This is a video made by the art collective Chim↑Pom, called “100 Kiai” (“100 Cheers”). It was originally shown in May 2011, as part of an exhibit at Mujin-to Productions called “Real Times.” To make the work shown in “Real Times,” the Chim↑Pom members traveled to the area around the Fukushima reactor.

“100 Kiai” was produced with a number of young guys living in Soma, an area about 50km away from the reactor. As I understand it, one or two of the Chim↑Pom members had just met/seduced these guys and made the video with them soon after. As much as it is obviously important to document what happened (and what is still very much a reality) in Fukushima and Tohoku, I can’t help but be skeptical about a lot of the photographs coming out of the region—are they really helping people? But just showing up in person like this and creating a positive interaction out of thin air is powerful on its own. Its quality as “an artwork” is secondary to the outpouring of catharsis at the end of the video, which you couldn’t convince me is faked in any way.

While probably not as daring as Russia’s Voina, Chim↑Pom are still one of the most radical art groups in Japan. Part of “Real Times” was a video documenting how they altered an extremely famous mural by Taro Okamoto which hangs in Shibuya station; they were later arrested for the “defacement.” This full PBS report has a lot more information to offer, including the text of a nice interview and full clips of the other video pieces in “Real Times.”