Article "Nuclear Mafia Derails Democracy in Japan"

Nuclear Mafia Derails Democracy in Japan

by RICHARD WILCOX


“End of the day, factory whistle cries, Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes” – Bruce Springsteen, Factory (1)

“Bring us the living dead. People no one will miss.” – Fukushima official’s request to Yakuza (2)

“TEPCO’s involvement with anti-social forces and their inability to filter them out of the work-place is a national security issue … Nuclear energy shouldn’t be in the hands of the yakuza. They’re gamblers and an intelligent person doesn’t want them to have atomic dice to play with.” – Japanese Senator (3)

The technological issue of nuclear energy is intertwined with the exploitation of human labor in a hierarchy of interests, and how human labor is expended is an economic and moral issue. The Grand Scientific Project from the time of Francis Bacon up to the Manhattan Project of Oppenheimer and Fermi has been a dangerous gamble for humanity even though the advertised purpose is that progress is good.

The exploitation of labor at nuclear plants depends on the tools of social engineering, of government, mass media and schools. This is the hidden and shameful side of today’s materialist society and belies our complicity in a criminalized culture.

Inefficient and corrupt employment practices at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP) are prolonging the disaster. Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) outsources 90 percent of the work to subcontractors, mainly utilizing Japan’s criminal syndicates, “the Yakuza.” Japan is still a middle class society and most people will not volunteer for nuclear work. Japan risks running out of workers who have not exceeded their legal radiation limits.

Considered to be “Japan’s largest organized crime group” — who are on the radar of the US Treasury Dept. (another big crime group) (4) — the Yakuza offer a service to society by sopping up its losers and giving them a dodgy occupation.

Journalist, Jake Adelstein, an expert on the Yakuza, risked his life as a reporter on the crime beat in Japan. Not because of shoot outs or knife fights, but because he had to take up smoking cigarettes in order to fit in with police and yakuza! These short video interviews offer a useful introduction into how the Yakuza operate (5; 6). Tepco’s relationship with the Yakuza is a cesspool of corruption from the highest to the lowest levels in its organization. “A senior National Police Agency officer, speaking on grounds of anonymity said, ‘TEPCO has a history of doing business with the yakuza that is far deeper than just using their labor’ ” (Op. cit. “The Yakuza and the Nuclear Mafia”).

Adelstein notes that the Yakuza has 86,000 members in Japan, of the 22 major organizations the “Yamaguchi” has almost half of all members. The Yakuza are:“[c]riminal trade associations legally recognized by the Japanese government … They exist out in the open. The Japanese government regulates them and there are laws restricting their behavior but as criminal organizations themselves they are not banned. It is very difficult for the police to do an investigation that goes all the way up to the top. It’s problems within the Japanese law itself. There’s no plea bargaining, very limited wire tapping, no witness protection program … no undercover work allowed. The Japanese police are never able to destroy the Yakuza” (Op. cit. interviews).

“[T]he nuclear business-industrial-political and media complex in Japan known as the ‘nuclear mafia’ … [the nuclear industry] is a black hole of criminal malfeasance, incompetence, and corruption’ …. The government tacitly recognises their existence, and they are classified, designated and regulated. Yakuza make their money from extortion, blackmail, construction, real estate, collection services, financial market manipulation, protection rackets, fraud and a labyrinth of front companies including labour dispatch services and private detective agencies. They do the work that no one else will do or find the workers for jobs no one wants …. The Fukushima plant is located in the turf of the Sumiyoshi-kai, which is the second largest yakuza group in Japan with roughly 12,000 members” (Op. cit. “How the Yakuza went Nuclear”; “The Yakuza”).

Without the dregs of society to do the dirty work, modern society could not exist its present, most hypocritical form. Most people do not want to get dirt under their fingernails and prefer to apply nail polish or chat on their iPhones.

Working in nuclear power plants in Japan is not considered an honorable and elegant trade, like cabinet making or industrial design, but a brutal, labor intensive experience. While the Yakuza organization itself is an evil, the workers themselves can be considered heroes. The amount of excruciating heat, hard work, physical and mental stress and radiation they endure is inhuman. Even working at a normally functioning reactor is not easy or safe work but the FNPP is highly radioactive.

nodogoshi wrote:
A benign example is the comment that Adelstein "risked his life" by "taking up smoking." This is completely irrelevant, and isn't appropriate, save for in an anti-smoking advertisement (not to mention that it is medically inaccurate, as smoking takes decades to kill you).

The most striking sensationalistic hyperbole though is seen in the quoted passages from Adelstein. For instance, he refers to an (according to him) so-called "nuclear mafia." What he refers to is in fact known as the 原子力村 (genshi-ryoku mura), which directly translates to "nuclear village." It is a marriage of academics, industry insiders and politicians, who collude to push an aggressively pro-nuclear agenda. Again, the author and Adelstein gain no sympathy from me with the employment of such hyperbole. Adelstein further states that the Japanese mafia engage in "financial manipulation." Perhaps I am simply unaware, but to my knowledge the Japanese mafia are not engaged in investment banking (I could be wrong though--I don't mean any sarcasm; but a reference to support such a claim would be useful).

rezin wrote:Thanks for the vids.

nodogoshi wrote:
A benign example is the comment that Adelstein "risked his life" by "taking up smoking." This is completely irrelevant, and isn't appropriate, save for in an anti-smoking advertisement (not to mention that it is medically inaccurate, as smoking takes decades to kill you).

The most striking sensationalistic hyperbole though is seen in the quoted passages from Adelstein. For instance, he refers to an (according to him) so-called "nuclear mafia." What he refers to is in fact known as the 原子力村 (genshi-ryoku mura), which directly translates to "nuclear village." It is a marriage of academics, industry insiders and politicians, who collude to push an aggressively pro-nuclear agenda. Again, the author and Adelstein gain no sympathy from me with the employment of such hyperbole. Adelstein further states that the Japanese mafia engage in "financial manipulation." Perhaps I am simply unaware, but to my knowledge the Japanese mafia are not engaged in investment banking (I could be wrong though--I don't mean any sarcasm; but a reference to support such a claim would be useful).

He, I'm pretty sure he's joking about the smoking thing, as in unlike what the reader's expectations from yakuza movies may be, the most danger he got in was merely smoking.

As far as the nuclear mafia thing, the marriage seems to extend beyond academics, insiders and politicians,
as the yakuza seem to supply the exploited work force. Maybe he also meant mafia as in the people in
charge (politicians and insiders) go against the wishes of the vast majority of the population for their own
personal gain. I don't know. I don't see much of a problem with it. Then again I like lively journalism.

You know, a little something more, beyond "we gave both sides of the story, so we are fair and balanced"

rezin wrote:No problems here.

As far as foxnews, well they are so obvious and their audience so angry and limited, that they are
pointless to discuss. I have more problems with places like cnn, nbc and the like since they present
themselves very well as actual news, so that people who potentially want to learn something are diverted
from that. True, they don't just make up drivel like murdoch corp, but the lie of omission is still a lie, and
their diversionary purpose is quite destructive, although in a different way.