The women have taken to the streets. The parents are running the protests. Across Japan, the fallout from the triple disasters of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown is not solely Radioactive - it is Pro-active. Japan's social movements once confined to the sidelines are front and center as the one year anniversary of a deadly disaster nears.

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Part One of The Current

Satire

It's Wednesday, March 7th.

Advertisers continue to abandon talk show host Rush Limbaugh despite his apology to Sarah Fluke for calling the law student a slut and a prostitute.

Currently... Fluke says she can never forgive Limbaugh -- that lawyer crack really stung.

This is The Current.

Mothers of Fukushima against nuclear power

Japan can be a raucous and demanding society -- but it's probably not a complete cliche to say it values conformity and harmony. However, after last year's nuclear disaster, those are no longer virtues for the mothers of Fukushima.

They've become mistrustful of their government. They've bought their own geiger counters because they no longer believe the official radiation readings. They've signed petitions urging Japan to abandon all its nuclear projects. Their concern for their family's health has brought them into the streets. And the presense of radioactive cesium in the food supply inspired them to set up a tent city protest outside a Tokyo government office.

This weekend marks the one year anniversary of the deadly earthquake/tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster. And Japanese activists are planning more demonstrations in the days to come. Aileen Mioko Smith is a veteran anti-nuclear activist and Executive Director of Green Action Japan, a non-government organization dedicated to ending Japan's plutonium program. She lives in Kyoto, but we reached her in Brussels.

The film, Surviving Japan is a documentary made by film maker Christopher Noland.

This segment was produced by The Current's Pacinthe Mattar and Vancouver's Network Producer, Yvonne Gall.

• Activists challenge Japan's "nuclear village" By: Akito Yoshikane - Salon Magazine
• Japanese mothers rise up against nuclear power By: Suvendrini Kakuchi - The Guardian
• Violation of the Human Rights of the Children of Fukushima - Foe Japan - Environmental NGO (PDF)

Other segments from today's show:

• NDP Leadership Contender: Niki Ashton
• The Winter that Wasn't: Bird Migration