(photo: Steve Snodgrass/flickr)

Since the release of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Committee’s official report last week, much has been made of how it implicates Japanese culture as one of the root causes of the crisis. The committee’s chairman, Dr. Kiyoshi Kurokawa, makes the accusation quite plainly in the opening paragraphs of the executive summary [PDF]:

What must be admitted – very painfully – is that this was a disaster “Made in Japan.” Its fundamental causes are to be found in the ingrained conventions of Japanese culture: our reflexive obedience; our reluctance to question authority; our devotion to ‘sticking with the program’; our groupism; and our insularity.

That this apparently critical self-examination was seized upon by much of the western media’s coverage of the report probably does not come as a surprise–especially when you consider that this revelation falls within the first 300 words of an 88-page document. Cultural stereotypes and incomplete reads are hardly new to establishment reportage. What might come as a shock, however, is that this painful admission is only made in the English-language version of the document, and only in the chairman’s introduction is the “made in Japan” conclusion drawn so specifically.

What replaces the cultural critique in the Japanese edition and in the body of the English summary is a ringing indictment of the cozy relationship between the Japanese nuclear industry and the government agencies that were supposed to regulate it. This “regulatory capture,” as the report details, is certainly central to the committee’s findings and crucial to understanding how the Fukushima disaster is a manmade catastrophe, but it is not unique to the culture of Japan.

Indeed, observers of the United States will recognize this lax regulatory construct as part-and-parcel of problems that threaten the safety and health of its citizenry, be it in the nuclear sector, the energy sector as a whole, or across a wide variety of officially regulated industries.

No protection

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So, Bob Gates, still the Secretary of Defense for about another month, has been talking a lot about fruit of late:

When it comes to our military modernization accounts, the proverbial ‘low-hanging fruit’ — those weapons and other programs considered most questionable — have not only been plucked, they have been stomped on and crushed.

Gates has been vocally working the fields, trampling out his vintage whine, to let it be known that he has cut and cut, and he is done cutting. . . well, at least when it comes to military hardware.

“Understanding” the need to further trim the Pentagon budget, however, Gates does say there is a field that is now quite ripe for harvest. . . and stomping. . . and this would be so-called personnel costs—military pay, pensions, and health care.

To reiterate: big, expensive, new weapons systems–forbidden fruit. The people that pilot those weapons and fight our wars—crush ‘em.

Because when the government bestows its largess on a defense contractor, it is so much easier to harvest the return, be it in the form of campaign contributions or future pay for revolving-door jobs. When federal dollars are spread out over hundreds of thousands of service members, it might help a greater number of people, but it doesn’t help the guys who run the orchard—at least not as obviously or nearly as much.

And Sec. Gates–who does have his future to think about, after all–wants to make sure his successors (or at least his future employers) understand. No more defense contractors need get tossed into the terrible winepress of budget austerity–there are plenty of fighting folks, ready for trampling.

. . . .

Oh, one more thing. . .

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