ABSTRACT
This chapter written against the background of the triple disaster of 11 March 2011, when a major earthquake and tsunami triggered nuclear explosions and meltdowns in Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. This results in worst nuclear accident in history, which contaminated vast areas of Eastern and North-eastern Japan and is still spreading radiation worldwide. The chapter re-examines the history of anti-nuclear power protests in Japan, focusing on the second half of the 1970s, which witnessed the first stage of nationwide, urban-centred movement. Based on contemporary movement publications, the following questions addressed: how was gender implicated in these struggles over nuclear power and citizenship? What kind of gendered images were deployed and constructed in analyses of nuclear power and 'nuclear society'? Which roles did male activists ascribe to women in the movement? What embodied practices did those women engage in, and how did they frame their own activism? And, not least, what may be the 'subversive effects' of these discourses and acts?.
