Essay Blowin' in the wind? By Arthur Binard	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
「風」に吹かれて来たものは 街中の移動で筆者が自転車を利用するのは、「風」がもたらしてくれるいろいろな情報を肌で感じることができるからだという。しかし残念なことに、原発事故以後の「風」が運んできたものは、「新たな緊張感」だった。

If it's pouring rain, I'll ride the train. If there's heavy, unwieldy baggage to carry, I may take a taxi. But most days, I move around Tokyo by bicycle. Cycling is good exercise and environment-friendly as well, but for me, the main reason to be out there pedaling is the wind.

I love riding in the open air, sensing the seasons, catching invisible wisps of information that come wafting along. An easterly wind in Tokyo brings smells of the sea while a westerly comes with hints of mountains and the Kanto Plain. Sometimes a northerly will wipe the olfactory slate clean, but southerly winds tend to be rich in sultry nuances, to which I contribute plenty of cyclist-sweat.

My attention to the wind has taken on new urgency since March 11. I now think less about seasonal smells and more about radioactivity. When a southerly wind blows, it carries deadly particles up toward my friends in Minamisoma, just north of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. An easterly puts my friends in Koriyama City in harm's way. A westerly punishes the Pacific Ocean and carries traces of the nuclear witches' brew over to my sister's home in California. A northerly wind, of course, means I should forget about riding my bicycle and stay inside with the windows shut tight.

In addition to the poisons in the winds outside, dubious wind-related expressions are gusting through the Japanese media, puffing out from the mouths of politicians. We're told to beware the fuhyo-higai blowing across the archipelago, and overseas too, wreaking havoc on our precious economy. The word fuhyo is a combination of the character for "wind" and another meaning "reputation." A standard translation of fuhyo would be "hearsay" or "rumor," and combined with higai, which means "damage," the expression ought to refer to baseless scuttlebutt that causes loss and hardship. However, these are not standard times and the true intent behind fuhyo-higai is anything but baseless.

As you may recall, after the earthquake and tsunami, the Japanese government and the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) announced that everything was under control while three nuclear reactors proceeded to melt down and explode, contaminating vast areas of land and sea. The government told us the accident's severity level was 3, until that assessment became a farce, and they were forced to go to level 5, which was an international joke too, so after the elections were out of the way, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reluctantly admitted that, yes, level 7 was appropriate. And now, even though Fukushima No. 1 is still poisoning ocean and air, and further explosions may very well occur, the government expects us to believe that we've moved from the "emergency response phase" to the "planned and stabilizing action phase." As proof, they offer up Tepco's Pollyannaish "road map."

If you doubt the government and take prudent steps to protect yourself, then, according to the mass media, you've succumbed to the wicked winds of fuhyo-higai. Why are all the tourists staying away? It's those damned fuhyo-higai! Why don't our products sell? Those same blasted fuhyo-higai!

No, I don't buy it. I think fuhyo-higai is a sly trick that allows those responsible for the actual damage to avoid taking responsibility. Want to know why things are so bleak? The real answer's out there, blowing in the wind from Fukushima No. 1.

Shukan ST: May 13, 2011

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