Fuji Rock and Societal Movements

Since its beginning in 1997, Fuji Rock Festival has worked to offer chances for festival goers to think about and discuss the environment and other issues facing us.
» The Environment and Fuji Rock

Since being held for the first time in 1997, Fuji Rock Festival has provided NGO’s with time on stage, to appeal to festival goers on issues like the environment, world peace and human rights, and has created the NGO Village where organisations can introduce themselves to the festival audience.
The NGO Village has become a place for speaking about, and supporting, global themes such as poverty and world peace, through donations and messages of support.
Since 2005, efforts have been concentrated on global warming and energy, aiming to live in harmony with nature by converting to renewable energy sources and showing this through the use of biodiesel fuels and solar power within the festival site.

Since the disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in 2011, in order to support a transition to renewable energy sources, Fuji Rock has given over a portion of the New Power Gear Field / AVALON area to The Atomic Cafe, a anti-nuclear event that was started in the 80’s.

A message from The Atomic Café

Since the disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in 2011, Fuji Rock has held live talk shows at the Gypsy Avalon stage in the New Power Field / Avalon area in the hopes of creating chances to consider a non-nuclear society. Themes include “living with nature” and “transitioning to renewable power sources” with guests such as journalist Soichiro Tahara and activist Aki Okuda along with this year’s moderator, Daisuke Tsuda.

Friday July 26th

The theme of the first day of the festival is “Okinawa”. Featuring an appearance by Jinshiro Motoyama, who urged for a vote on the construction in Henoko. Can Okinawa operate without relying on the American military bases? Why are there so many bases in Okinawa? Does anti-Okinawa racism exist in Japan? These are some of the questions the panel will be discussing. Also featuring live performances by KACHIMBA IRIS Featuring RITTO and Toshihiko Okimune.

Saturday July 27th

The theme for Saturday is “Self Imposed Restraints”. In the recent past, the Japanese music and movie industries have self imposed restrictions when a artist or actor is involved in a crime or incident, effectively sending that artist or actors work to the grave for eternity. Is it correct to trash a work of art just because the artist was invloved with or commited a crime? What is free expression? What is art? Featuring guests, Shinji Miyadai of Shuto University and Natsuki Nagata who fought for the Denki Groove to be released. Live performance by the LOW-ATUS.

Sunday July 28th

Finishing up the weekend is another day covering the theme of “Okinawa”. Okinawans refer to themselves as “Uchinanchu” and mainland Japanese as “Yamatonchu”. What is the difference between “Uchina” and “Yamato”? What is the relationship between Okinawa and us? Featuring guests Yoh of Orange Range and Okinawa Governer Denny Tamaki. Orange Range will be playing an acoustic set while the governer may play a few songs!

Journalist Daisuke Tsuda will be Mcing for all three days.

Atomic Café Official Website