“Reconstruction” After Fukushima: Citizen Scientists or Silent Voices?

• In Event: Citizen Science, Law and Policy - I

Abstract

After the Fukushima nuclear accident, the Japanese government has launched all sorts of “reconstruction” (fukkô) policies that aim at normalizing radiation risk. Or as shown by Kimura (2016), these policies tend to individualize risk by a transfer of responsibility. Besides, “resilience” has passed into the discourse of Fukushima’s “post-accidental management”, with the idea that it is time to “turn the page” after a period of shock and disorder (Fassert and Hasegawa forthcoming). I further argue that reconstruction or fukkô has resulted in hesitation for the population to stay or to return to their initial housing place, as well as in social sanction regarding the radiation risk. Through more than one hundred interviews conducted between 2013 and 2017, this paper first shows how the citizens of Fukushima (a broad category that actually include several provinces) have had to develop different strategies to protect themselves from radiations risk in a context of growing restrictions for socio-economical assistance. Second, this paper focuses on two civil actions that question the reconstruction policies: a meeting held in October 2016 at the House of Councilors in Tokyo; and a class action against Tepco and the Japanese government. These public actions raise public criticism and provide expertise on technical issues such as radiation protection. However, in the intimacy, these actions do not necessarily help to cope with the uncertainties on radiation risk and the pressure of precarious living conditions. These tensions are expressed through “silent voices” (the title of a documentary film by Sato and Rue 2016).

Author

• Rina Kojima, Laboratoire Techniques, Territoires et Sociétés