One year after the earthquake of March 2011 and the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, the writer Ichie Watanabe began a talk series in the second-floor gallery of Session House: "Listen to the Voices of Fukushima". The first was held on 7 March 2012, and it has continued ever since.

 

Each edition invites a guest - someone still living in Fukushima, someone who was evacuated and has not been able to return, someone who keeps reporting from there - and the audience hears them directly, in their own words, rather than through the news. Ichie Watanabe has travelled to Fukushima every month since August 2011; she is also known for her writing on Tibet.

 

The talks are held in Japanese, and anyone may attend. Booking is with Session House, by telephone or email.

 

Next edition: vol.56

 

Date & Time

Tuesday 17 November 2026, 19:00-21:00 (doors 18:30)

 

Venue

Session House 2F Gallery
158 Yarai-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0805
Access for Kagurazaka Session House

 

Admission

¥1,500

 

Programme

A screening of the documentary "Leaving Footprints at the Water's Edge" (波打ち際に足跡を残す), made by the independent broadcaster OurPlanet-TV, followed by a talk with Hajime Shiraishi, who leads it.

 

The accident of March 2011 released a large quantity of radioactive material into the air. From October of that year Fukushima Prefecture began a health survey of some 380,000 residents who had been eighteen or younger at the time, and more than 400 cases of thyroid cancer have since been confirmed. Eight young people are suing TEPCO for damages, arguing that their cancer was caused by the radiation released in the accident; the first hearing was held on 26 May 2022, and the nineteenth was on 9 September 2026.

 

The film follows Kohaku, the youngest plaintiff in that case. She grew up on the Fukushima coast and was six at the time of the disaster; the cancer was found when she was at junior high school. Those affected generally hide not only their names and faces but their very existence, because the rise in childhood thyroid cancer is itself treated as rumour and attacked. Wanting to change that atmosphere, Kohaku has stepped in front of the camera and begun to speak in her own words.

 

Hajime Shiraishi

Journalist; head of OurPlanet-TV. After university and a period working in broadcasting, she founded the non-profit independent medium OurPlanet-TV in 2001, producing programmes on subjects the mass media leave alone and running video workshops for the public. Since 11 March 2011 she has reported above all on radiation exposure following the Fukushima Daiichi accident. She received the Broadcast Women's Award and the JCJ Award in 2012, the Science Journalism Grand Prize in 2014, and the Tokyo Bar Association Human Rights Award in 2020 for her continuing work on thyroid cancer.

 

Booking

Bookings open at 11:00 on Monday 26 October 2026; please do not write before then.
Telephone +81-(0)3-3266-0461, or email mail@session-house.net with the subject line 渡辺一枝トークの会申込 and give your name, the number of seats and a telephone number. Enquiries in English are welcome.

 

Past editions

The series has run since 7 March 2012. The date, the guest and the original flyer for every edition we still hold are kept on a separate page.

 

 

The current edition is announced in Japanese on the Japanese page for the talk series, and the gallery's other programme is listed under Gallery.