Social movements as networks of meanings: constructing a mental map of the 2012 antinuclear movement campaign in Japan

On March 11, 2011, a big earthquake and a subsequent tsunami struck Japan. The gigantic tsunami, sweeping away towns and villages and claiming the life of some twenty thousands in the northern pacific coastal regions of the main island, paralyzed the function of the nuclear power plants in Fukushima. Then in the afternoon next day, one nuclear power plant exploded, followed by further explosions of two other plants, causing the Japanese government to give a quick evacuation order to the residents living within a 20 kilometer radius from the nuclear plant site.

This nuclear power plant explosion and its aftermath, now collectively called “3.11,” incited numerous actions. On March 27, more than a thousand protesters took to the street in Tokyo, forming a first antinuclear demonstration since 3.11. On April 3, another demonstration took place in Kyoto with some 500 participants, according to the Asahi Newspaper on April 4. Since then, the entire Japan became caught up in a series of antinuclear campaigns.

By mid-April, antinuclear campaigns became widespread. A series of antinuclear demonstrations, talks, teach-ins, and forums were organized consecutively in numerous locations in Japan. Large campaign events were also organized. On June 11, a huge national campaign was orchestrated, with more than three thousands of civil organizations actively participating in the activities that covered the entire Japan. Another big event was organized on September 11. Again in some forty different locations, Japan was covered with the voice of denuclearization claims.

Seldom in recent history have Japanese people witnessed the protest action that has continued for such a long period of time. For the first six months, protest actions, campaigns and events, including talks and forums, were organized almost incessantly in various parts of Japan. In the Japanese denuclearization event calendar [3], of the ninety days during the period of May 1 to August 31, 2011, almost all are the days with multiple campaigns occurring somewhere in Japan.

Prompted by the resurgence of the antinuclear movement, studies have been published to inquire into the nature of post-3.11 protest actions with diverse concerns, such as environmental risks, food safety, community reconstruction, and protection of human life. Throughout these studies, one feature stands out as distinctive; they mainly rely on objectively observable events and factual information to grasp the nature of the movement. They emphasize measureable facts and observable aspects, together with other morphological features of the movement, as important references to their understanding. Thus one study depicts a large volume of participation and higher rates in the involvement of the young and inexperienced as a decisive feature of today’s antinuclear movements [4].

Morphological understanding based on aspects observable from the outside can reveal important features of civil activities, and thus is an indispensable part of an effort to understand today’s antinuclear movements. Yet, this approach, unless exercised with great care, could be misleading. Specifically, it runs the risk of lumping together mutually discrete movement campaigns. In an effort to grasp the nature of the anti-Iraq war movement in 2002–2004, for example, observers pointed out that a great magnitude of participation and involvement of the young and inexperienced had been important features of the campaign [5]. Such a characterization leaves us little with which to decipher the anti-Iraq war movement a decade ago and today’s antinuclear movement in Japan.

Antinuclear movement in present Japan needs to be understood in its own right. To attain this goal, cultural approach offers a viable route for alternative understanding. Cultural approach is context-driven; it emphasizes traditions, ways of life, thoughts and perceptions, and other properties residing in the minds of people in a specific cultural milieu. It provides us with a tool with which to probe deep into the subtleties, and this should lead us to an enriched understanding of the movement action.