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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
Murakami Tatsuya is the former mayor of Tōkaimura or Tōkai village located approximately 75 miles north of Tokyo and 111 miles south of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Tōkaimura is considered the birthplace of nuclear power in Japan since the Japanese government built the first reactor for commercial use there in 1965 in collaboration with British nuclear scientists. As Mr. Murakami reveals below, the Japanese government at the time informed the residents of Tōkaimura only of the building of a nuclear research institute, not a power plant. As time passed, Tōkaimura became heavily dependent on the nuclear industry for its revenue and people’s livelihood.
1 Nakasone Yasuhiro served as Prime Minister of Japan from November 27, 1982 to November 6, 1987.
2 Shōriki Matsutarō was a Japanese journalist and media mogul. Shōriki owned the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest daily newspapers, and founded Japan's first commercial television station, Nippon Television Network Corporation.
3 J-PARC is a high intensity proton accelerator facility. It is a joint project between KEK and JAEA and is located at the Tōkai campus of JAEA. J-PARC aims for the frontier in materials and life sciences, and nuclear and particle physics.
4 Koide Hiroaki is former assistant professor at Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute (KURRI). He has been advocating abandoning all nuclear power for last 40 years and is now a leading voice of the anti-nuclear movement in Japan.
5 This refers to the economic policies advocated by Abe Shinzō A since the December 2012 general election.
6 Futaba is located on the Pacific Ocean coastline of central Fukushima. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, owned by the Tokyo Electric Power Company, is located on the southern border of Futaba in the neighboring town of Ōkuma. The Fukushima nuclear disaster transformed Futaba into a ghost town.
7 Minamata is a city located in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. It is best known for neurological disorder caused by mercury poisoning. The disease was discovered in 1956. The Chisso Corporation's chemical plant was responsible for causing the disease by emitting untreated wastewater into Minamata Bay.
8 Municipal mergers and dissolutions carried out in Japan from 1995-2006. Most of Japan's rural municipalities depend heavily on subsidies from the central government. They are often criticized for spending money for wasteful public enterprises to keep jobs. The central government, which is itself running budget deficits, has a policy of encouraging mergers to make the municipal system more efficient.
9 The guidelines made in 1940 for the construction of the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere.
10 In 1941, the Japanese government made the guidelines for a total war against Britain, Holland, and the US.
11 Article 13. “All of the people shall be respected as individuals. Their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness shall, to the extent that it does not interfere with the public welfare, be the supreme consideration in legislation and in other governmental affairs.”
12 The Association of Citizens against the Special Privileges of the Zainichi is a Japanese political organization that seeks to eliminate perceived privileges extended to foreigners who have been granted Special Foreign Resident status. Its primary target is permanent Korean residents.
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