Radiation Brain Moms and Citizen Scientists: The Gender Politics of Food Contamination after Fukushima

Description

Following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in 2011 many concerned citizens—particularly mothers—were unconvinced by the Japanese government’s assurances that the country’s food supply was safe. They took matters into their own hands, collecting their own scientific data that revealed radiation-contaminated food. In Radiation Brain Moms and Citizen Scientists Aya Hirata Kimura shows how, instead of being praised for their concern about their communities’ health and safety, they faced stiff social sanctions, which dismissed their results by attributing them to the work of irrational and rumor-spreading women who lacked scientific knowledge. These citizen scientists were unsuccessful at gaining political traction, as they were constrained by neoliberal and traditional gender ideologies that dictated how private citizens—especially women—should act. By highlighting the challenges these citizen scientists faced, Kimura provides insights into the complicated relationship between science, foodways, gender, and politics in post-Fukushima Japan and beyond. Aya Hirata Kimura is Associate Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and the author of Hidden Hunger: Gender and Politics of Smarter Foods. Abbreviations ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 1. "Moms with Radiation Brain": Gendered Food Policing in the Name of Science 27 2. Engineering of Citizens 55 3. School Lunches: Science, Motherhood, and Joshi Power 78 4. Citizen Radiation-Measuring Organizations 104 5. The Temporality of Contaminants 132 Conclusion 155 Notes 159 References 173 Index 201