100 Cameras x Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

This documentary format places 100 fixed-position cameras in places of interest and observes the lives of the people there. The setting for this edition is the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant 12 years after it suffered a severe nuclear accident. After a year and a half of negotiations, NHK was able to install cameras to observe the 4,000 people who spend each day decommissioning the plant. The cameras recorded workers who were figuring out ways to work quickly and safely amid still-high levels of radiation. They also captured an unvarnished picture of the workers as they shared jokes and thought about the families they had left in faraway places. The result is an unprecedented record of the plant’s decommissioning — a record that was only possible with fixed-position cameras. Other episodes have covered diverse locations such as an emergency hospital, a successful anime studio, and the training camp of the Japanese national rugby team, revealing the work of key people who are generally not in the public eye.