The anti-nuclear movements [in Japan] are not cool.
They had been blasting rock, punk, and hip-hop music and shouting pessimistic and destructive things, but as soon as they became aware of the anti-nuclear crisis, they suddenly started talking so much peacefully about the global environment, food safety, children's future, and Article 9 of the Constitution in a very peaceful manner, and started playing instruments such as djembe very gleefully. There is nothing more uncool than this. It is as if they are confessing that all the radical things they used to say until then were nothing more than frivolous fashions.
So many of the relatively sane portion of those who love rock, punk, hip-hop, etc. are [in Japan] rather antipathetic to anti-nuclear movements.
But such people are also something problematic. No matter how uncool anti-nuclear movements might be, nuclear plants are not justified. The only people who are approving of nuclear power are evil people (those who approve of it because they are in the interest) and idiots (those who approve of it even though they are not in the interest). The behavior sometimes seen, daring to express antipathy toward uncool anti-nuclear movements, is even more uncool than uncool anti-nuclear movements. It is obvious self-protection and self-satisfaction (petit-bourgeois individualism!) that they want to say, "Isn't it cool that I am not sympathetic to something uncool?", and ultimately, it only benefits the advocates of nuclear power (the evil people and idiots). If you don't have the patience to at least keep silent, the only right choice is to pursue your own not-uncool anti-nuclear movement.
I have been a staunch anti-nuclear advocate since long before "3/11" (the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster).
Anti-nuclear power movement in Japan once got a short-lived (about six months) boost in 1988. Following the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, a book titled "A Dangerous Story" by Hirose Takashi was published in 1987 by a very very minor publisher, explaining in simple terms that a similar catastrophic accident could happen in Japan, and that the mass media, sponsored greatly by the power companies, had tabooed the issue of nuclear power plants. The book spread quickly by word-of-mouth and eventually became a best-seller. The frequent lectures by Hirose held throughout Japan were always well-attended, and housewives and young people who were awakened by his book and lectures launched various anti-nuclear power movements. In January 1988, several thousand anti-nuclear protestors suddenly rallied in front of the headquarters of Shikoku Electric Power Company in Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture, and the issue of nuclear power plants dominated the media coverage from then until autumn of the same year. Only during the past six months, because of the (sudden) upsurge of the movement, criticism of nuclear power was unbanned in the mass media. Those who have forgotten history (or who pretend to have forgotten history, as it seems to me) often say foolish things such as "Kiyoshiro was great for mentioning the nuclear power plant issue long before 3/11", but at the time, anti-nuclear power movement was in a kind of boom (not in a bad meaning), and Kiyoshiro was only sympathizing with it. The first broadcast of the "Live TV till Morning" (a long-time late-night discussion program), which has continued to these days, was in April 1988, and needless to say, the theme was the issue of nuclear power plants. I have already written about the details in my book, "After Zenkyoto", so I skip those in this article.
Anyway, I started my political career as a high school student at such time, and I was quite inspired. Although the issue of nuclear power has never been a main theme of my activities, the position that "nuclear power is wrong" was, so to speak, imprinted on my mind as early as 1988.
Until the following year, around 1989, the majority should have been critical of nuclear power in public opinion polls, but as early as the early 90s, the issue had returned to be a minor one. I remember in 1993, I think it was, I participated in a camp for dozens of university students in Fukuoka who were working on environmental issues, and none of them, except me, was even interested in the nuclear power plant issue. I think it was 1993. I have a bad memory that I participated in a camp for dozens of university students in Fukuoka who were working on environmental issues, but none of them, except me, was even interested in the nuclear power plant issue, and I felt set apart from all the others. For a full 20 years from around 1991 to "3/11", the issue of nuclear plants, which must have once been the focus of attention, had disappeared without a trace, and those who spoke out against nuclear power used to been treated as if they were as crazy as the current conspiracy theorists who are talking about "seismic weapons".
Nevertheless, I have never abandoned my anti-nuclear position since 1988. For example, during the "campaign to decrease the voting rate" I carried out in Fukuoka in the spring of 1999, I used the phrase "Apply the Subversive Activities Prevention Act to nuclear power advocates" in a document I made as a fake candidate, also, when the JCO criticality accident occurred in Tokai Village, Ibaraki Prefecture, at the end of 1999, in order to make the anti-nuclear movement, which is uncool in most cases as it is nowadays, a little better, I wrote and sent the bill to a group of young anti-nuclear activists in Saga Prefecture whom I happened to know, saying, "Our Patience Has Reached the Criticality!". When I ran for the Hayato Town Council in Kagoshima Prefecture in 2005, I pledged (?) to "complain to the neighboring municipalities where nuclear power plants are located. The website of the revolutionary fascist organization "Wareware-Dan" which I lead has a page that clearly states our position "against nuclear power plants and for nuclear armament"; it was written in 2007 or 2008, and has never changed even after "3.11" in a single word or phrase.
I am not boasting of foresight. It was obvious that nuclear plants were dangerous to the people who were already no longer children in 1988 (unless they were idiots), and yet we failed to stop them before a serious accident occurred, which is not something to be proud of at all. At the same time, although anti-nuclear movements have begun to expand again (in quantity, if not in quality) following "3/11", I cannot help but think, "It is too late to oppose after the accident has occurred!". When I hear Saito Kazuyoshi sing something like, "We've been fooled, man", I feel like saying, "How old are you, have you never listened to Kyoshiro's?" At least the upsurge in 1988 was prior to the accident, and it was carried by people who were more or less progressive = cool. On the other hand, the "upsurge" after "3.11" could be seen to be a hysterical reaction to the accident by lazy ordinary people who would not move unless a disaster befell them, and I consider it to be a boring movement. Still, it must be better without nuclear power plants, so I have been moderately involved with them while keeping a certain distance.
At first, I participated with a few comrades and sympathizers in anti-nuclear demonstrations, which began to be held frequently even in Fukuoka, and created an area where many curious placards stood. Those phrases were, for example, "We're Against Peaceful Use!", "Death on TEPCO the Traitors!", "Stop without Arguing!", "We will not save electricity until we win!", "Apply the Subversive Activities Prevention Act to Nuclear Plant Advocates!", and so on. The flag of our fascist organization, "a red circle on black background", which means "the union of anarchism and nationalism", was also flown with pageantry. When a group of Internet rightists shouted at us from the roadside, "Go back to North Korea", we shouted back, "And you go back to the U.S.!" We were not in the slightest bit eco-friendly, LOHAS, or Love & Peace from any angle. There must be some who attended an anti-nuclear demonstration for the first time but did not feel at home in peaceful atmosphere, so we made efforts to be a good role model for such correct youths.
It was four months after "3/11" that I made many doubles of old and contemporary hit songs and uploaded a video of my playing them, titled "Suite for Nuclear Plant Promotion", on You Tube. As the title suggests, the lyrics are all from a ( of course sarcastic) pro-nuclear standpoint.
That's about all I did in 2011, the year of the accident, at most. As mentioned above, it was partly because I was not really enthusiastic about joining the movement, but also because I was optimistic that such a severe accident would expand the movement quantitatively, no matter how shoddy its nature, and that nuclear plants could be stopped this time around. I just wanted to add an accent, a spice, or a bit of flavor to the mediocre and boring anti-nuclear movement.
However, the nuclear plants have not stopped at all. As of July 2014, nuclear plants all over Japan are indeed being stopped, but only temporarily due to reasons on their side. The fact that the government couldn't restart the nuclear plants that had stopped one after another because of their scheduled inspections, which were required by law, and finally stopped all of them, might indeed be due to the government's concern about the anti-nuclear mood. So far, however, the anti-nuclear movement hasn't been able to force the government to give up on nuclear power altogether, and conversely, the government continues to wait for the right moment to restart them. At this stage, the Sendai Nuclear Plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, which is far from Fukushima and where residents have little interest in this issue, is being targeted as the first, but whether it is this year or next, whether it is from Sendai or some other place, once the first one is restarted, the rest will be done one after another.
In my opinion, the current anti-nuclear movement is too orthodox. Whether it is demonstrations or election campaigns, anything within the range of what is "expected" by the regime as a "means of social change or expression of opinion" cannot stop nuclear power plants. What the regime fears above all is the collapse of order. If you can make them feel that if they don't stop the nuclear power plants, order will not be maintained, the nuclear plants will stop. I am not suggesting that you do anything illegal. Illegal activities are not always bad, but of course illegal activities can be easily oppressed. We should launch many tactics that are not illegal, but are "unexpected" by the regime.
One year after "3/11", I began to feel that the nuclear plants would not stop as it was, and started to seriously pursue "my own anti-nuclear movement". The main strategy was "interference in elections". I describe the details below, but of course, nothing is going to change if I do such things alone. What I have been trying to do is "present new tactics". At first glance, these may seem like illegal tactics, and even if I just suggested them, no one would take them up, so I did it myself first to demonstrate that I would not get caught for these tactics, and hoped that others would follow in their place.
The first was the "Punitive Expedition toward Nuclear Proponents" during the lower house election at the end of 2012 (the election in which the DPJ suffered a crushing defeat and the LDP returned to power).
The LDP's overwhelming victory was obvious long before the election began, needless to wait for voting day. The DPJ's popularity was more than a gutshot, and under such circumstances, the LDP is bound to win hands down, since it is a primary election system. Despite this, many of the anti-nuclear groups busied themselves with "serious" election campaigns. No matter how much you do such things, it is futile. How many times must I stick my middle finger up and say, "Elections don't change anything!", before they will understand.
What I deployed, of course, was not "election campaigning" or anything like that. I was just "taking advantage" of the election. Anyway, I thought that I had to show them an anti-nuclear movement that the regime had "not expected" to happen. Of course, the list was not made public in advance. This struggle must be a godforsaken "guerrilla warfare" that they cannot respond to immediately.
Since it had been said for quite some time that the dissolution of the House of Representatives was imminent, in order to be ready for the dissolution at any time, I eventually acquired a propaganda truck about six months before the actual start of the election. It was just an ordinary wagon with a signboard stand and speakers on the roof. Through the intermediary of a right-wing young man with whom I had been close, I acquired it from a certain right-wing organization for 150,000 yen, including equipment. Of course, if you want to imitate me, you don't have to get a propaganda vehicle from some right-winger or other, you just can make your own. As long as you have a car, the cost of converting it to a propaganda vehicle would be at most a hundred thousand yen. You don't have to bear it alone, you can share it with your comrades.
A few dozen minutes before the election campaign finally began, I replaced the sign on the roof. A new sign with the slogan, "Make the Nuclear Power the Issue". With that car, we (me and a few comrades of my fascist organization) suddenly appear behind the campaign car of a pro-nuclear candidate somewhere in Kyushu. Since drowning out the announcements of the campaign cars could be considered "election interference" (as defined by the Public Offices Election Law), we began our propaganda while following them at a distance of several dozen meters. First, we played Chopin's "Funeral March" at a loud volume, which made the air in the area feel gloomy, and then I grabbed the microphone and announced to the passersby, "Mr. XX in front of me is a pro-nuclear power proponent!" At this time, we must not say anything like, "So let's make him lose", or conversely, "Let's support him". It is an "election violation" for anyone other than those wearing a badge distributed by the election authority to use a loudspeaker to call for support or disapproval of any particular candidate. As a precaution, we didn't use the term "candidate XX", but went by "Mr. XX". Then, it would mean that I was just making a big announcement about the fact that "Mr. XX (a well-known figure in the area) is a proponent of nuclear power", which did not violate the law in any way.
Let me explain in a little more detail. No matter whether it's during an election period or not, the promotional vehicles of the pro-wrestling and sex industry are free to drive around. If the volume is below a certain level, there is no need for any permission. If so, there is no reason why it should be illegal advertising in the streets by simply going around telling pedestrians that someone is pro-nuclear power.
Sometimes people mistakenly believe that political street advertising is prohibited during election periods. In fact, the Public Offices Election Law says as much. But how do they draw the line between political and non-political? Even advertising cars of sex industry should be "political" enough for some stubborn feminists to say. Even for me, if there is a car going around advertising the release of a new album by Mr. Children (a Japanese fuckin' rock band), it is nothing more than a "political activity of the enemies" to further corrupt society by spreading petit-bourgeois individualist ideology. That is, the judgment of what is political varies from person to person. Therefore, if the Public Election Law regulates political activities during the election period, there must be a strict provision stating that such activities are considered political activities under the law, regardless of what the general consensus may be. If you carefully check each article, you will find that it actually exists. The activities of organizations that have registered as "political organizations" with the election authorities are "political activities" under the Public Election Law. It seems that there are some advantages to registering as a "political organization" with the election authorities, for example, exemption from taxation on advertisement vehicles owned by the organization, or some other benefit, so many organizations, especially right-wing groups, register as "political organizations" with the election authorities even if they are not participating in elections. And, of course, the fascist revolutionary organization that I lead would never have submitted such a notification, therefore, whether it is during an election or not, as long as the content is not "calling for support or disapproval of any specific candidate", we are free to advertise in the streets, and are treated like pro-wrestling or sex advertisement cars.
Anyway, throughout the entire period of the lower house election at the end of 2012, I chased the campaign cars of pro-nuclear candidates around Kyushu from morning to night, one day per each candidate. We changed not only the target but also the area every day. Specifically, we always appeared in another prefecture the day after we had chased one candidate around in one prefecture. Moreover, instead of appearing in neighboring prefectures as much as possible, we repeated the "great migration" with an eye to "appearing and disappearing". This is to make it difficult for the enemies to take countermeasures. Though our tactic was legal, Japan is not a nation governed by the rule of law, so actually the police are free to decide whether it is legal or illegal. Nevertheless, for the police to finally decide on a policy of exposure, there must be an internal consultation process, regardless of what article of the law is used. If we keep doing the same thing for a long time in a same prefecture, we give the police enough time to take action. The police, however, are an organization of sectionalism. It will be possible to eventually take action across multiple prefectures, but a mere two weeks or so of the election period will be too short a time for the various prefectural police to adjust their steps. Moreover, what we were doing, even if it were considered illegal, would be a minor offense, and it must not be worth devoting the budget and manpower to have all of Kyushu's police forces work together. If any prefectural police really starts to take action, they will have to get other prefectural police to join them in order to be consistent, so in the end, all prefectural police must be in the mood of "we don't want to take action, at least not in the form that we are ahead of the others". At some point, the police should say something, but at that point, the reaction of the various prefectural police should probably already be in disarray. In prefecture A, nothing is said, in prefecture B, it is declared illegal, and in prefecture C, it is declared illegal on the basis of another law. Then, we could have an excuse that we have no way of knowing whether or not the police in prefecture D would consider it illegal unless we actually try it out. As a result, for example, nothing was said in Fukuoka, we were physically separated from their campaign vehicle in Kumamoto by a blocking line and begged "please be more moderate", we were warned that it constituted "stalking" under the Minor Offenses Act in Kagoshima (since no romantic feelings were involved, the Stalker Regulation Law was irrelevant!), and in Miyazaki, we were warned that it was considered "obstruction of an election by force" under the Public Election Law.
Some people may be quick to assume that it may be considered illegal after all, or that it cannot be imitated. However, in the above cases of Kagoshima and Miyazaki, because we chased the campaign cars around, it was judged to be "stalking" or "XX by force", and in fact, there was no need to chase the cars around. If you just go around the election district proclaiming, "Mr. XX is a pro-nuclear advocate", regardless of the motion of his campaign car, you can' t violate any law. We only dared to chase them around in order to create a buzz by deliberately making it interesting, and by being a topic of discussion (the number of Twitter followers increased by about 3,000 during the period), to make many anti-nuclear groups realize, "This is the way to do it!"
In fact, there is no need to "make it interesting" in the first place. To make it interesting, you need sense, but suggesting movements that cannot be done without sense is meaningless in this case. What is important is that there will be many "unexpected" movements for the regime. It is definitely "unexpected" that during the election period, there will be a large scale of town advertising activities that are (formally) unrelated to the election in various areas and that will result in a disadvantage to the pro-nuclear candidate. We imposed on ourselves the condition of "one day per candidate" in consideration of the extreme tactic of "chasing around" and measures against the police, but if you don't chase around the candidate and just do a simple "Mr. XX is a pro-nuclear advocate" announcement throughout the election period in the entire election district, then there is no problem and you can do it as much as you want. In a hotly contested district, it could really even affect the result of the election, so the targeted candidate must be in a panic (because you promote nuclear power, you bastard!)
Just two interesting episodes from the "Punitive Expedition for Nuclear Proponents".
The first is when we chased the campaign car of Noda Takeshi, a veteran politician of the LDP, in Kumamoto. Shortly after we began our chasing operation, he called the police, and soon both his campaign car and our truck were ordered to stop by the police. While surrounded by a large number of uniformed and plainclothes police officers, Noda himself used the microphone on his campaign car to shout, "Who in the world are you paid by?" That's as far as it goes. He continued, "Watanabe?" So I immediately tweeted. In fact, since the start of the project, we had continued to solicit donations through our blog and Twitter, and a good amount of money had actually been transferred to the project. "Well, there's this LDP guy, Noda Takeshi, who's saying, 'Are you getting money from Watanabe?' Is there anyone named Watanabe who has donated money to us so far?". This tweet was greatly amused. Listening more closely, I learned that Noda was apparently saying, "Are you getting money from Watanabe Yoshimi (the head of "The Party of Everyone" [a national political party with such a silly name used to be at the time])?". So I tweeted again. "It seems that he says, 'Are you getting money from Yoshimi Watanabe?' So, I would like to make a suggestion. If you have been hesitant to donate money in your own name, please make your donations in Watanabe Yoshimi's name from now on". This tweet, in which I attempted to provide "factual support" for the accusation that I was getting money from Watanabe Yoshimi, was also a big hit, and as a result, my bank book has become a seemingly dangerous item concerning "politics and money". Incidentally, the story went that the police set up a blocking line and only allowed the campaign car to leave first, and begged us to be "a little more moderate" at this time.
The second episode concerns tailing by the police. At that time, we were still wandering around an election district, unable to find our target's campaign car. Then I noticed a tail. I tried turning a few unimportant corners, but they still kept following me, and sure enough, they were a pair, and I concluded that there was no question that it was a police tailgating. It was annoying, but there was nothing I could do about it, so I patiently endured it for a while, and eventually an idea hit me. I looked for the nearest high school on the map, and when I arrived, I began to drive slowly out along the grounds. Many students were there during club activities. I confirmed that the tail was still on me perfectly, and I suddenly grabbed the microphone. "Let's make the nuclear power plant the issue! I am appealing for the issue of nuclear power plant while being tailed by the police. The blue car right behind this car is the police. What a frightening world we live in, where we are being watched by the police just for mentioning nuclear power!" The blue car fled away at a high speed.
The following summer, in 2013, we changed our approach slightly for the Upper House election.
This time, we called the project a "Tour of Killing by too much Praising, No, it's not, Just Big Praise for Pro-Nuclear Advocates", we attached a sign on our truck that read in large letters, "Let's destroy such a country with nuclear power plants". At that time, as my other job, or should I say my main job, I was in the middle of a "national tour", traveling around Japan holding talk shows and drinking parties, and was in Niigata on the first day of the campaign and in Sapporo on the last day. While traveling from place to place on my "main job", I developed these activities "incidentally" along the way from Hokuriku to Tohoku and Hokkaido, but as expected, the number of followers on Twitter increased by about 2,000 during the period.
The content is similar to that of the next gubernatorial election, so I omit it.
Following the Upper House election, we launched a "Campaign of Killing by too much Praising, No, it's not, Just Big Praise for Pro-Nuclear Advocates" for the Tokyo gubernatorial election this past February 2014. In this tactic, first of all, the music to be played from our truck is Kiyoshiro's "the Song for the Pro-Nuclear Festival". It is, of course, a sarcastic song, loudly shouting "pro-nuclear power" over the rhythm of traditional Japanese festival music. The targets were Masuzoe Yoichi and Tamogami Toshio, especially Masuzoe, who was sure to be elected. In the above-mentioned Upper House election, I targeted the LDP candidate in the area where I happened to be at the time. And in both the Tokyo gubernatorial election and the Upper House election, the framing was "we are terrorists".
When driving normally, we repeated short announcements to passersby along the road. "Let's destroy such a country with nuclear power plants. We support Mr. Masuzoe, a promoter of nuclear power!" Needless to say, "Please support him" is illegal under the Public Election Law. It is merely a position statement that "I" or "we" support Mr. Masuzoe. It does not violate the law because it is not "asking" others to support (or disapprove of) him.
If there is enough time, for example, to wait at a traffic signal, I talk longer. I had to be creative in constructing my speech so that I could break off at any sentence when I ran the green light. gLet's terminate such a country with nuclear power plants. Let's finish such a country by nuclear power plants. I would like to thank Mr. Masuzoe, a proponent of nuclear power, for leaving nuclear power plants, a prime target for us terrorists, forever. Mr. Masuzoe, please continue to promote nuclear power and do your best. We approve of nuclear power plants. Let's destroy such a country. We are now in the midst of a campaign of Killing by too much Praising, No, it's not, Just Big Praise for Pro-Nuclear Advocates. We are sincerely and wholeheartedly supporting the pro-nuclear power plant advocate Mr. Masuzoe, just barely breaking the law, selfishly, persistently, and daily, in a very sticky manner. I am Toyama Koichi, former candidate for Governor of Tokyo, a candidate for Governor of Tokyo 7 years ago. Together with Mr. Masuzoe, I will continue to promote dangerous nuclear power plants more and more. Let's make Japan thrilling again by restarting all nuclear plants. I am actually a terrorist. I am about a friend of a friend of al-Qaeda. I want to [tongue-tied like a foreigner] brow up the nucrear power prant and destloy Nippon. We terrorists would be very much helped if the nuclear power plant is left, so we are very much supporting the pro-nuclear advocate, Mr. Masuzoe-san very much!h
At the time of the Upper House election, the announcements were almost like "wrestling by oneself" except in the downtown areas of Sendai and Sapporo, but in Tokyo, as expected, it was indeed a special city. We encountered an unusual number of crowds here and there, and wherever we did it, there were always a certain number of passersby who burst out laughing. Seeing the reactions of the people, I was delighted as well, and I spent almost every day during the gubernatorial election, from morning to night, thoroughly praising Mr. Masuzoe.
At the event, we also recruited people from the public on Twitter who wanted to ride on our truck and speak. There was no shortage of applicants. From the first few days, two or three people, often five or six, would enter our van every day to compete the skill of the "killing by too much praising" speech. At first they followed my announcements, but as they got used to it, they began to mix in their own original phrases. It was almost a contest for rookie comedians. The "winner" would have been a right-wing young man who was used to doing street advertisements, and he kept praising Masuzoe endlessly and ridiculously, completely by improvisation. The "runner-up" was a woman who had been well experienced as a standard election campaign speaker, originally as a job. She had a wonderful tone of voice that was very election car-like, and uttered a series of dangerous phrases that were uncharacteristic of an election campaign car. In the "third place" and below were some young people, especially in the theatrical field.
I also started to enjoy it increasingly and aimed even more "on the edge of the line". "Make Mr. Masuzoe the governor of Tokyo!" is of course illegal, but "Make him prime minister! or "Make him president!" are not illegal. Realizing this, I finally reached to the idea of, since the Osaka election was just around the corner, "With the help of all the citizens of Tokyo, let's make Mr. Masuzoe the new ...... mayor of Osaka or something".
Surprisingly, there were many, or rather a majority, of people who did not recognize the irony of this kind of propaganda, and such people should not be given the right to vote in the first place. However, even if such people, who are not literate at all, take our announcement literally, they would still understand that nuclear power plants can be a target of terrorism, which was the excellent point of this tactic.
On the day of the voting, we blitzed Masuzoe's house. It was 8:00 in the morning. "Good morning, Mr. Masuzoe! Are you awake? Thank you for your long, long struggle (we never say 'election campaign'). I have heard that Mr. Masuzoe will be resting and relaxing today. Instead of such Mr. Masuzoe, we will do our best today and all day long to tell the people of Tokyo that Mr. Masuzoe must continue to promote the nuclear power plant that we terrorists are targeting. So please don't worry about, Mr. Masuzoe, and may your soul rest in peace!" At that time, he indeed called the police, but again, the police just asked us to "be a little more moderate ......" and nothing happened. Under the provisions of the Public Election Law, candidates were no longer allowed to use campaign vehicles on the day of voting, but since I was not a candidate, of course I was still free to campaign as long as the content was "unrelated" to the election.
After leaving Masuzoe's residence, we immediately started making the rounds of elementary and junior high schools in Tokyo. Saying something like, "We need to tell the 'children who will be responsible for the future' what is important", we actually began to turn around, but for some reason, there were no students to be seen at any of the elementary or junior high schools. Instead, there were many suspicious-looking adults, all holding postcard-sized pieces of paper, going in and out of what appeared to be gymnasiums. gI really came here to tell you something important to the children, but since I have no choice, I would like to inform all of you who are adults but somehow attend elementary school. Mr. Masuzoe is a pro-nuclear power plant advocate. Please use this information as a reference for 'something' in your life".
In fact, In fact, we did this in the aforementioned Lower and Upper House elections.
(Needless to say, as is probably the case in many countries, public elementary and junior high schools on holiday are used as the main polling places in Japanese elections.)
As I repeat, it is merely "amusing political activity" if I alone do such a thing.
But what if a large number of anti-nuclear groups around the country start doing similar things? It is not difficult to convert a private car into a campaign car, or to begin with, the "sound cars" used in so-called "sound demonstrations" around the country can be diverted. During the election period, you will go around the election district announcing that "Mr. XX is a pro-nuclear advocate" and as even more preposterous, of course, you should focus on the area around the polling place even on the day of the voting. Amazingly, this is totally legal and impossible to crack down on.
The government would be very upset if such a thing were to happen, regardless of whether or not it would affect the results of the election. The important thing is to embarrass the government anyway, and make it hard for them to respond.
Although we have yet to go through with it, we have also presented the idea of running a large number of candidates for councilors in towns and villages that have nuclear power plants and throw the election campaign into chaos.
To run for a city council seat, one must pay a 300,000 yen (500,000 yen in the case of ordinance-designated cities) processing fee, or so-called deposit fee, but there is actually no deposit fee system for town and village council elections. Therefore, as long as one transfers one's certificate of residence at least three months before the election date, one can run for free.
However, it is impossible to win the elections anyway (in a rural area such as those where nuclear power plants are targeted for construction, the conservative politicians who promote nuclear firmly hold on to their votes through local and blood ties, and the voting rate is usually 80% or so, with almost no floating votes), so regardless of winning or losing (rather, assuming all will lose), we should have, for example, about 20 candidates run for the 10 or so seats available for the elections.
Isn't it jolly just to imagine the sight of election poster boards at nuclear power plant sites filled with anti-nuclear slogans?
Furthermore, if we can prepare enough campaign cars, we can also go after the pro-nuclear incumbents one-on-one (since we are formally running for office, even if we go after them thoroughly and continue to "spark an argument", it is only a policy debate, and even in this country where there is no freedom of speech, freedom of speech in election campaigns is exceptionally guaranteed to the fullest extent, so we will never be accused of "stalking" or "obstruction of election" by the police or election authorities), and we can afford to do so. With the extra (?) campaign cars, some may earnestly and sincerely appeal for anti-nuclear power, some may go around cursing the countrymen who depend on nuclear power money, some may develop the "killing by too much praising" speech", some may beg for the continuation of nuclear power plants as "terrorists" (while making vague explanations as to why), and some may seek some new method of "funny propaganda".
There is also no way to regulate such activities, so all they can do is be puzzled.
Of course, such things are nothing more than mere harassments. But, I repeat again and again, what is important is the constant and insistent harassments against the government, the state power, and the regime.
Incidentally, when we visited a real estate office in Genkai Town, Saga Prefecture, in the fall of 2012, we were told that "there are no apartments in the area", so we lost our plan.
Of course, if there were some local anti-nuclear activists with a sense of humor, this could be done without renting an apartment, etc. One or two might be available, but the fact that we have kept our distance from the "serious" anti-nuclear movement and not gotten too deeply involved has backfired on us.
However, the Genkai Town Council election was uncontested, as there were only enough candidates to make up the quota.
Recently, in order to prevent the restart of the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant, we have been holding truly(?) "unrelated to the election" activities, mainly in the surrounding towns and cities of Sendai City.
Our target is not the citizens of Sendai, who are so dependent on nuclear money and "persuading them is futile", but the residents of the "surrounding cities and towns", who can' t access the money and will only be bothered unilaterally if anything happens to the plants. Of course, these areas have always been conservative, so-called "LDP kingdoms", and so far the anti-nuclear voices are not necessarily loud.
We especially focused on agricultural areas, and said, "You farmers should naturally be well aware of the fact that farmers in the Tohoku region near Fukushima are suffering from harmful rumors. Despite that, if you dare not raise your voice against the re-start of the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant, we must assume that you are fully prepared to accept such a situation. So, we are going to go around telling people repeatedly not to eat vegetables and rice produced in Kagoshima, once something should happen to the Sendai Nuclear Power Plants".
The comrade who sometimes accompanies me, a.k.a. "Miss S.", says sadly, "We didn't oppose the restart at that time, it can't be helped, so please, accept such a situation". The dark hit song used as background music for the speech, "Our Failure" by Morita Doji, is too perfect a match indeed.
As described above (although there are some ongoing "secret operations" that I cannot divulge yet so far), I have been developing my "own anti-nuclear movement" for the past two years.
As I have already mentioned, one reason is that we are fed up with the current situation of the existing anti-nuclear power movements, which are too orthodox and have failed to strike a blow or sway the pro-nuclear advocates in the slightest, and we want to show them that there are such alternative methods. Another is to provoke some pathetic people, who rightly oppose such uncool anti-nuclear movements, but do not pursue any different and cool anti-nuclear movement, and who subjectively think themselves to be "sensible".
However, although my position against nuclear power has been consistent since 1988, I have not always focused on the issue as the main axis of my activities.
This may seem sudden, but I am convinced that neither nuclear power plants nor a controlled society can be ultimately stopped without the revival of the "student activism" on a proper scale (tens of thousands of activists nationwide, and perhaps hundreds of thousands at the end of the 1960s, when it was at its extreme height), and my main activity over the past decade or so has been to take every opportunity to rouse students.
For the time being, I intend to devote myself to the various operations to prevent the restart of the Sendai Nuclear Power Plants, but I am also beginning to think that it is time to return to my primary task, which is to "rebuild the student movement".
Having done such things would be enough for my role. It seems that there are still many people who are desperate to "stop the nuclear power plant first and foremost", and it is time to leave the rest to them. I have proposed a number of "new tactics" to replace the existing tactics that are not expected to be effective, so you can copy them, or you can think of something else.
Many people marvel at me, saying, "How can you come up with so many strange ideas one after another?" But once I reveal the secret, it is easy to do. If you gather with several friends over a drink and discuss ideas, something funny will surely come up, one or two that will make everyone in the room burst into laughter. The only thing I keep in mind is that they should not end up as "stories over drinking". Everyone can do that.
It is impossible to have a majority of anti-nuclear legislators in Congress, much less to persuade the pro-nuclear advocates. We must not keep repeating such mistakes (misguided efforts) over and over again.
In any case, we must annoy "them", make it difficult for them to deal with us, and be relentless in harassing them. That is the "main road" of the grassroots movement, no matter what the issue is.