The Manga “Oishinbo” Controversy: Radiation and Nose Bleeding in the Wake of 3.11 | The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus

This episode in the comic, centered on nose bleeding in the wake of 3.11, provoked an unusual controversy immediately upon publication, and all printed copies of the comic were rumored to have sold out quickly. Essentially there are two views. One is “denial of the fact” that many people have experienced nose bleeding after the Fukushima incident, with the assertion that nose bleeding cannot be caused by the radiation emitted from Fukushima Dai-ichi. The other view is that it is reasonable that the nose bleeding observed among the people of Fukushima prefecture and surrounding areas including Tokyo could be caused by radiation, as suggested in the comic.