Before the March quake, Hiroaki Koide was an obscure Japanese researcher, his firm stance against nuclear power often scoffed at by other experts. But since the worst quake and tsunami on record led to a major ongoing nuclear accident, public opinion has rallied behind him, turning Koide into a best-selling author and one of the most sought-after speakers in the country.
Public trust in the government and the mainstream media has taken a blow, in particular since the damage to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, 250 kilometres north-east of Tokyo, has turned out to be more dangerous than originally reported.
The plant has been leaking radioactive material into the environment ever since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered fires and explosions at the facility.
Wary of the official reports, many have been seeking Koide's opinion on the accident and nuclear energy. His book The Lie of Nuclear Power has sold 280,000 copies since it was published in June, according to his publisher Fusosha Publishing Inc.
The ranks of the anti-nuclear movement have been swelling since the accident, with 70 per cent of the public in favour of eliminating nuclear power generation, a survey by the Kyodo News agency showed.
But Koide has said he has mixed feelings about his new-found popularity.
"I also have responsibility for not having been able to prevent the accident, as I am one of those working in the fields of nuclear energy," he told an audience of around 1,000 at an April symposium on nuclear electricity plants.
The assistant professor at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute grew up during the period of high economic growth in the late 1960s. As a high school student, be decided to devote his life to the development of nuclear energy.
But soon after he started his university research in Sendai, Koide began to lose his faith in nuclear power.
The largest city in the north-east needed more electricity, so the region's utility company was building a nuclear plant. Despite assurances of safety, the authorities decided to build it 60 kilometres outside the city, in Onagawa town. That made him wonder why, he said.
"In retrospect, the answer was very simple. A nuclear power plant carries risks that a major city cannot take," Koide said. He joined a rally in October 1970 to oppose the construction of the plant, and has been working against atomic energy ever since, helping anti-nuclear lawsuits and talking to citizens' groups.
As the events of March shook public faith in Japan's nuclear industry, which provided 30 per cent of the country's electricity, so support for Koide has grown.
"Japanese people were surprised to learn that Koide, as an expert, has opposed nuclear power for 40 years. The public now has deep respect for him," Kenichi Asano, a professor at Doshisha University in Kyoto, said. "While Koide is a scientist, he provides a sociological perspective," Asano said.
Takashi Hirose is another man with a similar mission, albeit with a different style.
Also a best-selling author of anti-nuclear books, the engineer has long warned that nuclear plants were not safe in the quake-prone country, which lies at the juncture of four tectonic plates. He predicted an imminent disaster in his book Nuclear Reactor Time Bomb, published in August 2010, although he fingered the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant, not Fukushima, as the likely candidate.
The Hamaoka plant, situated near a geological fault line in central Japan, was shut down in May by request from then-premier Naoto Kan, amid increased public concern. In the recently published Fukushima Nuclear Plant Meltdown, Hirose also accused the government, experts and the mainstream media of covering up or ignoring the extent of radioactive contamination following the accident.
Partly because of his hard-hitting manner, Hirose is rarely invited to feature in major media outlets, but increasing numbers have been looking up his interviews and lectures on the Internet.
In his books and lectures, Hirose has repeatedly urged the Japanese to protect their children from radiation, raising an issue that political and business leaders rarely mention.
Hirose has charged that government officials and some experts have continued to downplay the health risks of radiation for children and pregnant women, the most vulnerable individuals.
He has urged more widespread evacuation of children from the Fukushima area. "The Education Ministry and so-called experts have forced children in Fukushima to be exposed to radiation," Hirose said. "It's absolutely inexcusable."