According to the official report of The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Commission prepared for the National Diet of Japan, Sato Yuhei, Governor of Fukushima Prefecture at the time of the accident when interviewed by the commission at one point declared that: "National support has been broadly extended to Fukushina and its people since the disaster. To reciprocate, Sato said that he wants to contribute by building a community with the promise not to let a similar disaster ever happen

more »

... n." 2) At the personal level this is a very straight forward and clear illustration of the idea of reciprocity: you have done something for us, by helping us when we were in need, and in return we would like to do something for you. We wish to contribute to making sure that such a disaster never happens again. This comment implies in fact a rather complex and unusual form of reciprocity, which it hides, in spite of, or perhaps because of, its apparent evidence and transparency. First, why, how, in what way does contributing to building a community where similar disasters will never happen again, constitute a form of reciprocity? Governor Sato assumes that this is evidently the case, but why is it so? The evident, but never explicitly stated answer is because similar nuclear accidents threaten all of Japan; preventing them is an important urgent task. At its beginning, the accident in fact threatened many more people than those who actually turned out to be directly affected by it. For a long time there was much uncertainty as to the extent of radiation contamination and therefore we did not know how many people were being directly affected by the accident. Moreover, there are some 54 nuclear reactors in Japan, and a similar accident, with perhaps even more dramatic consequences, could happen anywhere in this earthquake prone country, especially in view of the numerous failures of the operator and of the nuclear regulatory agency. Hence contributing to making sure this never happens again is a fundamental and urgent problem that concerns everyone in Japan(and even outside of Japan depending on the importance of the accident) . This is the task to which we, the people of Fukushima, wish to contribute, said Governor Sato. Reciprocity so understood requires, or entails, a community of destiny of some sort. Governor Sato rightly assumes that what has happened at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant does not concern only the people of Fukushima prefecture, but everyone in Japan, or at least that it should concern them all. "Building a community with the promise not to let similar disasters ever happen