This article examines the problems associated with the fact that Japanese nuclear power plants have multiple reactors within one plant and are concentrated in specific regions. It analyzes the situation from international, domestic, and local perspectives, revealing features of Japanese state-local relations.

While Onitsuka explains the political elements that created Japan's “abandoned people,” Norimatsu formally introduces the term and links two separate groups of people, each of whom was abandoned in order to pursue a specific government priority. She compares the Fukushima disaster to the ongoing U.S. military occupation of the island of Okinawa. Both of these topics demonstrate tensions in Japan's center-periphery relations, and in both instances, Norimatsu argues that the Japanese government is discriminating against citizens who live in distant regions in order to make life better for those living in the large cities. Specifically, Japan allows the U.S. to maintain military bases on nearly 20 percent of the main island of Okinawa, which many locals resent. The Americans are not always good neighbors. To give three examples: stray bullets have wounded people and damaged property; in 2004 a helicopter crashed into a building at Okinawa International University (luckily no one was injured); and in 1995, three US personnel raped a 12-year- old girl. In the same way, Norimatsu argues, the risk from living near nuclear power plants is unfairly assigned to people living in Japan's rural periphery, only temporarily alleviated by enormous subsidies granted while the plants are under construction.

As explained above, the term “abandoned people” does not refer exclusively to poor citizens living near power plants. The following two articles compare their plight to two other groups of “abandoned people.” This article by Justin Aukema examines atomic-bomb victims, while Christopher Thompson recounts the recent struggles of people affected by the earthquake and tsunami—but not the nuclear disaster—north of Fukushima Prefecture.

This article strives to give a voice to survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake who suffered from the tsunami but not the nuclear disaster; their invisibility makes the case that these survivors are a separate group of Japan's “abandoned people.” They have been poorly represented in discussions on Japan's future energy policy; Thompson uses individual accounts to explain the residents’ “short and long-term needs, the full social, cultural, and economic impact of the tsunami disaster, and the future prospects of the region.”

Greene's article explores more deeply the health dangers facing people exposed to long-term low dosages of radiation, as is inevitable for those near the Fukushima plant. An English professor, Greene developed interested in the health effects of low-level radiation when she authored a biography of the late epidemiologist Alice Stewart, who pioneered research in that field. Greene contends that the global media is downplaying these dangers, and she presents alternate studies that show that exposure to radiation following the Chernobyl disaster caused many medical problems. These extend beyond cancer; every human body system is harmed. She argues the pro-nuclear media in Japan is reluctant to connect Fukushima to Chernobyl because doing so would dampen enthusiasm for building new nuclear plants. The misinformation will exacerbate the dangers for Fukushima residents who may follow their government's lead and conclude that it is medically safe to stay there. Most at risk are fetuses and children, on whom the effects of radiation are much more severe.

This article expands on Greene's thesis, providing more information on the dangers of exposure to low levels of radiation. Mark Selden introduces the transcript of a speech given by Chris Busby, a British chemical physicist known for his research on the negative health effects of low-dose ionizing radiation. While Busby is a controversial figure within scientific circles, his conclusions are deeply disturbing even if they turn out to be overstated. Most alarmingly, Selden explains that Busby's findings in Ukraine show that amounts of radiation that may be acceptable for adults are lethal to children and developing fetuses.

Radiation has long been known to cause cancers such as leukemia, but Busby shows that children exposed to low levels of radiation actually often develop heart disease before any cancers develop. Because one radioactive particle can damage twenty percent of a small heart (lethal because heart tissue repairs itself relatively slowly), Busby recommends that the Japanese immediately evacuate all children near the stricken nuclear complex. Needless to say, this has not happened.

The mercury discharged into the sea by the Chisso factory in Minamata, and the radiation released by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, are not entirely different “accidents,” although one was the result of a “natural disaster” and one not. Minamata offers hints of future developments as Japan attempts to respond to and recover from Fukushima.

Yoneyama analyzes the Fukushima and Minamata tragedies in the context of the “life-world,” a concept coined by OGATA Masato. Ogata is a Minamata fisherman who has written and spoken on philosophical matters, drawing experience from his experience growing up in the wake of Japan's worst pollution disaster. Yoneyama recounts the struggle victims of Minamata disease, including most of Ogata's immediate family, have faced in receiving compensation.