For years, Japan’s environmental activists could do little but look on enviously as Green parties in countries like France and Germany built themselves into major political forces.
For years, Japan’s environmental activists could do little but look on enviously as Green parties in countries like France and Germany built themselves into major political forces.
In March 2011, as the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant careened out of control, the political weakness of Japan’s environmental movement was underlined when Germany’s Green Party grabbed control of the state of Baden-Wurttemberg largely on the back of alarm about the stricken Japanese plant, more than 9,000 kilometers away.
Japan didn’t have a prominent environmental political party allowing voters to make such a stand.
Now, an emerging green political movement is hoping to change all that.
In February, anthropologist Shinichi Nakazawa set up Green Active, a political movement aiming to create a network of people calling for a reduced reliance on nuclear power, among other issues.
A political organization called Midori no Nippon (Green Japan) will be set up under Green Active’s political arm, and there are also divisions of the group focused on media activities, economic revitalization and overall planning.
In the next Lower House election, Green Active plans to give “green seals” to candidates of established political parties who support reducing Japan’s reliance on nuclear power, and it is also building cooperation with Greens Japan, a group of local politicians and citizens who are planning to launch a Japanese Green Party in July.
Nakazawa, 61, says he hopes to provide a vehicle that will allow Japanese people’s environmental awareness to be expressed in national politics.
“Japanese consciousness has changed over the past year,” Nakazawa told a crowd of hundreds gathered in Tokyo’s Hibiya Park on March 11, the anniversary of the quake and start of the nuclear disaster.
“We cannot restructure Japan unless we give a visible form to these changes,” he said.
Green Active’s founders include sociologist Shinji Miyadai, author Seiko Ito and copywriter Miyako Maekita, who leads its political division. Singer Tokiko Kato and music producer Takeshi Kobayashi are prominent supporters.
“In Japan, the consciousness represented by Green parties (abroad) has grown since the 1970s, but has never developed into a major political movement,” Kato said. “I think the time has finally come.”
Greens Japan, made up of some 60 local assembly members and citizens, plans to field more than 10 candidates in the Upper House election next year under the Green Party umbrella.
“We need to offer a new political alternative following the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant,” said Akira Miyabe, a senior member.
The political organization, which dates back to 2008, belongs to Global Greens, an international network of green parties and political movements in 90 countries.
It has scored a number of victories in local elections since the Great East Japan Earthquake. In September, Haruna Takita, 33, was elected to the city assembly of Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, winning the largest number of votes.
“We want to form a coalition with parties opposed to the sort of ‘neoliberal’ politics that gives priority to competition over the environment,” said Nao Suguro, co-chair of Greens Japan and an assembly member in Tokyo’s Suginami Ward.
Greens Japan will have to put up at least 10 candidates if it wants to win seats in proportional representation constituencies by mobilizing a nationwide anti-nuclear vote, and that will require tens of millions of yen for nomination deposits alone.
The group is trying to raise 100 million yen ($1.2 million) before founding the Green Party and is asking for donations starting from 1,000 yen per person. However, current membership is only about 650 people.
Sylvia Kotting-Uhl, a Green Party member of the German parliament, said the call for ending reliance on nuclear power is resonating with the Japanese public, and that it is vital for the fledgling green political force to build membership and strengthen ties with nongovernmental organizations and other citizens movements.
(This article was written by Koji Sonoda and Yutaka Shiokura.)