Hello everybody, and welcome. Today I will speak about the new movements we have in Japan since Fukushima. Of course, I don’t have to explain too much because I think most of you know about this already. To reiterate, in 2011 there was a triple catastrophe in Japan. There was a massive earthquake, followed by a huge tsunami, which destroyed large parts of Japan’s northeastern coastline and caused a nuclear reactor to go off in Fukushima. This led to high levels of radioactivity in the environment and destroyed the nuclear power plant. Now, to understand the wider context, we must look at the support of nuclear energy in Japan over the past few decades. As you can see on this slide, nuclear energy was one of the main pillars of Japan’s energy policy. The policy was not only supported by the conservative establishment in the Liberal Democratic Party, but also by the general population. As you can see here, up to the late 2000s, the majority of the population was in favor of increasing nuclear energy in Japan. But 11th of March 2011 marks a turning point. Since then we have had a clear majority in favor of decreasing nuclear energy or a long-term phase-out of nuclear energy in Japan. The share of the population still in favor of increasing nuclear energy has become a minority. This is accompanied by other movements, not just the environmental movement, but also a larger peace movement which I will address at the end of my presentation. First, we must ask, why was there immense support for nuclear energy in Japan? Especially in Japan, in spite of the fact that two atom bombs were dropped on Japan. So, there might be good reason to believe that the citizens of Japan should be critical of nuclear energy. The main explanation for the support of nuclear energy in Japan can be attributed to the “nuclear village”. It consists of a very strong centralized state in Japan, where nuclear energy was pushed and promoted, and of a very close cooperation from the centralized and strong state, with the establishment in pro-nuclear energy. This together was called the nuclear village in Japan – or is still called the nuclear village today in Japan – rather critically. On this slide you can see the main actors within this nuclear village, which was kind of a triangle consisting of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry – which is in charge of the energy policy, but also of the whole economy policy and some other governmental agencies – of the Ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and of the utilities and nuclear power plant makers – a big private business, which is involved in the nuclear energy sector. There was strong cooperation between these two. They were able to dominate through the strong state and public discourse on nuclear energy and gathered support for an increase of nuclear energy in Japan. This means that the nuclear village consists of more than these three parties. It includes others. Specifically the public mass media, which was strongly influenced by this triangle, but also research. There was a lot of research on nuclear energy conducted in Japan, but much less about the security of it. This was not a topic the state wanted to promote. However, as said, since 2011 things have changed. This former triangle pushing nuclear energy is now seen as a problem and has become a large national anti-nuclear movement. There is a general sentiment in the population that something has to be done against this nuclear village and that energy policy cannot be simply left in the hands of this nuclear village. However, we have to note that in the elections of 2012 as well as more recent elections, the Liberal Democratic Party was elected into government every time, even though the Liberal Democratic Party is still in favor of nuclear energy. How can we explain this contradiction of a big anti-nuclear movement on the national level and the election of the pro-nuclear government since 2012? Well, of course, it is a very complicated story, but maybe, just to say the two main factors, it is A, that there were other issues, which were more important for the people [to decide] which politicians to elect rather than addressing the questions about the nuclear energy policy. And B, we have to note that opposition parties are in disarray in Japan. So there are a lot of conflicts among them, which strengthens the position significantly of the Liberal Democratic Party and allows it to stay in power. Still, we also have to note that the Liberal Democratic Party has not got a free hand. It has tried to restart all the nuclear power plants in Japan but there has been a powerful local protest against this. So at the moment, only a small number of the nuclear power plants are operating in Japan. This shows how much influence the large national and local anti-nuclear movements have in the country. If we adopt a more general perspective, we can see that this is not the only issue that led to huge social movements in recent years. Here you have a slide with an overview of social movements in general in Japan in the post-war era. You can clearly see we had a protest cycle in the early post-war period up to the mid-1970s. Then we have a period with no important large social movement in Japan. But since 2011, the anti-nuclear movement, the security policy, and the peace movement have gained influence again in Japan. So, the beginning of the local anti-nuclear movement and the large national anti-nuclear movement in Japan might not just be symbol of a change in nuclear policy, but a fundamental change in Japanese society and a re-beginning of a protest-cycle in contemporary Japan. However, as a social scientist, I have to say that this is of course a question of future development. And on the future development we do not have enough data. So the years to come will show whether this prediction of a new protest-cycle in Japan is true or not. Thank you very much for your attention.