Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-v2ckm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-17T18:42:53.666Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster and Civil Actions as a Social Movement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Paul Jobin
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In addition to a citizen initiative to launch a criminal lawsuit against Tepco and Japanese state executives over their responsibility for the Fukushima nuclear disaster, more than thirty collective civil actions have been launched across the country. Thus far, thirteen verdicts have been handed down, with a large majority of courts ruling against Tepco and the state. Despite disappointingly small amounts of compensation, these verdicts carry important sociological significance as they challenge the government's efforts to restart nuclear power plants. This article provides an overview and typology of the lawsuits, showing that these civil actions build on a legacy of social movements organized by networks of lawyers and activists.

Keywords

FukushimaCollective LawsuitsNuclear DisasterSocial MovementsCompensation
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 18 , Issue 9 , May 2020 , e1
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2020

References

Aldrich, Daniel P. 2019. Black Wave: How Networks and Governance Shaped Japan's 3/11 Disasters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Awaji, Takehisa淡路剛久, Shunichi, Teranishi寺西 俊一, Yoshimura, Ryoichi 吉村 良一, Okubo, Noriko大久保 規子, eds. 2012. Kōgai kankyō soshō no aratana tenkai kenri kyūsai kara seisaku keisei e 公害環境訴訟の新たな展開ー権利救済から政策形成へ (New development of industrial pollution and environmental lawsuits: From right relief to policy formation). Tokyo: Nihon Hyōronsha.Google Scholar
Arrington, Celeste L. 2016. Accidental Activists: Victim Movements and Government Accountability in Japan and South Korea. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Asanuma-Brice, Cécile. 2020. “Fukushima, JO et Coronavirus.” Libération, 10 March.Google Scholar
Célérier, Philippe Pataud. 2018. “Japan's forever tainted land”. Le Monde Diplomatique, April. https://mondediplo.com/2018/04/14fukushima.Google Scholar
Centemeri, Laura. 2015. “Reframing problems of incommensurability in environmental conflicts through pragmatic sociology: from value pluralism to the plurality of modes of engagement with the environment.” Environmental Values. Vol. 24, pp. 299–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cleveland, Kyle. 2014. “‘Significant Breaking Worse’: The Fukushima Nuclear Crisis as a Moral Panic.” Critical Asian Studies. Vol. 46, No. 3, pp. 509–539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Croydon, Silvia. 2016. The Politics of Police Detention in Japan: Consensus of Convenience. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fassert, Christine and Hasegawa, Reiko. 2019. Shinrai research Project: The 3/11 accident and its social consequences: Case studies from Fukushima prefecture. Paris: IRSN. www.irsn.fr.Google Scholar
Foote, Daniel H. 2014. “Cause Lawyering in Japan: Reflections on the Case Studies and Justice Reform.” In Steinhoff, Patricia G., ed. 2014. Going to Court to Change Japan: Social Movements and the Law in Contemporary Japan. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, pp. 165–180.Google Scholar
Fujigaki, Yuko. 2015. Lessons from Fukushima: Japanese Case Studies on Science Technology and Society. Berlin: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaku, Ishibashi, Muneo, Narusawa, Lim, Youngmi, Norimatsu, Satoko Oka and Essertier, Joseph. 2017. “Two Faces of the Hate Korean Campaign in Japan.” Asia Pacific Journal. Vol. 15, Issue 24, No 5:5098.Google Scholar
Genbaku-shō nintei shūdan soshō kiroku-shū kankō iinkai 原爆症認定集団訴訟・記録集刊行委員会 (Collective Lawsuits for the Recognition of Atomic Bomb Symptoms: Records Collection Publication Committee). 2011. Genbaku-shō nintei shūdan soshō tatakai no kiroku 原爆症認定集団訴訟たたかいの記録 (Records of the Collective Lawsuit for the Recognition of Atomic Bomb Diseases), Tokyo: Nihonhyōronsha 日本評論社.Google Scholar
Genbaku-shō nintei soshō Kumamoto bengodan 原爆症認定訴訟熊本弁護団 (Lawsuits for the Recognition of Atomic Bomb Symptoms: Kumamoto Lawyers Team). 2011. Minamata no kyōkun o Fukushima he 1: Minamata–byō to genbakusho no keiken o fumaete 水俣の教訓を福島へ〜水俣病と原爆症の経験をふまえて (Bringing the lesson of Minamata to Fukushima. Based on the experience of Minamata disease and hibakusha), Kumamoto: Kadensha花伝社.Google Scholar
Genbaku-shō nintei soshō Kumamoto bengodan 原爆症認定訴訟熊本弁護団 (Lawsuits for the Recognition of Atomic Bomb Symptoms: Kumamoto Lawyers Team). 2012. Minamata no kyōkun o Fukushima he part 2: subete no genpatsu higai no zenmen baishō o水俣の教訓を福島へpart 2〜すべての原発被害の全面賠償を (Bringing the lesson of Minamata to Fukushima, part 2: for the compensation of all the victims of nuclear plants), Kumamoto: Kadensha 花伝社.Google Scholar
George, Timothy. 2001. Minamata. Pollution and the Struggle for Democracy in Postwar Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Haley, John Owen. 1978. “The Myth of the Reluctant Litigant.” Journal of Japanese Studies. Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 359–90.Google Scholar
Haley, John O. 1982. “Sheathing the Sword of Justice in Japan: An Essay on Law without Sanctions.” Journal of Japanese Studies. Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 265–281.Google Scholar
Haley, John O. 1991. Authority without Power: Law and the Japanese Paradox. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haley, John O. 1998. The Spirit of Japanese Law. Athens: University of Georgia Press.Google Scholar
Hasegawa, Chiaki. 2010. Ningen o kaese: genbaku-shō saiban bōchō nisshiにんげんをかえせ―原爆症裁判傍聴日誌 (Give us back humanity: atomic bombing symptoms court hearing diary). Kyoto: Kamogawa.Google Scholar
Hasegawa, Koichi. 2011. Beyond Fukushima: Toward a Post-Nuclear Society. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press.Google Scholar
Hirakawa, Hideyuki, and Shirabe, Masahi. 2015. “Rhetorical Marginalization of Science and Democracy: Politics in Risk Discourse on Radioactive Risk in Japan.” In Lessons from Fukushima: Japanese Case Studies on Science Technology and Society, edited by Fujigaki, Yuko, Berlin: Springer, pp. 57–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iida, Katsuyasu 飯田勝泰. 2016. “Fukushima genpatsu ni okeru hibaku rōdōmondai no genjō to kadai” 福島原発における被ばく労働問題の現状と課題 (Present situation and issues of radiation labor at Fukushima nuclear power plants). 労働法律旬報 (Journal of Labor Law), September 2016, no. 1872: 50–58.Google Scholar
Shuntarō, Isomura, Eiichi, Yamaguchi. 2016. Genpatsu ni idonda saibankan 原発に挑んだ裁判官 (Judges who challenged nuclear power plants), Tokyo, Asahi shimbunsha 朝日新聞社.Google Scholar
Jasanoff, Sheila et Perese, Dogan. 2003. “Welfare State or Welfare Court: Asbestos Litigation in Comparative Perspective.” Journal of Law and Policy. Vol. 12, pp. 619–637.Google Scholar
Jasper, James. 2018. The emotions of protest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jobin, Paul. 2006. Maladies industrielles et renouveau syndical au Japon, Paris: Editions EHESS.Google Scholar
Jobin, Paul. 2011. “Dying for TEPCO? Fukushima's Nuclear Contract Workers.” The Asia-Pacific Journal. Vol. 9, Issue 18, No. 3.Google Scholar
Jobin, Paul. 2013a. “The Criminalization of Industrial Disease: Epidemiology in a Japanese asbestos lawsuit.” In Disease and Crime: Social Pathologies and the New Politics of Health, edited by Peckham, Robert, London: Routledge, pp. 170–191.Google Scholar
Jobin, Paul ジョバン.ポール. 2013b. 3.11事故以降の放射線保護 (Radiation Protection after the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster), 大原社会問題研究所雑誌 Journal of Ohara Institute for Social Research. Vol. 8, No. 658, pp. 14–30.Google Scholar
Jobin, Paul. 2013c. “The Roadmap for Fukushima Daiichi and the Sacrifice of Japan's Clean-up Workers.” The Asia-Pacific Journal. Vol. 11, Issue 28, No. 2.Google Scholar
Jobin, Paul. 2014. “Beyond Uncertainty: Industrial Hazards and Class Actions in Taiwan & Japan.” In Environmental History in East Asia: Interdisciplinary perspectives, edited by Liu, Ts'ui-jung, London: Routledge, pp. 339–382.Google Scholar
Jobin, Paul. 2017. “‘Nuclear Gypsies’ in Fukushima Before and After 3.11.” In Nuclear Portraits: People, Communities and the Environment, edited by MacDowell, Laurel, University of Toronto Press, pp. 274–311.Google Scholar
Jobin, Paul. 2019. “Some 40 Years to Clean Up Fukushima: A View from Ongoing Court Battles.” Georgetown Journal of Asian Affairs. Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 73–81.Google Scholar
Johnson, David. 2002. The Japanese Way of Justice: Prosecuting Crime in Japan. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, David T., Fukurai, Hiroshi and Hirayama, Mari. 2020. “Reflections on the TEPCO Trial: Prosecution and Acquittal after Japan's Nuclear Meltdown.” The Asia-Pacific Journal. Vol. 18, Issue 2, Number 1.Google Scholar
Yūichi, Kaido 海渡雄一. 2011. Genpatsu soshō 原発訴訟 (Nuclear power plants lawsuits), Tokyo, Iwanami 岩波.Google Scholar
Yūichi, Kaido 海渡雄一. 2018. Tōden keiji saiban de akiraka ni natta koto東電刑事裁判で明らかになったこと (What the criminal lawsuit against Tepco has shown), Tokyo, 彩流社. Sairyūsha.Google Scholar
Hiroyuki, Kawai 河合弘之. 2012. Tōden kabunushi daihyō soshō: genpatsu jiko no sekinin o tou 東電株主代表訴訟ー原発事故の責任を問う (Tepco's Shareholders Representative Litigation: Questioning the Responsibility of the Nuclear Accident), Tokyo, Gendai jinmonsha 現代人文社.Google Scholar
Hiroyuki, Kawai 河合弘之. 2015. Genpatsu soshō ga shakai o kaeru 原発訴訟が社会を変える (Nuclear power plants lawsuits are transforming our society). Tokyo, Shūeisha 集英社.Google Scholar
Kawashima, Takeyoshi. 1963. “Dispute Resolution in Contemporary Japan.” In Law in Japan: The Legal Order in a Changing Society, edited by Mehren, Arthur von. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
sangyōshō, Keizai, enerugi-chō, Shigen 経済産業省資源エネルギ庁 (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Agency for Natural Resources and Energy). 2019 (March). Hai-ro no taisetsuna hanashi 廃炉の大切な話 (Important Points on Decommissioning Work).Google Scholar
Kikuchi, Daisuke. 2017. “In first, government and Tepco found liable for Fukushima disaster.” Japan Times, 17 March.Google Scholar
Kikuchi, Tsutomu. 2020. “Hisai-chi no ‘akarui’ to ‘kurai’ hōdō tsuzukeru” 被災地の「明」「暗」報道続ける (Continue to report ‘bright’ and ‘dark’ in the disaster area), Asahi Shimbun, 11 March.Google Scholar
Kimura, Aya Hirata. 2016. Radiation brain moms and citizen scientists: The gender politics of food contamination after Fukushima. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Kingston, Jeff. 2016. “Nationalism in the Abe Era.” The Asia-Pacific Journal. Vol. 14, Issue 20, No. 3:4962.Google Scholar
Kojima, Rina. 2017. “Geo-social Movements by the Inhabitants of Fukushima: ‘Solidarity in Fear’ Vis-à-Vis the Risks after the Nuclear Accident.” In Sociotechnical Environments: Proceedings of the 6th STS Italia Conference, edited by Crabu, Stefano, Giardullo, Paolo, Francesco Miele and Mauro Turrini.Google Scholar
Kojima, Rina. Forthcoming. “Reconstruire après Fukushima: responsabiliser et précariser par le risque.” PhD Dissertation, Université Paris-Est.Google Scholar
Leuraut, Klervi et al. 2015. “Ionising radiation and risk of death from leukaemia and lymphoma in radiation-monitored workers (INWORKS): an international cohort study.” Lancet Haematology. Vol. 2, Issue 7, pp. 276–81.Google Scholar
Marichalar, Pascal. 2019. “How to Judge Safety Crime: Lessons From the Eternit Asbestos Maxi-Trials.” New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy. Vol. 29, Issue 2:104829111985242.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Akira, Maeda前田朗, Tomohiro, Kurozawa 黒澤知弘, Hiroaki, Koide 小出裕章, Hisako, Sakiyama 崎山比早子, Hiromu, Murata 村田弘, Yoshiyuki, Satō 佐藤嘉幸. 2019. Fukushima genpatsu shūdan soshō no hanketsu o megutte: minshū no shiza kara 福島原発集団訴訟の判決を巡ってー民衆の視座から (On the ruling of the Fukushima nuclear power plant collective lawsuit: a public's point of view). Tokyo: Dokushojin読書人.Google Scholar
McCurry, Justin. 2017. “Dying Robots and Failing Hope: Fukushima Clean-up Falters Six Years After Tsunami.” The Guardian, March 9.Google Scholar
Miyamoto, Kenichi, Morinaga, Kenji, and Hiroyuki Mori, eds. 2011. Asbestos Disaster: Lessons from Japan's Experience. Tokyo: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mullins, Mark R., Nakano, Koichi (Eds.). 2016. Disasters and Social Crisis in Contemporary Japan Political, Religious, and Sociocultural Responses. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Nakano, Koichi. 2016. “Contemporary Political Dynamics of Japanese Nationalism.” The Asia Pacific Journal. Vol. 14, Issue 20, No. 6:4965.Google Scholar
‘Nariwai o kaese, Chiiki o kaese!‘ Fukushima genpatsu saiban genkoku-dan bengo-dan「生業を返せ! 地域を返せ! 」福島原発裁判原告団・弁護団 (“Give us back our source of work, give us back our region” Fukushima Nuclear Lawsuit Plaintiffs and Attorneys. 2014. Anata no Fukushima genpatsu soshō あなたの福島原発訴訟 (Your Fukushima nuclear lawsuit). Kyoto: Kamogawa かもがわ.Google Scholar
Neil, David. 2008. “Certain Justice. Japan's Detention System and the Rights of the Accused.” The Asia-Pacific Journal. Vol. 6, Issue 2, No. 2: 2673.Google Scholar
Nichibenren, . 2010. (日本弁護士連合会公害対策環境保全委員会Japan Federation of Bar Associations: Industrial Pollution Control and Environmental Protection Committee), Kōgai kankyō soshō to bengoshi no chōsen公害・環境訴訟と弁護士の挑戦 (Industrial Pollution, Environmental Litigation and the Challenge of Lawyers). Kyoto: Hōritsu Bunka Sha 法律文化社.Google Scholar
Nichibenren, . 2019. Kiso-tekina tōkei jōhō 基礎的な統計情報 (Basic statistical information).Google Scholar
NHK. 2020. “Tōkyōdenryoku ni kuni no shishin uwamawaru isha-ryō meijiru: Fukushima chisai” 東京電力に国の指針上回る慰謝料命じる—福島地裁 (Tepco ordered by the state to pay increased solatium: Fukushima district court), 19 February.Google Scholar
North, Scott. 2014. “Karōshi Activism and Recent Trends in Japanese Civil Society: Creating Credible Knowledge and Culture.” In Going to Court to Change Japan: Social Movements and the Law in Contemporary Japan, edited by Steinhoff, Patricia G.. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, pp. 45–72.Google Scholar
Osumi, Magdalena. 2019. “Former Tepco executives found not guilty of criminal negligence in Fukushima nuclear disaster.” Japan Times, 19 September.Google Scholar
Parry, Richard Lloyd. 2015. “Japan Faces 200 Year Wait for Fukushima Clean Up.” The Times, March 28. (www.thetimes.co.uk).Google Scholar
Pitteloud, Cyrian. 2019. L'Affaire d'Ashio. Pollution minière et expertise environnementale dans le Japon moderne. PhD Dissertation, Université de Genève.Google Scholar
Polleri, Maxime. 2019. “Conflictual collaboration: Citizen science and the governance of radioactive contamination after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.” American Ethnologist. Vol. 46, No. 2: 214–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Postel-Vinay, Karoline. 2017. “The Global Rightist Turn, Nationalism and Japan.” The Asia-Pacific Journal. Vol. 15, Issue 10, No. 1:5035.Google Scholar
Ramseyer, J. Mark, and Rasmusen, Eric B.. 2003. Measuring Judicial Independence: The Political Economy of Judging in Japan. Chicago: University of Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richardson, David et al. 2015. “Risk of cancer from occupational exposure to ionising radiation: retrospective cohort study of workers in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States (INWORKS).” British Medical Journal. Vol. 351, pp. 53–59.Google ScholarPubMed
Sarat, Austin and Scheingold, Stuart A.. 2006. Cause Lawyers and Social Movements. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scoccimarro, Rémi. 2016. “11 mars 2011: de la vie en préfabriqués à l'assignation à resilience.” In Penser avec Fukushima, edited by Doumet, Christian and Ferrier, Michaël. Paris: Cécile Defaut, pp. 133–159.Google Scholar
Ramseyer, J. Mark, and Rasmusen, Eric B.. 2003. Measuring Judicial Independence: The Political Economy of Judging in Japan. Chicago: University of Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Repeta, Lawrence. 2009a. “Transfer of Power at Japan's Justice Ministry.” The Asia-Pacific Journal. Vol. 7, Issue 44, No. 2:3244.Google Scholar
Repeta, Lawrence. 2009b. “U.N. Committee Faults Japan Human Rights Performance, Demands Progress Report on Key Issues.” The Asia-Pacific Journal. Vol. 7, Issue 20, No. 5:3147.Google Scholar
Ribault, Thierry. 2019. “Resilience in Fukushima: Contribution to a Political Economy of Consent.” Alternatives: Global, Local, Political. 1–25.Google Scholar
Takashi, Soeda 添田孝史. 2017. Tōden genpatsu saiban: Fukushima genpatsu jiko no sekinin o tou 東電原発裁判—福島原発事故の責任を問う (Tepco Nuclear Power Plant Lawsuit: Claiming Responsibility for the Fukushima Nuclear Accident), Tokyo: Iwanami.Google Scholar
Shimabayashi, Tatsuru島林 樹. 2010. Kōgai saiban — itaītaibyō soshō o kaisō shite 公害裁判― イタイイタイ病訴訟を回想して (Remembering industrial pollution: the itai itai lawsuits). Tokyo: Beni shobō 紅書房.Google Scholar
Shirai, Satoshi 白井聡. 2015. The Plaintiffs and Lawyers of the “Give us back our business and our region!” Fukushima Nuclear Plant Lawsuit 「生業を返せ、地域を返せ!」福島原発事故被害弁護団, 福島を切り捨てるのですか——“20ミリシーベルト”受忍論批判 (Do you mean to cut away Fukushima? A criticism of the “20 millisieverts” thesis). Kyōto: Kamogawa.Google Scholar
Steinhoff, Patricia G., ed. 2014. Going to Court to Change Japan: Social Movements and the Law in Contemporary Japan. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stolz, Robert. 2014. Bad Water: Nature, Pollution, and Politics in Japan, 1870-1950. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 2006. Regimes and Repertoires. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Togashi, Sadao 冨樫貞夫. 1995. Minamatabyō jiken to hō 水俣病事件と法 (Minatamata Disease and Law). Fukuoka: Sekifūsha 石風社.Google Scholar
Topçu, Sezin. 2013. “Chernobyl Empowerment: Exporting ‘Participatory Governance’ to Contaminated Territories.” In Toxicants, Health and Regulation since 1945, edited by Boudia, Soraya and Jas, Nathalie, London: Pickering and Chatto, pp. 135–58.Google Scholar
Tōkyō genbaku-shō nintei shūdan soshō o kiroku suru kai 東京原爆症認定集団訴訟を記録する会 (Collective Lawsuits for the Recognition of Atomic Bomb Symptoms: Tokyo Records Association). 2012. Genbaku-shō nintei soshō ga akiraka ni shita koto — hibaku-sha to tomoni nani o kachitotta ka 原爆症認定訴訟が明らかにしたこと―被爆者とともに何を勝ち取ったか (What the lawsuits for the recognition of atomic bombs symptoms reveal and what we have gained with the hibakusha). Tokyo: Akebi Shobō あけび書房.Google Scholar
Upham, Frank. 1976. “Litigation and Moral Consciousness in Japan: An Interpretive Analysis of Four Japanese Pollution Suits.” Law & Society Review. Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 579–619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Upham, Frank. 1987. Law and Social Change in Postwar Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Upham, Frank. 2005. “Political Lackeys or Faithful Public Servants? Two Views of the Japanese Judiciary.” Law & Social Inquiry. Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 421–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, Brett. 2010. Toxic Archipelago: a history of industrial disease in Japan. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Do, Xuan Bien. 2019. “Fukushima Nuclear Disaster displacement: How far people moved and determinants of evacuation destinations.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. Vol. 33, pp. 235–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yamaguchi, Tomomi and Ruiko, Muto 2012. “Muto Ruiko and the Movement of Fukushima Residents to Pursue Criminal Charges against TEPCO Executives and Government Officials.” The Asia-Pacific Journal. Vol. 10, Issue 27, No. 2.Google Scholar
Yokemoto, Masafumi 除本理史. 2016. Kōgai kara Fukushima o kangaeru: Chiiki no saisei o mezashite 公害から福島を考えるー地域の再生を目指して (Considering Fukushima From the Perspective of Industrial Pollution: Toward Regional Regeneration). Tokyo: Iwanami.Google Scholar