Earlier today we told you about the Wenzhou train crash in China, and how the Sina Weibo microblog platform is having trouble censoring what has turned out to be a truly huge discussion. The Chinese government’s response to the accident is being criticized in a way that it could not be in traditional media (although some publications are being pretty bold).
As you know, just across the water in neighboring Japan, another government is being criticized for responding poorly to its own disaster, the Fukushima nuclear accident. And while few countries censor like China does, Japan’s media has its share of issues too.
Just as Weibo is providing an outlet for opposing voices in China, a number of YouTube videos have been acting as vehicles for protest in Japan. The recent clip of Fukushima residents dramatically confronting government officials has been getting lots of attention online. But over the weekend, a new video has been picking up steam.
Meet Professor Tatsuhiko Kodama, who in testimony before Japan’s Lower House Diet last week pulled no punches in criticizing the government for its poor response. The video below is captioned with English subtitles, so I encourage you to give it a watch. According to one blogger the original video that was posted reached 300,000 views but was for some reason removed. (For anyone who fears these may get taken down too, grab them here: 1, 2)
In any case, check out the professor’s very impassioned speech (part two is here). While it’s pretty alarming (especially for those of us living in Tokyo), I’m glad that (what seems like) some expert opinion is entering into the discussion. The translated transcript, taken from the captions, is posted below as well.
At the Committee on Welfare and Labor in the Japan’s House of Representatives
Translation by EX-SKF blog
Next, Witness Kodama, please. I am Kodama, head of the Radioisotope Center at the University of Tokyo. I was astounded on March 15. We, at the Tokyo University, have 27 Radioisotope Centers and are responsible for radiation protection and decontamination. I am a physician myself and have been involved in decontamination work at facilities in Tokyo University.
We detected 5 microsieverts/hour radiation in Tokai-mura in Ibaraki Prefecture about 9AM on March 15, and notified the Ministry of Education and Science as the “Article 10 notification” [as specified in the Nuclear Disaster Countermeasures Law].
Later, the radiation exceeding 0.5 microsievert/hour was detected in Tokyo. This level soon went down. And then on March 21 it rained in Tokyo, and with the rain came 0.2 microsievert/hour radiation, and this I believe is the reason for the elevated radiation level to this day.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano said at that time, “There is no immediate effect on health”. I actually thought this was going to be a big, big problem. Why was I concerned? Because the current Radiation Damage Prevention Law is based on dealing with a small amount of radioactive materials that emit very high radiation.
In this case, the total amount of radioactive materials is not much of an issue. What matters is how high the radiation is.
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