Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

Last weekend I visited most weird beach in the world. That is in Kaminoseki town, Yamaguchi prefecture.

It is said to be the construction site for newly built nuclear power plant that is scheduled to start operation in 2018.

See this video.

This is what it was like. The beach is watched by construction workers and security guards but people set up tents and held music concerts like enjoying party. Although annoucement that says "This is construction area. Please leave here immediately" was made every hour, they never moved. I joined them. They are activists who protest ongoing construction of nuclear power plant in Kaminoseki.

If the plant is constructed there, people living on nearby island called Iwai-shima should have very harsh life. Not just fear of radioactive leaking but the sea being polluted by warm water released from the plant, which kills fish they hunt for living.

They occupy the beach to show objection to the construction. They also sail to the sea where construction ships are anchored. Using fishery ships and kayaks, they try to stop the construction of the plant.

Nuclear plant is out of date power generation. The cost efficiency is lowering and renewable energey has become more common around the world.

Nuke plants have now become like US military bases in Japan. Both do not function as people expect to do. However myth that these things are very functional is still common.

A few weeks ago I joined the protest march to the U.S. embassy in Tokyo to show objection to construction of U.S. marine helipads in Takae, Okinawa. Two people were arrested by the police near the embassy.   

I went to Okinawa last month to help the localies protest against construction of new U.S. military bases on their island. I visited two sites. One is Henoko, where US marine's runways is planned to be constructed by reclaiming the coral reef ocean where endangered mammals, dugongs inhabit.

The other one is Takae, where the U.S. marine's helicopter pads are under construction in the mountain. The helicopters or ospreys will be deployed. They are very much concerned about big noises and accident caused by those.

In both sites, localies set up tents to monitor what construction workers do and do protest activities in order to stop or delay the construction. They say they do not care what the government decides because they can decide what to do within their communities. I saw a local man stopping cars passing by including those belonging to the US marine. They had guts to protect their community. Some of them are even accused of blocking the road by the authority. But they still keep on doing what they do.

Ironically, this reminds me of what I learnt during my college days in the U.S. I think this is American way of doing democracy. If a citizen thinks his or her own government is doing wrong, right the wrong even by breaking the law. Like Rosa Parks' refusing to give front seat in the bus to white passenger which led to boycott on the commute buses by Afro-Americans and end up growing civil rights act movement.

The Japanese government and the U.S. marine is doing the wrong thing because they do the projects without approval from the localies.

It is also called "Libertarianism" which respects individuals' freedom not being intervened by the authority. That is why they protest gun control and public medical insurance offering. They want to minimize the government's restriction on individuals' lives. Their first priority is individualism and their most important community is their local town, not central governemnt. That is how the United States of America is constructed.

That means Okinawans' localies have the right to protest and overthrow the plans which the two big governments decide. Furthermore, Libertarians think such government should be overthrown by militias.

Today I joined my new job training. I just witnessed how ordinary people have become Xenophobic these days in Japan.

Maybe it is because Japan has been in big recession and Chinese ship intruded Japanese territorital sea which caused diplomatic turmoil just recently.

In office, one worker talked about what he witnessed on the platform in the station when Chinese person yelled to a police officer. He said "it was like moster attack." Then his colleagues followed that saying "That is very Chinese personality. That is how they deal with us. See how they bumped to Coast Guard Ship."

My trainer said to me "Be careful these days our customers have become like stupid Americans who always want to sue us."

Japanese are islanders so we generally act like this but these days people have become more aggressive than before. I do not like this tendency.  

The relationship between the two nations got worsened.

Both sides are afraid of the other's imperialism. China experienced invasion of Japanese army 65 years ago.

Japan learnt how Tibet has been treated by China in postwar era, which was typically described in the film, "Seven Years in Tibet."

What a mess!

One thing for sure is that we, Japanese should rethink how to deal with Chinese. It seems China cannot be good friend and market for Japan any more.

That does not mean we should rely on the U.S. again because they are more dependent on China than Japan is.

Maybe the most potential one may be South-Eastern nations. We also have to boost domestic demand.