* Please note this event starts at 7:00 pm, 30 minutes earlier than regular ICAS events.
* Feel free to circulate this invitation to friends or colleagues.

Data-driven Perspectives on Community Recovery in Tohoku
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Date: Thursday, April 11, 2013
Time: Door opens at 6:30pm, Program starts at 7:00pm Venue:Temple University Japan Campus, Azabu Hall
212/213
(access: http://www.tuj.ac.jp/maps/tokyo.html)
Speakers:
- Masaharu Tsubokura, MD, medical doctor at Soma Central Hospital in Fukushima and researcher at the Institute of Medical Science, the University of Tokyo
- Amina Sugimoto, MS, M.A. student in the Department of Global Health Policy, the University of Tokyo
- Daniel P. Aldrich, Ph.D., Professor, Purdue University, Political Science
Moderator: Kyle Cleveland, ICAS Associate Director
Admission: Free. Open to public
Language: English
RSVP: icas@tuj.temple.edu
* If you RSVP you are automatically registered. If
possible, we ask you to RSVP but we always welcome
participants even you do not RSVP.
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Overview

Two years on, the implications of the 3.11 Tsunami and Nuclear crisis is still being measured, as communities most affected by the disasters address the long-term consequences of these unprecedented events and assess the impact on public health and the viability of communities that were dramatically transformed by the crisis. For this event, scholars who are conducting on-the-ground research in Fukushima will present their findings and discuss the impact of these disasters on public health.

For this presentation Professor Daniel Aldrich (Purdue University, Political Science) will address "Factors tied to Mortality in Coastal Villages During the 3/11 Disasters," based on a dataset of 280 coastal villages that looks at the factors linked to higher levels of mortality among residents, including political, geographic, demographic, and social capital indicators.
Professor Aldrich will be joined by Amina Sugimoto and Masaharu Tsubokura from the University of Tokyo, whose work examines the impact of low level radiation exposure on public health in Fukushima. As a doctor at the Minami-Soma municipal general hospital, Dr.
Tsubokura and his colleagues published the first report on internal exposure to cesium radiation after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant incident, and continue to monitor the public health impact of the crisis. With Amina Sugimoto, an M.A. student in the Department of Global Health Policy at The University of Tokyo, Dr.
Tsubokura has been conducting research on the health impact of low level radiation exposure in the city of Minami-Soma (a town located 14 miles north of the Fukushima Daiichi Plant).


Speakers

Masaharu Tsubokura graduated from the medical school of the University of Tokyo in 2006. For five years, he had worked as a hematologist at a hospital in Tokyo. Since the Great East Japan Earthquake, he serves as a medical doctor at local hospitals in Fukushima (Minami-soma General Hospital since May 2011 and Soma Central Hospital since March 2012). Since April 2011, he also joined the Division of Social Communication System for Advanced Clinical Research at the Institute of Medical Science, the University of Tokyo, as a researcher. His main study has been on the assessment of levels and prevalence of internal exposure amongst the effected population in Fukushima, and the result of his work was published in JAMA. Currently, he has also been involved in stress-relief activities to support the individuals affected by the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster.

Amina Sugimoto graduated from Jacobs University in Germany with a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology in 2010. She obtained a master of science in 2013 at the department of Global Health Policy, the University of Tokyo. Her master's thesis was on the assessment of internal radiation exposure and its related risk factors amongst the residents of Minami-soma city, Fukushima. She has published two
papers: The voice of the most vulnerable: Lessons from the nuclear crisis in Fukushima, Japan was published in the Bulletin of World Health Organization; and The relationship between media consumption and health-related anxieties after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident is forthcoming in Plos One. She also has extensive experience living abroad, spending her childhood in Tanzania, Africa, and is also an alumna of the United World Collage of the Atlantic in the United Kingdom.

Professor Aldrich received his Ph.D. and M.A. in political science from Harvard University, an M.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, and his B.A from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Professor Aldrich has focused on the ways in which state agencies interact with contentious civil society over the siting of controversial facilities such as nuclear power plants, airports, and dams. His current research investigates how neighborhoods and communities recover from disasters. He has published two books, 23 peer-reviewed articles, and numerous op eds and articles for general audiences.His research has been funded by grants from the Abe Foundation, IIE Fulbright Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Reischauer Institute at Harvard University, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and Harvard's Center for European Studies. He has been a visiting scholar at the Japanese Ministry of Finance, the Institute for Social Science at Tokyo University, Harvard University, the Tata Institute for Social Science in Mumbai, the Institut d'etudes politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), and the East West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. He has spent more than three years conducting fieldwork in Japan, India and France.

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Robert Dujarric, Director
Kyle Cleveland, Associate Director
Eriko Kawaguchi, Coordinator

Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies
Temple University, Japan Campus
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