Webinar: Anti-Nuclear Movement in the Post-Fukushima Japan: Structures, Mobilization and Framing

The Centre for East Asian Studies (CEAS, UTU) warmly invites you to the following online event:

Abstract: The anti-nuclear movement in Japan after the Asia-Pacific War has been very dynamic, changing its nature and focus with the fluctuations in the domestic and international political opportunities and constrains. From the mid-1950s, after the incident with the fishing vessel Lucky Dragon, the movement evolved from the anti-war, peace and anti-nuclear (hansen, heiwa, hankaku) movement, which focused primarily on abolition of war and nuclear weapons, into the protests against construction of nuclear power plants and lawsuits for damages in the 1970s. In the following decade of the 1980s after the Chernobyl accident, the movement encompassed the calls for abolition of nuclear energy in Japan under the slogan of opposition to the nuclear power plants (han/datsugenpatsu). During the lecture I will analyze the post-Fukushima (new) antinuclear movement in comparison to those previous (old) movements focusing on such issues as: organizational structures, mobilization strategies, repertoire of protests and issue framing. Drawing on the sociological methodology of social movement theory and political studies’ theory of civil society, as well as the results from the field work conducted in Japan in 2013-2014, I will underline the mechanisms of networking forming, what I call “the anti-nuclear ecosystem,” and furthermore, the development of the narrative of the ‘common people’ protest – as key features of the post-Fukushima anti-nuclear movement. Finally, I will comment on the consequences of the movement for the national energy policy and broadly, for society.

Prof. Beata Bochorodycz holds MA in Japanese studies from Adam Mickiewicz University (AMU) in Poznan, Poland, MA in law (political science major) from the Kyushu University in Fukuoka, PhD and habilitated PhD in political science from the Polish Academy of Sciences. She has been teaching modern political and social history of Japan, Japanese politics, and foreign policy with a focus on US-Japan relation and the Okinawa issue. She has been a fellow of the International Rotary Club (1993-1995), the Japanese Ministry of Education (1997-2001), Japan Foundation (2013-2014) and the Fulbright Foundation (2018-2019). She is an author and co-author of several publications on Japan, including Fukushima a społeczeństwo obywatelskie. Japoński ruch denuklearny w perspektywie politologiczno-socjologicznej [Fukushima and civil society: Japanese anti-nuclear movement from the socio-political perspective] (Wydawnictwo UAM, 2018) – to be published in English (2022, Routledge), Japan’s Foreign Policy Making (Springer, 2018, together with Karol Zakowski and Marcin Socha).

The guest lecture is a part of event series celebrating the 15th anniversary of CEAS.

Please write to [email protected] if you would like to join the event. Zoom invitations will be send out to the registered participants.