The Akatsuki-maru Campaign by AYUKAWA Yurika

An NIT historical episode recalled by previous NIT editor, AYUKAWA Yurika

On November 8 1992, a ship called the Akatsuki-maru left the port of Cherbourg, France around 5:00 am, bound for Japan loaded with 1.5 tons of plutonium. This was the first large-scale international shipment of plutonium reprocessed from commercial nuclear reactor spent fuel and protests against it were fierce and global. There was a loud silence from the Japanese government, citing security concerns as the reason why they were not giving out any information about the shipment. 

Under these circumstances, it was vital to get information about the extreme dangers of plutonium and the effects it may have on the countries the shipment was expected to pass by if any unpredictable incident occurred during the shipment. CNIC made information packages, including back issues of NIT, and mailed them out by post to each of the countries along the 3 likely routes, and thus potentially affected. Dr. Takagi was called to embassies in Tokyo to brief staff about the dangers that Japan was placing their countries in. The Asia-Pacific Forum on Sea Shipments of Japanese Plutonium was also held over three days about a month before the Akatsuki-maru left France. NIT No. 32 contains a full report of the Forum which was attended by large numbers of Embassy staff and the domestic and international press. One of the speakers was the President of Nauru, who protested in strong terms against the plutonium shipment which was “yet another example of the imposition of a nuclear risk on the Pacific peoples without our counsel or consent.” I remember that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was caught totally off guard as they couldn’t believe the President of a country would come to Japan at the invitation of an NGO, and after confirming by telephone with CNIC when he was arriving, rushed to the airport with red carpets.

In the end more than 40 countries expressed concern or declared opposition to the plutonium shipments, and when the Akatsuki-maru finally arrived in Japan the Cabinet Secretary had to apologize to all those countries for causing such anxiety. It seems that the government was caught by surprise in more ways than one, and I feel that, although the shipment couldn’t be stopped, this campaign was in many ways a victory because the government realized what citizens are capable of—not only understanding the technicalities of nuclear matters, but also mobilizing this information to gain international support.