Support Most Common Reason for Buying ‘Fukushima Food’

March 8, 2018

Tokyo, March 7 (Jiji Press)—People who regularly buy fresh food products from Fukushima Prefecture most often want to support the northeastern prefecture and local producers, a survey by the Consumer Affairs Agency showed Wednesday.

“Thanks to efforts by producers, radioactive substances above regulatory limits are not detected (from Fukushima products),” Okamura Kazumi, secretary-general of the agency said. “We’ll step up efforts to communicate the reality to consumption areas.”

According to the survey, which covered a total of 7,050 people in their 20s to 60s, with 150 people selected from each of Japan’s 47 prefectures, 18.1% of respondents said they regularly buy fresh food from Fukushima.

On reasons for their purchases, with multiple answers allowed, 40.9% said they want to support Fukushima and producers, followed by 38.3% who find Fukushima products tasty and 27.3% who said they know the products are safe.

The survey showed that 18.5% do not buy products from Fukushima at all. Of them, 42.5%, the largest group, gave no specific reason, followed by 33.3% who said Fukushima products are not available in their neighborhoods. The share of people who cited concern over radioactive contamination stood at 13.9%.

https://www.nippon.com/en/behind/l10826/