Novelist Yu Miri says Olympics not helping Fukushima rebuild

Yu san, well done & its rare for a person these days to not just talk the talk but to walk the walk!!

I hope your caf'e works out the way you want it!

People have largely forgotten about Fukushima, like it's some bad dream, that pops up every now and then.

Sadly the government is pushing it aside, but the people who are STILL refugees in their own country will never forget!

Shame on Suga, and all the other politicians, who only seem to pay lip service to the disaster that is still among us!

She is right. This is really the sad truth. The gov here would rather spend money on something new than helping their own people who paid a lot of taxes for many years but yet to recover from 311. The country has abandoned them. How sad it is. Maybe this is karma that Olympics got stuck in this pandemic.

The Olympics only ever paid lip service to the Tohoku disaster and even then, it was about "3/11", meaning the apolitical act-of-God tsunami.

The government is loathed to bring any attention to the state-sponsored industrial accident that happened at Fukushima Daiichi. I could imagine a montage of 3/11 being shown at the opening ceremony for some tug-at-the-heartstrings, triumph-over-adversity whitewashing of the Games, but they will never show the explosions at the nuclear power plant. They want that story to go away.

Not a novelist myself but 10 years ago I saw nothing that said help Fucashima just embarrassed politicians deflected their responsibility. Then the cream on the pie,! Super Mario saying everything is in control? And I'm not genius. Makes you wonder about decion makers when a novelist makes the news for saying what me as a worker bee has been thinking for a decade.

Good on her for raising awareness and speaking out! I’ll be buying this book too!

Keep in mind that the Olympics only make money for the IOC. For everyone else, it costs money.

Great respect for this lady. I used to live next to Shinjuku Chuo park and walk through daily and see the homeless people. I always felt guilty and tried to help, leaving money for them and clothes outside their camps. Then one day they all disappeared when renovations started on the park. I would love to read her book if it gets translated to English.

was never about Fukushima, only about liquidating public money into private coffers and the ruling elite

But their lives have significantly changed — for the worse — since Yu finished the book, with a growing sense of isolation among Fukushima residents amid preparations ahead of the Olympics, and the coronavirus pandemic that has made them more isolated, said Yu. She has since moved to Minamisoma, where she opened a book café in hopes of creating a place for locals to get reconnected after displacement due to the nuclear disaster.

I would trust her more than Mori and Sasaki and Abe to create a "beautiful Japan".

Wolfpack - yes, while the olympics may not be a social welfare program, the reality is that the national govt did dub these the reconstruction olympics to physically, financially and spiritually benefit the people of Tohoku. They were seen to be a panacea for the woes of millions. Big money spent to provide hope. This was and is widely reported.

A short snippet from wiki -

"In early December 2011, Japan's House of Representatives and House of Councillors passed a resolution giving Tokyo's bid their full support and cooperation. This decisions also states that hosting the games will be beneficial to Japan and will be a positive step forward following the recent earthquake and tsunami that Japan experienced earlier in 2011"

Fukushima and other areas were paraded as beneficiaries of the olympic games.

Not only the Olympics, the rugby games there brought nothing but extra costs and trouble spent on an empty stadium.

Don’t see how Tokyo Olympics could ever have helped Tokushima except in donating some money. They get a few token events,and a ridiculous 4 month relay starts there. They should get money and free invitations, all paid.

But Fukushima people should also not ask people to go and risk their health going there. If it’s so safe why do I see a grosery shop changing labels on tomatoes and why is Fukushima rice , called remembrance rise? We can remember the victims better by not shaming away to name the place they regretfully perished at.

It's very cute that she actually thought the government's use of the 3/11 disasters and atomic bombing victims would result in the victims and areas actually benefitting beyond getting a little recognition as they were used.

Novelist Yu Miri says Olympics not helping Fukushima rebuild

Maybe the novelist is unaware that the Olympics is an international sporting event and not a social welfare program. The Olympics has never been a significant benefit to a nations people- it’s a prestige event - that’s it. It does provide a temporary infusion of government cash to workers in the construction and service industries but does not provide a lasting impact.

“Both the nuclear accident and the coronavirus pandemic have revealed distortion and inequality in society,” Yu said.

No - these events have only revealed that the distinguished author is a socialist who is content to live a privileged life lamenting the existence of people less fortunate than herself She isn’t building houses or buying food for the poor. She seems to want someone else to pay for that.

I regularly contribute directly to the homeless.

I do so out of knowing what it is like not to have a home nor food.

Most Japanese have never experienced hunger nor being without a roof over their heads...

It’s not only under current corona pandemic that all people have completely other existential problems, very far away from thinking about Fukushima or Olympics, no, to speak it out honestly and realistically, that whole area there would have had the same problems if the nuclear disaster and tsunami would not have occurred. Do you really think that the caught and sold fish would have quadrupled, the whole youth of Japan would have been keen to quickly move to Fukushima and live there with splendid future , a prosperous economy and lots of young families, lots of babies, world-leading universities, taking over the lead from Tokyo etc. and only that bad nuclear accident and the tsunami plus that we others all ‘have forgotten’ Fukushima have interrupted those guaranteed dreams becoming true? Come on... lol

Makes you wonder about decion makers when a novelist makes the news for saying what me as a worker bee has been thinking for a decade.

Yes. And then she gets praised for it.

Fukushima and other areas were paraded as beneficiaries of the olympic games.

It is always rationalized that the Olympics will benefit the people of the hosting country. If the games cost more than they bring in, which is usually the case, the claim is exposed as a lie. Yu Miri would do more good by giving her wealth to a homeless person so that person can live as she says they should be able to live.