Who is Goshi Hosono and why should you care?

Goshi Hosono, a politician in the Democratic Party of Japan, House of Representatives, recently became the Minister of the Environment. He has been one of the key middlemen between government officials and TEPCO since the Fukushima Nuclear crisis. He is now is also in charge of developing the compensation packages for the victims of Fukushima. Hosono has recently been promoted to the position of Japan's Environment Minister after Prime Minister Noda replaced Kan. Before the March 11th earthquake, he represented Shizuoka Prefecture District 5, which houses the Hamaoka Nuclear Plant, deemed unsafe for operation soon after the Fukushima accident. He graduated from Kyoto University from the Faculty of Law. With a strong background in law and politics, and not nuclear science, many critics question whether he can make the best decisions regarding nuclear policy.

In his first interview as Environmental Minister on September 4th, Hosono made some controversial remarks. 「福島の痛みを日本全体で分かち合うことが国としての配慮だ], which means "everybody in Japan must share the pain of Fukushima". Within the same article, he also talks about Fukushima's local government refusal to house the storage facilities of the radioactive waste within the prefecture. His remark does not explicitly say that officials have decided to store the radioactive waste in other prefectures around Japan, however, his nuance and its relation to other topics reported in the article suggest that is what might come to be.

As Hosono's debut interview as Environmental Minister began to receive both national and international attention, NHK News pulled the story from their website. Luckily, the news cannot be erased from the newspapers which was released on September 4, 2011. Below is the report.

http://www.nhk.or.jp/lnews/fukushima/6055362251.html
http://www.nhk.or.jp/lnews/fukushima/6055362251.html
[From NHK News Japanese (4:42PM JST 9/4/2011):
原発事故で放射性物質に汚染されたがれきや土壌の最終処分場について細野環境大臣は４日の会見で「福島の痛みを日本全体で分かち合うことが国としての配慮だ」と述べ、福島県以外に設けたいという考えを示しました。

Minister of the Environment Hosono said in the September 4 press conference that "it is the consideration of the national government [or as Japan as the nation] to share the pain of Fukushima by everyone [or everywhere] in Japan", reiterating his intention to create a final processing facility outside Fukushima Prefecture for debris and dirt contaminated with radioactive materials from the nuclear accident.

これは４日行われた就任会見で、細野環境大臣が明らかにしました。原発事故で放射性物質に汚染されたがれきや放射性物質を取り除く除染作業で出た土壌などの処分をめぐっては、先月、菅前総理大臣が福島県の佐藤知事に対し、一時的に管理する中間貯蔵施設を県内に整備する方向で検討していることやその施設を最終処分場にすることは考えていないという意向を伝えています。

The September 4 press conference was his first as the Minister of the Environment. Regarding the disposal of the contaminated debris and dirt removed by the decontamination work, ex-Prime Minister Kan told Governor of Fukushima Sato last month that the national government was proceeding with the plan to create a temporary storage facility in Fukushima but it had no intention of turning this facility into a final processing facility.

４日の会見で細野大臣は、中間貯蔵施設について「具体的な場所や保管しておく期間については地元の理解がなくては進めることができない」と述べ、施設を設ける場所などについては今後、地元と十分話し合ったうえで決めたいという考えを示しました。

In the September 4 press conference, Hosono said of the temporary storage facility, "We won't proceed without consulting the local people in deciding the specific location and the duration of the storage", indicating the details will be worked out after consultation with the local people.

また、最終処分場については中間貯蔵施設とは別だという認識を示した上で、「福島の痛みを日本全体で分かち合うことが国としての配慮ではないかと思っている。福島を最終処分場にはしないということは方針としてできる限り貫きたい」と述べ、福島県以外に設けたいという考えを示しました。

As to the final processing facility, he said he considered it separate from the temporary storage facility, and said further, "I believe it should be the consideration of the national government [or Japan as the nation] to share the pain of Fukushima by everyone in Japan [or everywhere in Japan]. It is my intention to stick to the plan that the final processing facility will never be built in Fukushima", reiterating his idea of creating the final processing facility outside Fukushima Prefecture.]

Recently, many news articles as well as youtube videos of Japanese news reports have disappeared from the internet, including multiple articles accusing the Japanese government of hiring private companies to scan through news websites, private blogs, and twitter and expunge unfavorable news regarding the Fukushima meltdowns.

In this article from the Japan Times, Mr. Hosono is introduced as strong leader, who is going to reshape nuclear policy. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110913f1.html. If you'd like to hear more from Mr. Goshi Hosono himself, feel free to read through his blog written in Japanese.

As time continues to pass from the initial disaster, and as the clean-up efforts progress, there are still a lot of serious decisions that will be decided by officials, led by Mr. Hosono. The radioactive waste needs to be stored somewhere, and the time is coming when the decision needs to be made as to where. In fact, 76 cylinders of reprocessed radioactive material returned to Japan today from Britain, according to an article from the Japan Times. Protesters greeted the shipment with signs that said, "Keep Nuclear Waste Out". Although the final resting spot of the waste has not been determined, it is now sitting in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture. 900 more of these cylinders are scheduled to be transported between Japan and the UK within the next 10 years. Where will they end up? Is the transport of these materials secure? How many prefectures will have to "share the pain of Fukushima" by housing these cylinders of nuclear waste scheduled to arrive?

66 years later

Today is the 66th anniversary of the morning the Americans dropped the bomb on Japan. As I wrote that line, I realized how ingrained it is to use the passive voice when talking about that event. "The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima."

This year the reminders of the past have a new significance. Anti-nuclear activists are using the powerful emotions of this day to rally in Hiroshima, as well as Tokyo against nuclear power in Japan. The movement has become a lot stronger than it was a few months ago, directly after the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown in Fukushima. Before that, nuclear power was hardly protested against at all. I listened in on a conversation between some advocates who approached us at a "Save Shizuoka"rally. The Hamaoka reactors are just almost as old and built quite similarly to the Fukushima plants. Also, they are a similar proximity to the coastline, and finally, local residents had been protesting it's existence due to some malfunctions and safety readings around the plant. I listened to an activist explain to Chu that nobody would take their flyers while trying to talk about dangers, but now, things have changed and people approach him to learn more about it.

Many people have begun to reconsider their opinions on whether nuclear power is needed, and if so to what degree, cost, consequence.

Even the Prime Minister, Kan, talked about the nuclear power today here.

I'll admit that I've jumped on the same bandwagon that many others did after the Fukushima meltdown. Part of the reason for that was my own proximity to the plants (a.k.a. same country, coastline). However, this does not compare to what life was like for those who lived through the atomic bombings during the final days of World War 2. After visiting Hiroshima, and the peace museum, where a collection of stories and relics from the attack are on display, you can get an idea of the aftereffects of our decisions to use the highly dangerous materials we've invented to harm ourselves and our environment.

The below link is a blurb I wrote after visiting the Peace Museum in 2007.

A visit to Hiroshima Post

The truth is...

The truth is, that I wanted to write about the state of affairs these days, but frankly, i'm just too exhausted. I'm sick of listening to it, reading about it, caring about it. I know this mentality is dangerous, but I'm taking a break from it.

So, I lied. I will not write about anything radioactive, though I will still continue to drink my water from my purified water tank and wash my leafy vegetables with soap, and soak them for a long time, before eating. I've also haven't put any bare feet (nor hands) into the ocean yet this summer, despite living a 5 minute walk from the shore and visiting it often.

It's a real shame to yearn for what we once had.

UPCOMING POST (6/8/2011) : The Continuance of the Daiichi's

In terms of the ongoing Fukushima Daiichi dilemna, alot is being covered up, criticized, leaked.

With conflicting stories and government ambiguity, most people don't know what to believe and have no choice but to put it into the back of their mind and just keep living their life.

I'll write about my own experience about what news articles I've read, which ones I believe and don't believe, what my activist friends are talking about, what a Japanese protest looks like, and what I'm still doing living here despite my feelings of mistrust and confusion.

My story will come the next few days. I need some time to review all the materials I've read over the past couple of months.

If you have anything you'd like to send which is critical for me to read and write about in relation to this subject, please send me the link by email or Facebook.

See you Wednesday!

Below:
A protest sign worn by a senior activist in Shizuoka ken, who opposes Hamaoka Power plant, where a controversial aging nuclear power plant, similar in design to Daiichi, sits next to the coast on a huge fault predicted for a huge earthquake.



Below:
His shirt reads "hantai" which means "against, or opposing" in Japanese.