Noriko Manabe on Antinuclear Music

A fresh article from Princeton-based Japanese ethnomusicologist Noriko Manabe, who here describes the No Nukes 2012 concert hosted by Ryuichi Sakamoto.  There are some snippets in there about artists' careers being destroyed because they have spoken out against nuclear energy, which are shocking for me even knowing what I know about just how controlled and corrupt the Japanese entertainment industry is.

Was Fukushima Caused by "Japanese Culture"?

The official Diet-commissioned report on the Fukushima disaster was released about a week or so, and a fascinating catch was made by one Richard Katz on the Social Science Japan mailing list. The report is mostly a very specific account of communication failures and lapses in responsibility, but it seems that the English-language version of the report's executive summary lades on some generalizations condemning the root cause of the disaster as Japanese culture itself:

"[The disaster's] fundamental causes are to be found in the ingrained conventions of Japanese culture: our reflexive obedience;  our reluctance to question authority; our devotion to 'sticking with the program'; our groupism; and our insularity."

Katz and others have focused on the discrepancy between the English and Japanese versions of the report, with the reasonable assumption that the English version is specifically conceived as playing to foreign expectations.  But I'm more interested in the fundamental questions raised by the mere idea: how do these claims seem to define "Japanese culture," its limits and boundaries relative to other spheres of culture, and the way culture affects individual behavior?  The points made above seem focused on very local interpersonal behavior, relative to, say, a boss.  This is an important distinction from, for example, 'culture' in the more mediated sense, where it may be more difficult to make an argument for any such thing as a uniquely Japanese culture in an era of globalization.

Relevant sources at:

Asahi Shimbun
National Diet of Japan
Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford

Post-Fukushima Japan: Civil Society Rising

A quick writeup here from Daniel P. Aldritch, which is light on specifics but with a good overview of recent substantial shifts in the role of civil society in Japan.  For decades, sociologists and political scientists mourned the seeming near-absence of a civil society in Japan, but that has, at least for the moment, all changed.

Photo Roundup: Nikko

Late last week I took a quick trip to Nikko, famous for its monkeys, hot springs, and an ornate shrine to the Tokugawa Shogunate.



The monkey thing is real.  Unfortunately it seems like contact with humans has not been great for their dispositions - just moments after I took this photo, these monkeys were aggressively harassing and chasing a woman in her sixties.  Hard to imagine anything more terrifying.

5.7 Anti-Nuclear Demo: A Simplistic Message Fuels a Profound Event

I've already waited too long to set down some version of my very intense experience at Saturday's anti-nuclear rally.  The numbers coming back from news organizations paint it as a bit of a disappointment - partly due to rain, partly due to a major victory handed to activists by PM Kan just the day before, in the form of the ordered shutdown of a reactor in central Japan.  Speaking strictly for myself, I think the core message of the demo - "No Nukes!" - is almost childishly simple, perhaps distracting from the really constructive project of promoting renewable energy, not to mention the more profound and radical possibilities for overhauling industrial capitalism (perish the thought).

All that aside, this was a transformative event.  I came to it as someone who has attended a lot of marches put on by the central organizers of this demo, Shirouto no Ran.  They frequently have demo/parties on May Day and generally are interested in poverty issues - but always with a slightly confrontational edge, including a profusion of absurdism and rnoisy music, which helped these marches palpably alienate passersby.  This one was different.



All along the route, there were both people who seem to have broken off from the march (as seen here), and those who just happened to be passing by, saw what was happening, and smiled, waved, or in some cases started cheering along. The energy was amazing.

Another great thing was how wide a spectrum of people was represented, from kids to older folks, and not just fringe or freaky people. Many of these people had never participated in this sort of demonstration before.





This is a huge contrast with the regular Shirouto no Ran demo, which is made up largely of punk rockers, dadaists, and other weirdos (not that there weren't some of those here).



I suddenly found myself with a new appreciation for all those slightly alienated May Day marches, whose effectiveness I've always been pretty skeptical of. They were dress rehearsals for this - an issue powerful enough to draw in people, who just need experienced organizers to give them an outlet for their anxiety and anger.

The Situation: Ishinomaki and Touhoku Relief

I've just gotten back from a week doing cleanup and recovery work in Ishinomaki, a mid-size coastal city in the Touhoku area, north of Sendai.  It will take some time to process the experience, so the following notes will be fragmentary, but the most obvious thing I learned is very simple - while financial contributions are vital, what Ishinomaki and cities like it are most badly in need of is boots on the ground.  After the tsunami deposited thousands of tons of (probably toxic) mud throughout even the buildings it left standing, the amount of labor required to get even the relatively undamaged part of the city back to a state of usability is mind-boggling - and this is just one city out of dozens or hundreds so affected.  Peace Boat is currently the only NPO accepting international volunteers in the affected areas, so if you can spare a week and have a tolerance for camping and hard labor, please contact them.

The Peace Boat deployment center is currently located on the campus of Ishinomaki Senshuu Daigaku (Ishinomaki Professional University).  Conditions were cold early in the week, but they're warming up day by day and were fairly comfortable by the time we left.

This is what the upper part of Ishinomaki looks like three weeks after the Tsunami.  The roads are cleared, but there is still debris everywhere.  The wave entered every building, destroying furniture and fixtures and saturating every first-floor shop and residence with mud.

Information on Volunteering in Sendai with Peace Boat

I just got back from a meeting of the Peace Boat N.P.O. here in Tokyo. Starting this Friday and continuing for some time after that, they'll be sending groups of volunteers for week-long stints aiding in distribution of food and supplies to refugees in the Sendai area. If you read Japanese, a great deal of information is available at http://volunteer.n-da.jp/.

This post is intended to provide a quick outline of this opportunity to help out. First it should be said that you might not be a good candidate if you a) can't speak at least passable intermediate Japanese and b) don't have considerable experience with camping or otherwise roughing it under extreme conditions. If after reading this you think you would be able to help, there will be a further orientation at the Peace Boat HQ in Takadanobaba on the 29^th. The time hasn't been decided, but I'll update people via the Tokyo Quake Cleanup group and my twitter. The group going this Friday will be too soon for most people, in part because of the preparation needed.

The Peace Boat volunteer coordinators made it clear that conditions are pretty extreme. People, including rescue and relief workers, are living in cars and in the second floors of buildings whose first floor collapsed. Peace Boat volunteers are camping outdoors, on the grounds of an elementary school. It's also still very cold in Sendai, making this situation even tougher. Because of the difficulty of the conditions, as well as the possibly traumatic nature of seeing what's going on up-close, they're limiting most volunteers to one-week rotations, although they will be encouraging those able to go more than once. There is plenty of work to do in Tokyo for those who can't make it to the North, such as collecting donations and sorting and packaging relief goods (I gather most of the groups of young, cheerful kids collecting donations around Tokyo starting last week are Peace Boat affiliated).

Because there are still basically no services to the north (no power, very little petrol), anyone interested in helping needs to be able to be totally self-supporting for a week at a time. The last thing anyone needs are volunteers who themselves need help. (The one exception was water, which it seemed is supplied – but only a moderate amount for drinking). This is not a complete list, but you will need to have:

-Your own tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping mat (Obviously, groups can share)

-Heavy-duty footwear (Trekking shoes or boots) and multiple changes of clothes appropriate to the conditions (i.e. cold and dirty).

-Eyeglasses, Goggles, or Sunglasses – contact lenses can't be changed or worn under the prevailing conditions

-At least 20,000 yen in cash for one week

-One week worth of food, preferably that doesn't require cooking. If you bring dehydrated food or other stuff that needs hot water, please also bring your own camp stove.

-Eating Utensils

-Writing materials (notebook, ballpoint pen)

-Toilet Paper and Wet-naps – water for washing hands will not be available.

-Toiletries (toothbrush etc), Flashlight, and any necessary medicine

You may also want: work gloves, knife, screwdriver, pliers

-The Peace Boat people weren't explicit about it, but as I've mentioned elsewhere, I think it would be a good idea to get a tetanus shot before going into the area.

Peace Boat does also offer (and may require, I'm not sure) a health and life insurance plan for volunteers, running to about 2000 yen for a week.

Again, more information will be available at an orientation on the 29^th. The best way to make sure you get the information is to either join the Facebook group Tokyo Quake Cleanup or follow this blog - I'll be sure to post it to both locations.  And again, they are (quite understandably) not particularly well-equipped to deal with non-Japanese speakers at this point. However, the trip leaving next Friday is expected to have at least some bilingual volunteers who would probably be able to help out a bit.  

Tokyo Waits for the Other Shoe

Things are extremely odd in Tokyo right now.  On the one hand, many people have returned to work, trains are largely running again, the projected blackout was postponed, and the streets are completely calm.  On the other hand, retail stores are full of people stocking up on water, batteries, flashlights, and candles.  Shelves in convenience stores and places like Don Quixote (sort of like Wal-mart) are emptying of perishables such as bread.  Even smaller stores are getting raided (and by raided, I mean "politely queued up to").  My local butcher is quickly running low.  I got the last pack of tea candles at Tokyu Grocery, which is rationing all drinks to 3 PET bottles per customer.  It seems most people are still unsure what the ripple effects of the quake are going to be.

Crowdsourcing Safety Information: Twitter and the Japan Earthquake

I've spent most of the last three days perched in front of my computer, watching Japanese news, trying to sort and filter the various streams of information coming in via the internet and TV.  Much of this is obviously self-interested, as I've needed to make sure I wasn't about to get poisoned with nuclear fallout or crushed in a particularly heinous aftershock (still not out of the picture).

But I would also like the think there's an element of service to it, as Twitter has become an important new channel of news, and it relies on the participation of a lot of informed people to shape the narratives that emerge from it.  While I'm still not quite able to provide instant and accurate translations of the news coming to me over Japanese TV, I am still in a somewhat privileged position - the U.S. media, with the safety of distance, seems to be getting a little hysterical, while the Japanese news is engaged in a constantly updated filtering of crucial information.

Adelstein

Weirdly, though, the best example of how Twitter can work both positively and negatively has come from someone within Japan.  At about 3pm Japan time on Sunday, Jake Adelstein, mostly known for his fantastic reporting on the Yakuza, started posting claims that elevated radiation levels had been detected in Tokyo, and encouraging people to take precautions including iodine dosing.  He claimed this information came from a well-placed inside source whose identity he could not reveal, and he has sustained a drumbeat of warnings since then.

Adelstein is claiming that the Japanese government has a track record of deception regarding public safety threats - certainly true.  He's also claiming that it's better to be safe than sorry - "I'm posting what I consider the equivalent of O-ring warnings. There is a possibility of disaster. People should know that it's there." But there's a hitch - he's been pushing the iodine thing pretty hard, and at least as far as I've been able to tell, iodine tablets are actually pretty difficult to get in Tokyo.  I'm never in favor of ignorance, but in this case it seems there is no "safe" in the "better safe than sorry" argument, short of a mass evacuation that would probably itself cost lives.  When Adelstein cites unnamed, shady sources claiming hazardous radiation flowing into Tokyo, even if he's right, he's potentially sending people into a panic that can't actually lead them to greater safety or peace of mind.

There's something interesting happening on Twitter around Adelstein - people are studiously ignoring him.  There seems to have been no secondary confirmation of his claims, either from official sources or from any Japanese twitter source that has crossed the language barrier so far.  This is particularly notable given the stew of overstatement that has surrounded the nuclear situation in the English twitterverse.  There are two forces at work here, in real time - those of fear, caution, isolated rumor, and worst-case scenarios, arrayed against those of sanguinity, trust in authority, false security, and even-headedness.  Obviously, each can be characterized as either positive or negative, and only time will tell whether Adelstein is being prudent or alarmist, and whether those ignoring him are being sensible or delusional.  The bigger question is whether Twitter is helping sort this out better than traditional media, but again, I don't think we'll really be able to figure that out until a little ways down the road.