Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, Fukushima, manga

Fukushima Manga Causes Government Outrage, Put On Hold By Publisher

Published Sat, 17 May 2014 12:00:00 -0500

The Fukushima nuclear disaster has been portrayed in manga form in a way that has angered Japanese government. And peculiarly, it's from a cooking manga title, one that's been running for thirty years.

Oishinbo stars a character, Shiro Yamaoka, gets a nosebleed after visiting Fukushima No. 1 power plant. The comic features a character based on the real former Futaba Mayor, Katsutaka Idogawa, warning of the symptoms of radiation poisoning that Fukushima residents still suffer from, as well as criticising Tokyo Electric Power Company and Japanese government for the handling of the crisis.

The comic has characters based on real life academics stating "You simply can't decontaminate a wide area in Fukushima and make it a place where people can live again" and claiming that hundreds of people in the town of Osaka had been affected by an incinerator burning tsusami debris that was radioactive.

Earlier in the week, the Fukushima council posted that the "feelings of the Fukushima people were totally ignored and deeply hurt" and that "the depiction could severely damage the agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism industries" before issuing a formal protest against the publisher over the nosebleed scene.

Then Osaka Prefectural Government body stated that there were no medical reports from of ill health from the incinerator.

And the Osaka mayor has spoken out publicly against the claims as well, and the Chief Cabinet Secretary citing experts against any link between Fukushima and nosebleeds.

It's all become a bit of a free for all, with politicians and political groups taking sides on the manga. The publisher responded that they did not make definitive claims but that they will run a new article on their website to summarise the claims and counterclaims.

But that was not enough. And now the manga has been put on hold by the publisher while they review how the topic has been handled by the comic.

So… anyone peckish?

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