Takeharu Watai has spent all of his two-decade career in video journalism as an independent. But he is conscious that public distrust of the mass media, particularly over its coverage of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the nation's nuclear energy policy, has grown so strong that, by default, it extends to journalists in this country.
He says that when he went to Fukushima in the aftermath of the March 2011 nuclear accident, he found it increasingly difficult to interview people as he sensed the local residents' suspicions toward media people in general after they became frustrated with coverage of the disaster in newspapers and on TV.
The Osaka-born Watai specializes in covering conflicts in Asia and other parts of the world, but has lately been active shooting aerial videos of the antinuclear demonstrations that have been held in Tokyo.