We received a mail from Yoshihiko Ikegami today, who was one of our protagonists in our film. Yoshihiko Ikegami resigned from being editor-in-chief of the famous philosophical magazine ‘Gendai Shiso’ (Modern Thought) in 2010. The philosopher and writer Ikegami became active in the anti-nuclear movement in 2011, contributing to the public discourse by criticizing the government and mass media in Japan and publicizing essays on J-Fissures. Here is the letter he sent us:

What’s going on now?

You may be surprised to hear that out of 54 nuclear reactors in Japan, only 3 are now operational. It’s us who are stopping them, I must say. It’s planned that all the reactors will suspend operations in April. Though we cannot tell whether the authorities will try to resume the operations by then, we cannot wait for all the reactors being stopped.

Demonstrations take place every week everywhere in Japan. The turnout ranges from hundreds to ten thousand or twenty thousand. The protesters express themselves in various ways. Because the media don’t cover them you may think that demonstrations no longer occur, but that’s not the case at all. One (great one!) will take place on February 9. On March 11, marking the first anniversary massive demonstrations will take place. This movement never dies.

Radioactive materials are still detected everywhere. Geiger counters still sell well because everyone is busy measuring. Cesium was recently detected in milk powder. A citizen group which found it demanded the company that produced the contaminated milk powder suspends to sell it and then it succeeded. Everyone is struggling against nukes. Our fight goes on. Chances are, some people will get sick, so many of us are ready for the long struggle ahead. We are really committed.

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