2018 Volume 24 Pages 106-120
This paper attempts to explain why people continue to work in the fields in the same regular cycle after the Fukushima nuclear accident as they did prior to it, even though the accident has rendered the continuation of agriculture infeasible, and examines the social significance of such activities. The farmers in the village investigated in this paper were forced to cease ad infinitum agricultural production owing to the land being contaminated by the accident; however, most still continue to maintain their land even though there is no prospect of a harvest.
The paper focuses on the fact that the farmers carry out maintenance only during the peak-farming season. The mechanism behind this continual maintenance of the land following the same regular cycle as before the accident is their shared understanding of the importance of taking part in such community activities in order to continue living in the village ; by joining in a regular work cycle with other community members, they can avoid being shamed in interpersonal village relationships and can be recognized as contributing village members.
In other words, joining in this activity allows the farmers to “become important participants" in their own village, which is no easy task in a village that has been transformed from a “place" into a simple “space" because of the nuclear accident. Joining in a regular, village-related cycle of working in the fields gives the farmers a strong self-awareness that they are local and “important participants" in the face of possible social embarrassment and nuclear waste destruction. This regular work cycle, therefore, has become a shared social behavior, in which farmers engage for mutual recognition. Consequently, the social significance of “being one of the locals" in the village is found in the activities in which the local people engage.
