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In 1957, Japan launched its first experimental nuclear reactor, the JRR-1, in Tōkaimura (Ibaraki). The bedrock of the Japanese nuclear industry, it introduced the famed BWR technology--also used in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant--and the training of the future workers of a flourishing industry. Based on the premise that the Fukushima accident was in part caused by the nuclear village--a system created with the commissioning of JRR-1 reactor in Tōkaimura--this paper analyses how the national newspapers covered the launch of the first Japanese reactor, and how the remaining media records suggest that the Fukushima nuclear accident falls within the continuity of earlier policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tōhoku Pacific Coast earthquake on 11 March 2011 severely disrupted transport networks, suddenly jeopardising a large part of Japan, and prompting authorities to take fast action. Refugees and inhabitants of the affected areas were forced to adapt their transport needs. This unprecedented situation laid bare the need for a more resilient Japanese transportation infrastructure in order to significantly improve physical and social reconstruction capacity during an emergency situation. This paper analyses the damage and impact of the disaster on transport and its energy infrastructure, reviews the measures adopted, and assesses past and acquired resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maruyama Masao wrote his most politically engaged texts between 1946 and 1951. "en a 30-year-old scholar and recently returned soldier, he was popular with readers who had also fought in the war. Yet he never enjoyed the same level of influence as his more experienced peers in the intellectual community. He retired from the public debate in 1952 due to ill health and, except for a short period around 1960 when a new Japan-United States security treaty was signed, devoted himself to academic pursuits. Maruyama's fragmentary statements were widely reported and collections of his writings became bestsellers. He came to be seen, somewhat erroneously, as the representative thinker of Japan's postwar democracy. Ever since, the Maruyama legend has been the focus of both criticism and praise, going beyond his original intentions. Using an approach borrowed from the sociology of knowledge, this paper seeks to examine the issues of social cognition and political engagement in his work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thought of philosopher Nakai Masakazu (1900-1952) has exerted a quiet but enduring influence on Japanese culture for more than half a century. Nakai began his career studying Kant, discovering in the process Cassirer. But there is also a Marxist dimension to Nakai's writings. This paper focuses on his links to thinkers from the Frankfurt School, who were presented in Sekai bunka (World Culture) as early as 1935. It attempts to understand how and in what sense Nakai's thought can be said - as has been the case since the late 1950s - to provide a model of contemporaneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]