The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 10 | Issue 29 | Number 2 | Article ID 3799 | Jul 09, 2012

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The No Nukes 2012 Concert and the Role of Musicians in theAnti-Nuclear Movement　　No Nukes 2012 コンサートと反原発運動における音楽家の役割

Noriko Manabe

The No Nukes 2012 Concert and theRole of Musicians in the Anti-Nuclear Movement

Noriko MANABE

On July 7–8, 2012, a two-day mass rock concertcalled No Nukes 2012 (http://nonukes2012.jp/)was held in the Makuhari Messe ConventionCenter in Chiba, near Tokyo. The organizer wasS a k a m o t o R y u i c h i(http://www.sitesakamoto.com/), member of thegroundbreaking Japanese technopop groupYellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) and AcademyAward-winning composer. Profits from theconcert were donated to Sayonara Genpatsu1 0 0 0 M a n N i n A k u s h o n(http://sayonara-nukes.org/english/) (Citizens’Committee for the 10 Million People’s Petitionto say Goodbye to Nuclear Power Plants), anantinuclear group which Sakamoto has beenbacking, along with Nobel Prize-winning authorOe Kenzaburo and others. The concert featuredperformances by 18 groups, includingpioneering electronic groups Kraftwerk andYMO as well as rock bands Asian Kung-FuGeneration, Acidman, and others.

The Entrance to the Concert

The concert took place the day after a massiveprotest in front of the Prime Minister's officialresidence (Kantei)—the latest and biggest inwhat has become a regular Friday-nightprotest, which, organizers estimated, attracted150,000 people that evening. Sakamoto himselfhad participated in this protest, saying beforethe camera, "I come here as a shimin (citizen);it's important that we all do what we can andraise our voices."

Sakamoto's concert is a significant moment forthe Japanese antinuclear movement. AsChristian Lahusen and John Street havepointed out, celebrities can play an importantfunction in social movements because theycommand audiences and thus bring attentionand legitimacy to the causes they back(Lahusen 1996; Street 2002); Bob Geldof's rolein famine relief efforts would be but oneexample. As one of Japan's most admiredmusicians, Sakamoto can be seen as using hissocial capital to set an example for both major

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artists and ordinary Japanese citizens. Althoughrecent polls have indicated that 70% ofJapanese oppose restarting the nuclear powerplants following their temporary shutdowns,many people feel that in their work, school, orsocial settings, it is taboo to talk about nuclearissues. Some are afraid to attend protests dueto heavy police presence and the social costs ofbeing arrested in Japan, where the police candetain people for 23 days without anindictment. In fact, a large number of people atthe No Nukes concert appeared to have comeby themselves. By appearing at the Kanteiprotest as an "ordinary citizen," Sakamoto wasdemonstrating that everyone, indeed, shouldparticipate.

Entertainers, too, have felt a need to keepquiet. The case of Yamamoto Taro is a starkreminder of the high cost of taking a defiantlyantinuclear stance. This popular actor, who hadappeared in many films and television dramas,made a video for Operation Kodomotachi(http://youtu.be/IVGKRPoyyfY), a nonprofitorganization supporting the evacuation ofchildren from Fukushima; in it, he was bluntlycritical of the government's setting ofmandatory evacuation zones, which he claimedwere too small and made so in order to savemoney. Yamamoto was dismissed from anupcoming television drama and prompted toresign from his agency; his acting opportunitiesevaporated; and his friends and girlfrienddeserted him (Yamamoto 2012). He eventuallytook a job as a salaryman.1

Broadcast media, particularly television,continues to be an important means forpromoting music,2 and music and broadcastingindustry personnel acknowledge that songscritiquing the government, specific companies,or named individuals are unlikely to be aired.Furthermore, musicians airing such views cansee a reduction in bookings. Last year, theindie idol-pop group Seifuku Kojo Iinkai, whichrecorded the song, "Da! Da! Datsugenpatsu nou t a "

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly_i8f-j0xU)(Get Rid of Nuclear Power) was disinvited fromthe Fuji Rock Festival3 and discouraged fromsinging the song at engagements.

Other performers have cited personal reasonsfor being reticent about antinuclear issues. Onemusician told me that he is reluctant to beantinuclear because he knows that ruralcommunities have been economicallydependent on nuclear power and that regionalfarmers have been hurt by radiation fears ("it'sa complex issue—it's better for Tokyoiteswithout personal connections to voice it").Another musician said that if he became openlyantinuclear, his music would be interpretedthrough an antinuclear lens thereafter—asituation he was reluctant to accept. Hence,whatever their views on the issues, most artistson major labels (with some notable exceptions)have not spoken out publicly against nuclearpower, and much of the music of theantinuclear protest movement thus far hasbeen from independent artists or fromanonymous contributions distributed over theInternet. Thus, it is perhaps not surprising thatit was Sakamoto—a longtime resident of NewYork who splits his time between the twocountries—who spearheaded this effort.

Sakamoto himself has noted that "a smallnumber of musicians have been outspoken onsocial issues, but they tend to be dismissed asradical," so that he sought some non-politicalmusicians for the concert. "That way, moremusicians will gradually realize that it is allright to express their own opinions" (JapanTimes, July 5). Indeed, while several of theconcert's performers (e.g., Goto Masafumi ofAsian Kung-Fu Generation, Akihiro Namba,Saito Kazuyoshi, and Soul Flower Union) werealready known to be antinuclear, others, suchas Hajime Chitose or Yamazaki Masayoshi, hadnot been so public with their antinuclear views;as Ken Yokoyama said at the concert, "I'dthought it was the role of chindon-ya (streetbands) rather than myself to cry out against

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nuclear power, even though I really wanted towrite it out in big letters on a banner." Byproviding a mass venue of like-mindedmusicians, the concert hence encouragedmusicians to be more open about theirantinuclear views and use their position asartists to serve the movement.

Communications tactics

Having brought a mass of people togetherthrough music, the concert aimed to conveythat every citizen should think about the issuesand that one can, indeed, speak up. Thismessage was communicated in multiple ways.Preceding each performance, videos wereshown featuring interviews with Koide Hiroaki,Assistant Professor of Nuclear Physics at KyotoUniversity; Iida Tetsunari, Executive Directorof the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies;Murata Mitsuhei, Professor at Tokai GakuenUniversity and former ambassador toSwitzerland; and most movingly, IdogawaKatsutaka, the mayor of Futaba, one of the hosttowns of the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear PowerP l a n t(http://www.ustream.tv/embed/recorded/23848783). Among the arguments they presentedwere that the nation actually has enough plantcapacity without restarting any of the nuclearpower p lants ; that there are v iable ,environmentally friendly means to produceenergy; that the Nuclear Village of the nuclearindustry, the state and establishmentintellectuals is interested in its own gains; andthat the problems of Fukushima are far fromover. These videos drew applause from anenthusiastic audience. Such views can beconsidered anti-hegemonic in Japan, where themainstream media—which, in Japan, iscomprised of the terrestrial television networksand national newspapers—has tended toconvey the official pronuclear view. Byproviding a space in which the pronucleararguments that pervade the media could bereframed, the concert organizers aimed to raiseawareness of nuclear-related issues—a crucial

role.

Creative videos, such as that contributed by theGerman sound-art duo Diamond Version, alsodrew whoops of approval.

As Sakamoto explained in the forward to theconcert guidebook, No Nukes 2012: Bokura nom i r a i g a i d o b u k k u ,(http://www.amazon.co.jp/NUKES-2012-%E3%81%BC%E3%81%8F%E3%82%89%E3%81%AE%E6%9C%AA%E6%9D%A5%E3%82%AC%E3%82%A4%E3%83%89%E3%83%96%E3%83%83% E 3 % 8 2 % A F -%E5%9D%82%E6%9C%AC%E9%BE%8D%E4%B 8 % 8 0 -%E7%B7%A8%E7%BA%82%E3%83%81%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0/dp/4797987375) thesemessages were put together with the aim ofgiving audience members "a seed" ofsomething to think about. The guidebookprovided more seeds. It contains essays byKoide, Iida, and Murata, reinforcing themessages in the videos; interviews with twoartists performing at the concert, GotoMasafumi of Asian Kung-Fu Generation andNakagawa Takashi of Soul Flower Union, inconversation with young activists; a timetableof key events in Japan's nuclear history; and acartoon about Chernobyl. The book cover is bypopular artist Yoshitomo Nara; this artist'spicture of a girl holding a "no nukes" sign is anincreasing presence at demonstrations. Inaddition, the concession hall featured booths ofseveral antinuclear and Tohoku-aid groups,such as Sayonara Genpatsu, the art groupSayonara Atom, the Citizens' NuclearInformation Center, and a group from IwaiIsland in Yamaguchi Prefecture, which hasbeen in a 30-year battle with Chugoku ElectricPower over the construction of a nuclear powerplant.

Perhaps the most powerful messages werefrom the performers themselves as they spokedirectly to the audience. As Eyerman and

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Jamison (1998) have pointed out, socialmovements are dependent on the formation ofcollective identities, and music plays a largepart in that process; the No Nukes performers'messages seemed to show an intuitiveunderstanding of this relationship. Manyartists—Goto, Hajime Chitose, Ken Yokoyama,and others—reinforced Sakamoto's words thatevery citizen needs to participate in their ownway. Goto, Acidman, and others called for like-minded individuals to connect with one anotherand encouraged them to talk about these issuesin the workplace and among friends. AkihitoNamba acknowledged that the process waslikely to be long and encouraged audiencemembers to persevere: "Let's not give up. Let'simagine a better future. We are the future."Performers also showed an intuit iveunderstanding of their double role as ordinarycitizens and as celebrities with the power toinspire action from their audiences. Oki Nobuoo f A c i d m a n(http://ro69.jp/quick/nonukes2012/detail/70049), the citizen, admitted that he (like manyJapanese) had not paid attention to the nuclearissue until the accident. He then spoke of aformer label associate who had gone back toFukushima and has been living a difficult life asan evacuee. Oki, the celebrity, then added, "Wecan't let such a disaster happen again. Perhapsthat's just a high-sounding statement. But if amusician can't say that, who can?"

Messages through performance

Musicians also interacted with audiencemembers through participatory performanceand dress. Many artists wore T-shirts with NoNukes messages, with some selling their ownNo Nukes T-shirts at the concession stands;many audience members bought these T-shirtsat the concert and changed into them. Inaddition to the sing-alongs common at liveconcerts, performers led call-and-responsesreminiscent of demonstrations. Soul FlowerU n i o n(http://ro69.jp/quick/nonukes2012/detail/70024

?rtw) finished their set with the familiar protestcalls, "Genpatsu iranai" (We don't need nuclearpower) and "Saikado hantai" (We opposerestart ing nuclear reactors) ; rockerA k i h i t o N a m b a(http://ro69.jp/quick/nonukes2012/detail/70028) led a call-and-response on No Nukes.

Antinuclear messages were also present in thes o n g s p e r f o r m e d . A s i a n K u n g - F u(http://ro69.jp/quick/nonukes2012/detail/70021) Generation played a new antinuclear song,while Soul Flower Union inserted antinuclearlyrics into their songs. Kraftwerk, the onlyforeign band that performed, refashioned" R a d i o a c t i v i t y "(http://ro69.jp/quick/nonukes2012/detail/70035?rtw) for the current situation, memorablyr e c i t i n g i n J a p a n e s e(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWsQgmq-fNs):

Kraftwerk performing "Radioactivity," NoNukes 2012 (Photo courtesy of Rockin' On)

チェルノビイリ　ハリスバーグ　セラフィールド　ヒロシマ

チェルノビイリ　ハリスバーグ　セラフィールド　フクシマ

今でも　放射能

今日も　いつまでも

フクシマ　放射能

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空気　水　すべて

今でも　放射能

いますぐ　やめろ

Chernobyl, Harrisburg, Sellafield, Hiroshima

Chernobyl, Harrisburg, Sellafield, Fukushima

There's still radioactivity now

Today and forever

Fukushima radiation

Air, water, everything

There's still radioactivity now

Stop [nuclear power] now

Y M O(http://ro69.jp/quick/nonukes2012/detail/70033) a l s o p l a y e d t h e i r o w n v e r s i o n o f"Radioactivity" and showed visuals with thewords, "No Nukes / Yes Life/ More Trees."

Yellow Magic Orchestra at No Nukes 2012(Photo courtesy of Rockin' On)

S a i t o K a z u y o s h i(http://ro69.jp/quick/nonukes2012/detail/70054) played his well-known antinuclear cover song,"Zutto uso dattandaze" (It Was Always a Lie), toresounding applause; he quipped, "It felt likethe kind of atmosphere where I wouldn't be

scolded for playing it. As you know, there arepeople who will say all sorts of things." He alsoperformed three antinuclear songs from his2 0 1 1 a l b u m 4 5 S t o n e s(http://www.amazon.co.jp/45-STONES-%E5%88%9D%E5%9B%9E%E9%99%90%E5%AE%9A%E 7 % 9 B % A 4 -%E6%96%89%E8%97%A4%E5%92%8C%E7%BE%A9/dp/B005I7AQCW): "Saru no wakusei"(Planet of the Apes), "Okami chunen" (Middle-Aged Liar), and perhaps most movingly, "Usagito kame" (The Tortoise and the Hare). Thissong adopts the Aesop fable to offer acounterargument to the prevailing rationale fornuclear power: that it is necessary to sustainthe economy. Pointing out that "money-obsessed people" have forced everyone into a"blinding pace" using "energy made frompoison," Saito asks, "Which one was it that wonin the end?"

Saito remains among the very few Japanesemainstream artists who have released acommercial recording with antinuclear content.In 1988, the rock band RC Succession recordedthe album Covers, which contained versions ofEddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" and ElvisPresley's "Love Me Tender" with antinuclearlyrics in Japanese. When the band's label,Toshiba EMI, declined to release the album, thegroup released it under Kitty Records; thealbum reached number one on the Oricon salescharts. In honor of the band's late frontman,Imawano Kiyoshiro, RC Succession memberNakaido "Chabo" Reichi led a session(http://ro69.jp/quick/nonukes2012/detail/70050) playing renditions of Imawano's songs.

Reach and reception

Each concert was attended by over 8,500people, according to Sakamoto's managementcompany; contrary to channel 2 reports, whichclaimed that the hall was empty, the crowdfilled much of the rented halls at the large-scaleMakuhari Messe Convention center in ChibaPrefecture near Tokyo. The audience was

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diverse in age, from the greying, to parentswith young children, to twenty-somethings andstudents. Indeed, much of the concert seemedconstructed purposefully to be inviting tocollege-age youth, as many have been reluctantto participate in protests given currentdifficulties in the job market. The inclusion ofmany acts who debuted in the 1990s or 2000slikely helped to attract them; the activistsfeatured in the guidebook were in theirtwenties. To increase the reach of the concert,the show was streamed live over the Interneto n U - S t r e a m(http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nonukes-fes).More than 310,000 viewers saw the show thisway; the feed was accessed over 542,000 timeso v e r t h e t w o d a y s o f t h e c o n c e r t(http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nonukes-fes).In addition, Sakamoto featured the concert onh i s r a d i o s h o w o n J - W a v e(http://www.j-wave.co.jp/original/radiosakamoto/songlist/top.htm) on July 9, with interviews ofthe participating artists and clips from theperformances. It is significant that anantinuclear event received such a long airingon a major radio station; only an artist with thestature of Sakamoto could have pulled off sucha stunt.

The concert seemed to be stimulating for bothactivists and non-activists, as it provided aspace that allowed for nuclear issues could bediscussed. As the antinuclear activist Monjukun(http://monjukun.com/) tweeted, "It was anenvironment where everyone could wear a NoNukes T- shirt and discuss nuclear issues in arelaxed manner. . . I came to understand thatso many people thought as I did" (@monjukun,Twitter, July 9). The concert also seemed toinspire non-activists in attendance; severalaudience members said, "I came here becauseartists I liked were on the program. I hadthought there was little I could do. From nowon, I will do what I can, little by little." If theconcert inspires more artists to use theircelebrity status to speak out, and inspirescitizens to participate in the process, it will

prove to be an important milestone in theantinuclear movement.

Noriko Manabe is an Assistant Professor in theDepartment of Music and Associated Faculty inthe Department of East Asian Studies atPrinceton University, where she teachescourses in popular music and ethnomusicology.She has published articles on Japanese rap,mobile music, and Cuban music, and hasarticles in press on Japanese hip-hop DJs,wartime children's songs, and online radio. Sheis currently preparing monographs on musicalsubcultures in Japan (rock, hip-hop, reggae,dance music), the history of Japanese children'ssongs, and music and the Japanese antinuclearmovement. Information about her work can befound here (http://www.norikomanabe.com).

References

Eyerman, Ron and Andrew Jamison. 1998.Music and Social Movements: MobilizingTradit ions in the Twentieth Century.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Lahusen, Christian. 1996. The Rhetoric ofMoral Protest: Public Campaigns, CelebrityEndorsement, and Political Mobilization. Berlin:Walter de Gruyter.

Manabe, Noriko. 2008. "New Technologies,Industrial Structure, and the Consumption ofM u s i c i n J a p a n(http://www.google.co.jp/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CFMQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmuse.jhu.edu%2Fjournals%2Famu%2Fsummary%2Fv039%2F39.1manabe.html&ei=A_oFUKX3MNCciQeq5Oi4CA&usg=AFQjCNEWBpk1XapqARPi7G8OukG8D21H_g&sig2=owIAG_eXN09gt10DhHlEyA)." AsianMusic 39/1 (Winter/Spring): 81–107.

Sakamoto Ryuichi et al. 2012. No Nukes 2012:Bokura no mirai gaidobukku. Tokyo: ShogakkanSquare.

Street, John. 2002. "Bob, Bono and Tony B: The

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P o p u l a r A r t i s t a s P o l i t i c i a n(http://mcs.sagepub.com/content/24/3/433.extract)." Media Culture and Society 24: 433–441.

Yamamoto Taro. 2012. Hitor i buta i :Datsugenpatsu—tatakau yakusha no shinjitsu.Tokyo: Shueisha.

Recommended citation: Noriko MANABE, "TheNo Nukes 2012 Concert and the Role ofMusicians in the Anti-Nuclear Movement," TheAsia-Pacific Journal, Vol 10, Issue 29, No. 2,July 16, 2012.

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•Piers Williamson, Largest Demonstrations inHalf a Century Protest the Restart of JapaneseN u c l e a r P o w e r P l a n t s(http://www.japanfocus.org/-Piers-_Williamson/3787)

•Tomomi YAMAGUCHI and Muto Ruiko, MutoRuiko and the Movement of FukushimaResidents to Pursue Criminal Charges againstTepco Executives and Government Officials(http://www.japanfocus.org/-Muto-Ruiko/3784)

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Notes

1 "'Salariiman Yamamoto Taro' no iwakan,(http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20120421-00000009-nkgendai-ent)" Nippon Gendai, April18, 2012.

2 S e e M a n a b e ( 2 0 0 8 )(http://www.google.co.jp/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CFMQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmuse.jhu.edu%2Fjournals%2Famu%2Fsummary%2Fv039%2F39.1manabe.html&ei=A_oFUKX3MNCciQeq5Oi4CA&usg=AFQjCNEWBpk1XapqARPi7G8OukG8D21H_g&sig2=owIAG_eXN09gt10DhHlEyA) for anexplanation of the structure of the Japanesemusic industry and the Record IndustryA s s o c i a t i o n o f J a p a n(http://riaj.or.jp/e/index.html) for statisticalupdates.

3 The objection is said to have come from asponsor of the stage, not Fuji Rock itself.

4 The editorial policies of these media outletsvary greatly. Among television networks, TVAsahi and TBS have offered more coverage ofprotests and other antinuclear viewpoints;among the newspapers, Tokyo Shimbun,Mainichi Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun have

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printed more stories about protests or antinuclear views.