On April 30th 2011, two people got arrested in Miyashita Park, Tokyo. A Rescue Comittee has been created on this site, informing about this incident in both Japanese and English. I quote:
About the Miyashita Park Incident
Veröffentlicht am 2. Juni 2011 von Du Fuchs in DiscourseTags: Alternative Media, Arrestment, Freedom, Miyashita Park, Nike, No Nukes, Police, Public Dialogue, Public Space, Tokyo
Meet the Voices of Radioactivists (3)
Veröffentlicht am 1. Juni 2011 von Du Fuchs in InterviewTags: Alternative Media, Anti-Nuclear Demonstration, Capitalism, Fukushima, Mainstream Media, Movement, Protest, Society, Sociology
„This movement aims to stop nuclear power plants, but also problematizes Japanese society and Japanese capitalism. In the past, in terms of problematizing capitalism, we tended to think that someone would change it for us. But now, we think that we must change rather our way of living. So far we have used power freely, and taken it for granted. Probably we should use less power than we have done, or seek another way of living. We should no longer pursue effectiveness or wealthiness, but, pacing ourselves, seek an alternative way of living. We have just started thinking about those things. This is what this anti-nuclear power plant movement is all about.“
YOSHITAKA MOURI
Sociologist
Completed Ph.D., Sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London, Yoshitaka Mouri specializes in Sociology and Cultural Studies. He wrote and gave numerous lectures on the articulation of contemporary art and urban space, cross-cultural studies and social movements. Mouri’s main publications are „Culture=Politics: Cultural and Political Movement in the Age of Globalization“, „Popular Music and Capitalism“, and „Philosophy in the Streets“. In his recent article in J-Fissures, „The Beginning of New Street Politics“, he considers the current protests in Tokyo a historical moment in Japanese history.
Meet the Voices of Radioactivists (2)
Veröffentlicht am 26. Mai 2011 von Du Fuchs in InterviewTags: Activism, Alternative Media, D.I.Y., Documentary, Fukushima, Interview, Mainstream Media, Movement, Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Power, Tokyo
Today, meet three more voices that will be in the movie: Yoshihiko Ikegami and Keisuke Narita.
“As we know, Japan surrendered in World War II after the two atomic bombs were dropped on it. The question is why Japan now has ended up having 54 nuclear power reactors, despite of its experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and its people’s fear of nuclear power. […] In the late 1960s, about 1965 or 1966, Japan’s first nuclear power plant came in operation. The elites took 10 years to brainwash Japanese people who used to be against nuclear power, spending a huge amount of money to orchestrate the media. This has been going on to this day.”
YOSHIHIKO IKEGAMI
Primer editor of Gendai Shisô (“Modern Thought”)
Yoshihiko Ikegami is the primer chief editor of the famous philosophical magazine Gendai shisô (現代思想), or „Modern Thought“. As a well-known and respected intellectual living in Toyko, he became very active since 3/11 in criticizing the current situation in Japan. In the online-magazine J-Fissures, he published several articles about this thoughts and fears about the future of Japan and its nuclear policy.
“We want to make our voice heard to our communities, the state of Japan, and the world. We want to make them understand the fact that many people want the nuclear power plants to be stopped immediately. We will try to let them stop those facilities, though I cannot tell if they will do it. We are planning to record the action in some ways, such as, for example, uploading footage of the action to You Tube. It is important to keep this movement going on beyond the May 7 action. Spreading the images of the action may help. There would be many ways of keeping this movement alive.”
KEISUKE NARITA
Activist and Owner of a D.I.Y.-Infoshop in Shinjuku, Tokyo
Keisuke Narita opened an infoshop called Irregular Rhythm Asylum in 2004. He started selling books and zines about D.I.Y.-culture and anarchism, CDs and fair-trade goods. It soon became a place for people to gather and organize concerts and political actions together. A couple of weeks after 3/11, he and Shirôto no ran („Revolt of the Amateurs“) came up with the idea to organize a big Anti-Nuke-Rally. Keisuke Narita designed a blog on tumblr and started tweeting, and on the day of the rally, April 10th, more than 15.000 people showed up. No one had been expecting that. But I was only the start of something that might become a movement…
— TO BE CONTINUED —
Meet the Voices of Radioactivists (1)
Veröffentlicht am 25. Mai 2011 von Du Fuchs in InterviewTags: Activism, Conformism, D.I.Y., Documentary, Interview, Lobbyism, Nuclear Policy, Protest
In this and the following posts we would like to inroduce you to the people we interviewed during May 2011. All in all we did about ten interviews, and you are about to meet the first three voices of Radioactivists: Hajime Matsumoto and Chigaya Kinoshita.
“I believe Japan is going to change. It must. A sense of values has been undermined. The people who have long trusted the government and the mass media don’t know what to do now. Many appear to be thinking that we should not only rebuild the disaster area, but Japan as a whole, on our own, from scratch. I want to scrap all the shitty stuff first.”
HAJIME MATSUMOTO
Activist and Head of Shirôto no ran („Revolt of the Amateurs“)
Hajime Matsumoto is a rare sight in Japan. Since his time at university he has been politically engaged and in 2004 he founded Shirôto no ran, the “Revolt of the Amateurs” in Kôenji, Tokyo, and they opened one shop after another, including second hand and recycle shops, vegan cafes and bars for people to meet and discuss the stuff they are interested in. In doing so he and his friends created a lively neighborhood, where people are free to express themselves. It is all about D.I.Y.-culture and gaining independence of social norms.
In these days, since 3/11, the people around Hajime Matsumoto are organizing the most tremendous demonstrations Tokyo has seen since the 1970s. More than 15.000 people usually join those anti-nuclear rallies. It has become quite a social phenomenon in a place that isn’t famous for its active street protest culture. But maybe the time has finally come to change now.
“We can formulate a question from our experience. What the international media call Japanese stoicism and conformism, may have something to do with two things: one is that we did not know what to do; the other is a problem of Japanese society itself. For instance, yesterday [May 7th, Anti-Nuke-Demo in Shibuya] many people were marching against nuclear power plants. Indeed, a rally like this or the rally of April 10th in Kôenji has not taken place for 2 or 3 decades in Japan. Something in Japanese society that used to allow the people to open their mouth, or to claim their rights was lost at some point. I am convinced that what is called ‘Japanese conformism’ stems from the society’s structure in itself.”
CHIGAYA KINOSHITA
Political Scientist
Chigaya Kinoshita is a well-known political scientist working in Tokyo. Recently he has been teaching about nuclear power issues at the Kôgakuin University, and he publishes articles about his theories on the current situation in Japan in the online journal J-Fissures: see Dystopia of Civil Society Part 1 and Part 2.
—- TO BE CONTINUED —-
Improving your golf skills
Veröffentlicht am 25. Mai 2011 von Du Fuchs in DiscourseTags: Anti-Nuclear Demonstration, Arrestment, Police, Prison, Shibuya, Tokyo, Violence
Golf is a great exercise for the walking and playing muscles. Golf is not an exercise for the nervous system; it has no „neurological effects.“ It does not affect your body’s ability to relax; it does not affect your ability to focus and retain information. The only part of the brain that receives input from golf is the visual cortex. And the golf swing does not „produce“ any nervous system stimulation. But if you want to improve your golf swing, you will improve it whether you’re swinging on a swing set or on a course. You will get better if you practice on a swing set, on a course, or anywhere else. The best method to improve your golf swing is to hit the ball, also using equipment as a flightscope launch monitor for just $1,999 could be also helpful for improving your swing. If you cannot hit the ball, it’s because you have not yet understood it. Once you’ve got it, it’s like any other skill. Practice. Practice. Practice. If you want to play well, it helps to hit the ball.
If you want to play well, it helps to hit the ball. If you want to play well, it helps to hit the ball.
Q: What kind of person are you?
A: I am a passionate person. I want to know everything about everything. I want to know all kinds of things, and it takes a lot of time and effort to get to know everything. I don’t just sit down and listen to music. I don’t just watch a movie and think, „I can play guitar.“ I want to take notes and learn how to play it.
Do you like to listen to the music that you play?
No, it’s not fun to do. It’s so boring. I can’t listen to music all the time. Sometimes it’s good, but other times, it’s terrible. It’s the same with movies. I don’t think I can watch them all the time. I don’t know why I like watching movies. I like them but they are not enjoyable. I need more music.“
„So what music do you listen to?“
„No music, I don’t listen to anything, I don’t listen to music, I don’t like to listen to music, I don’t think I can listen to music, no music.“
„Do you watch a lot of movies?“
„No, I don’t, not really. I watch sports, I have an interest. I don’t like to watch films or music. And I have to be on top of things for the job.“ „What’s the role that you like the most?“ „The one I’m doing now, the one that is the most challenging is a movie called ‚Gone Girl‘. I think the movie is really good, I really enjoy it and it has some great characters in it, I like those.“ „Tell us about your performance in ‚The Imitation Game'“ „I don’t want to say too much, the movie is very intense. So it’s hard, we shot a lot of it in London, it’s a small town, the weather is tough and it was pretty scary.“