<
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/environment/2025/07/06/energy/hokkaido-ainu-nuclear-waste-storage/>
"Plucking the resonant strings of a
tonkori — a broad, sword-shaped
instrument that’s been played by the Indigenous Ainu people for generations —
Oki Kano, a Japanese musician of Ainu descent transformed a club in Kyoto into
a vibrant tapestry of sound, mixing together rock, Ainu folk and dub music as
part of a tour earlier this spring.
Refusing to be labeled an activist, Kano has woven his rebellious spirit and a
nod to Indigenous rights into his music, which moved anti-nuclear activists
following the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Perhaps most notably, he made a speech
at a United Nations meeting later that year that clued some people into the
issue of using Indigenous land for nuclear plants and waste storage.
Nuclear energy and waste are “a poison,” Kano says, that don’t fit into the
philosophy of Ainu people, the Indigenous group which inhabited Hokkaido before
it was annexed in 1869 by imperial Japan.
These days, Indigenous land rights have added another layer to the division of
opinions in Suttsu and Kamoenai, two wind-blown fishing communities in the
prefecture, over whether to host a permanent underground repository for Japan’s
nuclear waste. Residents of the two municipalities, with fewer than 4,000
people combined, have expressed conflicting views on the prospect after their
respective mayors volunteered for a feasibility study on the prospect in a bid
to secure all-important subsidies."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
