Anti-nuclear songs spread in Japan after crisis

Tokyo - In Japan, anti-nuclear songs have become popular among activists and young people in the wake of the nation's worst atomic accident.

 

Songs protesting against nuclear power are played at rallies and on YouTube, while the music industry and television and radio stations largely ignore them.

Female rapper Coma-chi's 'Say 'No!'' criticizes the mainstream media and government leaders for downplaying the risks of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

The plant has leaked radioactive material since it was hit by the March earthquake and tsunami.

'Media and higher-ups, please tell only the truth without holding back any information. Even if life is in danger, you don't say anything. The world is disgusted,' Coma-chi sings.

'If you are a father of someone, please feel citizens' anger. You say invisible harm does not pose immediate health risks, but it is harmful.'

In early May, Coma-chi travelled to areas near the 20-kilometre no-go zone around the nuclear plant to bring money and everyday commodities to locals and also performed live.

Another popular anti-nuclear song that also attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers on the internet is 'You Can't See It. You Can't Smell It, Either' by veteran reggae artist Rankin Taxi.

The song describes how radioactive material inflicts indiscriminate damage.

'Nobody can run from it, smell it and see it,' he intones.

'Safety myth ended in Fukushima,' the singer criticizes electric companies and government officials who repeatedly told the public that nuclear power was safe.

The crisis also prompted pop star Kazuyoshi Saito to rework his 2010 hit 'I Always Loved You,' renaming it 'It Was Always a Lie.'

'Textbooks and commercials were saying, 'It's safe. It's safe.' They deceived us. And their excuse was 'It was beyond the scope of the assumption',' Saito sings.

The song was deleted immediately as his record label, whose parent company is a major electric-appliance maker, requested the site operator remove it.

The original 'I Always Loved You' was also a commercial song for major cosmetic company Shiseido Co.

The record label said the new video was recorded 'for private use,' but it 'was leaked in a way Saito did not intend,' the major daily Asahi reported.

However, copies can be still seen on YouTube and featured at anti-nuclear rallies.

Anti-nuclear songs are not new. Two years after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the then-Soviet Union, Kiyoshiro Imawano, one of the nation's leading rock stars, produced two songs in his album 'Clover' that criticized utilities, media and government.

After his record label Toshiba EMI refused to release the songs, the album was sold through another company. Toshiba EMI, whose parent corporation built nuclear stations, explained its decision in a newspaper advertisement, saying the songs were 'too great to release,' Asahi reported.

The Fukushima disaster, however, has led more people to listen to Imawano on the internet and also rekindled the legacy of the rocker who died in 2009.

'We have too much electricity. We don't need nuclear power,' Imawano sang.

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