Gambarou Nippon – Imagi(ni)ng Japan post 3/11
Conference Programme
3 September 2014, B104
1-3pm
(Together with the Centre for Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies)
Roundtable discussion with Iwabuchi Koichi (Monash University)
5pm-8pm Khalili Lecture Theatre (KLT)
Screening: Land of Hope (courtesy of Third Window Films)
4 September 2014; B104
8.45
Registration
9.00-9.15
Opening Remarks and Welcome
9.15-10.00
Keynote Speech, Iwabuchi Koichi (Monash University): In the shadow of the vocal majorities:
On the responsiveness to unsubstantiated fear
10.00-10.30 Coffee Break
10.30-12.00 Session 1 – Reframing Japan in Film and Television Drama
Kristina Iwata-Weickgenannt (Nagoya University): Gendering ‗Fukushima‘: Sono Shion‘s
Film The Land of Hope
Akiko Nagata (SOAS, University of London): „Kaseifu no Mita‟ – Reaffirming the Significance
of Family in Television Drama after 3.11
Dolores Martinez (SOAS, University of London/Oxford University): Nakamura's Fish Story –
An Imagination of Disaster
12.00-13.30 Lunch Break
13.30-15.00 Session 2 – Performing 3/11 – Theatre and Photography
Kyoko Iwaki (Goldsmiths College): Theatre of Here-and-There: After the Fukushima Nuclear
Catastrophe
Barbara Geilhorn (Waseda University): Challenging Reality with Fiction – Imagining
Alternative Readings of Japanese Society in Post-Fukushima Theatre
Pablo Figueroa (Waseda University): Everything‘s Changed, Nothing‘s Different: Subversion
and Nostalgia in Artistic Photography of the Fukushima Disaster
15.00-15.30 Coffee Break
15.30-17.30 Session 3 – (Inter)National discourses on Japan
Griseldis Kirsch (SOAS, University of London): Japan‘s ‗Charm Attack‘ – NHK World and
Soft Power post 3/11
Christopher P. Hood (Cardiff University): Uniting a Nation: Transportation and Responses to
the 3/11 Disaster
Yohei Koyama (SOAS, University of London): Transliterating ―Fukushima‖: Post-Nuclear
Accident Representation of the Word "Fukushima" Transcribed into the Katakana Phonetic
Script
17.30-18.00 Final Discussion – Making sense of Fukushima
Abstracts
Koichi Iwabuchi, Monash Asia Institute, Monash University
The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and its aftermath have had tremendous impacts on Japanese
society. Alternative kinds of interpersonal bonds, social movements and self-reflexive
imaginations have been formulating among a wide range of people. At the same time, there
has emerged an unambiguous socio-political chasm in terms of how to deal with unresolved
issues of Fukushima as well as resuming operation of nuclear power plants. This tendency
has become even more prominent under the conservative leadership of the Abe cabinet.
Crucially what has not been well attended and even suppressed in the name of the
prevention of ―fûhyôhigai (suffering from groundless rumors)‖ is people‘s elusive but strong
sense of fear over scientifically unverifiable impacts of radioactive contamination on human
bodies. This paper will examine how this has been occurring with some focus on the recent
documentary film A2BC (2013) and a series of reaction and quarrel stirred up by
the Oishinbo story about radioactive contamination in Fukushima, which was published in a
popular weekly comic magazine in April-May 2014, and consider how we caringly attend to
people‘s unsubstantiated fear.
Kristina Iwata-Weickgenannt, Nagoya University
Gendering „Fukushima‟: Sono Shion‟s film The Land of Hope
A lot of the cultural representations of the Fukushima nuclear disaster take a distinctly
documentary approach. In the area of film, for instance, documentaries account for the
majority of all works. A similar approach can also be seen in the first feature film on the topic
released in late 2012. Although set in the near future, Sono Shion‘s Land of Hope is clearly
modeled after the events at Fukushima and exhibits strong documentary traits.
The film centers on the fate of two families, the Suzukis and the Onos, after a serious
incident at a nearby nuclear power plant. While the Suzukis are forced to evacuate their
home immediately and find themselves spending weeks in an overcrowded shelter, their
neighbors‘ house is located just a few meters outside the mandatory evacuation zone.
Having started out by confronting the audience with the absurdity of such demarcations in
the face of invisible nuclear threat, the film quickly moves on to the issue of ‗voluntary‘
evacuation that eventually splits up the Ono family.
I will show that while presenting a strong case against the use of nuclear power, by focusing
on the protection of unborn life as (only) motif for voluntary evacuation, the film ties in with
the general mood of the post-3.11 anti-nuke protests. Women, and in particular mothers –
who due to their double capacity as producers/reproducers are easily perceived as
representing the ‗core‘ of Japanese society – have been at the center of protests from early
on. I argue that by connecting ‗voluntary‘ evacuation to the ‗natural‘ motherly urge to protect
future generations, The Land of Hope makes a powerful emotional appeal while at the same
time successfully diverting attention from questions of responsibility, thus effectively depoliticizing nuclear threat.
Akiko Nagata, SOAS, University of London
„Kaseifu no Mita‟ – Reaffirming the significance of family in television drama after 3.11
This paper focuses on how families are represented in Japanese television drama after the
Great East Japan Earthquake in March 11, 2011. Through the analysis of a popular
television drama ‗Kaseifu no Mita (I‘m Mita, Your Housekeeper),‘ which won that year‘s
highest viewer ratings in the television drama category, family values can be learned. The
story focuses on the Asuda Family, a dysfunctional family struggling after the death of the
mother and a housekeeper named Mita. As the family slowly re-establish their family bond
from the help of their housekeeper, the theme corresponds to the Japanese society
struggling to rebuild after the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake. The experience
of the earthquake can be linked to the popularity of the drama, where people reconfirmed the
importance of family in real life. In order to study family values, I will examine ‗Kaseifu no
Mita‘ to highlight how family are dealt in modern Japan.
Dolores Martinez, SOAS/Oxford
Nakamura's Fish Story – an imagination of disaster.
Nakamura's film about Armageddon Japanese-style was not a great success in the country.
This science fiction film is worth examining because, made before the 3/11 crisis, it
imaginatively predicted, with a comic twist, the national (and global) responses to an end of
the world scenario. In this paper, I want to examine this portrayal of the Japanese national
'character' and link it to the various responses after Japan's disaster. Was Nakamura's film
too close to the bone to be well received by Japanese?
Kyoko Iwaki, Goldsmiths College
The Politics of the Senses: Takayama Akira‟s Atomized Theatre after Fukushima
What distinguishes nuclear catastrophes from all other natural and man-made disasters is,
that ultimately, it is an invisible threat. Depending on the ever-capricious whim of nature, a
colossal amount of malefic substances are widely diffused. Consequently, the geographical
boundary of here, in the safety zone, and, there, in the hazardous area, disintegrates, as
even a city located hundreds of kilometers away is not free of radiation hotspots. Simply, a
nuclear catastrophe is imperceptible—both visually and physically. Now when the theatre
tries to represent this imperceptible threat, in order to change the undesired external
condition, using the words of direct political action becomes, arguably, counterproductive.
On the contrary, theatres should strive to change the internal conditions of the people by
developing an aesthetic language that ‗interrupts‘ their ‗customary logic‘:re-activating their
senses preceding any action (Lehmann, 2002; Bourdieu, 2000). In this paper, I will refer to
work of Takayama Akira (Tokyo Heterotopias) to discuss how the political is emerging
differently—not in the form of direct action—in the post-Fukushima theatre. As Terayama
Shūji once asserted, revolutions in Tokyo could perhaps be more affectively be achieved ‗not
by dynamites but the subtle attentiveness‘ (Terayama, 1982). After Fukushima, it may be
better for artists to subtly go beneath the everyday surface by developing a theatre language
of the senses, rather than going beyond the status quo by developing a language analogous
to an activist.
Barbara Geilhorn, Waseda University
Challenging Reality with Fiction – Imagining Alternative Readings of Japanese Society in
Post-Fukushima Theatre
Japanese theater people responded to March 11 in various ways. Shortly after the traumatic
events actors and playwrights organized charity performances in Japan and overseas, and
theater companies toured evacuation centers and temporary housings.
Besides
encouraging the people living in the affected areas using the means of theater, local troupes
started reconstructing theaters or other local facilities.
Right after 3.11, there were few
performances that did not take the disaster into account at all. Directors changed part of the
running production, and a few months later, the first plays responding to the disaster were
put on stage.
In autumn 2011 Festival/Tokyo, which is an important annual festival of
contemporary Japanese and international theater, has been the first concerted attempt to
create and show theatre that addressed the catastrophe and its aftermath. This paper will
investigate the reaction of theater people to the calamity and explore how they engage in the
current debate about ―Fukushima‖. My analysis will focus on Genzaichi (Current Location,
2012), a recent play by Okada Toshiki (*1973), who is one of the most interesting
playwrights and directors of the younger generation in Japan and is gaining a growing
audience abroad. The play addresses the issue from the position of Tokyo inhabitants
experiencing the fear of nuclear threat. I will discuss how Okada explores the political
potentialities of theatrical space in times of crisis and scrutinize the significance of slow
dramaturgy in his attempt to engage audiences‘ critical thinking. In addition, the paper
argues for a major turning point in the work of Okada as triggered by the catastrophe.
Pablo Figueroa, Waseda University
Everything‟s Changed, Nothing‟s Different: Subversion and Nostalgia in Artistic Photography
of the Fukushima Disaster
The Fukushima triple disasters caused widespread anxiety among people throughout Japan.
Despite official claims of improvements in nuclear safety, citizens feel that the attitudes of
the government and the nuclear industry fail to address public concerns about radiation as
well as the psychological hardships faced by 3.11 victims. This paper will interrogate
photographic discourses of political subversion and nostalgia surrounding the Fukushima
disaster. Moreover, it will argue that beyond superficial measures, national policies do not
pay enough attention to social perceptions of betrayal and memory. In doing so, it will
attempt to shed light into cultural texts of power, politics, and space. The research will draw
upon ethnographic fieldwork, scholarly analysis of the Fukushima disaster, and cultural
criticism.
Griseldis Kirsch, SOAS, University of London
Japan‘s ‗Charm Attack‘ – NHK World and Soft Power post 3/11
The NHK world service, the English-language programme broadcast worldwide via satellite
and on the internet, constitutes one of the mainstream media sources about Japan. While
foreign media will often concentrate on negative news surrounding the issues in the
Fukushima Dai‘ichi nuclear complex, NHK World provides the Japanese accounts of the
same matter. Furthermore, other than the more alternative, often critical sources on the
internet, NHK News provides viewers with different accounts on Japan, which is also
conveyed in programmes such as Kawaii International and Journeys in Japan, sometimes
making use of internationally renowned celebrities such as Kitano Takeshi (Takeshi‟s Art
Beat).
Making use of Joseph Nye‘s concept of soft power, I will analyse the scope and content of
the programmes on offer to see to what extent they can constitute an alternative discourse
on Japan post-3/11 and whether they help reframing perceptions after 3/11. By looking at
comments on the internet, I will also attempt to work out to what extent this ‗charm attack‘
has been accomplished and which images of Japan are being discussed in the world wide
web.
Christopher P. Hood, Cardiff University
Uniting a Nation: Transportation and Responses to the 3/11 Disaster
On 11 March 2011, as people watched the images of the tsunami sweep across everything
in its path, one of the most memorable sights was of the destruction inflicted upon Sendai
Airport. There were also some images of some railway lines that had been seemingly swept
away. What was missing were images of the iconic shinkansen (‗bullet train‘) and how it had
fared. As Japan began to rebuild after the devastation of 3/11, so ‗Gambare Nippon‘ became
the slogan behind which the country united and people were, in time, encouraged to travel to
Tōhoku to show their support for the revitalisation efforts. To do this, most would use planes
and the shinkansen.
This paper will look at the impact that the disaster had on the inter-city public transportation
system and what has happened subsequently. The paper will also look at the way in which
the Gambare Nippon was adopted by the transportation companies. The paper will conclude
by looking at the way in which the campaign has become entwined with the Tōkyō 2020
Olympics.
Yohei Koyama, SOAS, University of London
Transliterating “Fukushima”: post-nuclear accident representation of the word "Fukushima"
transcribed into the katakana phonetic script
What appears to be peculiar about the post-nuclear accident representation of Fukushima is
how the word ―Fukushima‖ has been commonly transliterated into the katakana phonetic
script. The materialistic dimension of Japanese language is characterized by the use of three
different notations – namely, hiragana, katakana and kanji. Hiragana is a Japanese system
of syllabic writing; katakana is another Japanese system of syllabic for writing foreign words
and notions; and kanji is the Chinese ideogram. Notably, the words ―Hiroshima‖ and
―Nagasaki‖ have long been transliterated also into katakana when associated with the
nuclear bombs. But does this transliteration only mean the fact that ―Fukushima‖ has been
internationally recognized as much as ―Hiroshima‖ and ―Nagasaki‖ have?
There should be much more to this issue, especially when considering how the word
―Fukushima‖ transliterated into katakana has come to signify only ―nuclear accident‖,
―radiation‖, ―contamination‖ and the like, as if the whole prefecture has become the center of
devastation (Gill, Steger and Slater 2013). It does no longer seem to represent the
geographical and socio-cultural features of the prefecture. Moreover, there appears to be a
tendency among the Japanese population outside Fukushima to draw an imaginary line of
demarcation between ―Fukushima‖ and their own physical locations in order to secure a
sense of safety in the nuclear accident aftermath (Ikeda 2013). And the transliteration of the
word ―Fukushima‖ seems to be interlocked with this imaginary demarcation of ―Fukushima‖.
I would like to examine how (differently) the word ―Fukushima‖ transcribed into katakana is
represented in the nuclear accident aftermath; why the katakana phonetic script is used to
represent ―Fukushima‖; and how this transliteration of the word ―Fukushima‖ and our
imaginary demarcation of ―Fukushima‖ may be interlocked with each other.