Iori Mochizuki

Iori Mochizuki is a Japanese blogger, journalist and cyber-dissident born in 1983. He is the author of Fukushima-diary.com, a blog that calls for the evacuation of Japan.

Biography
Mochizuki defines himself as non-religious, although he practices meditation and make frequent reference to good and evil. The death of his grandmother by an overdose of morphine strengthened his suspicion of all authority, whether medical, religious or political. At the age of 11, he attended the College of Seiko, where he continued his entire high school education. He followed with studies in accounting at the Yokohama National University. In 2006, he joined Sharp Corporation; but the following year, he joined his father's company where he worked as a civil engineer.

After March 11, 2011, the birth of the citizen journalist
Mochizuki learned that a tsunami ravaged the Pacific coast of Tōhoku, causing serious damage to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Later in the day, Prime Minister Naoto Kan declared a state of nuclear emergency. While the Japanese government was reassuring, Mochizuki sought to learn more about the situation. After several explosions occurred at the plant, he began to distrust the official information and started a real computer watch. During his research, he became convinced that traditional media was not properly covering the situation. He also became aware of the influence of the nuclear lobby in Japan and worldwide. According to Mochizuki, the International Atomic Energy Agency and most of the pro-nuclear governments have implemented a disinformation campaign to hide the effects of radioactivity on health.

Journal on Dianuke
To combat disinformation, Mochizuki embarked on a fight for information, using social networks to spread the information he deemed most important. He used his Facebook and Twitter accounts to spread reliable information and express anger at what he saw as a media blackout. It was on Facebook that the quality of his posts was first noticed by the administrator of the Indian anti-nuclear site Dianuke. The administrator offered to republish the results of Iori's research as a compilation. Mochizuki took this opportunity to draft actual articles for Dianuke.org. His first note was published on July 26, 2011. Called Fukushima Diary, the journal of Mochizuki on Dianuke took the form of a daily message, in which the author presented and analyzed the most important news of the day.

Fukushima Diary
Just after publication of the first notes of Mochizuki, Dianuke.org encountered serious problems. The site was taken offline three times by its host, presumably because of too much Internet traffic. To support Dianuke and Mochizuki, articles were republished on countless websites and blogs, including the website of Helen Caldicott's foundation. Soon, an American biologist and webmaster called Nika B. created a mirror site, designed to safeguard all the articles of Mochizuki. In tribute to Mochizuki's first article, the site was called Fukushima Diary. From July 31, 2011, Iori published his daily messages on both Fukushima-diary.com and Dianuke.org. Then, on September 19, he decided to devote himself fully to Fukushima-diary.com. The form of his publications has gradually changed. Daily posts listing the important information of the day have been replaced by articles on one particular subject. The opinion pieces, treatises in the style of a diary, and are grouped under the heading "Column of the Day".

Server problems
After the transfer of Mochizuki to Fukushima-diary.com, server problems have become incessant. Dianuke and Fukushima Diary are repeatedly put offline because of excessive traffic, undermining the servers on which the sites are installed. The webmasters of the two sites suspected denial-of-service attacks (DoS attacks), but could never prove it. However, after Mochizuki stopped publishing on Dianuke.org, this website has only been decommissioned once. Conversely, Fukushima-diary.com is still subject to regular problems of "excessive" traffic.

Facts of note
Mochizuki analyzed several samples from the city of Yokohama. One of these samples, studied in the laboratory of Chris Busby, revealed the presence in very large quantities of Lead-210, a radioactive isotope usually obtained by the decay of uranium-238. Mochizuki has also relayed the possibility of freezing pipes in temporary facilities at the nuclear plant in Fukushima, causing new radioactive leaks. Mochizuki has never ceased to warn about the impossibility of decontaminating affected areas and about the risks of internal contamination. He always wrote that evacuation abroad is the only solution to protect the health and lives of people living in Japan. Suffering from many symptoms since March 14, 2011 (diarrhea, cough, conjunctivitis, pain, fatigue, amnesia ...), Iori Mochizuki left Japan on December 16, 2011.