A rising full moon against a twilight sky and a shimmer of pink on the surface of the sea. So far, so postcard. But this is no regular Japanese beauty spot. Just visible in the distance is a clutch of white chimneys jutting into the sky, offering a sinister clue to the location of the seemingly serene photograph: one of the country's most controversial nuclear power stations.

The world of Noritoshi Hirakawa is a place where things are never quite as they seem. In his quest to uncover "unchangeable truths," the New York-based artist has long relished tackling subjects that society is more comfortable shying away from. From the attraction of suicide to voyeuristic peeking through the barriers of Japan's class system, Hirakawa has probed an array of social issues in exhibitions at the Venice Biennale and in Tokyo, Paris, Frankfurt, Ghent and Antwerp.

Two different issues, however, are taking center stage in two separate shows the artist is currently staging in Tokyo: the dangers of nuclear power and relationships in Japanese families. At "Silence in the Night," a joint show with Hiroshi Sunairi and Arto Lindsay at Wako Works of Art in Shinjuku, Hirakawa showcases "In Reminiscence of the Sea," a row of simple landscape photographs that at first sight appear to capture the scenic beauty of the Japanese countryside. Beneath the facade of sunsets and moonshine, however, a grittier reality prevails; the photographs were taken at the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant overlooking the Sea of Enshu on the central Pacific coast of Japan. The town has long been fractured by political debate over the presence of a nuclear plant in the heart of the community. Its sensitive location along the Fossa Magna fault line, where seismologists have long warned of the potential for an earthquake of epic proportions, adds to tensions. On a second white wall, one solitary picture hangs alone. In this shot — the only picture featuring a human form — the artist links the plant directly to the community: A pregnant woman lies languorously on a tatami-mat floor, her swollen belly clearly in focus as her husband sits to the side.