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Three staff writers from Chugoku Shimbun are awarded JASTJ grand prize for series “Gray area: Effects of exposure to low-level radiation”

On April 26, the Japanese Association of Science and Technology Journalists (JASTJ) announced that three staff writers from the Chugoku Shimbun, who wrote a series of articles in 2016 entitled “Gray area: Effects of exposure to low-level radiation,” were given the JASTJ grand prize in the 2017 awards. JASTJ prizes are given for excellence in science writing and publications. This is the second time that staff writers from the Chugoku Shimbun have won a JASTJ prize. In 2015, Yoko Yamamoto, another staff writer, was awarded the second, runner-up prize for her series “Century of Decommissioning.” This is the first time that Chugoku Shimbun staff writers have won the JASTJ grand prize.

The three staff writers awarded the grand prize for their work are Yumi Kanazaki, of the Hiroshima Peace Media Center; Jumpei Fujimura, who was at the Tokyo branch office when he worked on the series; and Yota Baba, in the news department. In all, they wrote 31 articles in seven parts, from March to November 2016.

Their articles cover the effects of exposure to low-level radiation, which have not been fully clarified by current science, from various perspectives and locations, including Fukushima following the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) nuclear power plant (operated by TEPCO); the A-bombed city of Hiroshima; and the United States, a nuclear superpower. The writers also looked at the work of researchers who are investigating the effects of exposure to low-dose radiation. The articles in this series are available in Japanese and English on the website of the Hiroshima Peace Media Center.

The JASTJ prizes were established in 2006. This year 73 works were submitted for the 12th round of awards. The selection committee, which consists of 10 members and includes Hideki Shirakawa, a Nobel laureate for chemistry, and Fumiko Yonezawa, an honorary professor from Keio University, remarked: “This series tackles the issue of the effects of exposure to low-level radiation head-on and drills down into the details. It skillfully organizes a wide range of information and is carefully written.” The awards ceremony will take place in Tokyo on May 16.

The other JASTJ prize winners for 2017 are:

Book entitled Genomu henshu no shogeki (The Shock of Genome Editing) by Michitaka Matsunaga of NHK
Book entitled Kagaku houdo no shinso (The Truth of Science Reporting) by Shiro Segawa, a professor at Waseda University
TV documentary entitled Bureibu, yukan naru mono (The Brave Man) by Kenichi Sasaki and Masayuki Takase of NHK Educational, and Shunichi Maruyama of NHK

(Originally published on April 27, 2017)

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