nuclear-news

Jiji Press Shogakukan Inc. will suspend publication of the gourmet manga series “Oishinbo” after recent episodes provoked controversy over the health effects of radiation from the March 2011 nuclear accident, it was learned Saturday.

Oishinbo will not appear in the publisher’s weekly Big Comic Spirits magazine for some time from the issue to be released on May 26, informed sources said. Shogakukan will announce the decision in the issue to be published Monday.

In the next issue, the weekly’s chief editor Hiroshi Murayama will say he is keenly aware of his responsibility for causing discomfort to many people, adding that he and the associate editors will take seriously criticism and rebuke and review the way events were depicted in the manga series.

Futaba is one of the two municipalities that host Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the site of the nuclear accident, while the city of Osaka accepted debris from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami to help with their disposal.

The upcoming issue of the magazine is set to run the final episode of Oishinbo’s serial titled “The Truth of Fukushima.” In the episode, characters visit a livestock farmer family who moved from the Fukushima village of Iitate to Hokkaido and conclude that it is their responsibility to call for state compensation for anyone who wants to move out of Fukushima.

The manga series caused controversy due to a recent episode in which the lead character suffers nosebleeds after visiting the Fukushima nuclear plant—suggesting the nosebleed was an effect of exposure to radiation—and by another in which a character modeled after a real-life former Futaba mayor warns, “People currently must not live in Fukushima.”

In addition, a separate character calls attention to the health effects of radiation-contaminated debris on residents in Osaka.

More here

https://nuclear-news.net/2014/05/14/68-of-those-suffering-from-nosebleeds-in-japan-are-children-mothers-are-the-biggest-stakeholders/

One of the characters in the cartoon is based on the ex mayor of Futaba ( Katsutaka Idogawa on Facebook) who agrees with the representations of him in the Manga cartoon story. His likeness in the cartoon is obvious.