Taro Yamamoto

In late July I did a video with journalist Michael Penn for his independent news agency the Shingetsu News Agency focusing on Battle Royale actor Taro Yamamoto. Yamamoto is somewhat of an anomaly in Japan - a celebrity who has taken a political stance. After seeing the consequences of his actions you can see why too. After anti-nuclear comments were made on Twitter, the actor parted ways with his management agency. The official story is that decision was his because he didn't want to cause trouble for the agency. Following his departure, Yamamoto became increasingly involved with the anti-nuclear movement taking a high-profile role in several demonstrations. He was involved in a protest in Saga Prefecture over the proposed restarting of the Genkai nuclear reactor which saw a somewhat heated exchange between local authorities and protestors. The protest made headlines and Yamamoto has been charged with obstruction of business. The idea of the video was to allow Yamamoto to explain at length his involvement with the anti-nuclear movement and the incident itself.

- Michael Condon

Rikuzentakata - picking up the pieces

Three weeks after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, I travelled up to Iwate Prefecture and spent seven days with Guardian correspondent Justin McCurry and photojournalist Rob Gilhooly in the affected areas. Justin and I produced a video for the Guardian focusing on Michihiro Kono, the head of a generations-old soy sauce and miso manufacturer. At the time we interviewed him, he was preparing to restart his business, despite the fact the entire operation had been wiped out. One member of staff had also died disaster. Kono had been made president of the company by his father on April 1 - the start of the new financial year, three weeks after the tsunami.
















The video can be viewed on the Guardian website here.

Justin's profiles on six individual survivors, along with Rob's photos can be seen on the Guardian website here.

Also here are interactive profiles of the survivors six months after the diaster.

- Michael Condon

Ofunato - fishermen rebuilding

Three weeks after the earthquake I went back up to the tsunami affected areas, this time for seven days with the Guardian's Justin McCurry and photojournalist Rob Gilhooly. Justin and I did videos for The Guardian and Global Post. For Global Post we drove to Ofunato in Iwate prefecture where the local fishing industry had been all but completely wiped out by the tsunami. There we spoke to Kenichiro Yagi, a local fish trader who had commandeered a disused building, one of the few structures left standing in that area, and was determined to get the local industry back on its feet. We also interviewed Yoshiyuki Kumagai, a local fisherman so traumatized by the tsunami, he refused to go near the sea. He also was resolved to fish again but it would take some time for this to happen.












You can check out the video here

- Michael Condon

Crawling out of the wreckage

In the days following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami I tried a couple of aborted attempts to get up north. During the first two days I scrambled to get a car - this was almost impossible as all rental cars in Tokyo were booked out. I managed to get a hold of a friend's sports car and get a full tank of gasoline after queuing for an hour or so. In the meantime another journalist friend managed to get a much bigger van. Then the first explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant happened and we decided to wait until it became clearer as to what the situation was. On the Thursday that followed the earthquake we eventually made our way up the Tohoku expressway with a special pass (at this point the expressway was closed to everyone except for emergency workers, NGOs and journalists). Journalist Michael Penn, a crew from London and I spent the night in our van at a truck stop and then the next day made our way to Natori, south-east of Sendai were we interviewed locals returning to area for the first time since the disaster. Shortly after I filed a report for Global Post.







The video can be viewed at the Global Post website here.

- Michael Condon

Tokyo's reaction to the disaster

Global Post video vox pop of Tokyo residents' reaction to the March 11 disaster. This was done during the week which followed the earthquake.



It can be watched here.

- Michael Condon

Yeongpyeong Island

The second video from Korea. This is from the island itself. Justin McCurry and I were able to get onto the island just as the South Koreans were preparing for live fire drills, a reaction to the bombing by the the North. Four residents of the small fishing village on Yeongpyeong Island had been killed in the attack by North Korea. We interviewed several of the locals including Mrs Baek, a former North Korean who now lives on the island. Her house was metres from one of the buildings which had been shelled but she was adamant that she would remain on the island. The Korean grandmother ran a small hotel which had been damaged in the attacks but still she offered space in her house for the two of us plus our fixer to stay overnight.


Justin and our long-suffering fixer waiting as the ferry attempted to dock.











The video can be viewed on the Global Post website here.

- Michael Condon

Korea - tensions increase

Back at the end of last year journalist Justin McCurry and I were sent over by Global Post to Korea to cover the escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula following the bombing of Yeonpyeong Island by North Korea. The first piece we did was then syndicated to PBS Newshour. For this we interviewed several defectors from the North.

















You can check out the link to the video here.

- Michael Condon