134 Larissa Hjorth and Fumitoshi Kato
utilizing urban networks of activists who have provided the digital framework
for organization that has brought together an older generation of anti-nuclear
activists, young families, hip urbanites, office workers and union protesters.After 3/11, women (and especially mothers) have become the driving voice for
anti-nuclear protests in Japanese society and policy. Through digital media, they
spread their stories of agency and grassroots politics. As Slater observes,
Women, and in particular, mothers, have been quite active in radiation
measurement, calls for contaminated soil removal, and efforts to secure safe
food since the early months of the crisis. Today, perhaps more than any other
group, they have emerged as particularly effective anti-nuke spokespersons.”
This phenomenon has been dubbed as the “Women from Fukushima Against
Nukes” (Genptasu iranai Fukushima kara no onnatachi).In a joint article with Nishimura Keiko and Love Kindstrand, Slater (2011)
highlights the pivotal role social media has played in new forms of environmental
activism after 3/11. As they note,
The fervor, organization and momentum that culminated in the events that
occurred up to and around the September 19, 2011 march of 60,000 people in
Tokyo, the largest such gathering since the 1970s AMPO campaign against
the Japan–U.S. Security Treaty, were seen by many of us as examples of the
unexpected power of social media to provide alternative narratives that could
give rise to significant political action
(2011, n.p)Indeed, the ambient, intimate, and co-present characteristics of social media
have afforded young and old with new ways in which to express and engage with
politics. Social media such as Twitter, Instagram, and Line are viewed as both
political and personal (Hjorth and Arnold 2013). It is this engagement with politics
and especially green issues that our case study keitai mizu explores—demonstrating
how a game can be a vehicle for not just critical but also practical engagement with
media, people, and the environment within everyday entanglements.
Keitai mizu: A site-specific mobile game
When the earthquake occurred, I was alone in my room playing a monster
hunter PSP game. Exactly at the time, I was fighting with a monster who
makes an earthquake so that I didn’t realize that an actual, offline quake had
occurred. Only after beating down the monster, I realized something different
around me. A fish tank had overflowed and books had fallen down. Initially
I was not really shocked by the earthquake itself, but felt frustration with
the aftermath—the power failure, panic buying, nuclear accident, and such