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  • Disaster and Journalism: Thinking about Nuclear and COVID-19 Reporting with Kazuma Obara and Natsuko Katayama, Fukushima Special Bureau Chief, Tokyo Shimbun and Akihiko Mori, media researcher [JP]

Disaster and Journalism: Thinking about Nuclear and COVID-19 Reporting with Kazuma Obara and Natsuko Katayama, Fukushima Special Bureau Chief, Tokyo Shimbun and Akihiko Mori, media researcher [JP]

Date: 10/2 Time: 16:00-17:30

Venue: KYOTOGRAPHIE Infomation Lounge & Books Web upload with limited live audience

Join Kazuma Obara for an insightful discussion with Natsuko Katayama, Tokyo Shimbun's Fukushima Special Bureau Chief, who covered the effects of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident immediately after the earthquake, and Akihiko Mori, a media researcher who studied science journalism during the pandemic in the master's program at the University of the Arts London. Together they will discuss 'journalism during disaster'.

This event has limited booking space, so you will receive a confirmation email for your reservation.
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Kazuma Obara
Born in Iwate Prefecture in 1985. Photographer and journalist. Obara graduated in photojournalism from University of the Arts, London. Following the Great East Japan earthquake in March 2011, he quit his job at a leasing company and began photographing areas affected by the tsunami and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster. He was hired to photograph the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant from the inside, culminating in the publication of the photobook Reset: Beyond Fukushima (Zürich: Lars Müller Publishers, 2012), which documented the Great East Japan earthquake and workers at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Obara subsequently published a series of exposés focusing on individual victims of war and nuclear disasters, including Silent Histories (2014), a history of Japanese child victims of indiscriminate World War II bombings; Exposure / Everlasting (2015), which recorded the long-term effects of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident; and Bikini Diaries (2016), on the 1954 US hydrogen bomb test in the Pacific Ocean that exposed Japanese fishermen to radioactive fallout. He has won numerous international awards, including the World Press Photo Award. In 2020, with a grant from the National Geographic Society of the United States, he was continuing to document the efforts of nurses and caregivers working on the front lines of the corona pandemic.
Natsuko Katayama
Natsuko Katayama is a reporter at the Fukushima special branch of the Tokyo Shimbun (Chunichi Shimbun Tokyo headquarters). She previously worked as a sales representative for a cosmetics company and the Saitama Shimbun. She was awarded an Upjohn Medical Article Special Award for her series of articles on prenatal diagnosis, "When Life is Born". In 2003, she joined The Chunichi Shimbun. The day after the Great East Japan Earthquake, she started to cover the nuclear power plant disaster. She wrote a series of articles on the daily lives of the workers and their thoughts about their families, "Fukushima Workers' Diary". The series won the grand prize of the Muno Takeji Regional and People's Journalism Award. In addition, her book, "Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Worker's Diary: The Truth about Ichiev, Nine Years of Record" (Asahi Shimbun Publishing), in which he wrote about the nine years of each worker's life, won three awards, including the Yasuharu Honda Nonfiction Award from Kodansha and the Incentive Award at the Waseda Journalism Awards.
Mori Akihiko
Based in Kyoto, Japan, Mori's primary interest is in social commentary on the interplay and collision between emerging technologies and humanity. He works in editorial and branding, as well as writing fiction for independent publications and journalistic projects. He holds an MA in Media and Communication from the University of the Arts London.

Access

Information Lounge & Books (Sanjo Ryogaemachi Building)
73 Mikuracho, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto, 604-8166
Kyoto City Subway “Karasuma Oike” exit 6. 3 min on foot.

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