ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 turns to the limited number of individuals who were consistent in warning of the dangers of nuclear power from before the Fukushima disaster. To consider the arguments of these individuals, this chapter focuses the attention on several more broadly known scientists and independent journalists, including Taketani Mitsuo, Takagi Jinzaburō, Koide Hiroaki, Hirose Takashi, Kamata Satoshi, and Tahara Sōichirō. The author shows how several Japanese scientists presented the most comprehensive and thorough arguments among those calling for an end to nuclear power after Fukushima. To advance their respective positions, these scientists combined their specialist scientific knowledge with ideas from the social sciences (e.g. the critique of instrumental rationality as advanced by Frankfurt school figures such as Horkheimer or Adorno, or economic dependency theory). On the other hand, Japan’s scientists and independent journalists have been just as fiercely critical of the mainstream media as they have been of politicians and the government. This is because they understand that, while both newspapers and television stations have adopted a more sceptical stance towards nuclear power following Fukushima, these forms of media nevertheless continue to function as part of the political structural mechanics of Japan’s pursuit of pro-nuclear national policies.
