ｶﾞﾚｷを拡散しないで下さい: 全国と海外から圧力をかけましょう！ Please don't spread the rubble in Japan: a national and international movement to help the people of Japan!

ｶﾞﾚｷを拡散しないで下さい: 全国と海外から圧力をかけましょう！ 
Please don't spread the rubble in Japan: a national and international movement to help the people of Japan!


http://dontspreadgareki.wordpress.com/tag/tsunami-debris/


Debris from Fukushima’s exclusion zone to be burnt around the country
We have new news that the Environmental Ministry wants to allow private companies to take debris from the no-entry zone in Fukushima prefecture and process it around the country. Pleaes send a short email (it needs to be in Japanese, but google translate will work if you write simple sentences) by Monday, March 9th to tell them you do not want debris from the no entry zone in Fukushima to spread around the country.

email address: houshasen-tokusohou2@env.go.jp
In your email, you need to include the following information:
•Subject: 放射性物質汚染対処特措法施行規則改正案に対する意見
•Your name, address, telephone or email address
•Your opinion, and the basis for your opinion (cite the sources as necessary)

For more information, please visit: http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2012/04/disaster-debris-inside-no-entry-zone-in.html Thank you for your support!

Hiroaki Koide (Kyoto Univ. Research Reactor Institute) Interview translated in English

Please check out interview of Hikroaki Koide. 
http://www.facebook.com/hiroaki.koide.ufc

福島集団疎開裁判

 Please visit this site and click Approve / 賛同 for "International Citizens Tribunal" to save the children in Fukushima as their lives are at urgent risk!


http://fukusima-sokai.blogspot.com/

賛同のお願い：人権侵害の決定にNO！を 放射能の危険に正しい判断を下す「ふくしま集団疎開裁判」世界市民法廷の開催にYES！を

「私たちは１００％」昨年3月11日の福島第一原発事故により、チェルノブイリ避難基準の強制避難地域で教育を受ける福島県郡山市の14人の子どもです（以下の汚染マップ参照）。

クリックで拡大

その原発事故の加害者である国（文科省）「０％の人たち」は、何の責任もないふくしまの子どもたちの命を危険にさらして省みないという、加害者の自覚も教育行政責任者の自覚もない尋常の頭では信じられない方針を出しました。
「私たちは１００％」はこの前代未聞の不正義を黙っておれず、昨年６月24日に、「人権の最後の砦」である裁判所に「子供たちを安全な場所で教育せよ」と救済を求める裁判（仮処分申立）を起こしました。
裁判所は、前例のない裁判ということで門前払いせず、被ばくによる子どもたちの健康被害の可能性の有無について実体審理に入り、申立人は、
①．子どもたちを空間線量年間１mSv以上の地域で教育させることは憲法に基づく「子どもたちを安全な環境で教育する義務」に違反すること（申立書）、
②．通学する小中学校は、外部被ばくだけで控え目に計算しても空間線量が年間１２．７～２４mSvに達すること（報告書４頁）、
③．チェルノブイリで郡山市と放射能汚染度が同程度の地域で発生した深刻な健康被害が今後郡山市でも予想されること
を専門家の意見書（矢ヶ崎意見書第１章・松井意見書第２章）等により証明しました。
しかし、裁判所は、10月末の審理終了から45日の沈黙ののち、野田総理の「冷温停止」宣言と同じ12月16日に、子どもたちの申立を却下する「避難停止」を宣言（決定） しました。この決定は、裁判による世直しという子どもたちの期待を裏切り、原発事故の加害者である国と自治体による凶悪な人権侵害行為にお墨付きを与え た、最悪の人権侵害行為です。子どもの人権侵害の歴史に永遠の汚点を残すこの決定をぜったいに許す訳にはいきません（その詳細は、コメント(1)　コメント(2)　コメント(3)を参照）。

そこで、次の２つの賛同アピールの呼びかけです。
【賛同アピール１】
いま、日本中、世界中の人たちがこの人権侵害の決定にNO！と表明し、この決定が誤りであることを世の中に示して、我々市民の手で誤りをただしていきましょう。
【賛同アピール２】
司法の自殺により機能不全に陥った裁判所に代わって、命の危険にされされているふくしまの子どもたちを救うために、世界中の市民から構成される陪審員の手によって、放射能の危険について正しい判断を下す世界市民法廷を設置し、開催することに決めました。世界市民法廷は真理と正義とそしていのちに対する無条件の愛を基本原理とする、21世紀の市民型紛争解決機関です。いま、日本中、世界中の人たちがこの新しい世界市民法廷の誕生をYES！と表明し、これを支持することを世に示して、「市民の、市民による、市民のための世界市民法廷」による世直しを力強く支えましょう。

 

请给出您的赞同：对人权侵害的决定说NO！对即将开庭的正确判断核辐射危险性的「福岛集团疏散判决」世界市民法庭说YES！

「我们是100%」去年3月11日福岛第一核电站事故中，仍在切尔诺贝利核电站的避难基准中的强制避难区域里接受教育的福岛县郡山市的14名儿童。
（以下是受污染区域的地图）

点击放大

作为核电站爆炸事故的始作俑者的国家（文部科学省）「0%的人」，却对把不相关的福岛的孩子们的性命放置于危险之中的行为毫不反省自问，制定出了即没有加害者的认知也没有教育责任者的认知，超乎常理的方针政策。

「我们是100%」对此闻所未闻的不正义之事不能保持沉默，去年6月24日，在「人权最后的堡垒」法院里发起了「让孩子们在安全的环境里受教育」和请求救援的审判（临时申诉处分）。
法院并没有因为先例而闭门不见，对被（放射线）照射的孩子们的健康情况，有无受害的可能进行了实体审理，专家的意见书证明了申诉人的以下情况
①．让孩子们在空间放射线量率年间1mSv以上的地方受教育是违反宪法「让孩子在安全的环境中受教育的义务」，
②．上学的小中学校，单是外部被（放射线）照射一项，保守估计的空间放射线量率年间也达到了１２．７～２４mSv。
③．在切尔诺贝利与郡山市同程度的核辐射污染区域里发生的深度健康伤害，在今后的郡山市也能预想到。

但是，法院在10月末审理完之后的45天沉默期内，与野田首相的「冷温停止」
声明一样，12月16日，驳回了孩子们的申诉，发表了「避难停止」声明（决定）。这个决定，是对期望审判能带来社会变革的孩子们的背叛，给制造核电站爆炸 事故的始作俑者的国家和自治团体的这种凶狠的人权侵害行为带来了保障，是最可恶的人权侵害行为。我们绝对不能容忍此种给孩子们的人权侵害史上留下永远的污 点的行为。

因此，我们号召以下的2点呼吁赞同
【呼吁赞同１】
现在，全日本，全世界的人们请对此种人权侵害说NO！向世人显示这个决定是错误的，让我们市民用自己的手来纠正错误吧。

【呼吁赞同2】
由于法院陷在司法自杀似的机能不全，为了拯救陷入生命危急的福岛的孩子们，由世界各地的市民组成的陪审团成员的手，设置了正确判断核辐射危险性的世界市民 法庭，决定开庭审理本次判决。世界市民法庭是以真理和正义以及对生命的无条件的爱为基本原理，解决21世纪的市民型纷争的机构。现在，全日本，全世界的人 们都对这种新型的世界市民法庭的诞生说YES！通过向世人表明支持世界市民法庭，让我们强力支持由「市民的，来自于市民，服务于市民的世界市民法庭」带来 社会的改革吧！

Announcement by The "Fukushima Evacuate Children Lawsuit Group". Twelve angry citizens decide to hold an "International Citizens' Tribunal" to save the children in Fukushima as their lives are at urgent risk.

1 . What has in fact happened since 3.11 as well as the condition of the children in Fukushima up to the court filing on June 24th, 2011.

Running through the wind, with their cheeks red, mouthfuls of raspberries, filled with the excitement, catching insects, rolling over the snow fields… Those were the children of Fukushima.

The massive accident on 3.11 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has completely changed Fukushima prefecture. In Koriyama where the14 children who are the plaintiffs in the lawsuit live, many of the citizens were exposed to the invisible radiation from the damaged power plants. After the accident no iodine tablets were distributed and no announcements of radiation levels were made.

One father without knowing the imminent danger had his son stand in line to get their ration of water from a water truck. One high school girl was outside everyday participating in after-school track and field activities. One mother brought her daughter back to Fukushima from her safe haven far from Fukushima as she had been instructed that her daughter had to attend her school graduation ceremony.

The citizens later learned that much of the safety information, including the data from the Japanese SPEED 1 Radiation Plume Monitoring System was intentionally hidden so the people in the surrounding regions had no idea as to the actual danger they faced.

At the same time the accidents themselves were trivialized by the Ministry of Education and Science backed "Safe Campaign" that raised the internationally accepted 1 mSv/y exposure standard to 20 mSv/y. At the same time the Japanese government raised other safety standards beyond levels that are internationally agreed upon.

With much anxiety and fear the parents have made desperate efforts to protect their children but the only measure that the government has taken to ensure the safety of their children and health has been a basic cleanup of the radioactive fallout, that in reality, has not significantly lowered the exposure levels.

To adequately ensure their safety and health, the only option the children had and still have is voluntary evacuation, as Koriyama has not been designated as an evacuation zone. Voluntary evacuation naturally would mean the children would have to leave their family and friends and move to an unknown world. Some families with the financial resources have sent their children to other locations. However, for the parents of these 14 children, such an option was and is not financially possible.

For these compelling reasons and more, the 14 children became the petitioners who filed "Fukushima Evacuate Children Lawsuit".

2. Reason of the pleading and its significance
 
(1) Why did we file the Pleading?
The Education Ministry, in response to the massive outcries of the parents in Fukushima, corrected their earlier standard that had allowed school activities in Fukushima to continue within radiation levels up to 20 mSv/year. Finally they agreed with the parents that 1 mSv/year should be the maximum level that children be allowed to be exposed to.

After checks were carried out almost all the schools in Fukushima prefecture were found to be contaminated with levels greater than 1 mSv/year. What is even more shocking, the central areas of Koriyama, where the plaintiffs live, were found to be extremely dangerous, with levels of 5 mSv/year or more. Under the Chernobyl Evacuation Standard (more than 5 mSv/year) the whole area would have been considered a mandatory evacuation area. In other words, had this been Russia, the government would have forced all the people to move to safer locations. (See the Contamination Map)

Click on the map to enlarge it!

In spite of the strong demands from hundreds of parents neither the Ministry of Education nor the local government showed any intent to actually move the children to safe locations.

The world must be clear about one thing. The Japanese government is completely responsible for the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident and thus for the irreparable damage they are causing to the children and citizens affected by the radiation. Though they are 100% responsible, they have not taken the steps they are obligated to take to save the children whose lives and health they have knowingly put at risk.

This irresponsible behavior by the Japanese government is an unprecedented violation of human rights, and as its implications are so serious we feel it should be considered a "crime against humanity" under international law.

The original purpose of the court system was and is to provide citizens with a way to remedy grievances and violations of their intrinsic rights. As the state and local governments have ignored the outcries of the citizens in their suffering, we decided to use the court system to achieve the outcome the children deserve.

In this case we want to bring justice to the members of the government that have and continue to cause irreparable damage to all the children remaining in Fukushima.

We filed our case, the "Fukushima Evacuate Children Lawsuit" on June 24, 2011. In it 14 elementary/middle school children from Koriyama filed a provisional disposition against the city of Koriyama, arguing that "the children should have the right to education in a safe place".

(2) Significance of the Pleading
This pleading is ultimately purposed so that all the children whose lives and health are at risk as a result of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident can get their education in a safe environment. As it would be impossible under the current judicial system for the government to implement such a measure immediately, it was necessary to provide a precedent. Thus we put together our lawsuit with the 14 school children.

It was our plan that if our initial case was approved, we would move forward to achieve the same outcome for all the school children in Fukushima that are currently in this dangerous situation. Based on the court order that the 14 children must be evacuated, as it is their right to receive their education in a safe environment, negotiations between the citizens and the government would begin for the rest of the children. In that sense, the 14 children filed the suit on behalf of all the children in Fukushima.

3. Development of the Trial

As this evacuation lawsuit was unprecedented, we initially were concerned that our pleading might be dismissed at submission, but the court accepted our pleading and thus it became a legal and binding case.

The hearings for trial were expected to be completed on September 9, 2011 with both parties giving their concluding remarks. On that day however, we submitted new evidence that was disclosed by the Ministry of Education in late August. This evidence from the government included cesium soil contamination data for Koriyama. This made it possible for us for the first time to compare the radiation levels between Koriyama City and the surrounding areas of Chernobyl where radioactive fallout had polluted the environment.

We also included a document by Ryukyu University Prof Emeritus Katsuma Yagasaki who compared Koriyama City with the Lugyny (Luginy) region in Ukraine, where the level of cesium pollution is similar to that in Koriyama. Prof Yagasaki concluded that if the children in Koriyama remain where they are, the same health effects will be expected for them as reported in Lugyny (Luginy) after the Chernobyl accident.

To our shock Koriyama City refused to discuss this comparison with Lugyny (Luginy), ignoring our submission, stating that this issue was "unknown". In other words, they examined the evidence but refused to discuss it.

They then stated that those who feel that it is a health risk to remain in Koriyama are free to move if they want, as all students have the right to change schools. Finally they said that it was TEPCO, not Koriyama City, who infringed upon the right of students to get an education in safe place, therefore, it was not the duty of Koriyama City to evacuate the children to safe areas.

With these words Koriyama City openly and officially declared that they are not responsible for their citizens and thus violated the basic human rights of the citizens they are responsible for.

After this statement in the court by Koriyama City, we decided to do everything in our power to gather as much evidence from the Chernobyl accident as we could so that deeper and more detailed comparisons could be made with Koriyama City. The court and the citizens of Koriyama have a right to know what the expected health consequences will be if they remain in Koriyama.

Thus we needed more time to gather evidence, so the trial was extended to the end of October.


4. 12/16 Conclusion of Court Decision and its grounds

An urgent provisional disposition was requested for the case. However, the Koriyama court took their time to arrive at their ruling which was finally announced on December 16th, exactly 45 days after the conclusion of examination. It fell, rather coincidently, on the same day that Prime Minister Noda publicly announced that the Fukushima Daiichi reactors were now in a "Cold Shut Down Condition". The Koriyama district court dismissed the pleading of the plaintiffs, the14 school children in Koriyama.

The court said that the primary reason for their decision is that it felt the 14 children were in fact demanding the exclusive mandatory evacuation of all elementary/middle school students in the region. (The number is estimated to be 300,000.) The court said that such a large-scale evacuation would require concrete evidence proving that there is an immediate risk to the lives and physical health of the 14 plaintiffs. The court claims that their basis for evacuation would be only if levels in the air in the area where the children live were to be found to be more than 100mSv/year. The court went on to claim that there is no evidence of such levels in the air.

On the fact that the levels are not above 100mSv/year, the plaintiffs agree.

This 100mSv/year that the judge adopted however, is not the internationally accepted safety level. The court has not revealed the scientific grounds for their decision to use 100mSv/year as their evacuation standard.

There is currently no internationally accepted evacuation standard. The internationally accepted safety standard is 1mSv/year.

In any area that has a level of more than 1mSv/year, people are advised that there is no immediate risk to their health. They are not required by law to evacuate, but it is generally considered not healthy to be exposed to such a level for an extended amount of time.

In the case of the Chernobyl accident, the Russian government evacuated all citizens from areas contaminated with 5mSv/year or higher.

The chief judge Hibiki Shimizu in his ruling, did not mention or refer to any of the evidence we submitted in this matter. Specifically, we prepared a comparison between the radiation levels measured in Chernobyl and the levels in Koriyama City at the time of submission. Our evidence clearly shows that the levels in Koriyama City would have warranted the Russian government to designate the area as a mandatory evacuation zone.

In our submission and during the court proceedings that went on for several months prior to the judgment, the court did not make a single reference to the 100mSv /year safety standard that the court based its final decision on. In the modern judiciary system, a judgment must be based on evidence submitted and discussed by both parties. As there was no such discussion in this case, the courts ruling cannot be considered fair nor can it be considered legal.

The court has thus trampled upon the very principles of the modern judicial system that is meant to be the "Last Fortress of Human Rights".

5. Actions to correct the injustice of the court decision in order to save the children of Fukushima, whose lives and health are at risk

The conclusions reached by the court demonstrate that the judicial system in Japan has lost its integrity and can no longer be relied upon to deliver fair and just judgments. It is clear that the judicial system in Japan is no longer the “Last Fortress of Human Rights” that it was designed to be. It has committed a serious crime that gives its seal of approval to the state and local governments’ violations of human rights.

These violations have put the lives and health of the children living in Fukushima at risk, a risk that is not only serious but also unwarranted. Our duty as adults is to protect children from dangerous situations, especially those that can be avoided. Thus, we must take action to save them from the dangers they are being exposed to. After much deliberation we decided not to base our appeal on the UN Declaration of Human Rights as it was made by the governments of the world to serve themselves. Instead we went back to its root, chose a declaration that was made during the American Independence Revolution in 1776 by the citizens of America. It embraces the universal value of the human race, and it was the basis for the Constitution of America. It is known as the Constitution of Virginia:

Section 3. Government instituted for common benefit.
“That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community; of all the various modes and forms of government, that is best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and, whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.”

We have decided to hold a Citizens Tribunal “by the people, of the people, for the people” so we the people can judge whether the above mentioned decision by the court is not only correct but also ethically just. Our appeal will also draw from the universal values expressed in the “Convention on the Rights of the Child” , which itself is based on the Declaration of Human Rights, as it is specifically applicable to children.

We are calling our appeal “The World Citizens’ Tribunal of the “Fukushima Evacuate Children Lawsuit”. Through this tribunal we wish to achieve a judgment that reflects the values of human rights, not business or corporate interests. The children of Fukushima deserve a judgment that is just and ethically sincere. The right to live and study in a clean and healthy environment is their God given right.

We believe that the current judgment is a farce, for if it was reasonable, then the Prime Minister of Japan, and all the members of his cabinet, as well as all the executives from TEPCO, Hitachi and the other major companies behind the nuclear industry here in Japan would have no hesitation in sending their children and grandchildren to live and study in Koriyama. If Koriyama is truly a safe place for children to live and study, then they will have no hesitation in relocating the younger members of their families to Koriyama for the entire duration of their school lives.

(Translation by Gen Morita)

The future of Japanese children after the nuclear disaster
 

Japanese children make a TV program about nuclear power and radiation, Please help us! (OurPlanet TV)

 http://www.ourplanet-tv.org/

Give Japanese children a chance to express what they feel and think after the nuclear disaster. Support them telling and sharing their stories, experiences, and opinions on TV!

http://www.indiegogo.com/ourplanettv 

≪子どもたちによる日本初のパブリックアクセス番組！賛同者を募っています≫

福島第一原子力発電所事故や被曝の問題を、一番の被害者である子どもたちはどう見ているか？OurPlanetTVでは子どもたちを主体にした特別番組を 企画しています。番組では、福島および関東に在住の子どもたちが中心となって番組を企画。政治家や放射能に関する研究者などを直接取材し、原発政策や被曝 などについて、子どもたち自身が考える番組にしたいと考えています。
現在、この番組への賛同者を広く募っています。自分たちの未来を問う、子どもたちによる、日本初のパブリックアクセス番組です。多くの子どもたちの声が反映するよう、ぜひ番組への賛同をお願いします。

http://www.ourplanet-tv.org/?q=node/1273　

Our Story

Even at this moment, every hour, 2 hundred million bq. of radioactive substances are continuously being emitted from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. There are more than 300.000 children living in areas with the same level of radioactive pollution as in the evacuation zone of Chernobyl. The radioactive substance, which are supposed to be confined, have now spread across the entire country through ashes, rubble and food. With the children being vulnerable to dangerous radiation, what is their opinion about the current situation? 
The ongoing program ContAct aired at Cabel-TV Asahi New Star, will appear as a special 2hour program. This program will be aired sometime early in January 2012. Ourplanet-TV wants to produce a program focusing on children and various citizens, who will be participating in the broadcast. The feature will include students from elementary to high school, who are living in Fukushima and the Kantou region (Northeastern Japan) as well. The students will be collecting their own data regarding nuclear radiation from researchers and nuclear power plants. In 5 to 10 years from now, what will the causes of the damaging radiation be? And what will happen to nuclear energy policies? The children will be questioning their own future. Ourplanet-TV is going to make the first Japanese public access program from the perspective of the children. 

Background

Even after the tragic accident on March 11th, at the Fukushima nuclear power plant the government and TEPCO continued to underestimate and underreport the severity of the accident and the potential effects on the surrounding population. The media followed this lead by not questioning the information they were getting from the government and TEPCO and simply passed along what they were being told, always telling the best case scenario. In the last 6 months Ourplanet-TV has been covering the whole incident and given transparent information about the incident as opposed to the mass media. For parents living close to the nuclear incidents epicenter, it has been crucial for them to have access to objective information regarding the disastrous situation. 
The program will focus on the Japanese children, who has been affected by the Fukushima nuclear incident. These children are exposed to radioactivity everyday and has their everyday life centered around this incident. The children's parents are struggling to get their children evacuated to a place were they are less exposed to radioactivity. The case has been taken to a court, but still more than a half year later nothing has changed. The children living close to the epicenter of the nuclear plant still cannot play in the school yards and outside their houses without being exposed to radiation. 

The Impact

By giving a donation to the program, we will be able to broadcast a program that documents the children's daily life and how they have been affected by the nuclear incident. We would like to give them a chance to express what they feel and what they think and tell their stories, experiences, and opinions to the society.  

What is OurPlanetTV?

Ourplanet-TV is a NGO, which began its activities in 2001. As an alternative non-profit and non-commercial media station, Ourplanet-TV has been producing independent documentary films & interviews and has been broadcasting the content online. Ourplanet-TV adopts a non-profit and non-commercial management style, so we do not have any advertisement costs and all our production expenses is covered by membership fees and donations from individuals. We are highly independent from any political or commercial affiliation. 

Budget

The 2 hour special broadcast requires more production cost than usual. We would like to collect donations from people who sympathizes with the content of our special program. With your support our goal is to raise $ 2500 which will cover the following;

Transportation cost / Costs for interviews / Studio Expenses /Editing Videos /Promotion

good website for infomation of japan everyday
ENENEWSはグーグルで検索して、このページを訳すにすると日本語でも読めます。EX-SKF　ブログは日本語と英語です。
情報が素早く頻繁に更新されています。

http://enenews.com/
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/

東日本大震災 福島第一原発元モニターからの証言

Letter 3 from Shinji (DMBQ/Boredoms)

> Hi everyone, It's Shinji here. How are you doing?
> Yesterday, April 11th, 1 month passed from the earthquake. However,
> this time unit doesn't have the meaning for the victim either. Now
> only the victims settles down gradually, the life in refuge is not
> changing so much. Although the relief item supply is getting better,
> the infrastructure has not recovered. People in the stricken area says
> hygiene is very bad. Many refuge has no electricity and water supply
> still. Plus, a big aftershock happened in the stricken area again on
> the April 7th, the recovering of the infrastructure retreated further.
> It means the construction of the temporary shelter is not advanced
> well either. Most of the stricken area has been still buried in
> rubbles, and the remains search has not progressed at all. Victims
> grieves that their future is not seen at all. Job, house, life, and
> the administration... so many people lost such usual things at the
> same time. It is not only that over 20,000 people were sacrificed. We
> should think over 20,000 individual cases of family or friend's deaths
> occurred and over 390,000 people lost their house in a moment.
>
> On the other hand, the nuclear accident completely presents the aspect
> of the man-made disaster. The nuclear plant situation is seesaw now,
> however, the government and TEPCO still cannot find the beginning of
> the fundamental solution at all. They only do stopgap treatment still
> now. If they were promptly accepting the international relief, it
> might settle the situation earlier. However, TEPCO and Nuclear And
> Industrial Safety Agency refused the rescue from the overseas for
> information hiding, and the government did not verify little
> information from TEPCO/AISA and they continued to announce uncertain
> information to us. And then, after the expansion of damage became
> impossible to hide, they did information disclosure and the apology
> every time.
> As a result, few days ago Japan released very large amount of
> radioactive substance directly to the sea without international
> permission. This is a foolery of the world first. I think this is a
> mortal sin. We should determine an international criticism. A lot of
> countries have already limited the import of food and other things
> from Japan. The international evaluation of Japan surely falls down.
> The confidence too. You know, we are the huge exporters. Everybody
> could understand whether this silly decision gives how much serious
> damage to Japanese economy.
> Today, April 12th, Fukushima crisis level raised to highest level-7.
> The level-7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale
> (INES) has so far only been applied to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
> And, at the press interview, TEPCO said as if nothing had happened,
> the burst size of a final radioactive substance might exceed
> Chernobyl. Wow... Can you believe many people are still living around
> this nuclear plant? The evacuation order has not been announced
> officially to them yet. They have to evacuate by their own judgment.
> Judgement? How is danger judged without special equipment? And, the
> government began to plan the expansion of the evacuation area of the
> nuclear accident today. What? They began to plan today!? Everybody
> knows the evacuation area is set wrong. It had been severely advised
> by various media, for 3 weeks or more. A lot of people who do not know
> anything are secretly exposed to radiation already.
> Most big problem under this situation is closed-door of information.
> It makes a big confusion in the stricken area, and ordinary people
> like us too. However, they do not yet do clear information
> disclosure, and are expanding damage quietly. A meaningless harmful
> rumor is also extending surely because people can't get correct
> information. According to the newspaper, the victims of 55% of
> Fukushima Prefecture answered that facts and figures can not get
> there. It is very danger.
>
> I am going to send your donations to Japan Chernobyl Foundation again.
> They are a very few NGO group which is entering to the polluted
> radioactive area to give medical service to victims still now. Many of
> volunteer groups and the Self Defense Forces are doing the rescue
> operation in most regions now. However, the activity in the polluted
> radioactive area is very few, and very important because many sick
> people and old people are still living there. They can't escape to
> another place easily. And, I want to send some to the municipality of
> Minami Soma too. This town in Fukushima is a town where the government
> recommends to town people evacuate by themselves. Most of volunteer
> group doesn't enter this town in the fear of the radioactivity. I feel
> it is reasonable because most of volunteer people are just ordinary
> person. So, relief to them is very weak now. The government is not
> announcing the "evacuation order" officially. The government only
> RECOMMENDS "independent evacuate" to town people. The town people has
> to pay all the costs to evacuate because it is not the evacuation
> order. It is totally crazy but it is truth.
> I could collect $4470 in total through your cooperation. Thank you so
> much. I appreciate it very much. I am very glad so many people are
> still thinking of Japan.
> This week, I am going to send $1470 to JCF, and $3000 directly to the
> municipality of Minami Soma, to their evacuation and relief.
> The Japanese Red Cross has collected over 40000 million yen, however
> the money has not been distributed yet. They are going to form the
> distribution committee in the future, and hold the conference that
> decides distribution. Too slow... This is the most big reason I don't
> like big organization. Many people needs relief as soon as possible
> while the red cross is counting money. A lot of people are saved by
> your prompt action. Thank you so much!
>
> Shinji Masuko/ DMBQ, Boredoms

Letter 2 from Shinji DMBQ\Boredoms

> Hi everyone,
>
> It's Shinji here. Thank you for your constant cooperation. I
> appreciate it very much.
> Cherry blossoms are full-bloomed now in Osaka. My small cherry blossom
> tree at entrance is blooming too. Now Japan is in the most beautiful
> season in a year, and the daily life in Osaka is very normal as usual.
> Although the stricken area is still cold, the circle of relief is
> extending still without the stopping. It is impossible to understand
> all situations in stricken area because the scale of the disaster is
> too wide-ranging. However, the number of those who live in the refuge
> are decreasing little by little. Some people has moved to other cities
> to start a new life or to have temporary place with the family, or
> some people went to live with relatives or families, etc. Some towns
> had moved to one place with the municipality and townspeople. I think
> all the cases of these are not completely harmonious method of
> settlements, but people begin to stand up to recover their own life
> and this country.
> However, 160,000 people are still living in the refuge. These people's
> damage is more extensive.The municipality not to be struck is
> announcing their grand acceptances, but many people cannot move from
> the refuge for various reasons. The first reason that they do not move
> is that family's safety cannot be confirmed. 15,091 people are still
> missing. These people are trying to get missing family's information
> even a little. And, old person and sick person doesn't have the
> physical strength that moves from the refuge either. Handicapped too.
> Uneasiness and loneliness of starting new life at unknown town are
> also one of the big reason for local people. They had very strong
> community there. However, most common and simple reason is, there are
> a lot of victims who cannot do anything by losing everything.
> According to the specialist's statistics, it will take about 2 years
> just to remove all rubbles. I think that a long‐sustained effort and
> relief is necessary for them. Victims proves people can have positive,
> strong willpower and energy even on such crazy situation. I am
> impressed and encouraged very much.
> On the other hand, the nuclear accident keeps updating the worst
> situation. And the distress of the stricken area in the nuclear
> accident region is not told in news at all. Relief is not enough for
> this area at all. As I mentioned, Japan Chernobyl Foundation is a very
> few group which enter to support victims in this area. Now I am
> talking with them again and I am going to keep supporting them.
>
> I do not have a lot of words for this situation. Everybody, please watch this:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70ZHQ--cK40
>
> On April 4th, Tokyo Electric Power Company decided they renounce
> 11,500 tons of the radiation poisoning water to the sea directly. It
> means nothing is getting better on the plant accident. Don't forget,
> another tons of very high density radiation poisoning water
> (Iodine=7.5 million times higher than usual!!!) are leaking to the sea
> directly still from the plant's pit. The pit has cracks and TEPCO can
> not identify the cracked place still. It surely influences to oceans
> in overseas too. The flow of the tide from Fukushima heads for
> California and then up to northern west coast oceans.
> Plus, high radioactivity have been detected also in the area other
> than the sheltering area. However, the government doesn't expand the
> sheltering area. A lot of research laboratories criticize the
> government, but the government only says, "It is under investigation
> now". Also, the radiation poisoning of farm and marine products are
> still expanding. The radioactive substance is detected from various
> foods, and it gives rise to bad harmful rumors. And, because the
> response of the government is ambiguous, all the foods made in Japan
> begins to be distrusted from overseas markets too. It is a vicious
> circle. Many research laboratories and professors warns 1/4 or more of
> Japanese agriculture and the fishery are annihilated if the situation
> is not changed. Even the ordinary person like me can expect this.
> However, the government and TEPCO are still saying the same thing,
> like "It is no problem immediately to human health..." Stupid.. They
> were crying when the press conference, but nobody can believe them
> anymore, and now the information hiding by the government and TEPCO
> became clear. Now everybody knows they never announce the
> dangerousness until the worst situation had happened. The announcement
> is always same, like "We tried hard but the situation is going worse
> than we expected..." It means all crisis-managements had not been
> assumed at all. Therefore, their countermeasures are always claptrap.
> We can't accept a groundless safety dogma anymore. We want the
> guarantee of the safety based on a clear standard and the analysis.
> Unfortunately now we have to get the important information from the
> announcement of specialized agencies or the analyses from the research
> laboratories of municipality and university, or news from the foreign
> countries, not from the government or Nuclear Industrial Safety
> Agency. For example, I got information that the wind changed for the
> west and the radioactive substance will fly to Osaka too today, April
> 6th, from the news of South Korea. We cannot get those information in
> usual life in Japan at all. Recent Japanese TV news reports mostly the
> beautiful story, like, a dog miraculously rescued, fresh friendship
> story between high school volunteer group and victims, or, heroic
> story of indomitable worker who are working in nuclear plant accident,
> etc. These are also true stories I guess, but I think it is not the
> most important topics now. It is very miserable. Please don't forget,
> Japan is still in the midst of the nuclear accident. We should
> carefully watch the transition of the situation and the fact.

FUKUSHIMA : Le SOS du maire de MINAMI SOMA

  

« L’infrastructure de notre ville est complètement détruite […] Les banques, les boutiques sont fermées. […] La nourriture, l’essence, tout nous manque. […]  Les informations provenant du gouvernement et de TEPCO (l’opérateur de la centrale) sont insuffisantes. […] Même les gens qui veulent nous aider et les médias ont peur de venir dans notre ville qui se trouve à 25km de la centrale nucléaire de Fukushima. […] Nous sommes en train de survivre et de reconstruire nos vies tout en luttant contre l’angoisse de la radioactivité. […] Nous ne pouvons pas faire le suivi de ceux qui sont partis et nous ne savons pas où ils sont allés. Peut-être dans plus de cent endroits différents. […] Je voudrais que vous sachiez l’état actuel de notre ville. […] Je voudrais vous demander votre soutien. Merci beaucoup. »

Takashi Uesugi: The Interview /// Time Out meets the journalist who TEPCO love to hate

Time Out meets the journalist who TEPCO love to hate

In the immediate aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the Japanese media stayed remarkably calm. While overseas news outlets fretted about nuclear meltdown and terrified expats stranded in a ‘City of Ghosts’, their Japanese counterparts generally hewed closer to the official line: stay calm, go about your business as usual. And, yes, you can still drink the tap water. But that was only part of the picture. While the mainstream media presented a reasonably united front, a group of freelance and internet journalists were openly dissatisfied with the explanations being given at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s seemingly endless stream of press conferences. Why wasn’t the company mentioning levels of plutonium around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant? What had happened to TEPCO’s president, Masataka Shimizu – last seen on March 13? One of the most influential members of this group of dissenters is Takashi Uesugi, a former New York Times journalist and, in an earlier incarnation, aide to Liberal Democratic Party bigwig Kunio Hatoyama. The author of books including The Collapse of Journalism, Uesugi is a vociferous critic of Japan’s ‘Kisha Club’ system – a network of exclusive press clubs that, he says, nurtures excessively close relationships between reporters and the organisations they are supposed to cover. Gadfly to some, hero to others, Uesugi is a much-sought commentator. He makes weekly appearances on Tokyo FM and Asahi Newstar, and is a regular contributor to the Diamond Weekly business website, along with various weekly tabloids. However, he’s most prolific on his own website and via Twitter, where he commands a following of 177,000 and counting. One place place he won’t be appearing any more is TBS Radio, who booted Uesugi from his regular weekly guest slot this month (more on that later). Time Out caught up with Uesugi last Monday, during a brief lull between press conferences at the TEPCO head office in Shimbashi. We’d gone expecting to have a nice chat about tweets and microsieverts, but smalltalk apparently wasn’t an option. What followed was a eye-opening, if occasionally paranoid tirade against TEPCO, the government and the mass media, delivered in rapid-fire Japanese.

Obviously a lot has happened over the past couple of weeks, but what are the main things you’ve learned?

Basically, something that I knew from the beginning, but has become more blatant yesterday and today [March 27-28], is this terrible situation where the government and TEPCO are suppressing information. To be more specific, I thought it was strange that there was nothing written about plutonium when the data about reactor 3 was given out at the TEPCO press conference on the 27th, so I asked them if it was true that no plutonium had been detected in reactor 3, and for how long it had not been detected. TEPCO answered: ‘Plutonium hasn’t been detected.’ To confirm what they were saying I asked if perhaps it wasn’t that none had been detected, but that they hadn’t actually taken any measurements. They were alarmed, and it turned out that it wasn’t even that they hadn’t taken any measurements, but that they didn’t have the instruments to do so in the first place. That’s one example. Another is the question of where exactly has the TEPCO company president gone? There was a rumour doing the rounds a while ago that he had been hospitalised, when actually he had been away because of fatigue. This time they’re using the pretence of hospitalisation for the same situation. All of it’s lies. It’s emblematic, isn’t it? [Note: TEPCO president Masataka Shimizu was hospitalised on March 29, and subsequently resigned.] Two weeks ago I told someone in the government that TEPCO was lying. I called a friend from back when I was a governmental aide directly on their mobile phone and said that the government was being deceived, but I didn’t get any response at all. On top of that, even though I was able to attend the Chief Cabinet Secretary’s press conferences before the earthquake, after the quake, all the freelance journalists, foreign media and Internet reporters were kicked out. So I took on the role of representative for those media outlets, and tried to negotiate by constantly badgering the official residence – like a stalker – saying, ‘If you don’t let in the foreign media too, there won’t be any way for information to be conveyed abroad, will there?’ Ever since the [nuclear] trouble started, I’ve been saying again and again via the different media and radio programs that I appear on that TEPCO are concealing things about the accident, that they’re lying, and that the government is being fooled. I’ve been saying that TEPCO is a client of the media and the press clubs, being one of their biggest advertisers – so the press won’t be able to say certain things, and will be holding back, won’t they? But then, at the end of one of the programs, the producer came to me and asked me to stop doing the show at the end of the month, and I was dropped. When I criticized TEPCO on a different program, they also wanted to get rid of me. But the producer of that particular program is a strong person, and actually went ahead and did it without a sponsor. TEPCO are such an important advertiser that the television and newspapers are completely silent. Even now, they’re running TEPCO commercials on the television, aren’t they? This week, there are also full-page advertisements in the newspaper. Despite the fact that they’ve caused such a scandal, TEPCO are still putting ads in the newspaper. If they have such enormous sums of money, they should send it to the areas hit by the disaster. It’s like the false announcements made by the Imperial General Headquarters 70 years ago [during World War II] are happening all over again. I’m shocked that something I’ve seen in history textbooks, and had thought was completely implausible, is happening right before my eyes. I never thought that I’d become a party to anything like this. [Laughs]

Have you been following reports in the foreign media, then?

Yes, all the time.

Would you say that they’ve been overdoing it?

No, I wouldn’t, because the foreign media was just reporting what was possible. I think the correct way to report about the events at the nuclear power plant is to assume the worst case and write about it, and then also add what the current situation is in relation to that. Newspapers and television shouldn’t say, ‘Don’t worry, it’s safe. You don’t need to run away,’ like Japan’s have. There’s absolutely no problem with the way the foreign media has covered this news. It’s not fanning people’s fears if we report by saying it’s possible for things to reach such and such a point, but at the moment the situation is like this, so you don’t need to worry. There’s also nothing wrong with the foreign media referring to the examples of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. After clarifying the source, I have also talked about those kinds of things in my email newsletter and in my regular reports for websites, as well as on radio shows and satellite TV programs where I’m a regular guest. Except recently, the more I talk about those topics, the more complaints I get after the program has finished – in incredible numbers. People say things like, ‘Don’t lie!’ or ‘It’s safe!’ But they’ve got no grounds to say that. Japanese people want to believe that it’s safe, don’t they? They just don’t want to look at how things really are. It’s like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.

We’ve read a lot of opinions from scientists recently, and the majority of them seem to fall in line with what the government’s saying: that this isn’t another Chernobyl, and Tokyo isn’t at risk from radiation…

That’s because at the moment, any scientists who say that the current situation is dangerous are being removed from the mass media. Ultimately, the most dangerous situation is one where the only information available is what suits the government and TEPCO. From the outset, the mass media haven’t been using the people who are reporting that the worst possible outcome could happen. And yet the evacuation area was changed from 2km to 3km, and then to 10km, and to 20km, and finally to 30km. America has specified a 50 mile (80km) evacuation zone, but Japanese people still say that things are OK as they are… Then the next week I said [to Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano], ‘You were wrong, weren’t you? Radioactive material has been found in the area outside the 30km line, and even though you said radioactive material would never reach Tokyo, it has, hasn’t it? The government is responsible for the consequences of what it says so you should make a proper apology. Correct your mistakes.’ He replied, ‘That is not the case.’ When I said that, far from being within the 30km radius, radioactive material was found 40km away, and that he should correct the mistake, he told me to ‘Submit that properly in writing.’ I asked a question in the middle of a press conference, and he actually told me to put it on paper. [Laughs] At that point I just couldn’t believe it any more. It’s the first time that has ever happened to me – to be asked to submit a question in writing in the middle of actually asking it. Basically, it’s hopeless, isn’t it? Something in the minds of the government has burst.

When The New Yorker interviewed you recently, you talked about how the Japanese public were ‘brainwashed’ by the media. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

From a young age Japanese people become convinced that newspapers and the television are correct, and that magazines and the Internet are full of lies. But the information in the newspapers and on the television is just what the government is giving out through the press clubs. Even if it’s different from the information and data that reporters have gathered themselves, they just accept what the government announces. So the people here who think that the newspapers and television are right always believe the information given to them, and it’s why the same kind of brainwashing is happening now too. But one thing that’s a little different from how things have been up until now is that people, mostly the younger generation, are starting to realise what’s going on, and using the Internet to say, ‘Hang on, there’s something that’s not right, isn’t there?’ Even my Twitter timeline has been incredible since this morning, with messages like, ‘What the newspapers and television are saying is not the truth!’ It’s just like Egypt and Tunisia. That’s where we can clearly see changes happening.（Time Out Tokyo  Posted: Fri Apr 01 2011)

Time Out Tokyo Takashi Uesugi: The Interview

Takashi Uesugi Website ( English )

上杉隆 -公式ウェブサイト

from Shinji DMBQ\Boredoms

> Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2011 01:28:46 +0900
> Subject:
> From: dmbq@dmbq.net
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> It's Shinji here. Sorry, I wrote a long message again.. Please read
> this if you have time. This is a latest report from my place.
>
> First of all, thank you so much for sending your donations.
> Currently, $6913.48 in total, (donation through Aska Matsumiya's The
> Rainbow Project is included).
> http://askamatsumiya.com/therainbowproject.html
> I am very surprised because my goal was $1000 when I started this
> fund... I am not an organization, or group. I am just a ordinary
> person. Now I can act by obtaining your trust. Again, thank you so
> much. I can't thank you enough...
> I sent 7,000,00 yen = $8,645.18 in total ($3000 from this donation,
> $5645 from donation through musician community in Osaka and my
> personal donation) to Civic Force. I mentioned I will send donations
> to Peace Wind Japan too, but I didn't. Because...Now they built a
> complete cooperative relationship!! Now they are the same team.
> And, today I bought 150,000yen = $1853.54 's worth of goods at
> wholesale market (very close from my house! My closest station name is
> east market, haha) to send to the stricken area, Fukushima, also known
> as the nuclear plant accident district. Today I got a very good
> information from Pika, ex. a drummer of Afrirampo. She found a
> logistic company where headquarters is in Fukushima, and they accept
> the support goods in Osaka and send it immediately direct to the
> stricken area. I brought foods and paper products to their truck
> station by my rock'n roll van, business use very big canned foods x
> 240, pickled vegetables x 320 kilo gram, about 3000 roll of toilet
> paper. I was very glad I could get them at cheaper price, the market
> people cooperated soon gladly after I told them what I am going to do,
> though Osaka is also goods shortage. The truck will get there in a
> day! I think this is the fastest, certain way to bring good to the
> stricken area.
> Now we have $2059.94 still. As I mentioned in last email, I will get
> more information from stricken area Fukushima directly soon from
> brother of Yoshihide Otomo, so I think I will be able to drop the
> rest of donation to right, efficient place as much as possible.
>
> 12 Days have passed since the earthquake and tsunami destroyed Japan.
> Official death toll is now 9523, 12,909 still missing in total, and
> about 250,000 people are without homes, living in refuge, their cars,
> wherever they can. In Tokyo, although people are trying to return to
> usual life, bad news pull them back to reality. Rotation electricity
> power cut is executed today too. People's uneasiness and stress are
> raising.
> As for nuclear plant, the situation is a seesaw. There is no report
> more than current maintenance though the work of all-out continues,
> like, fire and black smoke relapsed in the nuclear plant immediately
> after the government announced repression is going well... In the
> issue, the radiation level around the plant has hardly changed, still
> very higher than usual level.
> However, the radiation poisoning has extended surely day by day. IAEA
> detected radiation 1,600 times higher than normal levels in an area
> about 20 kilometers from nuclear plant... Higher level than normal
> continues also in Tokyo. Sea water, soil, farm produce, milk... A
> high density radioactive substance has been detected from all things.
> And shipment restriction and ingestion limitation to some food
> products was begun. The agriculture of north east Japan will become a
> catastrophic situation.
> Moreover, the radioactive substance was detected from the filtration
> plant that Tokyo used. Tokyo and the surrounding area did notification
> to not give tap water to the baby.
> Government announces these level doesn't give influence to our health
> at once, though it exceeds the normal level...Yes, I fear a harmful
> rumor and a meaningless rumor very much, and I think it is true maybe,
> but, at the same time, the truth is---I am very afraid of it. Can you
> say "OK, no problem!" or can you feed such food to your kids without
> hesitation? So, NOW WE NEED accurate information based on a correct
> standard, not an announcement from cold-livered government or opinions
> from crazy hypersensitive people who praise only health food. A calm
> situation assessment is necessary for us.
>
> As for relief, the most of highway to the north east Japan was open
> yesterday! A lot of overseas media are surprised at this quick
> restore. At last, the preparation for the recovery started little by
> little. However, most of the road to the stricken area remains being
> cut in pieces still. And please don't forget, victims are living in
> refuge, not a house or apartment, without electricity, water service
> or gas, heater. There are a lot of people who die in the refuge though
> they survived with great pains from earthquake, because medical
> treatment is not enough. And, the area where damage is not serious
> also needs big help now. Many people could survive there, however
> there is completely nothing because nobody gives attention to such
> area. The relief is hard to reach there. Plus, influenza begins to
> spread in some refuge now. Medical treatment, hygiene, and
> information, everything is not enough at all.
> However, relief commodities are reaching gradually as I mentioned
> above. I believe it is through your quick cooperation!
>
> Thank you for your cooperate. I appreciate it very much.
> Keep in touch.
> Shinji
>
> PS,
> After I started this project, a lot of cool mails have come to me
> every day. So many sons of the former kings in unknown countries are
> trying to give me a chance to be a billionaire, and suddenly tempted
> by unknown women who call herself young and beautiful. Yesterday I won
> the prize for which I have not applied. Nice, I love this world. I can
> Cc you in secret if you want.
>
> Shinji

Yakuza to the Rescue

Jake Adelstein was a reporter for the Yomiuri Shinbun, Japan’s largest newspaper, from 1993 to 2005. From 2006 to 2007 he was the chief investigator for a U.S. State Department-sponsored study of human trafficking in Japan. Considered one of the foremost experts on organized crime in Japan, he works as a writer and consultant in Japan and the United States. He is also the public relations director for the Washington, D.C.-based Polaris Project Japan, which combats human trafficking and the exploitation of women and children in the sex trade. He is the author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan (Vintange).

Even Japan’s infamous mafia groups are helping out with the relief efforts and showing a strain of civic duty. Jake Adelstein reports on why the police don’t want you to know about it. For more coverage of Japan’s crisis.

The worst of times sometimes brings out the best in people, even in Japan’s “losers” a.k.a. the Japanese mafia, the yakuza. Hours after the first shock waves hit, two of the largest crime groups went into action, opening their offices to those stranded in Tokyo, and shipping food, water, and blankets to the devastated areas in two-ton trucks and whatever vehicles they could get moving. The day after the earthquake the Inagawa-kai (the third largest organized crime group in Japan which was founded in 1948) sent twenty-five four-ton trucks filled with paper diapers, instant ramen, batteries, flashlights, drinks, and the essentials of daily life to the Tohoku region. An executive in Sumiyoshi-kai, the second-largest crime group, even offered refuge to members of the foreign community—something unheard of in a still slightly xenophobic nation, especially amongst the right-wing yakuza. The Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest crime group, under the leadership of Tadashi Irie, has also opened its offices across the country to the public and been sending truckloads of supplies, but very quietly and without any fanfare.

Intricate tattoo of a member of the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia. (Michael Rubenstein / Redux)

The Inagawa-kai has been the most active because it has strong roots in the areas hit. It has several "blocks" or regional groups. Between midnight on March 12th and the early morning of March 13th, the Inagawa-kai Tokyo block carried 50 tons of supplies to Hitachinaka City Hall (Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Prefecture) and dropped them off, careful not to mention their yakuza affiliation so that the donations weren't rejected. This was the beginning of their humanitarian efforts. Supplies included cup ramen, bean sprouts, paper diapers, tea and drinking water. The drive from Tokyo took them twelve hours. They went through back roads to get there. The Kanagawa Block of the Inagawa-kai, has sent 70 trucks to the Ibaraki and Fukushima areas to drop off supplies in areas with high radiations levels. They didn't keep track of how many tons of supplies they moved. The Inagawa-kai as a whole has moved over 100 tons of supplies to the Tohoku region. They have been going into radiated areas without any protection or potassium iodide.

The Yamaguchi-gumi member I spoke with said simply, "Please don't say any more than we are doing our best to help. Right now, no one wants to be associated with us and we'd hate to have our donations rejected out of hand."

To those not familiar with the yakuza, it may come as a shock to hear of their philanthropy, but this is not the first time that they have displayed a humanitarian impulse. In 1995, after the Kobe earthquake, the Yamaguchi-gumi was one of the most responsive forces on the ground, quickly getting supplies to the affected areas and distributing them to the local people. Admittedly, much of those supplies were paid with by money from years of shaking down the people in the area, and they were certainly not unaware of the public relations factor—but no one can deny that they were helpful when people needed aid—as they are this time as well.

It may seem puzzling that the yakuza, which are organized crime groups, deriving their principal revenue streams from illegal activities, such as collecting protection money, blackmail, extortion, and fraud would have any civic nature at all. However, in Japan since the post-war period they have always played a role in keeping the peace. According to Robert Whiting’s Tokyo Underworld and Tim Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes, the US government even bought the services of one infamous yakuza fixer, Yoshio Kodama, to keep Japan from going communist and maintain order. Kodama would later put up the funding to create the Liberal Democrat Party of Japan that ruled the country for over fifty years. When President Obama visited Japan last year, the police contacted the heads of all Tokyo yakuza groups and asked them to behave themselves and make sure there were no problems.

But let’s be clear, the yakuza are criminals, albeit with self-imposed restraints, and in their way may actually keep street crime (muggings, purse-snatching, theft) down. Many Japanese still admire or tolerate them. In fact, a Nara Police Prefectural police study found that amongst adults under 40, one in ten felt that the yakuza should be allowed to exist or were “a necessary evil.”

There is an unwritten agreement amongst the police and the yakuza groups that is acceptable for them to perform volunteer activities during a crisis but not to seek publicity for it. Before the crisis the police were cracking down severely on the yakuza and any activity placing them in a heroic light might make the police look foolish. So they have been very quietly doing their part. It is not that the yakuza are not PR savvy, as is evidenced by their careful control and limited appearances in six fan magazines (three monthly, three weekly) that write of their exploits; it is that right now they care more about getting the job done than getting credit for it. As one members said, “There are no yakuza or katagi (ordinary citizens) or gaijin (foreigners) in Japan right now. We are all Japanese. We all need to help each other.”

As one members said, “There are no yakuza or katagi (ordinary citizens) or gaijin (foreigners) in Japan right now. We are all Japanese. We all need to help each other.”

A bit of background: Japan has 80,000 members belonging to these criminal organizations, which the police label shiteiboryokudan or literally “designated violent groups”; membership is not illegal although the police regulate their activities, much the way the SEC regulates Goldman Sachs. Their income is largely derived from protection money, security services, financial fraud, stock manipulations, gambling, blackmail, prostitution, and loan sharking. They call themselves “yakuza.” The word comes from a losing hand in traditional Japanese gambling: 8 (ya) 9 (ku) 3(za) which adds up to 20, and is a useless hand. Thus to be a yakuza is to be “a loser.” It’s a self-effacing term. They yakuza don’t call themselves “violent groups.” They exist out in the open; they have offices, business cards, fan magazines. The three major groups, the

Yamaguchi-gumi (40,000 members), the Sumiyoshi-kai (12,000) and the Inagawa-kai (10,000) all insist they are chivalrous groups, like the Rotary Club, that they are ninkyo-dantai.

Ninkyo(do), according to yakuza historical scholars is a philosophy that values humanity, justice, and duty and that forbids one from watching others suffer or be troubled without doing anything about it. Believers of “the way” are expected to put their own lives on the line and sacrifice themselves to help the weak and the troubled. The yakuza often simplify it as “to help the weak and fight the strong,” in theory. In practice, the film director Itami Juzo, who was attacked by members of the Yamaguchi-gumi Goto-gumi because of his films depicting them harshly, said “the yakuza are all about exploiting the weak and disadvantaged in society, and run away from anyone strong enough to stand up to them and their exploitive extortion.” He was primarily correct, I think. However, sometimes, like today in Japan, they live up to their original values.

Of course, most yakuza are just tribal sociopaths who merely pay lip service to the words. But in times like this every helping hand is welcome, and maybe, maybe for a few weeks, both the police and the yakuza can declare a peace treaty and work together to save lives and ensure the safety of the people of Japan. To some extent, the police have even given their tacit support to the yakuza aid efforts. That’s the spirit of ninkyodo. It’s also the spirit of many of the Japanese people. It is why I have no doubts that Japan will weather this crisis and come back stronger than ever.

Naoya Kaneko, the deceased Sumiyoshi-kai boss who was a friend and a source, once said, “In times of crisis, you learn the measure of a man.” To understand the real meaning of that you have to understand how the generally male-dominated and sexist yakuza define “a man.” The core of that is giri, a word that can be translated many different ways but which I interpret to mean: reciprocity. Today, the Japanese people and even the yakuza are measuring up very well to that standard of behavior.

Jake Adelstein was a reporter for the Yomiuri Shinbun, Japan’s largest newspaper, from 1993 to 2005. From 2006 to 2007 he was the chief investigator for a U.S. State Department-sponsored study of human trafficking in Japan. Considered one of the foremost experts on organized crime in Japan, he works as a writer and consultant in Japan and the United States. He is also the public relations director for the Washington, D.C.-based Polaris Project Japan, which combats human trafficking and the exploitation of women and children in the sex trade. He is the author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan (Vintange).

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-03-18/japanese-yakuza-aid-earthquake-relief-efforts/

今回の地震で、毎日泣いてはいけないと自分自身に言い聞かす毎日がつづいている。泣きたいのは現地にいるひとたちなのに。大人の私たちは冷静に日常を過ごすことが、大事なことなのかもしれないのに、なかなかそうもいかない。テレビやラジオや新聞から流れてくる情報はあまりにも多過ぎて、視覚、聴覚、で受け入れる莫大な量に思考回路は回りきれず、身体的な部分、心臓の鼓動と息だけがばくばく言っている状態が連日つづく。まいにち生存者がひとりでもたくさんでてくること、ひとりでもたくさんの名前があがることを全身で願いながら息をするのも忘れて映像を見ている。

どうしてこんなに気持ちがぐらぐらとしているのか。ただ、ぼんやりと分かることは、偶然にも京都という場所に住んでいたsajikは、地震から逃れることができたけれども、同じ日本という場所の、ほんの少しの距離の先にいるひとたちに、声をかけることも、手をさすってあげることも、寒くて震えているひとたちを抱きしめることすらできないのだ。自分自身はあまりにも無力で何も出来ないことに、これほどまでに悔しく、無力なもどかしい思いをしたことはなかった。

何かできれば、何か何か何か何か何かと焦りばかりが常にでてきて、焦る思いは自分自身をも破壊しそうになるから、yuさんの伝えてくれたこのブログが「何か」のひとつになってくれた。

お金や権力が直接的な力になるのが現実で、個人個人の思う、願いや祈りはもしかしたら無力なのかもしれない。だけど信じたい。
けれど、願いや思いがあるからこそ、人は信じられるだろうし、前に進めるのも事実だと思う。
今回、ひとの持つ欲が産み出したものたちによる、悲惨な結果を目の当たりにして、吐き気がすることも多々あったし、同時に本来のやさしさやひとを思いやる愛をはっきりと感じて、泣いたことも事実。

その両方をもつ人間だからこそ、きっと復興もできるし、希望も持てるのだと信じている。

ひとりでもたくさんのひとたちが生きること。
生きていてほしい、生きて未来に繋いで行ってほしいという思い。生きていれば必ず何かが変わると信じてる。
時間はかかるだろうけれど、答えも出せるだろうし未来を見ることも出来る。

愛があるから世界は美しいと信じたい。生きていてください。

2011.3 kim sajik



Tous les jours depuis ce tremblement de terre, je me dis qu'il ne faut pas pleurer.
Les gens qui ont vraiment envie de pleurer, ce sont ceux qui sont sinistrés et qui restent sur place.
Nous somme des adultes et il faudrait rester calme mais je n'y arrive pas vraiment.
Trop d'informations qui viennent de la télé, de la radio et des journaux que je reçois avec la vision et l'ouïe.
Les circuits de ma pensée ne fonctionnent plus très bien. Alors, je sens juste mon corps, le son de mon cœur prenant tous ces jours.
Tous les jours je souhaite de tout cœur qu'ils retrouvent plus de gens en vie, que plus de noms soient prononcés; je suis les images avec attention.

Mes sentiments sont dans une telle confusion.
Je sais que par hasard, moi, Sajik qui habite à Kyoto, j'ai échappé au tremblement de terre.
Mais dans le même pays, le Japon, des gens sont juste un peu plus loin, et je ne peux ni leur parler ni toucher leur mains, ni les embrasser alors qu'ils souffrent du froid.
Je ne me suis jamais senti aussi inutile et vide. Je regrette énormément de ne rien pouvoir faire pour ceux qui restent sur place.

Si, je veux faire quelque chose, quelque chose, quelque chose, quelque chose, quelque chose quelque chose…
Je m'impatiente en permanence et cette impatience tente de casser mon être.
Et ce blog auquel Yu m'a proposé de participer est devenu ce "quelque chose".

La réalité qui domine ce monde est celle de l'argent et du pourvoir. Face à cette force écrasante l'espoir et les désirs d'un être n'ont pas leur place.
Mais je veux croire.
C'est avec cet espoir que l'on peut croire, qu'on peut avancer dans la réalité.
Cette fois-ci, face à ceux qui n'ont pensé qu'à leur profit, avec pour résultat cette misère, j'avais envie de vomir plusieurs fois.
Mais face à eux il y a aussi ceux qui donnent sans compter gentillesse et amour.

Je crois que, parce que l'être humain possède ces deux choses, il y aura la reconstruction et l'espoir.

Vivre, sauver ne serait-ce qu'une personne.
Ce sont les vivants qui feront et changeront le futur.
Cela prendra du temps mais nous donnerons une réponse à cette catastrophe, nous verrons le futur.

Je veux croire que, parce qu'il y a l'amour, ce monde est beau.
Vivez s'il vous plaît, restez en vie.

Mars 2011 Kim Sajik