Atsushi Yamamuro

<p>Nuclear accidents and similar events that take place during nuclear power development and utilization threaten the basic life security of people in nuclear hosting communities, which is built upon their health, social relationships, and plans about the future. Citizens in nuclear hosting communities need to deal flexibly with nuclear accidents, or their lives may suffer unexpected disruptions. These people are therefore faced with the challenge of maintaining their security in life by trying to reestablish their security in times of disaster. Grim realities, such as these, have prompted environmental sociology experts to tackle the question of how people in these communities can be assisted in their efforts to maintain their security.</p><p>In the past, researchers focused on people's opposing positions (e. g. either nuclear antagonists or protagonists) and much research has been conducted on the denuclearization movement. This paper, in contrast, gives attention to the self-reflective attitude of residents in nuclear hosting communities. This approach has been chosen because the initiatives of people in these communities have given birth to criticisms that are distinct from idealistic criticisms about reality. Therefore, these initiatives are expected to have a significant impact on the citizens' efforts to maintain security of life, which are distinct from the denuclearization movement.</p><p>This paper presents a provisional approach to understanding the continuous efforts of people in nuclear hosting communities to maintain security of life by giving attention to their shared experiences. These experiences define or expand on the ideas and practices related to their efforts to maintain life security. Therefore, attention was given to the question of the significance of the self-reflectiveness of people in relation to their initiatives.</p>

<p>This paper examines the difficulty of, and the effective means for expressing the individual opinion on a conflicting issue in a small town in Japan. I take up the case of Maki town, Niigata prefecture, where the construction of a nuclear power plant has become the controversial issue. The focus of this analysis is the group formed by Maki residents called the Association for Implementing the Referendum, and the effectiveness of their strategy, the self-administered referendum. I will first examine the difficulty faced by the residents of Maki town when it comes to clearly taking sides regarding the controversial issue, and then analyze the strategy taken up by the Association and its effectiveness in terms of enabling the residents to overcome the difficulty.</p><p>When Maki residents are required to express their opinion on the nuclear power plant per se, their existing social relations that contradict with the opinion become the restraint. This restraint, or "shigarami" as is called by the residents, precludes the expression of "honest" feelings towards the nuclear plant, since ignoring the "shigarami" means breaking the social ties that are central to the members of this community. Those residents who are unable to express their opinions because of these "shigarami" are thus caught in the status of "nejire (distortion)", where they feel the contradiction and remain ambiguous regarding the nuclear plant issue.</p><p>For the residents who are caught in such "distorted" situation, the Association for Implementing the Referendum provided a very convenient means of expressing their "true" opinions towards the nuclear plant per se; the self-administered referendum. This was a very convenient means for the residents, especially because they did not need to break the "shigarami" or the existing important social ties when casting a vote in the referendum, which guaranteed anonymity. The neutrality of referendum was stressed by the association, who constantly expressed their apolitical attitudes and denied to be labeled as "anti-nukes".</p><p>The self-administered referendum provided the most-needed means of expressing individual opinions toward the controversial issue, without affecting the existing social relations in the negative way.</p>