The Night of the Festival: Oyabun talks about nuclear power plants from the high-growth period to after the Violence Against Nuclear Power Act.

The Night of the Festival: Oyabun talks about nuclear power plants from the high-growth period to after the Violence Against Nuclear Power Act.

At first glance, the sight of a gang boss talking about nuclear power plants in a room filled with alcohol on the night of a small local festival may seem out of place and strange. At first glance, the sight of a gang leader talking about nuclear power plants at a small local festival night in a sake-filled gathering room seems out of place and strange, but his tone is neither emotional nor hyperbolic. He says that nuclear power is a huge public works project, the same kind of work as dams and highways. Once started, they do not stop easily and generate money for a long time. The author's recognition that nuclear power is a solid and long-lasting business without the need to cross any dangerous bridges is plainly shown.

This perception is deeply connected to the view of public works that has permeated local communities since the high-growth period when nuclear power plants were built. Infrastructure development promoted as a national policy was a device to bring jobs and money to local communities. Like dams, highways, and ports, nuclear power plants were understood to generate huge flows of money and people. There, the viewpoint of whether construction could continue and money could flow took precedence over electric safety and technical discussions. Oyabun's narrative directly reflects that local realism.

What is striking is that Oyabun sits naturally at the center of the local festival, a community event. Even in an era when the Anti-Gang Law was enforced and gangs were ostensibly being eliminated, they were not completely excluded from local communities. They would make donations, show their faces, and gather around the drinking table. On occasions such as festivals, weddings, and funerals, the oyabun still functioned as the face of the community. By extension, the story of the nuclear power plant is also told not as a special backstory but as small talk.

Interests and gang involvement in nuclear power are often scandalously discussed. What this scene shows, however, is a more sober and structural reality. Nuclear power was not from the beginning treated as an underworld business. It was a public project that was so regular and so huge that it naturally made room for the involvement of the gangs in the flow of money and the gathering of people around it. For the master gang, nuclear power was not a dangerous gamble, but part of a stable system guaranteed by the government.

This conversation on the night of the festival eloquently illustrates how nuclear power was understood and accepted within the community. Nuclear power was not a distant state policy, but local business, money talk, and small talk. The sight of Oyabun sitting there talking about nuclear power quietly reveals not only the reality of the gang's blending in, but also the atmosphere of a time when nuclear power itself was part of the local community's daily life.