Biopower and Biopolitics Since Fukushima

This presentation is the result of field research in Japan during the winter of 2011/12. The goal of the study is to analyze the controversy and social & political conflict following the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Plant multiple reactors accident. How is this ongoing crisis being governed? What are the cultural and artistic responses? What new forms of social organization and subjectivity are taking place? How is it shaping democracy? The fieldwork consisted of active engagement in the antinuclear demonstrations and actions as well as being involved in the artistic scene in Tokyo. Several research trips to Fukushima prefecture were made to conduct interviews with the local residents and radiation refugees. The research, based on participatory experiences, will address perspectives of conflict about life and politics with reference to the incident and the regional reactions of the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Plant disaster. This paper seeks to connect the implications of the incident to Foucault`s concept of Biopower, as well as his concept of Biopolitcs redefined by Negri and Hardt.Foucault invented the concept of Biopower in order to define the application and impact of political power in all aspects of life. He created this theory after analyzing the relationship between biology, State and Industrial capitalism in the late 70s.Fundamental theory of Biopower addresses the role of government in managing life´s parameters. In the case of the Fukushima incident these relationships manifested to new levels of analysis and encourage the exploration of further methods of inquiry. The inquiry involves analysing roles of governance and includes the information disclosure on radioactivity levels, evacuation measures, the maximum legal exposure of children to radiation and food management for example. This paper will further analyze the role of biopolitics as the social response and resistance to biopower. In relation to the Fukushima incident, these forms of social response and resistance are represented in the role of women´s engagement in activism, the occupation and action at corporate and government buildings, hunger strikes and internet media-activism. This study will offer an analysis of how the political categories of Biopolitics and Biopower can be re-introduced and further redefine the relationship between biology, the State and contemporary capitalism in Japan and on a global scale.