Impossibility of Narrative Bridges across Boundaries: Case Study of Fukushima-Daiichi Accident

Abstract

This case study identifies human factors that ought to be considered when studying industrial accident conditions, focusing on lessons learned from government involvement in the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident, which occurred on March 11, 2011, in Japan. Chronological accounts of the accident have focused on the government’s emergency response, using official reports and published testimonies. This multilevel analysis examines how the high degree of centralization and isolation among crisis management actors created obstacles that left them unable them to build narrative bridges among themselves. It will argue that in the aftermath of the accident, the successive explosion of three narrative bridges—structural, interactional, and contextual—prevented them from reacting more effectively to the disaster.