Web-savvy activist moms emerge after March 11 disaster

Good for them!

You go ladies! The world is with you.

Yeah! Way to go! I know a group of ladies in my area who aren't taking anything the government says and getting out there. Not easy when a lot of parents just seem to go with the 'Help Tohoku' flow and shrug their shoulders. The Mummy Bear spirit lives on!

old boys network is in trouble if the wives get active! This is great!

Excellent story. It is also the first report I have read this year. Well done ladies, I hope you grow in numbers and support. The morons in government need REAL opposition... "Hell have no fury" as the saying goes :)

The power of women is something else!!

The power of Housewives and Mothers may be the key to change! Go for it!

I am glad to see she is determined to be "the nail that stands up" and I hope and pray that she doesn't get hammered down. Good for her and more power to her! So many people are still so trusting of everything the government says. This is exactly the kind of thing this country needs, a wake up call to the politicians.

Good on them. I'm sure the stuffy old men in suits who run this joint are peeved that these ladies "are not following the rules" of Japanese society - but these ladies realise blindly "following rules" and not challenging the system has brought this country to it's knees, and endangered their kids.

Complacency can definitely be a bad thing, especially when folks have become so comfortable and willing to accept the status quo regardless of the circumstances and eventual outcome. The times they are a-changin' we would hope and pray. From Bob Dylan's popular 1960s protest song, "The order is rapidly fadin'/ And the first one now/ Will later be last/ For the times they are a-changin'” Something to strongly consider. Keep it up, ladies!

Wud be nice to see this spread like a wild fire, this country is in dire need to kick J-govt & japan inc in its collect arse repeatedly!

Guys guys guys - thank you for all your wonderful comments! I have loosely been involved with one of these groups in my local area, (supporting them and providing info to the non-J-speaking Mums) - they are not your average Mamas, believe me. It has been a wake up call for me to find under the twin-sets and designer handbags there is actually a little fire in there!

They will be most encouraged to know that they have support in the foreign community, because sadly their biggest opposition seems to be other Mums at the moment. Many other Mums are ridiculing them and saying they are over-reacting and being ridiculous. Ironically these seem to be the same ones that are lapping up all their research results and acting all shocked when it turns out radioactive rice is being served in the local shogakko etc etc.

The men in government are not even really taking them seriously at the moment - just kind of "humouring the little women playing at being the Big Boys.. They seem to be appeasing them to a point in the hope that they will eventually go away. As it turns out in our local area we dont have an awful lot to worry about (thankfully) but that cant be said for other areas, and I for one would love to see these women taking a more active role in their societies and instigating change for the better. If nothing else, it`s a lot more important and useful than the shagging PTA! ;)

Good on anyone and everyone who has become more active as a result of the horrible crises this nation has suffered.

"That has given rise to a sense that the government isn’t as reliable as once thought, and that people need to take action themselves to get things done."

The former part of this quote makes me chuckle, as that has been obvious for quite a long time, the latter, in a way, makes me sad. For it's this kind of 'take action themselves' that in part allows the government to get things done. In the town I live in local government made a number of spending cuts; none involving them cutting local government staff, but instead things like cutting pay for crossing guards and people to patrol neighbourhoods. Why would they do this? Well, one reason is that they know people will volunteer to do it anyway. On the more macroscopic level this happens all the time as well, with the government asking for 'understanding' with tax increases and cuts to family tax breaks, cuts in social security, and security in general (save for whalers and broken fighter jets, of course!). If 'taking things on themselves' does nothing to change the crappy state of politics then said crappy state will of course never change -- it'll just pay even less to get things while they pat themselves on the back.

Unfortunately, I feel the sociologist towards the end of the article has hit it on the head:

“Most people aren’t hungry or angry,” he said. “People need a clear enemy, and there’s no clear enemy in Japan. Public anger needs to hit a critical mass. It’s not anywhere near that.”

'Shouganai' is still probably the most oft used word here.