Seeing Reactors at Tōkai-mura, Trade Fairs, Department Stores and in Films: 1957–1971

Exhibitions, films and the mass media had given the Japanese people some sense of what a reactor would look like but the opportunity to visit a reactor was afforded by the nuclear facilities under construction at Tōkai-mura in Ibaraki prefecture and elsewhere. Tōkai-mura became a sightseeing destination for special-interest groups and educators who saw the facilities as an opportunity for school trips that would reinforce narratives about Japanese identity, both past and future. Excursions to Tōkai-mura served to promote careers in science and technology. For those unable to visit in person, department stores and trade fairs continued to provide congenial, consumer-friendly venues for the public to better understand how nuclear power underpinned Japan’s future