A while ago I pointed out that women, and in particular, mothers, have been
quite active in radiation measurement, calls for contaminated dirt removal
and efforts to secure safe food. They have thus also been effective as
anti-nuke spokespersons. Of course, there is nothing new in women being at
the front of social shifts, as seen in work as diverse as Shell
Garon's *Molding Japanese Minds* and Robin LeBlanc's *Bicycle Citizens*
demonstrate. They are continuing on with a sit in front of METI from Oct.
29th.
Here is a link to their protest notice--you still have time to make it to
Tokyo for the start:
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/onna_suwarikomi/20111020/1319087481
And here is a Ustream of a pre-demo meeting with Fukushima Women against
Nukes.
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/18140229#utm_campaign=synclickback&source=http://blog.livedoor.jp/amenohimoharenohimo/archives/65772087.html&medium=18140229
Notice in the immediate ritual of the event, that women are not limited
here to speaking as mothers (if that is a limitation), they are not
hesitant to engage emotionally, and the staffing and seating arrangements
makes gendered confront almost inevitable.
Here is a promo Ustream put together with subtitles:
http://seetell.jp/en/22060
Here is another mostly subtitled video of of first day of protests from
Greenpeace:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/women-from-fukushima-gather-to-find-hope-in-t/blog/37555/
Unlike the "Occupy Tokyo" protests, which suffer from a lack of focus and
an inability to draw upon deep-seated and widely spread mistrust of
corporate Japan that it does in many other countries, women protesting as
woman probably have so far have been the most often heard voices since the
60,000 person anti-nuke protests on Sept. 19th. It appears that these
women's voices could become the terrain on which broader consensus might be
formed.
David Slater
Sophia U.
From H-Japan
