Documentary Criticizes Japan’s Export of Nuclear Technology

A documentary film that exposes the effect of Japan nuclear technology on a small village in Vietnam will be shown at this year’s Fukuoka Asian Film Festival. Shinobiyoru Genpatsu (“Encroaching Nuclear Power Plant”) is a scathing indictment against the government’s pursuit of exporting nuclear technology to developing countries like Vietnam.

Documentary writer Shinsuke Nakai visited a coastal village called Thai An in central Vietnam where a nuclear plant will be built soon, with Japan lending its technology and experience. The residents of the village, whose population is around 2,000, told the filmmaker that they were not properly informed about the dangers of nuclear power and its serious consequences, as evidenced by the 2011 nuclear meltdown in Fukushima.
The nuclear plant to be built is part of an agreement between the two nations, signed in 2010, wherein Japanese contractors will build two nuclear reactors in Vietnam. The village head was invited by the Japanese to view a nuclear power plant and he was showed that the reactors are “sealed” and are quite safe. The villagers will only be relocating 1 kilometer from where the plant will be built. Construction is scheduled to begin sometime next year.

Nakai also filmed the residents of Fukushima who were forced to evacuate and until now are displaced due to the expected fallout from the meltdown. The film attempts to show the difference and similarities between the two communities. It has also been screened in western Japan, Tokyo and Nagoya for free.