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FILE - In this March 24, 2011 file photo, a young evacuee is screened at a shelter for leaked radiation from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant in Fukushima, Fukushima prefecture, Japan. Japan's nuclear crisis has turned a 41-year-old mother into one of Wally Santana, File, Associated Press
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In this Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 photo, Mizuho Nakayama shops at a grocery shop near her house in Tokyo. Japan's nuclear crisis has turned Nakayama into one of a small but growing number of Internet-savvy activist moms. In the days and weeks following the Malcolm J. Foster, Associated Press
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FILE - In this Monday, Sept. 12, 2011 file photo, a smartphone shows a list of types and amounts of radiation on a package of Maitake mushrooms which is part of a radiation sampling test at a Tokyo market. Japan's nuclear crisis has turned a 41-year-old Shizuo Kambayashi, File, Associated Press
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In this Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 photo, Mizuho Nakayama shops at a grocery shop near her house in Tokyo. Japan's nuclear crisis has turned Nakayama into one of a small but growing number of Internet-savvy activist moms. In the days and weeks following the Malcolm J. Foster, Associated Press
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FILE - In this March 15, 2011 file photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co., smoke billows from Unit 3 among four housings covering four reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. Japan's nucl Tokyo Electric Power Co., File) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, Associated Press
By Associated Press

TOKYO — Japan's nuclear crisis has turned Mizuho Nakayama into one of a small but growing number of Internet-savvy activist moms.

Public dismay with the government's response to this year's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown is driving some Japanese to become more politically engaged.

It's the kind of grass-roots activism that some say Japan needs to shake up a political system that has allowed the country's problems to fester for years.

Nakayama connected with other mothers through Twitter and Facebook and joined a parents group that petitioned officials to test school lunches for radiation.

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The 41-year-old mother said: "We're normally too busy to really raise our voices. But this time we felt compelled to speak up."

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