirokawa Ryūichi, chief editor of the journal Days Japan, Morizumi Takashi, Toyoda Naomi, Watai Takeharu, all members of the Japan Visual Journalist Association, David McNeill, and Donald Weber. In late March/early April, Jinbō Tetsuo, founder of the influential Videonews.com, and other independent journalists as well as Mizushima Satoru of the right-wing Channel Sakura, followed them. Jinbō Tetsuo's report on his journey into the evacuation zone had close to 1 million views in its YouTube version (I'm grateful to Michael Penn for alerting me to the popularity of this video), considerably more than the earlier OurPlanet-TV report of Morizumi and Toyoda, to which I shall return later.
39 The government launched a costly program to screen and counter-act allegedly false rumours about the ‘Fukushima’ crisis and its consequences on Twitter, Facebook and other social network sites. On this issue, see the statement by Fukushima Mizuho at a diet assembly on July 25, 2011 (link)
40 Lievrouw (2011), p. 19.
41 Lievrouw (2011), p. 23.
42 Lievrouw (2011), p. 22.
43 Lievrouw (2011), p. 147.
44 David Ryfe and Donica Mensing (2008). ‘Participatory journalism and the transformation of news. ‘Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Chicago, August 6. Link last accessed on 2011-10-03. P. 19.
45 Ibid. Ryfe and Mensing draw here on the vision of participatory journalism John Dewey proposed in his famous debate with Walter Lippmann in the 1920s.
46 See Mark Deuze (2006), ‘Participation, Remediation, Bricolage: Considering Principal Components of a Digital Culture. ‘In The Information Society no. 22, pp. 63-75.
47 In recent weeks, screenings of ‘nuclear issue’ related documentary and feature films in Tokyo (but also at the Yamagata film festival or the screenings of Kamanaka Hitomi's films) are solidly sold out, usually oversubscribed. Admittedly, my focus on visual media also derives from my current research project on such ‘Fukushima’ related films and their public reception.
48 CNIC website last accessed on 2011-09-14.
49 The symposium was entitled ‘Media o uramu na, media o tsukure!' – echoing the watchword of Indymedia ‘Don't hate the media – become the media!'
50 Two interesting blogs should be mentioned here: firstly, that of the investigative journalist Kinoshita Kouta (link), the related ‘Radiation Defense Project’ (link) and its very large Facebook group ‘Fukushima Daiichi Gempatsu o kangaemasu.' Secondly, the English-Japanese blog EX-SKF, which offers a wealth of important news, information and interesting comments on the ongoing ‘Fukushima' crisis.
51 For about two months after 3.11, most of the Japanese mass media (both TV channels and the press) just reiterated official statements (in condensed form) without, apparently, ever challenging any of the information they were given by TEPCO or the government or undertaking their own investigations. As the information manipulation became conspicuous, however, some TV production companies (e.g. for NHK ETV) and especially, Tokyo Shimbun and Mainichi Shimbun began to offer critical news and their own investigations. On this issue see also the aforementioned book by Uesugi and Ugaya, as well as the symposia on the subject of ‘gempatsu to media’ organized by the magazine Tsukuru, and published in numbers 7 and 9/10 of the magazine.
52 Though Web Iwakami apparently considered changing over to a subscription channel before 3.11.
53 In the first weeks after 3.11, Nico Nico Dōga, too, live-streamed \ press conferences with Tsuda Daisuke remediating them for Twitter. On request of virtually all big public and private TV stations (including NHK, Fuji TV and TBS), Nico Nico Dōga also streamed on its Internet-based channels the programmes of these stations and apparently reached a record number of viewers, some 15 million people. See Nanao Kō (2011), ‘Higashi Nihon daishinsai to nikoniko namahōsō ‘in Jiyū Hōdō Kyōkai (eds.), Jiyū Hōdō Kyōkai ga otta 3.11, p. 56. Videonews.com also live-streamed some of the press conferences.
54 During the first weeks after the nuclear disaster, TEPCO frequently held its press conferences in the middle of the night, for whatever reasons.
55 Web Iwakami set up the 93 regional channels in time for June 11 and the anti-nuclear protests scheduled for that day, three months after the disasters.
56 Already in June, Iwakami had recruited 200 local volunteers from among his Twitter followers. Iwakami Yasumi (2011), ‘“Jōhō no minshuka” – “Chūkei shimin” ni sasaerareta 3.11 hōdō ‘in Jiyū Hōdō Kyōkai (eds.), Jiyū Hōdō Kyōkai ga otta 3.11, p. 43
57 Manuel Castells (2009), p. 419.
58 Iwakami Yasumi (2011), ‘Sōshal jânarizumu no kanōsei’ in IT Hihyō vol. 2 (May 2011), p. 47.
59 On this issue, see also David McNeill's article ‘The right to peaceful protests’ in The Mainichi Daily News of October 18, 2011, link last accessed 2011-10-22.
60 However, workshops to teach keen citizens live broadcasting, launched in October, might help to improve video quality.
61 See also the iPad installation of the 6.11 demonstrations (link).
62 Jeff Kingston, ‘Ousting Kan Naoto: The Politics of Nuclear Crisis and Renewable Energy in Japan, ‘The Asia-Pacific Journal Vol. 9, Issue 39 No. 5, September 26, 2011.
63 Recently, the efforts of these local groups have won recognition through the increasing interest in Kamanaka Hitomi's documentary films such as Hibakusha, Rokkasho mura rhapsody, and Mitsubachi no haneoto to chikyū no tenkai (aka Ashes to Honey).
64 The Fukushima Network to Save Children from Radiation and its supporters, e.g. Friends of the Earth Japan, Green Action Japan, have been fighting for months for this ‘right to relocate’ and for TEPCO/governmental ‘evacuation compensation,' but the government continues to drag its heels on this urgent issue. The definition of ‘hinan no kenri' is based on evacuation rights and levels of irradiation of areas around the Chernobyl NPP. For a concise overview of the issues see Green Action Japan's blog. Moreover, extensive documentation can be found on the Friends of the Earth Japan ‘hinan no kenri' weblog.
65 Spinoza (1676), Ethics, II/157 P22. Emphasis added.
66 Range of hits as of November 19, 2011.
67 Castells (2009), p. 414.
68 OPT, IWJ and other independent media have been campaigning for years to be given ‘public access’ channels on public television as well as for equal access to press club conferences.
69 The 20 km zone was declared a no-go area only on April 22!
70 See for instance, Hirokawa Ryūichi (2011), Fukushima: gempatsu to hitobito. Iwanami Shoten, pp. 123-177; Sotooka Hidetoshi (2011), ‘Fukushima: Fuan no chi o aruku’ in Sekai vol. 9, no. 821, pp.172-182; and in particular, the interview with Nakate Seiichi, the founder of the Fukushima Kodomo o mamoru network on OPT (link) And, of course, Iwakami's new interview program mentioned earlier, ‘A hundred people, a hundred stories’ on IWJ Channel 9.
71 In its YouTube version, the program had over 60,000 views as of November 19, 2011.
72 See for instance the stories of children's irradiation symptoms on the aforementioned blog by Kinoshita, or this hair-raising video of a parliament session on September 29 (link) – an abbreviated version with English subtitles can be found here. As the EX-SKF blogger says, ‘watch it at your own risk! ‘… followed by another similar story (link).
73 Web Iwakami broadcast this meeting as well as the subsequent press conference the children gave in their entirety, parts of which can be found on YouTube and have been subtitled.
74 In its YouTube incarnation, this interview had 22,300 hits.
75 OPT also broadcast live Yamashita's presentation and Q&Q session in Nihonmatsu (For the latter with English subtitles see this link). Well known is also the following YouTube video with excerpts from Yamashita's talks (with English subtitles).
76 A SEED-TV stands for Action for solidarity, equality, environment and development.
77 A Google search with the specific title of the program gives 214,000 results, though many of those are redundant duplicates.
78 Richard Kahn and Douglas Kellner (2009), ‘Oppositional Politics and the Internet: A Critical/Reconstructive Approach’ in Leah A. Lievrouw & Sonia Livingstone (eds.), New Media – Vol. IV: Social Institutions, Structures, Arrangements. London: Sage Publications, p. 274; emphasis added.
79 Kahn/Kellner (2009), p. 282.
80 See the ‘about’ column on tokyobrowntabby's YouTube page.
81 French version: Link
82 German version: Link
83 For example, the following ZDF program which received 144.317 views in its Japanese version; or this WDR (ARD) program which received almost 70.000 views in its Japanese version.
84 See Lieuvrouw (2011), p. 174-176.
85 Castells (2009), p. 340; emphasis added.
86 Lieuvrouw (2011), p. 161.
You have
Access
Open access