Photo Exhibition: Landscapes with Nuclear Power Plants

There is a photographer who captures the scenery of Japan's coastline, where nuclear power plants are a common sight. His name is Taishi Hirokawa. On Monday, June 17, 2024, I visited his photo exhibition, "STILL CRAZY," held at the gallery space "Arika Hole" (7F, Pole Pole-za Building, 4-4-1 Higashi-Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo).
This exhibition is being held to mark the 30th anniversary of the publication of Hirokawa's 1994 photo book, "STILL CRAZY: nuclear power plants as seen in Japanese landscapes," and features original prints.
From 1991 to 1993, Hirokawa traveled across the country, capturing all of Japan's nuclear power plants (55 at the time) as part of the Japanese landscape.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident occurred in March 2011. The images show the plants as they appeared nearly 20 years before that event.

The exhibition also captures the former appearance of the Japan Atomic Power Company's Tokai Daini Nuclear Power Plant (Ibaraki Prefecture), where restart is imminent and the scale of a potential accident is being debated again due to the 700,000 people living within a 30-kilometer radius, as well as the Hokuriku Electric Power Shika Nuclear Power Plant (Ishikawa Prefecture), which experienced numerous issues during the Noto Peninsula earthquake that began on New Year's Day this year.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Niigata Prefecture is also featured. Moves toward its restart are progressing, with only local consent remaining. Also included is the Kansai Electric Power Mihama Nuclear Power Plant.

Hirokawa says, "I believe this project will be completed when someone in the future photographs the same locations 50 years later."
He says the question is what things will look like at that time.

Born in a seaside town in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1950, Hirokawa says, "It is no coincidence that I, having grown up witnessing the transformation of the coastline due to development during the period of rapid economic growth, captured the appearance of 18 nuclear power plants and 53 reactors (as of 1992) in Japan as typical landscapes of contemporary Japan."

This photo exhibition is open until Friday, June 28. Gallery hours are from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Admission is free.