Dr. Maxime Polleri: Radioactive Governance: The Politics of Revitalization in Post-Fukushima Japan

​The 2011 meltdown at Fukushima was the worst nuclear power plant disaster in Japan’s history, bringing back painful memories of trauma associated with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While the aftermaths of Fukushima remain contentious, Japanese political elites have promoted a politics of recovery rather than a discourse of nuclear victimhood. Dr. Polleri examines how this approach, which pushes aside competing visions of recovery, has come to emphasize assurances of minimal radiation-related dangers, repatriation of former evacuees to Fukushima, continued pursuit of nuclear power, and promotion of a resilient mindset in the face of ongoing ecological challenges.

​The 2011 Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear disaster was the worst industrial nuclear catastrophe to hit Japan. It was a major event, rated at the highest severity, which released radioactive elements into the power plant’s surrounding environment. At least 164,000 people were permanently or temporarily displaced. Radioactive Governance offers an ethnographic look at how the disaster was handled by Japan. Unlike prior nuclear-related narratives, such as those surrounding Chernobyl or Hiroshima, which focused on themes of trauma and victimization, the Japanese government put forward a discourse of no radiation-related dangers, a gradual bringing home of former evacuees, a restarting of nuclear power plants, and the promotion of a resilient mindset in the face of adversity. This narrative worked to counter other understandings of recovery, such as those of worried citizens unsuccessfully fighting for permanent evacuation. Providing a rich theorization of how both governments and citizens shape narratives about catastrophic events, Radioactive Governance not only displays how Fukushima became a story of resilience rather than of victimization, but also how radioactive governance shifted from the nuclear secrecy that characterized the Cold War era to relying on international organizations and domestic citizens to co-manage the aftermath of disasters.

​Maxime Polleri is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Université Laval and a member of the Graduate School of International Studies. As an anthropologist of technoscience, he studies the governance of disasters, waste and misinformation, with a primary focus on nuclear topics and a regional expertise on Japan.