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Genpatsu Jiko to ‘Shoku’: Shijō, Komyunikēshon, Sabetsu (The Nuclear Disaster and ‘Food’. The Market, Communication, Discrimination)

Genpatsu Jiko to ‘Shoku’: Shijō, Komyunikēshon, Sabetsu (The Nuclear Disaster and ‘Food’. The... On 11 March 2021, Japan marked the tenth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. The solemn commemoration of this event is a timely occasion to discuss the book Genpatsu jiko to ‘shoku’: Shijō, komyunikeeshon, sabetsu, published in 2018 by Igarashi Yasumasa. Igarashi, a sociologist, was born in Kashiwashi, a suburban town located in Chiba prefecture 30 minutes from the centre of Tokyo and well known as an agricultural site for the cultivation of turnips. Kashiwashi turned into a radioactive hot spot, which led the author to become involved in a local task group in his hometown consisting of farmers, consumers, restaurateurs, and wholesalers concerned about the safety of the food in their town (3–7). In doing so, he assumed the dual role of an active member of the local community and a researcher who departed from his birthplace to study the economic and social impacts of the disaster on food from the disaster-affected prefectures of Fukushima, Ibaraki, Gunma, Chiba, and Tochigi. The book is divided into five chapters and augmented by an introduction and an afterword. As the title indicates, Igarashi examines the effects of the nuclear disaster on food from the dimensions of the economy, risk communication, and discrimination. The author has identified four tasks that need to be addressed: (a) assessment of scientific risks; (b) assessment of responsibility for the nuclear disaster; (c) economic revival including the primary industries; and (d) use of energy policies (8, 131). In the first chapter, the author traces how ‘harmful rumours’ have affected various food products such as cucumbers, ingen beans, rice, and bonito. Although a sociologist, Igarashi emphasises an economic perspective in his analysis of the effect of ‘harmful rumours’ on different food groups. The term ‘harmful rumour’ (fūhyō higai) became a key phrase in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster. The term can be primarily defined as economic damage that occurs when people who are exposed to a disaster or environmental pollution avoid food products, commodities, or land associated with the damaged area, leading to a price decline or a halt of economic transactions. Such economic damage may impair the work of food-related industries such as farming, fisheries, the souvenir industry, and food-processing; it may also take a toll on travel and sightseeing businesses (Sekiya 2011: 25). The spread of such ‘harmful rumours’ has not only caused consumers to avoid the purchase of food products from the disaster zones but has also revealed discriminatory practices against residents in the disaster areas, in particular food producers, and has highlighted the need for risk communication and greater transparency in communication between consumers and producers. Various scholars have discussed the phenomenon of ‘fūhyō higai’. In her work Radiation Brain Moms and Citizen Scientists, sociologist Aya Hirata Kimura critically discussed ‘fūhyō higai’ as a ‘mechanism of food policing’ (Kimura 2016: 32). Kimura argues: ‘Fūhyōhigai is a morally charged concept that redefines what might be simply described as changes in consumer preferences as regrettable misbehaviour based on false rumours. In a context of scientific uncertainty, fūhyōhigai is a powerful tool to demarcate certain views as rumour while legitimising others as fact. After the Fukushima accident, the concept was used to describe people who avoided foods from affected areas as fearmongers who caused much suffering to the food producers’ (Kimura 2016: 32–33). In contrast, Igarashi analyses the effect of ‘harmful rumours’ on the ratio of quantity to price of various food groups. The first food group, which was heavily affected by ‘harmful rumours’, includes asparagus, ingen beans, broccoli, and shiitake mushrooms, suffered declines in both quantity and price. The second food group, which includes cucumbers and tomatoes, saw a price increase and a decline in quantity. The third food group includes foods whose harvest had initially been suspended after the nuclear disaster, such as spinach and peaches. These products underwent a sharp price decline after the nuclear disaster but recovered in 2012 (29–30). Rice, a staple food product in Fukushima, continues to suffer from ‘harmful rumours’. Igarashi highlights discrepancies between the positive results of radiation monitoring and the remaining distrust in food products from Fukushima. Although rice harvested in 2012 passed almost a hundred percent of the monitoring tests (39) and did not exceed 50–80 becquerel per kilo (38), rice farmers in Fukushima have had to endure production losses, sharp price declines, and damage to the positive image of their brand. For instance, retail stores and large-scale supermarkets stores that place an emphasis on brands and indicate the origin of their goods sell rice from Fukushima less frequently. In contrast, rice from Fukushima is now frequently used for ready-made meals (nakashoku) such as boxed lunches and snacks that are sold in convenience stores that do not indicate the origin of the rice (44–45). In the second chapter, the author investigates the emergence of ‘good rumours’ and ‘bad rumours’. Igarashi argues that consumers seek information about the potential irradiation of food and the results of monitoring tests differently depending on geographical location. Igarashi refers to the work Thinking, Fast and Slow by economist Daniel Kahneman, who argues that human beings are driven by two different systems of thought. The first is fast, intuitive, and based on emotion, whereas the second is slower, more deliberate, and more logical (95–96; Kahneman 2011). Consumers who live farther away from the disaster regions adhere to the first system of thought, whereas consumers who live in Fukushima or the surrounding areas adhere to the second. 75% of consumers in Fukushima are well informed about the results of food monitoring tests of rice and sea food, whereas this applies only to 18% of all consumers in Hokkaido and to a mere seven percent in Okinawa (82). Based on data from the Consumers’ White Book 2017, Igarashi investigated the extent of reluctance to buy products from Fukushima of five groups of residents between 2013 and 2017: (1) residents in Fukushima prefecture; (2) residents in the southern Kantō region; (3) residents in disaster areas excluding Fukushima; (4) residents in Aichi prefecture; and (5) residents in Osaka and Hyōgo (81). While the reluctance of residents in Fukushima prefecture to buy food products derived from their own prefecture declined from more than 30% in February 2013 to less than 10% in February 2017, the reluctance of residents in the remaining disaster areas (except Fukushima) stood at 21% in 2013, rose to 24% in 2014, and then again declined to 15% in 2017. Igarashi also convincingly shows how ‘harmful rumours’ extended beyond Japan (89–93). Taiwan served as an example of how food products from the disaster-affected prefectures continued to be shunned for more than a decade before the Taiwanese government finally lifted the import ban on Japanese foods in February 2022 in an underlying effort to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) (Nikkei Asia 2022). However, the first system of thought may not only lead to a reluctance to buy food products but may also result in increased food purchases to support the disaster regions (101). This might explain the campaign Tabete ōen shiyō [Eat to Support], which was initiated by the government in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster with the aim of encouraging Japanese citizens to eat food products from the affected regions to support the farmers and fishermen and lessen the impact of the ‘harmful rumours’ (100–104; see also Kimura 2016: 7). Risk communication is addressed in the third chapter, which includes an example of education on radiation in schools in Belarus, a potential model for Japan (133–136). In this chapter, Igarashi is careful to avoid a confrontational interpretation of ‘harmful rumours’. His approach is conciliatory and directed towards creating a climate of collaboration, transparency, and mutual understanding between consumers and food producers. Chapter 4 contains perhaps the most critically engaged discussion. In this chapter, the author addresses various forms of discrimination, stigmatisation, and taboos that evolved in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster. Contrasting Japan with countries such as Norway, which is characterised by greater ethnic diversity and a system of public open debate (169–181), Igarashi argues that various forms of demagogy, stigmatisation, discrimination, and taboos continue to have a powerful impact on citizens in Japan. For instance, reports about Fukushima in the national news declined sharply only six months after the nuclear disaster (187). Igarashi convincingly describes the social pressures to comply with the government’s request to support the disaster-affected regions through eating their produce (tabete ôen) and the dilemma faced in particular by mothers in the disaster-affected regions who are reluctant to voice that they would rather prepare their own lunch boxes for their children as opposed to letting them take part in school lunches with questionable food safety due to radiation (196). Igarashi has assembled an impressive amount of information on how ‘harmful rumours’ continue to have an economic impact on different food items and how the spread of rumours can have the seemingly paradoxical effects of either rejecting food products from the affected regions or supporting the disaster regions as a national effort. Furthermore, the author has extensively researched examples of education on radiation in countries outside Japan such as Norway and Belarus and has incorporated his personal involvement in a task group in his hometown, adding an insider perspective. However, a more thorough engagement with the long-term impacts of radiation and a more thorough assessment of the potential roles of food producers and consumers as politically alert and active citizens would have added depth to the book. For instance, Igarashi mentions only in passing that foods such as mountain vegetables and mushrooms are more heavily affected by radiation on a long-term basis (134, 174). The acknowledgment of such observations does not lead to a more critical engagement with a long-term approach which could incorporate citizens in a more active way. This approach contrasts with other recent publications such as that of Aya Hirata Kimura, who has advocated an innovative form of citizen science as a means of self-protection and as a way to respond to powerful structures of food policing (Kimura 2016: 154). Igarashi’s approach also contrasts with a work by Nicolas Sternsdorff-Cisterna (2019) entitled Food Safety After Fukushima: Scientific Citizenship and the Politics of Risk. Sternsdorff-Cisterna advocates the concept of scientific citizenship as a strategy to navigate risk and trust in an environment of scientific uncertainty. Whereas Igarashi adheres to an approach of conciliation and mutual understanding, both Kimura and Sternsdorff-Cisterna emphasise the active role of citizens and take citizens’ distrust and scepticism of governmental food policies into account. However, this does not diminish the fact that Igarashi’s book represents a significant contribution to understanding how the long-term effects of the nuclear disaster extend beyond radiation and continue to hamper the lives of citizens in the disaster regions, both economically and socially. References Kahneman , Daniel . 2011 . Thinking, Fast and Slow . New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Kimura , Aya Hirata . 2016 . Radiation Brain Moms and Citizen Scientists: The Gender Politics of Food Contamination after Fukushima . Durham : Duke University Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Nikkei Asia. February 21, 2022 . Taiwan lifts import ban on Japan food linked to Fukushima disaster. Decade-old rules relaxed as Taipei seeks Tokyo’s support for its CPTPP bid . https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Trade/Taiwan-lifts-import-ban-on-Japan-food-linked-to-Fukushima-disaster. (Accessed March 2, 2022 ) Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Sekiya , Naoya . 2011 . Fūhyō higai: Sono Mekanizumu Wo Kangaeru (Harmful Rumours. Thinking about this Mechanism) . Tokyo : Kobunsha . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Sternsdorff-Cisterna , Nicolas . 2019 . Food Safety After Fukushima: Scientific Citizenship and the Politics of Risk . Honolulu : University of Hawai’i Press . Google Scholar Crossref Search ADS Google Preview WorldCat COPAC © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press in conjunction with the University of Tokyo. All rights reserved. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Social Science Japan Journal Oxford University Press

Genpatsu Jiko to ‘Shoku’: Shijō, Komyunikēshon, Sabetsu (The Nuclear Disaster and ‘Food’. The Market, Communication, Discrimination)

Social Science Japan Journal , Volume 25 (2): 4 – May 16, 2022

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Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press in conjunction with the University of Tokyo. All rights reserved.
ISSN
1369-1465
eISSN
1468-2680
DOI
10.1093/ssjj/jyac008
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

On 11 March 2021, Japan marked the tenth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. The solemn commemoration of this event is a timely occasion to discuss the book Genpatsu jiko to ‘shoku’: Shijō, komyunikeeshon, sabetsu, published in 2018 by Igarashi Yasumasa. Igarashi, a sociologist, was born in Kashiwashi, a suburban town located in Chiba prefecture 30 minutes from the centre of Tokyo and well known as an agricultural site for the cultivation of turnips. Kashiwashi turned into a radioactive hot spot, which led the author to become involved in a local task group in his hometown consisting of farmers, consumers, restaurateurs, and wholesalers concerned about the safety of the food in their town (3–7). In doing so, he assumed the dual role of an active member of the local community and a researcher who departed from his birthplace to study the economic and social impacts of the disaster on food from the disaster-affected prefectures of Fukushima, Ibaraki, Gunma, Chiba, and Tochigi. The book is divided into five chapters and augmented by an introduction and an afterword. As the title indicates, Igarashi examines the effects of the nuclear disaster on food from the dimensions of the economy, risk communication, and discrimination. The author has identified four tasks that need to be addressed: (a) assessment of scientific risks; (b) assessment of responsibility for the nuclear disaster; (c) economic revival including the primary industries; and (d) use of energy policies (8, 131). In the first chapter, the author traces how ‘harmful rumours’ have affected various food products such as cucumbers, ingen beans, rice, and bonito. Although a sociologist, Igarashi emphasises an economic perspective in his analysis of the effect of ‘harmful rumours’ on different food groups. The term ‘harmful rumour’ (fūhyō higai) became a key phrase in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster. The term can be primarily defined as economic damage that occurs when people who are exposed to a disaster or environmental pollution avoid food products, commodities, or land associated with the damaged area, leading to a price decline or a halt of economic transactions. Such economic damage may impair the work of food-related industries such as farming, fisheries, the souvenir industry, and food-processing; it may also take a toll on travel and sightseeing businesses (Sekiya 2011: 25). The spread of such ‘harmful rumours’ has not only caused consumers to avoid the purchase of food products from the disaster zones but has also revealed discriminatory practices against residents in the disaster areas, in particular food producers, and has highlighted the need for risk communication and greater transparency in communication between consumers and producers. Various scholars have discussed the phenomenon of ‘fūhyō higai’. In her work Radiation Brain Moms and Citizen Scientists, sociologist Aya Hirata Kimura critically discussed ‘fūhyō higai’ as a ‘mechanism of food policing’ (Kimura 2016: 32). Kimura argues: ‘Fūhyōhigai is a morally charged concept that redefines what might be simply described as changes in consumer preferences as regrettable misbehaviour based on false rumours. In a context of scientific uncertainty, fūhyōhigai is a powerful tool to demarcate certain views as rumour while legitimising others as fact. After the Fukushima accident, the concept was used to describe people who avoided foods from affected areas as fearmongers who caused much suffering to the food producers’ (Kimura 2016: 32–33). In contrast, Igarashi analyses the effect of ‘harmful rumours’ on the ratio of quantity to price of various food groups. The first food group, which was heavily affected by ‘harmful rumours’, includes asparagus, ingen beans, broccoli, and shiitake mushrooms, suffered declines in both quantity and price. The second food group, which includes cucumbers and tomatoes, saw a price increase and a decline in quantity. The third food group includes foods whose harvest had initially been suspended after the nuclear disaster, such as spinach and peaches. These products underwent a sharp price decline after the nuclear disaster but recovered in 2012 (29–30). Rice, a staple food product in Fukushima, continues to suffer from ‘harmful rumours’. Igarashi highlights discrepancies between the positive results of radiation monitoring and the remaining distrust in food products from Fukushima. Although rice harvested in 2012 passed almost a hundred percent of the monitoring tests (39) and did not exceed 50–80 becquerel per kilo (38), rice farmers in Fukushima have had to endure production losses, sharp price declines, and damage to the positive image of their brand. For instance, retail stores and large-scale supermarkets stores that place an emphasis on brands and indicate the origin of their goods sell rice from Fukushima less frequently. In contrast, rice from Fukushima is now frequently used for ready-made meals (nakashoku) such as boxed lunches and snacks that are sold in convenience stores that do not indicate the origin of the rice (44–45). In the second chapter, the author investigates the emergence of ‘good rumours’ and ‘bad rumours’. Igarashi argues that consumers seek information about the potential irradiation of food and the results of monitoring tests differently depending on geographical location. Igarashi refers to the work Thinking, Fast and Slow by economist Daniel Kahneman, who argues that human beings are driven by two different systems of thought. The first is fast, intuitive, and based on emotion, whereas the second is slower, more deliberate, and more logical (95–96; Kahneman 2011). Consumers who live farther away from the disaster regions adhere to the first system of thought, whereas consumers who live in Fukushima or the surrounding areas adhere to the second. 75% of consumers in Fukushima are well informed about the results of food monitoring tests of rice and sea food, whereas this applies only to 18% of all consumers in Hokkaido and to a mere seven percent in Okinawa (82). Based on data from the Consumers’ White Book 2017, Igarashi investigated the extent of reluctance to buy products from Fukushima of five groups of residents between 2013 and 2017: (1) residents in Fukushima prefecture; (2) residents in the southern Kantō region; (3) residents in disaster areas excluding Fukushima; (4) residents in Aichi prefecture; and (5) residents in Osaka and Hyōgo (81). While the reluctance of residents in Fukushima prefecture to buy food products derived from their own prefecture declined from more than 30% in February 2013 to less than 10% in February 2017, the reluctance of residents in the remaining disaster areas (except Fukushima) stood at 21% in 2013, rose to 24% in 2014, and then again declined to 15% in 2017. Igarashi also convincingly shows how ‘harmful rumours’ extended beyond Japan (89–93). Taiwan served as an example of how food products from the disaster-affected prefectures continued to be shunned for more than a decade before the Taiwanese government finally lifted the import ban on Japanese foods in February 2022 in an underlying effort to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) (Nikkei Asia 2022). However, the first system of thought may not only lead to a reluctance to buy food products but may also result in increased food purchases to support the disaster regions (101). This might explain the campaign Tabete ōen shiyō [Eat to Support], which was initiated by the government in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster with the aim of encouraging Japanese citizens to eat food products from the affected regions to support the farmers and fishermen and lessen the impact of the ‘harmful rumours’ (100–104; see also Kimura 2016: 7). Risk communication is addressed in the third chapter, which includes an example of education on radiation in schools in Belarus, a potential model for Japan (133–136). In this chapter, Igarashi is careful to avoid a confrontational interpretation of ‘harmful rumours’. His approach is conciliatory and directed towards creating a climate of collaboration, transparency, and mutual understanding between consumers and food producers. Chapter 4 contains perhaps the most critically engaged discussion. In this chapter, the author addresses various forms of discrimination, stigmatisation, and taboos that evolved in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster. Contrasting Japan with countries such as Norway, which is characterised by greater ethnic diversity and a system of public open debate (169–181), Igarashi argues that various forms of demagogy, stigmatisation, discrimination, and taboos continue to have a powerful impact on citizens in Japan. For instance, reports about Fukushima in the national news declined sharply only six months after the nuclear disaster (187). Igarashi convincingly describes the social pressures to comply with the government’s request to support the disaster-affected regions through eating their produce (tabete ôen) and the dilemma faced in particular by mothers in the disaster-affected regions who are reluctant to voice that they would rather prepare their own lunch boxes for their children as opposed to letting them take part in school lunches with questionable food safety due to radiation (196). Igarashi has assembled an impressive amount of information on how ‘harmful rumours’ continue to have an economic impact on different food items and how the spread of rumours can have the seemingly paradoxical effects of either rejecting food products from the affected regions or supporting the disaster regions as a national effort. Furthermore, the author has extensively researched examples of education on radiation in countries outside Japan such as Norway and Belarus and has incorporated his personal involvement in a task group in his hometown, adding an insider perspective. However, a more thorough engagement with the long-term impacts of radiation and a more thorough assessment of the potential roles of food producers and consumers as politically alert and active citizens would have added depth to the book. For instance, Igarashi mentions only in passing that foods such as mountain vegetables and mushrooms are more heavily affected by radiation on a long-term basis (134, 174). The acknowledgment of such observations does not lead to a more critical engagement with a long-term approach which could incorporate citizens in a more active way. This approach contrasts with other recent publications such as that of Aya Hirata Kimura, who has advocated an innovative form of citizen science as a means of self-protection and as a way to respond to powerful structures of food policing (Kimura 2016: 154). Igarashi’s approach also contrasts with a work by Nicolas Sternsdorff-Cisterna (2019) entitled Food Safety After Fukushima: Scientific Citizenship and the Politics of Risk. Sternsdorff-Cisterna advocates the concept of scientific citizenship as a strategy to navigate risk and trust in an environment of scientific uncertainty. Whereas Igarashi adheres to an approach of conciliation and mutual understanding, both Kimura and Sternsdorff-Cisterna emphasise the active role of citizens and take citizens’ distrust and scepticism of governmental food policies into account. However, this does not diminish the fact that Igarashi’s book represents a significant contribution to understanding how the long-term effects of the nuclear disaster extend beyond radiation and continue to hamper the lives of citizens in the disaster regions, both economically and socially. References Kahneman , Daniel . 2011 . Thinking, Fast and Slow . New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Kimura , Aya Hirata . 2016 . Radiation Brain Moms and Citizen Scientists: The Gender Politics of Food Contamination after Fukushima . Durham : Duke University Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Nikkei Asia. February 21, 2022 . Taiwan lifts import ban on Japan food linked to Fukushima disaster. Decade-old rules relaxed as Taipei seeks Tokyo’s support for its CPTPP bid . https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Trade/Taiwan-lifts-import-ban-on-Japan-food-linked-to-Fukushima-disaster. (Accessed March 2, 2022 ) Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Sekiya , Naoya . 2011 . Fūhyō higai: Sono Mekanizumu Wo Kangaeru (Harmful Rumours. Thinking about this Mechanism) . Tokyo : Kobunsha . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Sternsdorff-Cisterna , Nicolas . 2019 . Food Safety After Fukushima: Scientific Citizenship and the Politics of Risk . Honolulu : University of Hawai’i Press . Google Scholar Crossref Search ADS Google Preview WorldCat COPAC © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press in conjunction with the University of Tokyo. All rights reserved. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)

Journal

Social Science Japan JournalOxford University Press

Published: May 16, 2022

There are no references for this article.