“Kisha (reporter) Clubs” are a much-discussed and controversial part of Japan's media environment. Laurie Anne Freeman's Closing the Shop: Information Cartels and Japan's Mass Media argues that these groups, which organize press access to officials in government, police and other areas of Japanese public life, limit contact to a core of “approved” journalists from Japan's big media organs, effectively cutting off freelancers and foreign journalists and freezing out anyone deemed too critical. Since the March 11, 2011 disasters, several of Japan's major newspapers, notably the Mainichi and Tokyo Shimbun, have provided critical reportage on TEPCO and government silences and irresponsibility. Freelancers, as outlined in a May 23 press release from Reporters Without Borders, however, have been denied adequate access and another potential avenue for critical examination of the government and TEPCO response to the nuclear disaster has been cut off. The Paris-based international organization is dedicated to defend freedom of the press, journalists and netizens world wide.

Japan's Mainichi Shimbun recently described Japan's nuclear industry and regulatory organs as a “black box” – an apparatus with visible inputs and outputs but no way to see its inner workings. A recent series of reports from the Mainichi and Asahi, which, together with the Tokyo Shimbun have leveled the sharpest mainstream media criticisms of TEPCO and the Japanese government, describe a climate of secrecy and collusion that reveals the continued power of Japan's “nuclear village”. The five articles reproduced below were published between May 24 and May 26. They reveal a series of “secret” meetings between government officials, nuclear company representatives, and regulators that excluded critics of nuclear power among regulators and at which no minutes were kept. Transparency and collusion have come to the fore as major issues since the 3.11 disasters. In the immediate aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns, it was revealed that regulators, politicians and TEPCO had repeatedly ignored warnings about the plant's general safety and about tsunami resistance specifically. The Mainichi and Asahi reports reveal continued collusion and a lack of transparency as Japan moves toward nuclear restarts. The revelations have thrown the regulatory authorities into confusion and empowered the critics of nuclear power.

Just when it seemed Japanese politics was being pulled back into the hands of the collusive interests who brought us Fukushima, it's thrown up another surprise. The reformists, centred in innovative capital and local government, seem to have found a new, and very promising, avenue to fight against the revanchist old guard that still dominates the central government. On June 10, Iida Tetsunari, the director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies and of Softbank CEO Son Masayoshi's Japan Renewable Energy Federation, announced that he would be a candidate for governor in the July 27 Yamaguchi Prefectural election.

Immigrant groups in the United States routinely build monuments and memorials to commemorate historical traumas in their homelands. Plaques and statues that recall the Nazi destruction of Jewish communities throughout Europe in the middle of the 20th century together with commemorative stones dedicated to Ireland's 1972 Bloody Sunday are as American as California rolls (to name but two examples). Collectively, these monuments mark a particular group's ascendant political power, which, by American definition, comes about through economic success. Moreover, such testimonials weave a common narrative that binds people of disparate backgrounds within the same group in a diffuse land. The history involved is as much about the present as the past.

Greenpeace has released a report Toxic Assets: Nuclear Assets in the 21st Century, which presents evidence on the costs of nuclear accidents from the point of view of risk to investors. Greenpeace is not following the capital because of any corporate attachment. The report counters the common post-Fukushima argument that nuclear power is both inexpensive for consumers and a good investment for investors. The “cheap nuclear” mantra, they argue, fails to take into account the fact that nuclear plants can break a company and pass huge liabilities on to taxpayers. According to this report, nuclear seems represents everything wrong with contemporary capitalism – private companies reap profits while the public underwrites tremendous and obvious risks while concerns about sustainability are muted to assure short-term profits. The Japan Center for Economic Research places the likely Fukushima clean-up total at between 72 and 250 billion $US. This is at least several times the company's market value before the Fukushima disaster, an indication that the massive risks tied up with nuclear power are simply not being factored in to market valuations, which reflect estimates of future profitability.

Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor Nakazawa Keiji's manga Barefoot Gen (1973-1985) is widely regarded as one of the most powerful Japanese works about the Asia-Pacific War. In the decades since it was published, the series has sold millions of copies, been adapted into animated and live action films, and has been used as a part of peace education initiatives in Japanese schools and at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which is currently holding an exhibition of Nakazawa's original artwork.

Introduction: In recent years controversy has centered on China's advance, both geopolitically and economically, in the South China Sea, East China sea, and in Africa. Here Andre Vltchek provides a look at another Chinese “export” as virtuoso pianist Yuan Sheng brings his music to the slums of Kenya and poses this question: can Africa follow in the footsteps of Venezuela and Brazil in using music as a way out of poverty for some of its youth? APJ.

Since the Fukushima Daiichi crisis, Tokyo and other major cities have been the sites of anti-nuclear demonstrations on a scale beyond any mass protests seen in mainland Japan since the “season of politics” of the 1960s and 1970s. Specifying “mainland Japan” is necessary, however, as Okinawa Prefecture, the southern islands occupied by the United States as a military colony between 1945 and 1972, and host to 25% of the total US military facilities in Japan despite making up only 0.6% of the country's land area in the decades since, has repeatedly seen huge rallies against this unjust burden. The largest protest movement to date was sparked by the rape and brutalization of a 14 year old girl by three American servicemen in 1995. Today, protests against the deployment of the V-22 Osprey aircraft to Okinawa are beginning to rival the earlier movement in scope.

The Ospreys have arrived. On October 1- 2, 9 of the MV-22 Osprey vertical take-off and landing aircraft were deployed to Futenma. Locals argue that the aircraft, which has a dubious safety record that has earned it the ominous nickname “The Widow Maker”, is an unacceptable crash risk that threatens the civilian population and natural environment.

If you visit the Alice Pavillion at the Shika nuclear power plant in the town of Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture, you will be happily entertained by Prof. Aomushi (Blue Caterpillar), who, water pipe in mouth, sits in the sun and, together with Alice, “teaches you about radiation.”

In September 1995, the Okinawan problem in its present acute form originated from the rape of a 12-year old school girl by three US servicemen. The prefecture galvanised in fury and elicited a pledge the following year from the two national governments that Futenma Marine Air Station would indeed be returned “within five to seven years.” Sixteen years on, there is no sign whatever of that happening; instead Futenma's runways are reinforced, the base's military functions upgraded, and plans for a new (“substitute”) base in the north, at Henoko, are pressed forward in the face of islandwide opposition.

A new TV documentary reveals the toxic legacy of military defoliants on America's “Keystone of the Pacific”

On May 15 2012, Ryukyu Asahi Broadcasting aired a primetime TV documentary to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Okinawa's reversion to Japanese control. Titled “Defoliated Island - Agent Orange, Okinawa and the Vietnam War,” the program featured 7 U.S. service members who were exposed to military defoliants on the island during the 1960s and early ‘70s. As well as these accounts, it showed interviews with Okinawan civilians worried that they, too, have been affected by these dioxin-tainted herbicides which continue to sicken millions of people in Vietnam today.

This article brings together three Counterpoint columns published in The Japan Times on December 2, 9 and 23 and slightly edited here. Novelist, playwright, film director and translator Roger Pulvers provides a personal tour of Japan's disastrous experiment with nuclear power, compares the consequences of the Fukushima and Chernobyl disasters, and charts the uncertain future of Japan's nuclear industry. While the first two articles appeared prior to Japan's election, the victorious LDP leader Abe Shinzo has made plain his administration's determination to restart many of Japan's closed power plants in the face of public opinion polls revealing widespread opposition to the restarts, and scientific evidence of the high risk of restarts in earthquake-sensitive regions. Abe said on TV Asahi on December 23, “It is not yet clear what caused the Fukushima Daiichi accident.” He added, “We will go ahead [with the reactor restarts] with the people [regulators and scientists] that we already have.” His “people” appear to omit the strong Japanese majority that public opinion polls reveal are opposed to restarts. Abe appears poised to push forward with the status quo of ineffective regulation, business cronyism, and hand-picked subservient experts described below.

In the summer of 2007 I went to Hagi, northern Yamaguchi prefecture, to take part in a revolution. Well, not a revolution per se—but a revolutionary summer school.

I'd like to start with a big question: “can the media overcome nationalism?” I ask this because the words “national interest” have been used both casually and often in communicating everyday information. The Japanese media seemingly lack awareness that these words are used contiguously with the words “conservative swing”. What I'd like to know is the proportion of Japanese who felt angry versus those who remained calm when Korean president Lee Myung-bak visited Takeshima (Dokdo), and how that number changed when people learned that the reason for his visit was to pressure the Japanese government to take responsibility for the comfort women of the former Japanese military. But the Japanese media are uninterested in such things. As I write this, what is on my mind is the capacity (or lack thereof) of Abe Shinzo, who has been re-elected as LDP leader, to make political judgements. In the LDP's draft election pledges, the party proposed to create an official “Takeshima Day” and to continue to object to “unreasonable viewpoints” regarding comfort women issues. Abe is also calling for a revision of the Constitution and proposing the establishment of “national defense forces.” Can such a person provide an answer to such complex territorial issues and historical awareness? The editorial of Chosun Ilbo on 22nd November asked: “How can Abe meet with leaders of South Korea and China as Prime Minister, based on this election pledge?”

On December 16, 2012 the Abe Shinzo-led Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) trounced Noda Yoshihiko's governing Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in elections for the Lower House (House of Representatives) of the Japanese Diet. The landslide victory, delivering Abe (and his coalition partner, New Komeito) 325 of the seats in the 480 member House of Representatives (294 LDP plus 31 New Kometo), opened the way to the second Abe cabinet (following the Abe government of 2006-7). It was remarkable in several ways.

Nakazawa Keiji, atomic bomb survivor, peace activist, and creator of the famed Hiroshimathemed manga Barefoot Gen passed away on December 19, 2012 after a long struggle with cancer. He was 73. Asia-Pacific Journal Coordinators Yuki Tanaka and Satoko Norimatsu offer their memories of Nakazawa and thoughts on his life and work.

Atomic bomb survivor, manga artist, and peace activist Nakazawa Keiji, the author of the influential manga Barefoot Gen which is famous for its harrowing depiction of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the struggle for survival in the aftermath, died after a struggle with cancer on December 19, 2012. Shortly before his death, Nakazawa finished a book entitled Watashi no Isho (My Last Will and Testament). The following is a translation of the conclusion of the work entitled “My Final Wish”.

“Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21” is a NGO formed in 1998 to resist historical revisionism and fight the removal of material critical of Japan's war record from textbooks.

What war memorial date does December call to mind? To many in Japan, it is probably December 8, the day the Asia-Pacific War began. But there is another date not to be forgotten, particularly this winter. December 13, 2012 was the 75th anniversary of the capture of Nanjing by the Japanese Imperial Army in 1937. It was a day when the Japanese nation was carried away with a sense of victory, with lantern parades being held across the nation. Meanwhile, in Nanjing, one of the cruelest series of atrocities in history was taking place – the Nanjing Massacre. The gruesome series of crimes – mass executions of Chinese POWs; murders of ordinary citizens who were alleged to be disarmed soldiers or soldiers wearing civilian clothing; murders of local residents, men and women, young and old, within the city and neighbouring villages; rape and murder of women, young and old; looting and arson – continued beyond mid-February of 1938 when the battle of Nanjing ended, and only came to an end around the time when the Reformed Government of the Republic of China under Japanese hegemony was established at the end of March, 1938.