For critical reporting on Japan’s nuclear industry and continuing difficulties at the Fukushima Daiichi site, Japanese television has not kept up with the country’s print media. There have been some powerful reports, however.

One important example was aired on March 8, 2012 as part of Asahi TV’s “Morning Bird” program. An example of entertaining talk television, "Morning Bird" has taken an increasingly critical stand on nuclear power under the direction of regular commentator Tamakawa Toru.

In the program embedded with English subtitles below, Tamakawa discusses the work of Koide Hiroaki, a Research Associate at the Research Reactor Institute of Kyoto University and one of Japan’s most prominent anti-nuclear campaigners. The Asia-Pacific Journal  has previously carried a translation of Koide’s  interview with Le Monde and a translation of his detailed call for the abolition of nuclear power.

On “Morning Bird”  Tamakawa draws upon Koide’s writing to highlight the fact that that the Fukushima crisis is ongoing and that while radiation release is now limited, “danger” has not passed. He draws attention to the spent fuel pool near the No. 4 reactor and the continuing threat of emissions.

This video highlights ongoing challenges as well as the efforts of Japanese journalists and critical academics to challenge official silences.

Click here for The Asia-Pacific Journal's complete 3.11 coverage.

Also see our special issues on Fukushima and Japanese nuclear power:

Kinnia Yau's Responding to Disaster: Japan’s 3.11 Catastrophe in Historical Perspective

• Yau Shuk-ting, Kinnia, Introduction

• Matthew Penney, Nuclear Nationalism and Fukushima

• Susan Napier, The Anime Director, the Fantasy Girl and the Very Real Tsunami

• Yau Shuk Ting, Kinnia, Therapy for Depression: Social Meaning of Japanese Melodrama in the Heisei Era

• Timothy S. George, Fukushima in Light of Minamata

• Shi-lin Loh, Beyond Peace: Pluralizing Japan’s Nuclear History

• Brian Victoria, Buddhism and Disasters: From World War II to Fukushima

Christopher S. Thompson's The Great East Japan Earthquake One Year On: Reports from the Field

1. Christopher S. Thompson, The Great East Japan Earthquake One Year on: Reports From The Field

2. William W. Kelly, Tohoku’s Futures: Predicting Outcomes or Imagining Possibilities

3. Alyne Elizabeth Delaney, A Report From One Miyagi Fishing Community

4. Dawn Grimes-MacLellan, Students in the Field at the Site of the Great East Japan Earthquake

5. Christopher S. Thompson, Local Perspectives On the Tsunami Disaster: Untold Stories From the Sanriku Coast