JAPAN
06 August 2013
Social media and Japan's anti-nuclear movement
Vanessa Vyvial, currently studying at Tokyo's Sophia University, has shared with us this interesting piece on social media and Japan's anti-nuclear movement.
Vanessa Vyvial, currently studying at Tokyo's Sophia University, has shared with us this interesting piece on social media and Japan's anti-nuclear movement.
As exemplified by the Arab Spring movement in the Middle East that arose in early 2011, social media and information exchange can play a powerful role in social and political change. It is also evident today that information circulation and social media can play a significant role in development in Asia.
In the Middle East, the rallying of people through social media to orchestrate a popular revolt affected development in the sense that it ousted some of the world’s worst authoritarian leaders. In Asia, and particularly in Japan, the role of social media has helped to garner popular support for the “no nukes” movement, in effect creating a collective identity of people seeking change.
On March 11th 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 struck the coast of Tohoku and triggering a deadly tsunami. The third tragedy of this disaster was the disabling of the power supply and cooling of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear power plant. The result was radioactive contamination.
To this day, Japan has been irreversibly affected by the triple crisis of March 2011. In particular, the issue of nuclear radiation continues to stir much controversy. In the aftermath of March 11th, censorship and the Japanese government’s hesitation to reveal the actual damage of the nuclear crisis has meant that citizens of Japan and furthermore, the rest of the world, have been kept in the dark.
Since then, the "no-nukes" movement has proliferated within the archipelago. Over the past two years and a half, a multitude of protests have been organized and carried out in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Last year, I was able to witness one for myself and I was certainly taken aback. It took place near the United Nations University in Shibuya, Tokyo and a wide demographic was present – from teenagers, to young adults, middle-aged people and of course elderly people as well. The types of people who were in support of the no nukes movement were clearly diverse.
However, the turn-out on the other hand was relatively moderate. Having witnessed protests for myself in Montreal where 100,000 people can gather, this protest was definitely conducted on a much smaller scale of about 50-100 people. Was this due to a lack of information circulation at the time?
A year later, upon my return to Japan I was able to witness another protest. This time, the movement had become much bigger - the change from last year’s protest to the one this year was remarkable. It was clear that the size and extent of the no nukes movement had increased. Just as in the Middle East where protests had spread like rapidfire in the region because of a wave of social media exchange and online interaction, I began to wonder if similarly, social media could be the reason for the no nukes movement’s growth.
Upon my research, it became clear that there are various blogs that list the scheduled protest dates and interactive sites that allow people to voice their opinions about the movement, allowing the steady cultivation of a collective identity of people against the use of nuclear energy.
As the movement has become more popular, I began to wonder how it has affected development within Japan. In the Middle East as mentioned above, it has resulted in the ousting of totalitarian leaders, giving hope to many formerly suppressed underdeveloped nations. Japan is undeniably developed but what the information revolution has done is bring about development in the sense that it has triggered the government to rethink its position on nuclear power. In September 2012, the government installed a policy that set to phase out nuclear power within the next 40 years. Would this have happened without popular movement and intense pressure? Perhaps not. But now we see Japan pursuing a more sustainable, environmentally friendly energy policy.
In terms of the March 2011 event, an article by the Guardian newspaper has also suggested that even in the early stages of the disaster, social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook helped to alleviate the situation. It acted as a lifeline for many who could not use their mobile phone networks or landlines. Skype and Facebook were used for people to reach out to their families and friends while twitter was used to denote the situation and thus let people know of what was happening in real time. And within an hour, 1,200 tweets were being posted in the Tokyo area. It appears the Tohoku incident proved how significant social media
It is clear that the information revolution and subsequent social media hype has helped Japan develop in such a way where the government is incrementally headed towards a path where citizen’s concerns are being heard and action is being taken. It would be interesting to see what other social movements can come about with the help of social media particularly in Japan since the no nukes movement was the first real movement affected by this information revolution.
As exemplified by the Arab Spring movement in the Middle East that arose in early 2011, social media and information exchange can play a powerful role in social and political change. It is also evident today that information circulation and social media can play a significant role in development in Asia.
In the Middle East, the rallying of people through social media to orchestrate a popular revolt affected development in the sense that it ousted some of the world’s worst authoritarian leaders. In Asia, and particularly in Japan, the role of social media has helped to garner popular support for the “no nukes” movement, in effect creating a collective identity of people seeking change.
On March 11th 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 struck the coast of Tohoku and triggering a deadly tsunami. The third tragedy of this disaster was the disabling of the power supply and cooling of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear power plant. The result was radioactive contamination.
To this day, Japan has been irreversibly affected by the triple crisis of March 2011. In particular, the issue of nuclear radiation continues to stir much controversy. In the aftermath of March 11th, censorship and the Japanese government’s hesitation to reveal the actual damage of the nuclear crisis has meant that citizens of Japan and furthermore, the rest of the world, have been kept in the dark.
Since then, the "no-nukes" movement has proliferated within the archipelago. Over the past two years and a half, a multitude of protests have been organized and carried out in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Last year, I was able to witness one for myself and I was certainly taken aback. It took place near the United Nations University in Shibuya, Tokyo and a wide demographic was present – from teenagers, to young adults, middle-aged people and of course elderly people as well. The types of people who were in support of the no nukes movement were clearly diverse.
However, the turn-out on the other hand was relatively moderate. Having witnessed protests for myself in Montreal where 100,000 people can gather, this protest was definitely conducted on a much smaller scale of about 50-100 people. Was this due to a lack of information circulation at the time?
A year later, upon my return to Japan I was able to witness another protest. This time, the movement had become much bigger - the change from last year’s protest to the one this year was remarkable. It was clear that the size and extent of the no nukes movement had increased. Just as in the Middle East where protests had spread like rapidfire in the region because of a wave of social media exchange and online interaction, I began to wonder if similarly, social media could be the reason for the no nukes movement’s growth.
Upon my research, it became clear that there are various blogs that list the scheduled protest dates and interactive sites that allow people to voice their opinions about the movement, allowing the steady cultivation of a collective identity of people against the use of nuclear energy.
As the movement has become more popular, I began to wonder how it has affected development within Japan. In the Middle East as mentioned above, it has resulted in the ousting of totalitarian leaders, giving hope to many formerly suppressed underdeveloped nations. Japan is undeniably developed but what the information revolution has done is bring about development in the sense that it has triggered the government to rethink its position on nuclear power. In September 2012, the government installed a policy that set to phase out nuclear power within the next 40 years. Would this have happened without popular movement and intense pressure? Perhaps not. But now we see Japan pursuing a more sustainable, environmentally friendly energy policy.
In terms of the March 2011 event, an article by the Guardian newspaper has also suggested that even in the early stages of the disaster, social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook helped to alleviate the situation. It acted as a lifeline for many who could not use their mobile phone networks or landlines. Skype and Facebook were used for people to reach out to their families and friends while twitter was used to denote the situation and thus let people know of what was happening in real time. And within an hour, 1,200 tweets were being posted in the Tokyo area. It appears the Tohoku incident proved how significant social media
It is clear that the information revolution and subsequent social media hype has helped Japan develop in such a way where the government is incrementally headed towards a path where citizen’s concerns are being heard and action is being taken. It would be interesting to see what other social movements can come about with the help of social media particularly in Japan since the no nukes movement was the first real movement affected by this information revolution.