Living apart together: a case study of the interaction between citizen science and institutions in the field of radiation monitoring in Japan

In the field of radiation monitoring, the 1986 Chernobyl and 2011 Fukushima nuclear disasters triggered an upsurge of bottom-up citizen-led responses. As the advent of new technology and media helped the bottom-up movement to overcome spatial boundaries and gradually lowered the threshold for citizens to participate, they have boomed over the past decades. Interest from institutions in the potential of citizen participation has likewise risen from attempts to explore the potential of citizen monitoring after the Three Mile Islands accident to an increasing valorization of citizen participation in research and innovation by the European Commission. However, at the time of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japanese grassroots organizations were set up in a very different environment, overshadowed by the “nuclear village” (genshiryoku mura), a powerful interest group of advocates of nuclear energy. Notwithstanding this independent citizen laboratories have successfully created platforms, such as Minna no Data Site, to interconnect and exist alongside official policies and pressures. Yet others, such as Safecast, are actively seeking recognition from the Japanese government and are reaching out to official institutions. Drawing on research literature and empirical data collected fromfieldwork in Japan, this presentation explores the interaction of these citizen scientist laboratories with institutional actors, showcasing the diversity of grassroots organizations and demonstrating how different grassroots organizations and institutions are generating diverse responses at the challenges at hand in a postnuclear
accident environment.