ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some broad implications of disaster and pre-carity before turning to the realm of cultural representations. Specifically, Wago Ryoichi's disaster poetry is analyzed as one of the most striking examples of calamitous literary precarity. The dimension of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima is less easily circumscribed. The nuclear incident in particular was followed by an information tsunami and a staggering amount of non-stop international data production. Arguably, nuclear power plants (NPP's) all over the world tend to be built in structurally weak regions such as Fukushima. In the same way, the precarious financial dependence of host municipalities on NPP-related subsidies and donations from utilities can hardly be called a uniquely Japanese phenomenon. Wago's criticism of post-3/11 nuclear policies and his warning against social amnesia thus appear closely linked to his resistance against the exclusion of Fukushima and "Fukushima" from Japan.
