The Great East Japan Earthquake hit Japan on 11 March 2011 became the worst disaster causing the tsunami, aftershock and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
The tsunami created over 300,000 refugees in the Tohoku region of Japan and resulted in shortages of food, water, shelter, medicine and fuel for survivors. The death toll is 15,891 (19,225 in total including related death of the disaster), and 2,584 people are missing. (Source:Wikipedia)
However, in response to the crisis, many countries sent search and rescue teams to help search for survivors. As Japanese, I never forget all over the world encourage Japan and be with us.
Not to fade our memories, I would like to share the information how Tohoku region has revived from the disaster. On the other hands, I would like you to know many people are still struggling on the way to far recovery.
Fukushima Now all / Fukushima Now
Overnight visitors from Hong Kong to Fukushima Prefecture reached 2,670 in the January-October period of 2018, about 2.5 times more than the previous year’s same period, Fukushima Gov. Masao Ushibori reported at a regular press conference. The total, including tourists, exceeded for the first time the level before the Great East Japan Earthquake and ensuing nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011.
Viewing the recovering travel demand as a toehold to dispel the bad reputation stemming from the nuclear disaster, the prefectural government is set to step up efforts to attract more visitors from fiscal 2019 beginning next April, including the transmission of tourism information in traditional Chinese widely used in Hong Kong and calls for airlines and travel agents to operate charter flights to Fukushima.
(Fukushima Minpo 29 January, 2019)
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International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach visited Fukushima Prefecture for the first time on Nov. 24. Accompanied by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, he inspected the prefectural-run Fukushima Azuma Baseball Stadium in Fukushima city, which will host baseball and softball events at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
(Fukushima Minpo 25 November, 2018)
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The Fukushima prefectural government has decided to promote some locally produced farm, forestry and fisheries products, including rice, cucumbers, tomatoes and peaches, as priority items with the Good Agriculture Practice (GAP) food safety certification which it will seek to supply to the athletes’ village during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. The local government intends to stage a full-fledged campaign urging major catering companies to buy Fukushima-produced food in serving athletes and other participants, starting with a business meeting with related concerns on July 19 in Tokyo.
(Fukushima Minpo 21 June, 2018)
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A total of 26 fishing boats returned to their home port in Namie town, Fukushima Prefecture, on Feb. 25 from Manogawa fishing port in Minamisoma city where they had been moored since the Great East Japan Earthquake and ensuring nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011. The homecoming to Ukedo fishing port after a hiatus of about six years followed progress in port restoration work that enabled the use of a pier where boats dock.
(Fukushima Minpo 26 February, 2017)
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Of residents evacuated elsewhere in or outside Fukushima Prefecture after the 2011 earthquake and ensuing nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, a total of 12,381 people were still living in inconvenient temporary housing in the prefecture as of Feb. 20. Of these evacuees, more than 40% were aged 65 or older, posing a challenging issue to local authorities over how to care for them in an organized manner.
(Fukushima Minpo 21 February 2017)
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17 June 2016
Samples of all 2,669 school meals served for lunch in Fukushima Prefecture in fiscal 2015 cleared the highest allowable level of 100 becquerels per kilogram for radioactive cesium specified by the Food Sanitation Act, according to the results of monitoring by the prefecture’s education board.
“We have been able to confirm the safety of school meals. We would like to continue monitoring in municipalities and at schools that desire testing,” said an official in charge of health education at the prefectural government’s office of education.
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(Fukushima Minpo News)
6 June 2016
According to the Environment Ministry and the Fukushima prefectural government, the tsunami-related debris included vehicles, logs and concrete fragments left in the evacuated areas — including those where evacuation orders were lifted later — in 11 municipalities. The collected debris, shipped to temporary sites in all municipalities in an operation directed by the central government, will be incinerated or recycled.
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(Fukushima Minpo News)
17 April 2016
To attract more foreign visitors to Tohoku, governors from the six prefectures in the region have agreed to establish a comprehensive sightseeing route and develop other promotional measures.
“It’s important that we convey the message in and out of Japan that Fukushima is making . . . steady progress in reconstruction,” he said, calling on governors from the other Tohoku prefectures to cooperate.
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(Fukushima Minpo News)
12 April 2016
The Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is poised to lay down new international standards regarding concentration of radioactive substances in food. The move is expected to lead to a unified yardstick for judging safety, thereby helping relax import restrictions still imposed by some foreign countries on Japanese food in the wake of the 2011 nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi plant.
In his keynote speech on the opening day, NEA Director General William Magwood pointed out that even if a country that has experienced a nuclear accident declares its food safe, other countries do not have a means of confirming the accuracy of such information. He stressed the need to unify ways of measuring radioactive concentration and standards that differ from country to country. Magwood indicated that his agency will work with its 31 member countries more strongly to reach agreement on the proposed unification.
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(Fukishima Minpo News)
20 March 2016
The central government is covering the demolition costs for disaster-hit homes in Fukushima Prefecture, but 70 percent of the razing requests have not been completed.
The Environment Ministry plans to revise the procedures for handling demolition requests because the situation could further prevent residents from returning to the radiation-tainted areas.
As of Jan. 8, 5,780 applications — or over 70 percent of the 7,670 demolition requests — had not been processed.
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(Fukushima Minpo News)
3 February 2016
The central government’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) published on Feb. 2 a map depicting the distribution of radiation dosages as of last September in a region within an 80-kilometer radius of Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The data, collected four years and a half after the 2011 nuclear accident there, represented a 65% decrease in the average midair dosage from comparable measurements taken seven months after the disaster. According to the NRA, the margin of decrease in the radioactivity level when considering the effect of physical attenuation of radioactive substances alone was 53%. The greater decline in actual dosages resulted from decontamination work and weathering, NRA officials said. Read original
(Fukushima Minpo News)
31 January 2016
The Fisheries Agency will continue to subsidize efforts by Fukushima Prefecture to remove tsunami-related debris from the ocean floor. The newest tranche of cash will be used to lift vehicles, concrete blocks and smashed buildings from the seabed within 20 km of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. However, there is no agreement yet on where to dump it. Fukushima fishermen are asking authorities to demarcate a trial fishing zone up to 10 km from the plant. This means removal of the debris is a pressing matter.
Meanwhile, Fukushima fishermen hope to expand the trial fishing zone as early as next month. An underwater survey conducted by the prefecture in 2013 confirmed that several houses, cars and tetrapods are lying on the ocean floor. The survey was unable to determine the total amount of debris within the 20 km area. “Unless the debris is removed, fishing nets may be caught and the risk of accidents will rise,” said an official of the Soma-Futaba Fisheries Cooperative. “We want the debris removed soon.” Read original
(Fukushima Minpo News)
11 December 2015
Even though the tens of thousands of evacuees from the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and ensuing Fukushima nuclear disaster are still living in temporary housing, many others have moved on, making virtual ghost towns out of once busy communities. As of the end of November, 19,373 people were still in 16,403 temporary housing units in Fukushima, down from the peak of 33,016 people in July 2012. The disaster rescue law stipulates that residents can live in temporary housing for up to two years, but the prefecture extended that to March 2017.
But as more people move into new public housing or elsewhere, some 38 percent of the temporary housing units in Fukushima were vacant as of the end of November, up from 17 percent at the same time in 2013.
“It’s lonely to celebrate the new year in a temporary housing community when residents move out one by one,” said Masanori Takeuchi, 65, as he gazed intently at unlit units. Takeuchi heads a neighborhood council at a temporary housing community in Aizuwakamatsu. When he moved in four years and five months ago, almost all 83 units were full. But now there are only about 40 people in 19 units, with five families planning to move in the spring. As the vacancies grow, fewer people show up when Takeuchi and others hold barbecue parties and other events.
“Worries that their neighbors will leave them could trigger mental illness,” said an official with a prefecture-affiliated social welfare association. According to the Cabinet Office, 11 people committed suicide in Fukushima between January and July this year, apparently due to the events of 3/11. Of those, two were residents of temporary housing.
The government of Fukushima is aware of the situation and has been struggling to hire enough staff to monitor their mental health and well-being. Fukushima wanted to hire 400 people for the job this fiscal year, but had only managed to fill 274 of the slots as of Dec. 1. One of the reasons is the lack of job security: The positions are offered on a one-year contract because the program is funded by central government subsidies given out each fiscal year. Read original
(Fukushima Minpo News)
18 November 2015
In a survey of business establishments in 12 municipalities with government-designated evacuation zones in the wake of Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster, 627 businesses, or 45% of the 1,388 offices covered, expressed hope to reopen or continue their operations in their hometowns in the future. Among those surveyed, 19% (270 establishments) have either returned to their hometowns and reopened operations or have stayed in their hometowns and wish to continue business there. Another 12% (161 establishments) have resumed business in other locations as a result of evacuation but wish to return to their hometowns and reopen there in the future, while 14% (196 establishments) have suspended operations but hope to return and restart in their hometowns. In other words, a total of 45% are inclined to reopen their offices and continue business in their hometowns. Fukushima Soso Reconstruction said it plans to visit about 8,000 businesses individually, and offer greater support and consultation services by experts for operators who wish to reopen in their hometowns. Read original
(Fukushima Minpo News)
6 November 2015
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said on Nov. 5. that the concentration of radioactive substances in seawater near the shore of its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant appears to be declining after the completion of a seaside underground wall there to block the flow of contaminated groundwater into the ocean.The utility therefore believes it is likely that the new wall is successfully shielding the flow of contaminated groundwater, resulting in the decrease in radioactive substances flowing into the sea from the shore. Read original
(Fukushima Minpo News)
– 4 years have passed since the disaster. As time passes, many people were able to come back to normal life, but still many people are struggling on the way to far recovery in the strict situation.
– Infrastructure of road, facility and traffic was revived quickly. Next stage is community development.Approx.100,000 displaced people will move from shelters to own place.
– Debris in Fukushima was reduced from 3.04 Million ton to 0.24 Million ton
Source: matome.naver.jp
*Click photo to enlarge
– About traffic, against planned recovery road (Approx.570 kilometers), construction of approx.454 in 80% was completed and started. Road which started to operate is approx.209 kilometers in 37%.
Souece :matome.naver.jp
– About railway, against devastated railway 2330.1 kilometers in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefecture, 89% is under operation
Source 01-radio.com
– People living in temporary shelter are still approx.234,000.
– At disaster area, upland development and disaster public housing construction is behind schedule.
Source : ngo-jvc.net
(Source :NAVER Matome 31 Mar 2015)
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26 February 2015
Highly radioactive rainwater that accumulated on the rooftop of the No. 2 reactor building at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was found to have leaked into the Pacific Ocean through the complex’s drainage ditch, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said on Feb. 24. TEPCO discovered the leakage of contaminated water into the ocean no later than in April last year and had been investigating the cause, but did not make the issue public until now. TEPCO said it believes radioactive substances scattered from the nuclear accident had remained on the entrance rooftop and that every time it rained, rainwater mixed with such substances flowed into the ditch via the drainage on the rooftop. “According to test results so far, no major changes in radiation levels have been observed in the ocean outside the bay adjacent to the plant,” TEPCO said. Read more
(Fukushima Minpo News)
13 February 2015
The number of Fukushima residents who remain evacuated as a result of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, including those who have evacuated voluntarily, totaled 118,862 as of January this year, falling below the 120,000 mark.
The prefectural government said it believes the decreasing level of airborne radiation as a result of decontamination work as well as natural reduction contributed to the return of residents. At the same time, some residents are believed to have returned to their homes in Fukushima due to the increasing economic burden of prolonged evacuation. Read more
(Fukushima Minpo News)
Local residents in Fukushima Prefecture saw the return of public transportation on Jan. 31 after East Japan Railway Co. began a bus service that passes through the exclusion zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. It gives residents another option for travel after 46 km of seaside train tracks in the prefecture were destroyed in the March 11, 2011, disasters. Read more
(Fukushima Minpo,1 February 2015)
For the first time since the triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 plant throttled the agriculture-reliant prefecture, all rice produced there last year cleared the required radiation tests. The Fukushima Prefectural Government last year checked every bag of rice produced in the prefecture — some 10.75 million bags — based on the Food Sanitation Law, which bans the sale of rice radiating more than 100 becquerels of cesium per kilogram.
Officials said they hope the results will help raise consumer confidence in Fukushima rice, which was devastated by the nuclear disaster. Experts attribute the achievement to efforts to prevent cesium from entering rice fields during cultivation, and to the use of fertilizers based on potassium chloride, which prevents the grain from absorbing the isotope. Read more
(Fukushima Minpo, 9 January 2015)
A project began on Nov. 10 to revive a scenic coastal pine tree forest in the Matsukawa-ura lagoon area in Soma city that was washed away by tsunami in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. This was the first seedling planting activity to restore national forests in the coastal areas of Fukushima Prefecture since the disaster. The central government’s Iwaki regional forest station plans to plant about 600,000 trees, including Japanese black pines that are resistant to pests and diseases, to make coastal disaster-prevention forests covering an area of about 60 hectares by fiscal 2021. Read more
(Fukushima Minpo,11 November 2014)
The government has reopened a section of National Route 6 running through part of the Hamadori region of Fukushima Prefecture, where residency is restricted due to radioactive contamination from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Co. It opened the entire highway to traffic for the first time in three and a half years following the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. The move, effective as of midnight on Sept. 14, was announced on Sept. 12 by the government’s local office addressing the nuclear accident. Read more
(Fukushima Minpo, 13 September 2014)
The National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (Zen-Noh) announced on Aug. 18 that it will resume exports of rice grown in Fukushima Prefecture, starting with the “Koshihikari” variety of rice harvested in Sukagawa and set to go on sale at a high-end supermarket in Singapore from Aug. 22. It will be the first time Fukushima rice has been exported since the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and ensuing accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Zen-Noh and the prefectural government expect to increase rice exports in the future, using the sale to Singapore as a stepping stone as the Southeast Asian country is known for tough safety screening. Read more
(Fukushima Minpo,19 August 2014)
All vegetables and fruits tested for radioactive cesium by the Fukushima prefectural government in fiscal 2013 showed measurements below the current maximum allowable limit of 100 becquerels per kilogram under the Food Sanitation Act. It is the first such result since the prefectural government began testing agricultural and marine products for radioactive cesium in fiscal 2011 following the nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. In all food categories, the proportion of items surpassing the maximum allowable limit decreased considerably. Read more
(Fukushima Minpo, 11 May 2014)
According to a nationwide population survey for 2013 reported by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on June 4, the total fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman — stood at 1.53 in Fukushima Prefecture last year, up 0.12 point from 2012. The rate recovered to levels prevailing in the years immediately before the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the ensuing Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident.
Since the disaster, the Fukushima prefectural government has placed policy emphasis on measures to cope with a population decline as well as fewer babies and population aging. Specifically, it has endeavored to improve the childbearing and rearing environment by offering free medical care for young people aged 18 or less, increasing indoor play areas and expanding a scheme for detecting radioactive materials in school lunch meals, among other things. Read more
(Fukushima Minpo, 5 June 2014)
Many residents haven’t returned yet because of lingering concerns about radiation. They are also worried about the lack of jobs, shops and medical services. The area was the first in the 20-km-radius exclusion zone set up around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant after the March 2011 meltdowns to have its evacuation order canceled.
The government ended its decontamination work in the area last June. It then let people apply for long-term stays in August so they could make preparations for returning to their homes.The central and municipal governments suggested lifting the evacuation order in November, but demurred after residents feared that proper living conditions hadn’t been established. Many young families are hesitant to go back because of radiation, lack of sufficient medical services and employment, and the fact that they have settled into the places they evacuated to. Read more
(Fukushima Minpo,20 April 2014)
The Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute, AIST (FREA), a unit of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), was inaugurated on April 1 at an industrial park in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture. Ahead of the start of work, FREA head Yoshiro Owadano urged institute staff to accomplish its two missions: promotion of R&D on renewable energy in a manner open to the world, and contribution to post-disaster reconstruction through the accumulation of new industrial clusters. Read more
(Fukushima Minpo,2 April 2014)
The Japanese government set up a task force on Sept. 10 to strengthen measures to prevent problems linked to the leakage of contaminated water at the disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The team, which handles the decommissioning of reactors at the plant and the treatment of contaminated water there, will work out by early November a set of additional measures to deal with any possible troubles at the plant, government officials said. Through Japanese embassies, the government has so far provided information on contaminated water leakage at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant and data on radioactive substances detected from marine products. Read more
(Fukushima Minpo, 11 September 2013)
The central government on March 10 unveiled a plan to build temporary storage sites for soil and debris contaminated with radioactive materials from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in three towns in Fukushima Prefecture, while requesting their cooperation.
The government is planning to dispose of disaster debris by the end of fiscal 2013 by establishing temporary incinerators at two locations in the south and north of Futaba county. It intends to deliver ash from the incinerators and disaster debris with radioactive cesium of 100,000 becquerels per kilogram or less to a disposal site managed by the private sector in Tomioka. Read more
(Fukushima Minpo, 11 March 2012)
