ABSTRACT
Several dramatic developments have overturned Japan's environmental discourse: the March 11, 2011, “triple disaster” (the 9.0 magnitude earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown at Fukushima, hereafter noted as 3.11); the ensuing and ongoing anti-nuclear movement; and growing antipathy toward the central government. An urgent call for greater local empowerment has crystallized amid this confluence of phenomena, empowerment to be informed by greater self-sufficiency at the grassroots level. Previously, Japanese self-empowerment initiatives had emerged to combat isolated environmental threats, variously winning short-term traction within local populations. These movements have recently declined, replaced by a more comprehensive, integrated discourse that locates environmental concerns within the contexts of energy policy, reconstruction, and human safety. Eclipsed by the horrors unleashed by 3.11, therefore, issue-based environmental activism all but vanished in post-disaster Japan. Taking its place, a new generation of environmental counter measures has coalesced around ideals like community, self-sufficiency, and resilience.
