Not "no nuclear"

In an editorial published last Sunday by the English-language version of the Daily Yomiuri, the newspaper's staff encourages individuals pushing for the abolition of nuclear energy to rethink their call for action from a rational and realistic perspective — a smart move, given all of the recent protests that call for "No nukes!" without presenting a detailed alternative, let alone a feasible one.

While it would be impressive if Japan were able to balance its energy sources and increase the amount of renewable energy that the country uses to 20 percent of its total energy use, it is hardly a logical goal to pursue over the next decade — the writers of the article cite a variety of reasons why this would not be possible:

"The fundamental reason that renewable energy sources are not already in wide use is that they have problems with quality, quantity and cost. For example, development of wind power and geothermal energy is limited by severe restrictions on where facilities can be constructed"

and I agree. At this point in time, Japan has neither the economic resources to completely overturn the layout of its current energy grid nor the space. The government can hardly afford to construct a viable number of wind turbines to increase the amount of renewable energy the country uses — even less so over the next decade (the writers state that the government hopes to achieve this goal by 2020), and does not have the resources to allot to the creation of a hydro-powered section of the electricity grid. Solar or geothermal power seem to be the most feasible in this situation then, given the large amounts of open-air (but lived-in) space that the Japanese countryside boasts, and the high number of active hot springs sprinkled throughout the country's four islands. If we only had to take the environmental factors into consideration, implementing either widespread solar or geothermal power blocs — or both — would be the simple answer.

Space does not seem to be the problem, then. If the Japanese government truly wants to reduce its reliance on non-renewable energy sources, then other cuts are in order too. The Japanese people could start by reducing their overall energy usage — this would make it much easier to meet the 20 percent goal for renewable energy, since the total amount of energy required would be much lower. I'm not sure how much energy we are actually saving by powering off the AC in trains on hot days, but if energy conservation was something preached regularly — and not only in times of need — perhaps the government could edge a bit closer to achieving its goal.

Nuclear energy may have proven itself not to be the most safe energy source, but in Japan, where the space is tight and the population high, it seems to be one of the most feasible. It is only now that we are finding out how many flaws there are in the management system of the reactors — perhaps all we need is to learn to save a bit more energy by powering off those brightly lit LCD screens at night and a more transparent government. And that is what we should be protesting for.

Overconfidence

After growing up in one quake-prone city and migrating to another, I no longer believe in the idea of disaster preparedness. While it's possible to spread useful knowledge — evacuation routes, what to keep in an emergency kit, what an area's policy is about the use of public spaces for evacuees — the actual act of preparation often ends up tossed aside in the rush to find safety and avoid bodily harm.

When things start shaking, the first thing that came to mind for most people was probably not, "Oh crap, where is my earthquake kit?" It was probably something more along the lines of wondering how to avoid getting hit by falling objects or what that evacuation plan map pinned to the wall instructed people to do in case of a fire or natural disaster. This may change: News anchors were definitely reporting that most major stores sold out of earthquake kits, but to me, it remains a hollow insurance, a hollow insurance that actually harms more than it helps.

By placing our confidence in a box of emergency supplies, I think that we often neglect the more important things, such as planning escape routes or how to regroup if we get separated. Why escape if we have spare food and flashlights to go around in the event of a blackout?

The same can be said for the technology that we rely on to inform us of impending danger. Even though scientists have reinforced time and time again that it is impossible to predict when an earthquake will happen little more than a few minutes before — enough to stop trains or to get out from under a glass window — people still seem to think that it is possible, because modern society is so technologically advanced. Slightly tangential, but relevant: I went home to visit family in San Francisco a week or so after the earthquake, and there were definitely radio talkshows discussing the fact that San Francisco was long overdue for a quake, especially because Japan had just had one (the scientific truth being that Oregon is more likely to be affected, in the event that the plates somehow triggered another plate to move, but that's another story). I then witnessed what you could call a mini exodus out of the city: People who hadn't been living in the city for very long or were just terrified of quakes became convinced that there would be a quake the following week thanks to some fear-mongering media, and quickly left, despite reassurances that there was no way to tell whether an earthquake would actually occur.

I think that Japanese society is the complete opposite.

Many of the buildings are retrofitted, so people didn't freak out as much when the actual earthquake came — news reports made sure to point out that the people screaming in their videos were foreigners. This wasn't a problem in Tokyo, where little damage occurred, but much of the camera footage from the more impacted areas showed people who were sitting still and continuing to work — they were confident that their buildings were properly retrofitted, maybe to a fault. Even in Tokyo, many people had no idea what to do in the event of an earthquake and were forced to walk home — and a lot of them didn't even know where to go because the trains weren't running.

I know I'm not alone in pointing this out — many people have criticised the Japanese reliance on technology, on phones, on punctual trains, on electricity. While I'm not saying that this wouldn't have happened elsewhere, I think there is something to be said about this reliance: Nowhere else (even in the quake-prone zones) do phones automatically alert their users of upcoming earthquakes or brag about their earthquake retrofitting. It's true that Japan does have some of the best alert systems in the world and some of the best stabilising structures, but it seems that much of the country still hasn't learned the most important lesson: Technology may improve our lives and our ability to keep ourselves safe, but there will always be something stronger, something more powerful.

Playing the blame game

Put in a deliberately vague way: Whenever an event occurs that results in a large loss of either human lives or economic stability, people often look for a scapegoat, someone else to pin responsibility on. Sometimes the identity of this entity is obvious — enemies of the state, a greedy corporation, or even a blundering, seemingly incompetent individual.

It's difficult to blame "Mother Nature" for the problems that humanity has — Governor Ishihara called the disaster "divine retribution" and was severely reprimanded for his allegations, and in a society that seems to have complete control over the forces of the earth, it seems difficult for people to believe that humans have not (yet) domesticated and presided over nature too, hence the desire to look for an actual individual to lay the blame on.

It should come as no surprise, then, that people are looking for someone to blame for the issues that have arisen at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors over the past couple of months — issues that have driven some people out of their homes and even out of the country, issues that have made the implementation of new standards such as actively practising Cool Biz and turning off lights in order to adhere with setsuden regulations. Other than energy conservation, however, is a widespread — if not somewhat subdued — concern about radiation levels in and around the Kanto region.

As summer draws nearer and the mushimushi weather rapidly approaches, people remain dedicated to finding someone to blame for their necessary forgoing of air conditioning — or aircon, as we so cutely call it in Japanese — and delayed trains. In order to find an appropriate scapegoat though, it is important to look at the major players in the game: There's the Tokyo Electric Power Company — otherwise known as TEPCO — the workers who were in charge of maintaining the reactor, the government, and of course, the Japanese people. The only way to blame the Japanese people though is to fault them for relying on nuclear energy, hardly a valid argument in this case — albeit one that has caused many a protest.

Let's break it down, then, shall we?
TEPCO owns and is thus in charge of maintaining the nuclear reactors — some people believe that they should be held responsible for the released radiation because they pushed the government to allow them to use the reactors another 10 years. The New York Times, which originally broke this story, alleges that the regulatory committee was aware that there were flaws in the reactors' systems, but still pushed for an extension of use otherwise.

Using this same argument, people also hold the government responsible because they were the ones who originally approved the decision not to decommission the reactors as originally planned, and maintain that Japan would not be facing issues with radiation had the reactors been swapped out as they were supposed to.

Others say that it was the workers who were at the plant who are responsible for the radiation that has been released into the air — it was the employees' responsibility, they claim, to ensure that the safety systems worked fine. Some of the workers did run away, it's true, but many of them did not — these were the heroic individuals that later came to be known as the Fukushima 50 — and we can hardly blame them, since they worked to help out.

So what is the government doing in response to this? According to Japan Subculture, the Japanese police have begun investigating TEPCO under the charge of professional negligence. Well, that's an interesting argument — and one of the most recent ones too. It remains to be determined whether they will actually find anything, but it is interesting to see where a public entity — the Japanese police force — is attempting to place its blame. It's hard to say at this point whether there will be any consequences, but if the police investigation discovers anything, TEPCO administration officials are looking at being charged as criminals. And it wouldn't be the first time that they have been accused of deliberately holding something back from the press, so with a track record like theirs, they seem to be the perfect victims.

Useful articles for 日本人論研究 (in progress)

Related to the Tohoku quake:
Japan Ponders Its New Normal - Hiroko Tabuchi (NYT)
For a Change, Proud to be Japanese - Hiroki Azuma (NYT)
Japan quake: Disaster tests country's famed 'stoicism' - Chris Hogg (BBC Tokyo)
Extreme nationalism may emerge from the rubble of the quake (Michael Hoffman)
Better to be branded a 'flyjin' than a man of the 'sheeple' - Debito Arudou (Japan Times)
'Flyjin,' 'sheeple,' angry people: readers' views - a response to Debito
Report from Tokyo: A Mindset of Normalcy - David Wagner (HuffPo)
     The last two paragraphs about the idea of jishuku are interesting, the rest isn't.
Japan fears post-quake rise in suicides - John M. Glionna (LA Times)
     I wonder why Japanese news hasn't really covered this much
Scams mustn't overshadow acts of goodwill (Yomiuri with the ANN)
Crushed, but true to law of 'gaman' (The Australian)
     Dunno how legit this source is, though.

Other big events:
Aum's crimes marked start of growing public safety fear - Reiji Yoshida and Masami Ito (Japan Times)
Are you worried that Tokyo could be a target of terrorism? - Melanie Burton (Japan Times)
It's Japanese trait to close eyes, not see bad (Rome News-Tribune)
     A scanned article from Google news discussing the 1995 Great Hanshin quake (pretty biased)
Rift in Coverage; Japanese and Western Quake Reporting Worlds Apart
If someone could access this, it might be a good starting point. It's about the different mentalities Westerners and Japanese people have based on their reactions to the Hanshin quake.

**There's a lot of stuff about Aum and the Hanshin quake but it's all behind a paywall.

Putting the "social" into social media

Using social media sometimes feels like attending a party or moving to a new city. You may know a few people there and a few of them may recognise you, but you're pretty much on your own. Friends will introduce you to their friends, and then it's your responsibility to build a network. And like at a party or in a new city, some places are harder to fit into, it's more difficult to meet people of a certain personality type, with certain interests.

Research projects require a great deal of work, and the best ones always showcase multiple perspectives in order to minimise the chances of appearing biased. Many news aggregators and their corresponding twitter feeds have presented Tokyoites' views of Tokyo after the Tohoku disaster began — these are the easiest sources to find — but few have highlighted individuals who do not seek the spotlight and are simply narrating daily life. The Twitter feeds and sites that I have chosen to follow do exactly this: They are either maintained by individuals or provide a less mainstream, less-attention-hungry look into Tokyo life.

The lists are in progress — I'm trying to find new people to follow who I'm not following already.