Acknowledging Malicious Ignorance

The international community did not ignore the successors of Fukushima 50, who remained in the nuclear power plant right after the accident to fix the problem. United Nations Science Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation reported that the government of Japan and Tokyo Electric Power Company had underestimated the internal exposure of workers in First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant to radioactive materials. It indicated the estimated impacts on the workers’ body had been 20% smaller than it really had been. The world needs to realize that Japanese bureaucrats do everything on nobody’s watch.

The report of the committee estimated the average whole body exposure of the workers who worked there until October 2012 to be 12mSv. Then it revealed that TEPCO ignored the impact of iodine-133 on workers’ thyroid gland, while the company correctly measured the impact of iodine-131. It concluded that 12 workers who experienced massive exposure on thyroid and about 160 workers with great amount of exposure on their whole body were with increased risk of cancer, though it was hard to reconfirm.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare demanded the employers of those workers to submit results of health examination to collect data for long-tern survey of radioactive-related diseases. However, the employers have not submitted one third of data of all workers, indicating the reluctance of doing that. The ministry is not very serious about collecting as much data as they can.

Working environment in First Fukushima is still dangerous with high risk of exposure to radioactive materials. Although they put on radiation-proof clothes, it is not likely for them to be completely protected. In dealing with leaks of contaminated water from tanks, shower from the hole of a tank fell on some workers. Because the workers are willing to work there in need of high salary, TEPCO and the government of Japan are supposed to be trying to maintain their job opportunity even with deteriorated condition. However, it is their responsibility to keep their workers healthy.

If workers do not complain about it, and no one accuses discretion on health management, TEPCO and Japanese government will keep on ignoring the possible impact on workers. They believe that their responsibility will not be proved, even when diseases have appeared. If no one is watching, they pour contaminated water to the sea, argue that they have finished cleaning up lands of contaminated area, and say Japan has been recovered from the great disaster, even though a number of people are still living in temporary houses. Ignorance kills people in a weaker position.

Memorizing Minamata Disease

Most students in Japan know the typical symptom of Minamata disease, remembering photos on school textbooks. Rolled eyes, bent fingers and saliva on lips of patients might be actual images of the disease. Students realize how mercury would destroy an individual forever. Now, the concern made a great step to be shared by the world. To regulate production or trade of mercury, Minamata Treaty was adopted in a meeting of United Nations Environment Programme held in Minamata City, Kumamoto. It may become a warning to the civilization dependent on industry.

In 1950s, a toxic disease was confirmed in Minamata City, which patients had frequently consumed fish caught off the city shore. Investigations assured that those fish are poisoned by waste water with methylmercury discharged into a river by a chemical plant. The disease became a symbol of the negative impact of rapid economic growth in post-war era of Japan. That social problem brought serious dispute over who are responsible for the disease and who should be recognized as victims with eligibility for compensation.

Concerning with industrial development in developing counties, the discussion for restricting use of mercury was on the table for international organizations. In some gold mines, they use mercury for extracting gold from ore. There are reports on disease of mine workers caused by mercury. It is ignorance that makes matters worse. The fact all the world need to realize is poison of mercury eternally remains.

Minamata Treaty prohibits member countries of new development of mercury mine. They will block all trades of nine products, including cosmetics and manometers, that use mercury by 2020. Use of mercury will also be restricted in small gold mines.

However, Japan is one of the exporters of mercury. While European Union and the United States decided embargo of mercury in 2008, Japan exported 84 metric tons of mercury in 2012, which were supposed to be used in some gold mines. The main reason of the exportation has been its scarcity of land for final disposition.

It is not easy for people to be aware of the harm of mercury and its disease. Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, received strong criticisms from patients, when he said that “Because we had overcome mercury disease, we have responsibility to lead the movement for elimination of mercury.” For the patients, Minamata disease would never be overcome. Imagination of this incurable disease can be crucial for all the people to step forward to the end of that tragic history.

No Nukes Koizumi

W

ind is blowing against nuclear resumption policy of Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. Former Premier, Jun-ichiro Koizumi, started a campaign to recommend Abe to decide nuclear free Japan. Legislators in Liberal Democratic Party raised their voices to demand restrictive policy on restarting nuclear power plants in Japan. All are based on anxiety for uncontrollable contaminated water in First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

In an interview of Mainichi Shimbun late August, Koizumi argued that Japan needed no nuclear plant. “There is no place in Japan for nuclear waste. If we don’t decide it, it will be hard to do it in the future. It is possible with Prime Minister’s determination,” told Koizumi. One month later, he made his standpoint clear in his speech in Nagoya City. “Although business men criticize no nuclear argument to be irresponsible, it is them who are not responsible for nuclear waste policy. If LDP upheld no nuclear plant policy, a trend for it will be fixed. We can be united for a dream of recycle society with renewable energy,” he insisted.

The staffs of Abe administration look reluctant to respond Koizumi’s proposal. Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, put the argument aside, saying “Freedom of speech is assured to all people in this country. It is ok for them to have many opinions. He may change his view eventually.” The government of Japan still looks for resuming nuclear power plants, which safety will be reconfirmed with new standard.

However, there actually are some legislators in LDP, who are worried about the policy of government. The Resource and Energy Strategy Committee of LDP submitted Abe a proposal, requiring careful review in dealing with contaminated water in First Fukushima. They argued that current plan to block the underground water with “frozen walls” beneath the surface would be failed, and recommended to build concrete walls.

Both Koizumi and LDP had been firm promoters of increasing nuclear power plant. Although there were a lot of skepticisms on safety of nuclear power generation, the party supported increasing nuclear reactors. All fifty-four reactors were decided to build under LDP administration. It is responsible for LDP to review its past nuclear policies and to show an actual plan for getting rid of nuclear dependent energy structure.

Even if Koizumi is his mentor of actual politics, Abe made no response to his recommendation. But, it was Abe who said the water was under control, the contemplation which no body believed in. Firstly, it is Abe’s responsibility to show the reason why he can control the contaminated water, and assure the safety of nuclear reactors in Japan.

Contest between the Two

With bright smile and speech for hope, two major players in Asia performed as if contenders of Asian beauty contest in Brunei. While Chinese Prime Minister, Li Keqiang, stressed China’s economic contribution to the region, Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, asked parties to be united on security issues. That reflected their basic standpoint of ignoring negative aspects of their own behaviors toward Asia. However, the nations in Southeast Asia are basically not willing to choose one as the most beautiful.

Li met with leaders from the countries of Association of Southeast Asian Nations, presenting a kind of concept similar to the Great Southeast Asia Co-prosperity Sphere, which Japan had once upheld in the World War II. “China’s cooperation with ASEAN is our common interest. Promoting the economic partnership, we are deepening economic integration,” told Li at the meeting. China has a plan to expand its amount of trade with ASEAN by two and a half times more than current level, and an initiative to establish Asia Infrastructure Bank.

Taking advantage of the absence of his rival, Barack Obama, Li acted as if the leader of the region. On the territorial issue, Li emphasized the stability of South China Sea, acknowledging the frustration of Philippine, one of the Asian allies of the United States. In the current diplomatic schedule of two top leaders of China, Li and President Xi Jinping, Philippine was excluded as visiting nation. China looks like ignoring unfavorable countries by isolating them from framework of economic cooperation.

Abe, on the other hand, tried to get support on his concern to Chinese actions in South China Sea at Japan-ASEAN Summit Meeting. “I am very worried about the act of changing status quo by power,” told him. Japan has a similar interest against China’s promotion to the Pacific Ocean. He has had no effective achievement over China’s invasion around Senkaku Islands in East China Sea. He reiterated the necessity of solving those problems according to international law and supported ASEAN’s effort to have an action standard with China.

At the beginning of the framework of ASEAN Plus Three, the economic development model of Asia was resembled to the shape of bird migration. The Japanese officials liked to put Japan at the top of the fight of geese, shaping like boomerang. Now, the economic leader for ASEAN seems to have replaced by China. Abe did not want to bring an image of economic decline of Japan at the meeting.

The trend of China’s emerge would not be changed by Japan’s criticisms against China. For ASEAN countries, it is welcomed to be benefited with prosperity, while they don’t like export of trouble.

Blinded by the Government

The result was not overall agreement, but agreement by the end of this year. Twelve leaders delivered a joint statement after a meeting of Trans-Pacific Partnership in Bali, Indonesia, in which they promised to go forward to a comprehensive and well-balanced regional agreement. Japan delegation, which kept on saying that leaders would achieve an overall agreement, was busy for explaining the result. All stemmed from the basic attitude of bureaucrats not to share information with the nations.

Although the parties had agreed on some issues including information service and assistance for emerging countries, a lot of issues still remain without final breakthrough. They are access to market, intellectual property, environment, government procurement and so on. The absence of President of the United States cast a shadow on the process of meeting seeking broader agreement. While they would be making efforts to have final agreement, it was unclear whether they could achieve the goal originally set by the leadership of U.S.

For Japan, agriculture is the most controversial area among all. Leading Liberal Democratic Party had been explaining that five products, --rice, wheat, beef and pork, dairy products, and origin of sweets--, would be protected as exemptions of non-tariff principle, which did not make sense from the beginning. As the negotiation reached agreements in some issues, the party turned its attitude from protecting all of five to “considering which market can be opened.”

Frustration of the people is represented by these words; “What’s going on?” At the time when Japan joined the negotiation, the explanation of government and LDP was “We go there to see how the negotiation goes. If it harms our national interest, we may step out of it.” After multi-national negotiation ended, they said “Well, we are going to have bilateral meetings with parties for now. Negotiation is still in the early stage.” Next message the Japanese heard from delegation was “Ok, we are having overall agreement.” It is fair that the people thought it as a deception.

Most people realize the difficulty of insisting five crucial agricultural products to be protected in the framework of high-level free trade. For them, political responsibility matters the most. LDP promised in the election last year that it would protest abolition of tariffs without sanctuary. What its lawmakers are doing is to break that promise shamelessly, just following bureaucrats, mainly from Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Economy, Trade and Industry. As long as bureaucrats keep on hiding the negotiation process, responsible politics will not root in Japan.

Discriminations Guilty

The court decided that discrimination was unlawful. Kyoto District Court on Monday ordered a “hate speech” group to pay Kyoto Korean School ¥11 million as the compensation for disturbing classes by noisy demonstrations crying out discriminative words to the school. Denying the group’s reasoning that their appeal was within a realm of freedom of speech, the court regarded their activities as against International Convention on the Elimination of Racial discrimination adopted by the United Nations in 1965. However, people need to be careful of limitation on freedom of speech.

The group, Citizens against Special Privilege for Koreans in Japan, reiterated demonstration around the school between December, 2009, and March, 2010, chanting “Exclude Korean schools from Japan,” “They are kids of spies,” and so on. They also uploaded video of their demonstrations on internet. The court acknowledged those were acts of discrimination against Koreans. The amount of penalty was relatively high, indicating the court’s serious concern.

Basic concepts of the group is to eliminate all the privileges preferable for Koreans in Japan, which include special status of permanent citizenship, preferable application of public assistance, and official use of assumed Japanese name. But their demonstrations on the streets in cities have been excessively aggressive, chanting “Bring massacre of them” or “Get out of Japan.” Although collisions between hate speeches and anti-hate speeches are getting increased, Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has been reluctant to take effective measures, expecting those conservative movements would positively work for his policies.

Significance of the court decision was that it recognized discriminative demonstrations and uploading of video as joint tort-feasors, and as caused to disturb school management and defamation of character. The court therefore raised responsibility of the group, posing a penalty. It is reasonable to understand the decision as a measure to deter further aggression of human rights in Koreans in Japan.

Having said that, it is questionable that a court intensively stepped into limitation of freedom of speech, even if it was for preventing excessive use of the right. Although there is an argument for legal limit of hate speech, it would be concerned that the government tightens the restriction against freedom of speech, namely in this conservative administration. The biggest responsibility of the discriminative group would be to have given the government a cause of further limiting human rights.

Adoration of Doing the Right Thing

If you find a man lying on rails and a train is coming up soon, what are you going to do? The woman put him safe place and then was hit to death by the train on her father’s watch. The tragedy in Yokohama City, Kanagawa, brought strong sympathy to the people’s heart in Japan. Everyone who praises her brave behavior, however, knows that sacrifice was what he/she would never do. People just want to be close to that heroic story to ease guilty feeling not being brave enough in their daily life. The phenomenon reflected apathetical aspect of Japanese society.

It is still unclear why the man was lying there, though one of the possibilities includes suicide. The woman, Natsue Murata, 40, was in a car with her father’s drive, waiting for a passage of train in front of the railroad crossing. Soon after finding the man, she got off the car, leaving her father words of “I must help him,” ran to him and laid him between the two rails. Sadly enough, she delayed in escaping from the train, which tried to stop before her but was unsuccessful. Suffering from some itches, the man survived.

After the news report disseminated, a lot of people visited the railroad crossing and prayed for her leaving bunches of flowers. One woman who visited the place told it was a brave activity with self-sacrifice to a TV camera, and another man questioned why nobody could help her. Perhaps because nobody was wrong in this story, what most people can do is praying for her, which is the most easy way to comfort grief inside themselves.

One cannot expect that those people who expressed their condolences to Natsue would change the way they live, and, as its result, Japanese society as a whole would not be kinder to people than ever. They may mostly keep on ignoring stranger’s behavior in a train car, street or park, afraid of being accused as intervention to other’s private affairs. If there had been something to help Natsue, it could be a society that reduces the reason of a man to lie on a railroad.

For example, asking the man trying to enter train crossing “Are you all right, sir?” would reduce the risk of unusual tragedy happening. However, the Japanese is a nation that is extremely shy in talking to a stranger. As long as they would not establish more warm and inclusive society, this kind of tragedy will happen again.

Anyway, the embarrassing was responses of politicians to the event. The Cabinet decided to give her the medal with a Red for her brave activity. Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, as well as the Governor of Kanagawa and the Mayor of Yokohama, attended to Natsue’s funeral on Sunday. It was obvious for everyone that those political appearances were simply attempts to take advantage of her death to appeal their acknowledgement of doing the right thing.