Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture
Japan Fieldwork Workshop

Global Fukushima and Two Australia-Japan Relationships

Alexander Brown, Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia

February 24th, 2017
>From 18:30-20:00
Room 301, 3F, Building 10, Sophia University

Global Fukushima and Two Australia-Japan Relationships

When Mirrar elder Yvonne Margarula, heard about the explosion at the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, she wrote to United Nations
General
Secretary Ban Ki Moon expressing her concern that uranium from Australia
was likely to have played a role in the disaster. The Ranger mine, one
of
Australia's largest uranium mines, is located in Yvonne's traditional
country in the midst of the World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park.
In
her letter, she expressed her feelings of sorrow and regret that the
poison
that she has been fighting so hard to keep in the ground was having an
impact on people in Japan. Further investigation by a Joint Standing
Committee of the Australian Senate revealed that Australian uranium had
indeed been used at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The tragedy of the Fukushima disaster has re-energised anti-uranium
activism in Australia. Anti-nuclear activists have consistently
referenced
the Japanese disaster as part of their protests and a number have
travelled
to Japan to develop connections with the anti-nuclear movement.
Similarly
in Japan, a number of activists and intellectuals have sought to develop
relationships with the anti-uranium movement in Australia as part of a
growing transnational consciousness that can also be seen in the
opposition
to Japan's proposed nuclear technology exports. The uranium industry,
too,
has been unable to ignore the impact of Fukushima both on global uranium
prices and on the industry's social license. A number of important
uranium
miners, including major Japanese investment houses, have downgraded or
postponed investments in the industry since Fukushima. Uranium serves as
the lynchpin for two Australia-Japan relationships. One based on uranium
mining investment and nuclear energy development. The other on anti-
nuclear
activism, indigenous rights and sustainability. In this paper, I will
discuss the growing solidarity between Australian and Japanese anti-
nuclear
activists and the impact of this transnational movement on investment
decisions that will have a major long-term impact on the future of
nuclear
power.

Bio
Alexander Brown is a writer, researcher and translator based in the city
of
Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia. He completed his PhD at the
University of Wollongong in 2015 focusing on the anti-nuclear movement
in
post-Fukushima Japan. His work has appeared in The Asia-Pacific Journal:
Japan Focus and Emotion, Space and Society. His most recent publication,
'The Global Hiroba: ', co-authored with Catherine Bender, was recently
published in the edited collection The Practice of Freedom: Anarchism,
Geography and the Spirit of Revolt (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016).
Alexander
is active in movements for social change in and between Australia and
Japan. More information about his work is available on his website at
kemblatranslations.com.

Institute of Comparative Culture (ICC) Sophia University 7-1 Kioicho,
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8554, JAPAN
+81-3-3238-4082 / +81-3-3238-4081(fax) / Email diricc@sophia.ac.jp /
Web: http://icc.fla.sophia.ac.jp/

--
David H. Slater, Ph.D.
Director of the Institute of Comparative Culture
Professor of Cultural Anthropology
Faculty of Liberal Arts, Graduate Program in Japanese Studies
Sophia University, Tokyo