The great East Japan earthquake disaster and ecological socialism

Abstract

After the great earthquake disaster in Japan on 11 March 2011, Japan is considered to be confronting the third big change following the Meiji Restoration in 1868 and the defeat of World War II in 1945. In particular, the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which occurred as a result of the earthquake and tsunami, had a great impact on the Japanese people, who began to rethink the so-called ‘peaceful’ atomic power. The author proposes that this tragic accident was a consequence of today's ‘imperialism against nature’, and that only the program of ecological socialism will provide a political solution for the contemporary civilization of advanced science-based technology.

Keywords:

• Fukushima nuclear power station
• late capitalism
• imperialism against nature
• ecological socialism