Dr. Jinzaburo Takagi, Anti-nuclear Scientist and Activist
Oct. 8 2000
Citizens' Nuclear Information Center

Jinzaburo Takagi, co-founder and former Director of Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, died of cancer on October 8, 2000. We deeply regret this loss, and join his family in mourning a remarkable, inspiring human being. Takagi's extensive scientific analytical work on nuclear issues has greatly contributed to educate the public, media, and officials on the dangers of utilizing nuclear materials.

Jinzaburo Takagi started his career of nuclear activism from a position as associate professor of nuclear chemistry at Tokyo Metropolitan University (TMU). He was born in 1938, graduated in 1961 from the University of Tokyo and spent four and a half years working for the nuclear industry and another four years for the nuclear institute at the University of Tokyo, winning the Asahi Science Encouragement Award in 1967, gaining his doctorate in 1969 and being Guest Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in 1972-73. When he left TMU in 1975 to set up the non-profit Citizens' Nuclear Information Center (CNIC), he stepped off the ladder to top status within the nuclear elite. He has directed CNIC ever since, reporting on the results of their analytical and public education work through the CNIC publications including CNIC Monthly in Japanese and the bimonthly Nuke Info Tokyo in English. Takagi has conducted many researches, and has written many books and innumerable articles on nuclear issues, environmental protection and peace, with special emphasis on the fight against the nuclear threat as well as for human rights.

He was a key figure in organizing a number of important international symposiums such as "International Conference on Plutonium" (1991, Ohmiya, Japan) "Why Plutonium Now?" (1993, Tokyo, Japan), and "International Symposium on Reprocessing" (1994, Aomori, Japan). He also organized an international research project on the use of mixed plutonium-uranium oxide (MOX) fuel in light water reactors ('A Comprehensive Social Impact Assessment of MOX in Light Water Reactors' i.e. the IMA research) and served as the project leader. This project involved prominent experts from Japan, Europe, and the U.S. The results were published in Japanese, English, Russian, and French. For this research and their persistent work on plutonium issues, Takagi and the project sub-leader, Mycle Schneider, received the Right Livelihood Award - the alternative Nobel Prize - in 1997.

(go to www.rightlivelihood.se/recip1997_2.html for more info.)

In 1992 Takagi received the Yoko Tada Human Rights Award and in 1994 the Ihatobe Award for his practice as a scientist working for the people. He was also successful as a writer of children's books and in 1997 received the Sankei Children's Book Award.

**Downloadable pictures of Dr Takagi appear on CNIC web site at: www.jca.apc.org/cnic/memorial/english/

Dr. Jinzaburo Takagi, internationally renown scientific critic of the nuclear industry, writer and educator has died in Tokyo, shortly after his 62nd birthday. He was the co-founder and former Director of Citizens' Nuclear Information Center in Tokyo.

Just weeks before he died from cancer which he had battled for over two years, he finalised a paper, "Learning from the Japanese Experience to Prepare for a Sustainable Future" that he prepared for the International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environmental Strategies: Taiwan and the World. This became the final published piece of his unrivalled work as a concerned 'citizen scientist', as he called himself. However, one last book-he published an astonishing 56 and contributed to a further 80-is forthcoming

It was typical of his dedication that he completed his paper, despite his worsening illness. Barely a week before he died he learned with delight that Taiwanese Minister of Economic Affairs announced the abandonment a new nuclear plant and phase out of nuclear power programme. All who encountered him could not fail to be impressed by his intelligence and deep humanity, even those in the nuclear business whom he fought so hard.

I first met Jin, as he became known to friends and colleagues, at a remarkable first Asia-Pacific Nuclear Conference, held in a religious retreat in Shatin, overlooking Hong Kong, in 1988. We remained collaborators ever since, and along with many others, I learned much from our gentle friend.

Jinzaburo Takagi was born in 1938 in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture in Japan, graduating in 1961 from the University of Tokyo and spent four and a half years working for the nuclear industry and another four years for the nuclear institute at the University of Tokyo, winning the Asahi Science Encouragement Award in 1967, gaining his doctorate in 1969 and being Guest Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Germany, 1972-73.

He started his career in nuclear activism from a position as associate professor of nuclear chemistry at Tokyo Metropolitan University (TMU). When he left TMU in 1975 to set up the non-profit Citizens' Nuclear Information Center (CNIC), he began a unique life absorbing career in nuclear criticism, based in a country fearful of nuclear weapons but obsessed by nuclear power. He reported on the results of CNIC's analytical and public education work through the center's publications including CNIC Monthly in Japanese and the bimonthly Nuke-Info Tokyo in English. Dr Takagi conducted many technical research projects, and wrote many books and articles on nuclear issues, environmental protection and peace, with special emphasis on the fight against the nuclear threat as well as in support of human rights.

Most recently he published his own analysis of Japan's worst nuclear accident, which killed two plant workers at a uranium-processing plant in Tokaimura in September 1999.

He was also successful as a writer of children's books and in 1997 received the Sankei Children's Book Award.

Dr Takagi was a key figure in organizing a number of important international symposiums such as the first "International Conference on Plutonium" held in Omiya, Japan in 1991, to which he invited me, and persuaded many international experts to attend.

He also initiated & organized an international research project on the use of mixed plutonium-uranium oxide (MOX) fuel in light water reactors- the IMA project (IMA means Now! in Japanese), for which he remarkably secured funding from the Toyota Foundation. The IMA report, 'A Comprehensive Social Impact Assessment of MOX in Light Water Reactors', has become the benchmark document for a complex international technological debate.

Along with Mycle Schneider of WISE-Paris, his close friend and colleague who was with him in Tokyo when died, Jin served as the IMA project leader. The results were published in Japanese, English, Russian, and French. For this research and their persistent work on plutonium issues, Dr Takagi & Mycle Schneider, received the Right Livelihood Award - the alternative Nobel Prize - in 1997, at an award ceremony in Stockholm.

(go to: www.rightlivelihood.se/recip1997_2.html for more information.) He typically used the prize money to found the 'Takagi school for alternative scientists', at which he devoted much of his latter years to educate the next generation. His last bequest was to leave his estate to support the continued work of the Takagi School.

In 1992 Dr Takagi received the Yoko Tada Human Rights Award and in 1994 the Ihatobe Award for his practice as a scientist working for the people. Speaking for many across the globe, fellow nuclear critic, Dr Arjun Makijani, director of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Washington DC, said on hearing of Jin's death,

"Dr. Takagi's passing is an irreplaceable loss for all of us who have long worked to end the era of plutonium, the deadly gold to which much of the nuclear establishment is still attached. It is especially tragic that he should have passed on just at the time when so much of the work he did seems so much closer to fruition. His research and his public education will remain with us as an inspiration in our work."

He leaves his beloved wife, Hari, and two sons from an earlier marriage, along with beacon of hope for many who oppose the nuclear threat. As another friend , Manami Suzuki, e-mailed me "We are determined to carry on pursuing what he has been aspiring to attain - a nuclear free world."

-David Lowry
Jinzaburo Takagi, educator, writer and scientist, born August 26 1938; died October 8 2000

Jinzaburo Takagi - The Citizen Scientist is Gone
Mycle Schneider
Paris, 18 October 2000

"Even at this last moment, I have things to write and leave to younger generations, and as far as my health condition allows me, I will try so for some time". Three weeks after having scribbled with a pencil this very last letter to me, Jinzaburo Takagi passed away. I'll never forget his skinny, tired hand waving a slow, final, the ultimate good-bye a few hours before cancer cut his life line. He knew, I knew.

Japan lost a prolific writer and gifted teacher, a superb scientist and acid critic of the nuclear establishment. Democracy has to do without this restless visionary full of stinging questions and his very own personal answers. Children wait in vain for new books. Activists, journalists, politicians have to do without his pertinent analysis and thoughtful comments. And beyond the loss of an irreplaceable colleague and advisor, I mourn my friend.

We met for the first time in Vienna, Austria, in September 1986. Five months after the Chernobyl catastrophe, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had set up a big conference to report on origins and consequences of the disaster. We called this the nuclear lobby's "Whitewash Conference" and shared the revolting sentiment over an unbelievable - nevertheless enlightening - statement by Dr. Morris Rosen, then head of the department of nuclear safety of the IAEA: "Even if there was this type of accident every year, (_) I would consider nuclear power to be a valid source of energy". Takagi-san and myself were members of an international task force, on the invitation of Greenpeace International, to give an independent review of the state of nuclear safety in the world. The outcome, an impressive 600-page report, was presented to the press in Vienna in parallel to the IAEA conference and stirred up massive media attention. Takagi-san was deeply shocked by the Chernobyl accident and continued to closely monitor the health and social consequences of the tragedy.

From then on, we should meet on many occasions around the globe. Our cooperation grew into a new dimension after Takagi-san had invited me to the Omiya International Plutonium Conference in 1991, my first visit to Japan. (When I was brought from the airport straight to a press conference - forget about jet-lag or fatigue - it became obvious immediately that time management is different in Japan_). The Omiya Conference became a milestone in the debate over the separation and use of plutonium. For the first time in Japan, the entire spectrum of implications of the plutonium industry had been openly discussed with competence and independence. After this event we met in places like Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, for a unique fuel cycle analysis conference co-sponsored by the local authorities, the nuclear industry and various NGOs; in Darmstadt (Germany), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Paris, Kyoto and Tokyo, to work on the International MOX Assessment (IMA); in London (UK) on plutonium issues; in K=F6ln (Germany) where I interviewed him for German TV on the Monju accident and we traveled Japan together on speaking tours more than once.

Jinzaburo Takagi grew up in a family where science became a common goal. His elder brother by two years, Kojiro, Professor of Physics at the Toyama University, a man with a great sense of humor and the corresponding broad smile, says that his generation believed in science as a fundamental tool to build up a new Japan growing out of the ashes of the Second World War. His eldest brother Ryuro heads a Psychiatric Clinic in Kyoto and has been a great supporter of the nine year younger brother; his eldest sister is a medical doctor. Only his lovely younger sister Hide Miyagawa resisted the call of science and entered the administration of a music school.

In 1962 Takagi-san purchased second hand Glen Seaborg's 1958 book entitled "The Transuranium Elements". Seaborg had synthesized plutonium for the first time in 1941 and his book has deeply influenced the early Takagi-san. Seaborg wrote: "The story of plutonium is one of the most dramatic in the history of science. It was discovered and methods for its production were developed during the last war, under circumstances that makes a fascinating and intriguing story. It is, of course, a continuing story, and added chapters will have to be written at a later date." At the time, Takagi-san had just started working at a laboratory of the nuclear industry and he was certain: "I resolved firmly to add a new chapter to the science of plutonium. I was 23 years old at that time." The following 13 years, mainly in the nuclear industry and at Tokyo Metropolitan University, served not only to complement his education as a nuclear chemist but also to sharpen his view for the lack of independence and social responsibility in science and technology. The time he spent as a guest scientist in Heidelberg, Germany, at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in 1972-73 broadened his scientific background and his cultural and linguistic knowledge. The Vietnam War took a significant place in the political debate of the time and Takagi-san became a profound opponent of the war.

When he came back from Germany, Takagi-san went through a period of difficult, sometimes painful, but decisive personal and professional decisions. He quit his safe position as an associate professor for nuclear chemistry at the Tokyo University- and a top career -to set up the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center (CNIC). What over the years has become the key reference for independent critical information on nuclear issues in Japan - not only for journalists, scientists, politicians and interested citizens in Japan but all over the world - was almost a revolutionary idea 25 years ago. The initiative to establish high level analysis capacity outside the industry, the elite science institutions and the government was seen by many as impossible, by some as treachery. Takagi-san's partner Kuniko Takagi-Nakada ("Hari-san") became the central moral and mental support of his initiatives and remained an essential source of inspiration until his end.

The key driving force behind Takagi-san's workaholic writing, travelling, speaking, teaching and consulting activities was his insatiable hunger for justice and truth. He continued to be outraged by the decision making process on nuclear - and other - issues in Japan and believed that his role as a "Citizen Scientist", a term invented by Professor Frank von Hippel who heads the Center for Energy and Environment at Princeton University, was to increase the level of democracy. The broadening of the understanding of the implications of certain decisions and the progressive modification of the rules were the goals. The basis for credibility are competence and independence. The long term guarantee for fundamental and sustainable change of society is only provided by absolute integrity and public accountability. This is what Jinzaburo Takagi represented. This is why his disappearance hurts so many people so much.

In 1995 Professor John Gofman, Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California at Berkeley, nominated Takagi-san and myself jointly for the Right Livelihood Award. Gofman is also a medical doctor who has a PhD in nuclear/physical chemistry and shares patents on two processes for separating plutonium from irradiated fuel and a patent on fissionability of uranium-233 with Glen Seaborg. The US based Environmental Research Foundation's publication Rachel's Health & Environment Weekly called Gofman "one of the greatest teachers of the 20th century". We were thrilled that this outstanding and gentle man nominated us for the award, commonly known as the Alternative Nobel Prize (which he had received himself in 1992). But it was only after the nomination had been re-introduced for the third time that the jury selected us for the award in 1997, recognizing "a unique partnership in the struggle to rid humanity of the threats posed by the manufacture, transport, use and disposal of plutonium". The jury stated that "they were honored for the scientific rigor of their research and the effectiveness of their dissemination of its results, which have served to alert the world to the unparalleled dangers of plutonium to human life, and empowered many to resist the misinformation and the secrecy whereby the plutonium industry imposes these dangers on the public". We were enthusiastic about the award that we considered the most prestigious recognition for our work.

The technical analysis is only the first step of the approach needed to master a given problem. The development of policy implementation strategies remains the core of progress towards social change. We spend many hours discussing political and institutional barriers in Japan and in France. In his Award acceptance speech, Takagi-san said: "There seems now no reasonable justification for continuing any civil plutonium program. One of the key factors which keep the program alive is above all the huge bureaucratic inertia. You can easily understand why the two countries with a very much centralized bureaucratic system, i.e. France and Japan, are going to be plutonium giants." Another barrier for change is the rigid elite system in both countries and the almost religious belief that top technocrats "don't make mistakes". In reality they have been making so many mistakes in the past, in particular in the energy sector, that both countries have been driven into a dangerous nuclear one-way street. The plutonium saga is only the tip of the iceberg. Trillions of Yen have been and shall be spent on a plutonium program that very clearly has turned out remaining bare of any net social benefit. The findings of the major two year social impact assessment into the use of plutonium fuels (MOX), directed by Takagi-san and myself, has never been rebutted by the plutonium industry. Why should the industry do so? No political decision making process forces the nuclear industry to public accountability. The public inquiries prior to licensing in the nuclear sector are a hoax, in Japan and in France, and are a shame for a so-called democracy. And thus the autocratic machinery rambles on, beyond political and citizen control. In Japan there seems to be an unhealthy leftover of the Samurai tradition: carry on straight ahead and if you were wrong commit harakiri. The recent banking crisis seems to recall this mentality, no remediation measures until bankruptcy. But the plutonium industry has been off-scale in this respect. They have been wrong in energy consumption forecasts, on uranium price development, on cost estimates, on facility construction time evaluation, on spent fuel management schemes, etc. But it simply does not matter. It just goes on. And it will go on, in Rokkasho-mura or elsewhere, as long as a truly democratic decision making process does not force the lobby to public scrutiny.

One week after Takagi-san went, the Japanese nuclear utilities declared their intention to conclude further contracts for oversees reprocessing - or better plutonium production - with the French plutonium company COGEMA. The operational risks and the environmental pollution - the plutonium plant at La Hague discharges about 20,000 times as much radioactivity than an average French nuclear power plant - stay in France. The nuclear risk export and the illegal storage of Japanese wastes in France shall continue. For how long? Takagi-san's hope was always based on the young and future generations. He consciously devoted a significant share of his efforts to public education, whether in speaking or writing. Takagi-san published 58 books and co-authored 46 more. Two further books are not published yet, one of which is his first short novel. Many were translated into several languages, including some of his children's books (which my children enjoy in French). The variety of his writings, whether novels, technical reports, biographies or children's books reflect his broad based culture. It also made it easier for him to navigate in this unofficial international network of concerned scientists and citizens. This assisted him to make his science impeccable and his political efforts more efficient.

Takagi-san decided to use the Right Livelihood Award money to launch an independent school to lead scientists in a non-academic way to system analysis and accountability towards the citizen. In his last will he confirmed this choice and calls for the creation of a Fund which will serve to support young students. The great challenge will be to teach the teachers what Jinzaburo Takagi's ideas were all about. Because he is not there anymore to guide or even answer a quick phone call or e-mail message. I miss him badly already. Good bye, my friend.

Jinzaburo Takagi
John Gofman
Berkeley, October 2000

It is not possible to write about the deep loss for humanity in the passing of Jinzaburo Takagi. There will be many insights not given to us because this giant humanist has been lost to us. I am happy that Mycle Schneider had the opportunity to come to know this man and to become one of those mentored in a special way by Jinzaburo Takagi, for I believe that Mycle will be bringing us insights from Takagi for a long time in his own important works, many of which will bear the teachings of Jin.

In every generation there are, fortunately, a few humans who understand what humanity means and how we are to avoid the falso goals which can so badly deceive us on paths to take. Jinzaburo Takagi was one so rare and so gifted with intelligence, and with a selfless generosity to impart some of his wisdom to a next generation of young scientists. Jin appreciated science AND understood how unwise use of science can harm the humanity we need to appreciate. And it is his determination to see that science be uplifting is a rarity of the most important gifts. There are, of course, many who carry the title of "Scientist" But there is a great shortage of persons who can carry an appreciation of the meaning of a Jinzaburo Takagi.

I am especially disheartened to lose Jin so prematurely since it is just a short while ago that I had discussed plans with Jin for his willingness to go over a manuscript that I was preparing. I wanted Jin to discuss his views of the manusctipt and co-author a Japanese version of a final mauscript we could prepare. I hold Jin in the highest regard for integrity, foresight, intelligence, integrity, and humanity in the ability to see how science, appropriately conducted, can ennoble the human condition. So few, so very few achieve this pinnacle, and we lose them vastly too soon. Jin and I were in agreement that meaningful advances against cancer could be one avenue for showing the relationship between science and humanity. It is ironic that Jin should be such a premature loss. We can use our sorrow toward as many of us as possible aspire to learning and using the lessons and wisdom of Jinzaburo Takagi.

We can look to Mycle Schneider and some of the few others mentored by Jin to expand the flame started by Jin.

john gofman

Dr. Takagi
Dr. Arjun Makhijani

Friends:

Dr. Takagi's passing is an irreplaceable loss for all of us who have long worked to end the era of plutonium, the deadly gold to which much of the nuclear establishment is still attached. It is especially tragic that he should have passed on just at the time when so much of the work he did seems so much closer to fruition. The opposition to MOX fuel is higher than it has ever been, as is the understanding of its dangers.

Dr. Takagi's research and his public education will remain with us as an inspiration in our work. Despite his extremely serous illness, he did not waver in his determination and kept on working as much as was physically possible for him to do. I extend my condolences especially to his family and to his colleagues at CNIC.

Arjun Makhijani

Antinuke activist dies
Japan Times, October 10, 2000

Jinzaburo Takagi, known for his antinuclear activities and stinging criticism of big science and died Sunday of rectal cancer at a hospital in Tokyo's Chuo Ward, his family said. He was 62.

A private wake and funeral will be held for family members and relatives, and a public ceremony to remember him will be held on Dec. 10 at a public hall in Tokyo's Hibiya Park.

Born in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture, he majored in nuclear chemistry at the University of Tokyo.

After graduating in 1961, he entered a private nuclear company and served as an assistant at the University of Tokyo's Institute for Nuclear Study and assistant professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University.

He joined the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, a network of antinuclear groups across the nation, and became head of the center in 1987.

Takagi quit the post in August last year after undergoing an operation for colon cancer in July 1998.

In 1997 he received the Right Livelihood Award, a prestigious award given for contributions to resolving issues facing mankind.

Takagi made public his own analysis of Japan's worst nuclear accident, which killed two plant workers last fall at a uranium-processing plant in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture. He also criticized the Nuclear Safety Commission-led investigation of the accident.

The Japan Times: Oct. 9, 2000
(C) All rights reserved

• Return to Nix MOX Bulletin Board
  
• Go to Nix MOX Bulletin Board Index