Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-c9gpj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T00:22:21.800Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Normal Accident or a Sea-Change? Nuclear Host Communities Respond to the 3/11 Disaster

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2013

DANIEL P. ALDRICH
DANIEL P. ALDRICH*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Political Science at Purdue Universitydaniel.aldrich@gmail.com.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

While 3/11 has altered energy policies around the world, insufficient attention has focused on reactions from local nuclear power plant host communities and their neighbors throughout Japan. Using site visits to such towns, interviews with relevant actors, and secondary and tertiary literature, this article investigates the community crisis management strategies of two types of cities, towns, and villages: those which have nuclear plants directly in their backyards and neighboring cities further away (within a 30 mile radius). Responses to the disaster have varied with distance to nuclear facilities but in a way contrary to the standard theories based on the concept of the ‘distance decay function’. Officials in communities directly proximal to nuclear power plants by and large remain supportive of Japan's nuclear power program, while those in cities and towns at a distance (along with much of the general public) have displayed strong opposition to the pre 3/11 status quo. Using qualitative data, this article underscores how national energy and crisis response policies rest strongly on the political economy, experiences of, and decisions made at the subnational level.

Type
Research Article
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 14 , Special Issue 2: Japan's Crisis Management amid Growing Complexity: In Search of New Approaches , June 2013 , pp. 261 - 276
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aldrich, Daniel P. and Crook, K. (2008), ‘Strong Civil-Society as a Double-Edged Sword: Sitting Trailers in Post-Katrina New Orleans’, Political Research Quarterly, 16 (3): 379–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aldrich, Daniel P. (2010), Site Fights: Divisive Facilities and Civil Society in Japan and the West, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Aldrich, Daniel P. (2011), ‘Nuclear Power's Future in Japan and Abroad: The Fukushima Accident in Social and Political Perspective’, ParisTech Review, 25 August.Google Scholar
Aldrich, Daniel P. (forthcoming), ‘Rethinking Civil Society–State Relations in Japan after 3/11’, Polity.Google Scholar
Ando, Michihito (2012), ‘Estimating the Effects of Nuclear Power Facilities on Local Income Levels: A Quasi-Experimental Approach’, https://editorialexpress.com/cgi-bin/conference/download.cgi?db_name=IIPF68&paper_id=436. Working paper 18 July.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avenell, Simon (2012), ‘From Fearsome Pollution to Fukushima: Environmental Activism and the Nuclear Blind Spot in Contemporary Japan’, Environmental History, 17 (2): 244–76.Google Scholar
Boin, Arjen, McConnell, Allan, and Hart, Paul ’T. (eds.) (2008), Governing after Crisis: The Politics of Investigation, Accountability, and Learning, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, Lee (1999), Mission Improbable: Using Fantasy Documents to Tame Disaster, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dawson, Chester (2011), ‘Living by Reactors, Japanese are Split’, Wall Street Journal, 18 October, p. A11.Google Scholar
Dawson, Chester (2012), ‘Japan's Nuclear Crisis Plan Still Lags’, Wall Street Journal, 19 March.Google Scholar
De Vos, George A. (1992), Social Cohesion and Alienation: Minorities in the United States and Japan, Boulder, CO: West View Press.Google Scholar
DeWit, Andrew and Kaneko, Masaru (2011), ‘Moving out of the “Nuclear Village”,’ Foreign Policy (Special issue on the tsunami).Google Scholar
Dusinberre, Martin and Aldrich, Daniel P. (2011), ‘Hatoko Comes Home: Civil Society and Nuclear Power in Japan’, The Journal of Asian Studies, 70 (3): 1–23.Google Scholar
England, Ashley (2012), ‘Analysis of a Potential Hydrogen Refuelling Network Using Geographic Information Systems: A Case Study of the Kitchener Census Metropolitan Area’, Unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Waterloo.Google Scholar
Erikson, Kai (1991), ‘Radiation's Lingering Dread’, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, March: 34 –39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fackler, Martin and Onishi, Norimitsu (2011), ‘In Japan: A Culture that Promotes Dependency on Nuclear Energy’, New York Times, 1 June.Google Scholar
Fuller, Patrick (2012), Living in the Shadow of Fukushima, Japanese Red Cross Society publication.Google Scholar
Funabashi, Yoichi and Kitazawa, Kay (2012), ‘Lessons from Japan's nuclear accident’, East Asia Forum, 26 March.Google Scholar
Goto, Ryota (2011), ‘Cities at War over Need for Hamaoka Nuke Plant’, Asahi Shinbun, 7 November.Google Scholar
Harris, Richard (2012), Trauma, Not Radiation, Is Key Concern In Japan, NPR, 9 March.Google Scholar
Hasegawa, Koichi (2004), Constructing Civil Society in Japan: Voices of Environmental Movements, Melbourne, Australia: TransPacific Press.Google Scholar
Hindmarsh, Richard (ed.) (forthcoming), Nuclear Disaster at Fukushima-1: Social, Political and Environmental Issues, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hinman, George, Eugene, Rosa, Kleinhesselink, Randall, and Lowinger, Thomas (1993), ‘Perceptions of Nuclear and Other Risks in Japan and the United States’, Risk Analysis, 13: 449–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hymans, Jacques (2011), ‘Nuclear Policy Gridlock in Japan’, Policy brief, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, online November 2011. http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/21586/nuclear_policy_gridlock_in_japan.html.Google Scholar
Jarvis, Edward (1850), ‘The Influence of Distance from and Proximity to an Insane Hospital, on Its Use by any People’, Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 42: 210–213, 216–217.Google Scholar
Johnson, Richard (2012), ‘China Cautious about Building New Nuclear Plants’, In Depth News [IDN] 27 October, www.indepthnews.info/index.php/global-issues/1230-china-cautious-about-building-new-nuclear-plants.Google Scholar
Kai, Erickson (1991), ‘Radiation's Lingering Dread’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 47: 34–39.Google Scholar
Kainuma, Hiroshi (2011), Fukushima-ron: genshiryoku mura wa naze umareta no ka, Tokyo: Seidosha.Google Scholar
Katatae, Yasuo (2012), ‘Interview with Mayor Watanabe’, Diamond Online 15 March, http://diamond.jp/articles/_/16605).Google Scholar
Kingston, Jeff (2012), Natural Disaster and Nuclear Crisis in Japan Response and Recovery after Japan's 3/11, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kirby, Peter Wynn (2011), Troubled Natures: Waste, Environment, Japan, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, Herbert (1986), ‘Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies’, British Journal of Political Science, 16 (1): 57–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kushida, Kenjji (2012), ‘Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: Revisiting the Disaster, Analyzing the Politics, and Recommendations for Restructuring the Power Industry’, Working paper, Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.Google Scholar
Lesbirel, Hayden (1998), NIMBY Politics in Japan, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (NAIIC) (2012), Official Report, http://warp.da.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/3856371/naiic.go.jp/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/NAIIC_report_lo_res10.pdf.Google Scholar
Nichols, Philip (2011), ‘The Psychic Costs of Violating Corruption Laws’, Working paper, http://works.bepress.com/philip_nichols/4.Google Scholar
Onitsuka, Hiroshi (2011), ‘Hooked on Nuclear Power: Japanese State–Local Relations and the Vicious Cycle of Nuclear Dependence’, The Asia-Pacific Journal, 10 (2).Google Scholar
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD NEA) (2012), The Role of Nuclear Energy in a Low-carbon Energy Future, France.Google Scholar
Osnos, Evan (2011), ‘The Fallout’, New Yorker, 17 October, pp. 46–59.Google Scholar
Perrow, Charles (1984), Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Rahu, Mati (2003), ‘Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident: Fears, Rumours and the Truth’, European Journal of Cancer, 39: 295–9.Google Scholar
Ruiz, Francisco and Tanaka, Koji (2001), ‘The Ijime Phenomenon and Japan: Overarching Considerations for Cross-Cultural Studies’, Psychologia: An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient, 44 (2): 128–38.Google Scholar
Sakaki, Alexandra and Lukner, Kerstin (2013), ‘Japan's Crisis Management amid Growing Complexity: In Search of New Approaches’, Journal of Japanese Political Science, 30.Google Scholar
Sieg, Linda and Kubota, Yoko (2012), ‘Japan Assembly Agrees to Restart Reactors, Hurdles Remain’, Reuters, 14 May.Google Scholar
Sjaastad, L. (1962), ‘The Costs and Returns of Human Migration’, Journal of Political Economy, 70: 80–93.Google Scholar
Slovic, Paul, Fischhoff, Baruch, and Lichtenstein, Sarah (1981), ‘Facts and Fears: Societal Perception of Risk’, in Monroe, Kent B. (ed.), Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 8, Ann Abor: Association for Consumer Research, pp. 497–502.Google Scholar
Spegele, Brian (2012), ‘China Mulls New Steps on Nuclear Energy’, Wall Street Journal, 4 June.Google Scholar
Sumihara, Noriya (2003), ‘Flamboyant Representation of Nuclear Power Station Visitor Centres in Japan: Revealing or Concealing, or Concealing by Revealing?’, Journal of the International Centre for Regional Studies (1): 11–29.Google Scholar
Sumikawa, Takuya (2012), ‘Local Heads Form Group to Press for Scrapping Nuclear Reactors’, Asahi Shinbun, 29 April.Google Scholar
Takahashi, Lois (1998), Homelessness, AIDS, and Stigmatization: The NIMBY Syndrome in the United States at the End of the Twentieth Century, New York and London: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, Julia Adeney, Miller, Ian, and Walker, Brett (eds.) (forthcoming), Japan at Nature's Edge: The Environmental Origins of a Global Power, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Tobler, Waldo (1970), ‘A Computer Movie Simulating Urban Growth in the Detroit Region’, Economic Geography, 46 (2): 234–40.Google Scholar
Wallace, Rick (2011), ‘Discrimination Increases Torment of Fukushima’, The Australian, 11 June.Google Scholar
World Energy Council (2012), World Energy Perspective: Nuclear Energy One Year after Fukushima, France: WEC.Google Scholar
Wynne-Edwards, Jeannie (2003), Overcoming Community Opposition to Homelessness Sheltering Projects under the National Homelessness Initiative, Government of Canada.Google Scholar
Yamaguchi, Tomomi (2011), ‘The Kaminoseki Nuclear Power Plant: Community Conflicts and the Future of Japan's Rural Periphery’, The Asia-Pacific Journal, vol. 9, Issue 41, No. 3, 10 October.Google Scholar