Japanese Government Slick Propaganda to Minimize the Fukushima Situation in the eyes of the UN
After reading that article, I believe that this kid will be a tool for the the Japanese Government, which will be using that kid testimony to minimize the desperate extent of the situation in Fukushima, to justify its non evacuation of many people, the financially forced return of the previoulsly evacuees to go back to live in contaminated villages and to promote an illusory criminal reconstruction in the eyes of the world at the UN….She has been coached to that effect…..At least that is the impression this article gives me….
I must add that to use a victim, a youth, as agent for their propaganda, is pretty slick, sly and devious, on the Japanese government part…
Poor kid, she is being manipulated without even be aware of it….Sad, disgusting…
“… it is not the entire area of Fukushima Prefecture, but only some regions that people cannot live in. Most of Fukushima is safe to live in.”
Unless:
1. The wind blows
2. It rains
3. You eat the food
4. You breathe
“…there is a lot of good news about Fukushima too.” Do tell!!!
Then, come back in 20 years and let us know which cancer(s) you have faced, if you have had a child with birth defects…at 16, it is so very easy to manipulate you. You want to go ‘home’…it just isn’t there anymore.
Ayumi Kikuchi, left, practices the speech she will give at a United Nations event with her English teacher, Fumi Arimura, in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, on July 23. She attends the relocated Futaba High School, now operating in the city of Iwaki.
Fukushima high school evacuee to share experiences at United Nations
IWAKI, Fukushima Prefecture–A high school student who thought she was only temporarily fleeing her home during the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and remains an evacuee to this day, will address an event at the United Nations headquarters this month.
Ayumi Kikuchi, 16, a former resident of Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, located near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant that suffered a triple meltdown, was asked by school officials to give the speech in New York City.
A nonprofit organization that deals with the issues of human rights, health and the environment contacted the prefectural Futaba High School, which now operates out of the nearby city of Iwaki. It invited a student from the prefecture to come and share their experiences of having lived through those trying events and the aftermath.
“At that time, I was a sixth-grader in my elementary school, and we were going to graduate in a few days,” Kikuchi says in her speech. “My home was 4 kilometers from the plant. At that time, I didn’t understand why we had to leave our home, and I thought we could come back home soon.”
However, she has been forced to live in various shelters over the years, including the Saitama Super Arena and one set up at the former Kisai High School in Kazo, Saitama Prefecture.
“I wondered what’s going to happen to us (at the time),” she said. She remembered watching the events unfold on the news.
“I went back to my home only once after the accident,” she wrote. “There were many houses left collapsed and roads still had cracks. Nothing seemed to have changed since the disaster. However, the inside of my house was totally different from what I remembered because of animal excreta and rain leaking in.”
The high school student said she hopes to one day work for the local government to help restore her town to what it once was.
Her school, which has a history of more than 90 years, will close after her class graduates. Four other relocated high schools are also scheduled to close.
“Many graduates are feeling very sorry and regretting that their old school is forced to close even though the school or the students have done nothing wrong themselves,” Kikuchi says in her speech.
In her message, Kikuchi will call on people to help one another in times of disaster. She also plans to ask people to share and pass on the memories that result from such devastating events.
“I want people to know about Fukushima’s situation accurately,” she wrote. “People in other countries may think that Fukushima is uninhabitable and may wonder why people don’t flee from Fukushima. In fact, however, it is not the entire area of Fukushima Prefecture, but only some regions that people cannot live in. Most of Fukushima is safe to live in. Also, various movements toward reconstruction have been made, and there is a lot of good news about Fukushima too.”
Fumi Arimura, an English teacher at Kikuchi’s school, helped her write her 10-minute speech. Kikuchi leaves for the United States on Aug. 2.
Source: Asahi Shimbun
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201508010022
About the Evacuees Situation in Fukushima
Fukushima has a population of a little above 2 millions people.
Out of which 118,862 have evacuated : 73,077 within the prefecture, 45,735 outside the prefecture, and current adresses unknown 50,
Four years after an earthquake and tsunami touched off the nuclear meltdown, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pressing to lift evacuation orders by March 2017 and cut off compensation to victims of the disaster by 2018. The move would allow—and some say force—tens of thousands of refugees to go back to their homes.
The pro-nuclear prime minister says that the move, proposed in June, is aimed at speeding up Fukushima’s “reconstruction.”
Under the national government guidelines, residents in government-ordered evacuation zones and “specific spots recommended for evacuation,” where radiation dosage is regionally high, are entitled to 100,000 yen each a month under TEPCO’s compensation for mental distress.
According to a partial estimate – there is no total public estimate of the cost of Fukushima disaster so far – but a partial estimate says it’s about $100 billion. Sixty percent of that has been spent for compensation measures. So compensating people for their loss of land and jobs is very expensive to the government and since the government has bailed out the company that ran the Fukushima reactors it’s basically now the government that is liable.
Tokyo’s preparing to declare some parts of the evacuation zone around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, a safe place to live. Tokyo wants people back in the area as a matter of reducing the overall cost of the disaster, However environmentalists warn many areas still show radiation levels 20 times the globally accepted limit.
I don’t think it is possible to clean up in the real sense of the word, meaning that you take away the added radioactivity that has been contaminating the soil, the roofs, everything. It’s impossible. So what you can do is you can reduce the radioactive contamination in some of the areas. You can take off soil; you can decontaminate what has been done by water sprayed. But keep in mind that 80 percent of Japan is mountains and in this area as well there is a lot of mountains, there is a lot of dense forest, there is absolutely no way even to slightly decontaminate that region. So you will not have a stable situation of contamination but it will move all the time and a new radiation will wash down from the mountains and forests into the other lands.
A number of opinion polls, surveys have shown that the percentage that is decided to go back might be around a fifth of all people evacuated, many people are still undecided and about half decided not to go back. People have to imagine – besides the radiation situation – what are they going back to. We should not forget that many of the homes in Japan are made of wood and they are basically in extremely bad shape and would have to be completely redone. There is not much to go back to and on top of it there is the radiation issue. There is also the issue of going back to their homes but what about their neighbors, what about collectivity, what about the services? So there are all kinds of other social issues besides the pure health issue.
Prime Minister Abe would like the people of Japan to believe that they are decontaminating vast areas of Fukushima to levels safe enough for people to live in. The reality is that this is a policy doomed to failure. The forests of Fukushima prefecture (80% of the land) are a vast stock of radioactivity that will remain both a direct hazard and source of potential recontamination for hundreds of years. It’s impossible to decontaminate.
The elimination of compensation would effectively force people back into an environment that is dangerous for their health.
Stripping nuclear victims of their already inadequate compensation, which may force them to have to return to unsafe, highly radioactive areas for financial reasons, amounts to economic coercion. Let’s be clear: this is a political decision by the Abe Government, not one based on science, data, or public health.
Residents across Japan have staged protests and filed lawsuits to block nuclear restarts, and polls show that, in the aftermath of the 2011 disaster, a clear majority of the Japanese public opposes nuclear power. In addition, surveys reveal low public confidence in the Japanese government and the Tokyo Electric Power Co.—the company behind the Fukushima Daiichi plant that continues to release radiation into the ecosystem.
Despite public opposition, Abe is aggressively pursuing a return to nuclear power. Earlier this month, Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party revealed that it aims to have 20 percent of the country’s electricity supplied by nuclear power by 2030.
Over four years after the triple reactor core meltdowns and exploded containment buildings at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the majority of the Japanese public has remained opposed to any nuclear restart. The country has been completely nuclear-free for nearly two years, thanks in large part to significant public opposition, in spite of the massive pressure from nuclear utilities and the Abe government on local city governments.
However, these utilities are massively powerful and the Abe government is wholly in bed with them.
In an effort to reduce public opposition, Abe has been pushing forward the pro-nuclear agenda to ‘normalize’ a nuclear disaster. If the public can be convinced that less than five years after the worst nuclear disaster in a generation, citizens can go home and return to life the way it was before the disaster – with no additional health risks – then that is a powerful argument against the majority of Japanese citizens who oppose nuclear reactor restarts.
The effort to minimize the impact of the disaster on the nuclear industry has been aided by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an agency charged with the promotion of nuclear energy in its charter. The IAEA has sought to downplay the radiological risks to the population since the early days in 2011. In fact, it produced two documents that can be said to have laid the foundation and justification for Abe’s current policy of de facto forced resettlement.
The reality is this myth making requires that the people of Fukushima prefecture be the sacrificial lambs for the nuclear industry. This is not only wholly unjust, but is a violation of their human rights.
After all, this is not the confusion that ensues after a nuclear disaster. This is a thought-out plan of forcing people back into their heavily contaminated former homes, no matter what the cost – both in wasteful, ineffective decontamination of these areas and in human health risks.
Compounding the gross injustice of the Abe Government’s forced resettlement policy, by focusing on creating a myth of a return to normalcy – and therefore investing vast amounts in expensive and futile decontamination – it is therefore utterly neglecting the contaminated areas that were never evacuated. Rather than addressing this urgent need to reduce the radiation risks to these populations, whom are currently living in contaminated areas, the government is more interested in deceiving the public in Japan and globally by creating illusions.
What is clear is that the damage done to the people of Fukushima prefecture, and especially Iitate, is irreversible and irreparable. Their entire communities and way of life were destroyed by the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, with no prospect for a safe return in the foreseeable future.
To keep the victims of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in limbo, many crammed into tiny temporary housing cubicles, for nearly five years is inhumane. To force these citizens back into such heavily contaminated areas via the economic leverage the Government holds over them is a gross iniquity. And for the International Atomic Energy Agency to assist the Japanese Government in the propaganda war being waged on Fukushima victims not only undermines whatever credibility it may have, but amounts to it being an accomplice in a crime against the people of Japan.
Sources:
Fukushima nuclear disaster: ‘Radiation will wash down from mountains, forests into other lands’
http://www.rt.com/op-edge/310595-fukushima-nuclear-radiation-area/#.VbFcSy3oBmA.facebook
20 μSv/h still detected in Fukushima city
Revenir ou pas, le dilemme des évacués de Fukushima
http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2015/07/21/revenir-ou-pas-le-dilemme-des-evacues-de-fukushima_1351224
Japan Accused of Coercing Fukushima Refugees to Return to Unsafe Homes
Greenpeace: “The forests of Iitate are a vast stock of radioactivity that will remain both a direct hazard and source of potential recontamination for hundreds of years. It’s impossible to decontaminate.”
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/07/21/japan-accused-coercing-fukushima-refugees-return-unsafe-homes
Japanese Government – aided by the IAEA – puts nuclear victims at risk with forced resettlement scheme
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/nuclear-reaction/Fukushima-nuclear-victims-forced-resettlement-Iitate/blog/53584/
Press Release: Greenpeace investigation exposes failure of Fukushima decontamination program
http://www.greenpeace.org/japan/ja/news/press/2015/pr20150721/20150721-Press-Release-Greenpeace-investigation-exposes-failure-of-Fukushima-decontamination-program-/
Reconstruction plans drawn up for no-go municipalities near Fukushima plant
On Saturday a panel at the Reconstruction Agency produced a final draft of proposals to help 12 municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture recover from the March 2011 nuclear accident.
The proposals include improving medical services to help the evacuees being forced to return home, developing new industries to create jobs, and beefing up administrative services by getting municipalities to cooperate with each other more closely. The draft declares a goal of completing reconstruction plans by 2020. The municipalities are all located close to the Fukushima nuclear plant, the site of the disaster.
The central government says they will work to secure funding. The central government has also pledged to lift evacuation orders for the 12 municipalities, by March 2017, although areas with “persistently high radiation levels” are excluded from the target.
Source: Japan Times
Fukushima scrub-down aims to make villages safe, although woods may remain no-go zones
All in vain. The next wind, the next rain, coming from those woods will carry accumulated radionuclides from there to re-contaminate those “decontaminated villages.
In the past years, some villages have been decontaminated already up to times, each time always contamination in due time to return to the pre-decontamination levels.
IITATE, FUKUSHIMA PREF. – Sweating inside their plastic protection suits, thousands of men toil in Japan’s muggy early summer in a vast effort to scrub radiation from the villages around Fukushima.
The mission is to decontaminate hundreds of square kilometers that were polluted when reactors went into meltdown after huge tsunami struck the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in March 2011.
No stone is left unturned: Diggers scrape away the top layer of earth in fields, school courtyards and around the buildings of villages, while houses, buildings, roads and parking lots are scrubbed clean.
At least 20,000 people are involved in the cleanup, according to the Environment Ministry. The workers wear the special gloves, masks and boots required for workers in the nuclear industry.
There are currently around 2.5 million black bags filled with contaminated soil, plants and leaves piled up at the sites or in one of the nearly 800 temporary outdoor storage facilities set up across the disaster zone.
The effort comes as the central government prepares to declare sections of the evacuation zone habitable again.
That will mean evacuees can return to the homes they abandoned more than four years ago. It will also mean, say campaigners, that some people will have no choice but to go back because it will trigger the end of some compensation payments.
Government-run decontamination efforts are underway in 11 cities where Tokyo says that at present, anyone living there would be exposed to radiation levels of more than 20 millisieverts (mSv) a year.
The globally accepted norm for radiation absorption is 1 mSv per year, although the International Atomic Energy Agency and others say anything up to 20 mSv per year poses no immediate danger to human health.
The town of Naraha, which lies just 20 km from the plant, is expected to be declared safe in September.
The government intends to lift many evacuation orders by March 2017, if decontamination progresses as it hopes.
Still, the area immediately surrounding the plant remains uninhabitable, and storage sites meant to last 30 years are being built in the villages closest to the complex.
For now, only residential areas are being cleaned in the short-term, and the worst-hit parts of the countryside are being omitted, as recommended by the IAEA.
But that strategy has troubled environmentalists, who fear that could lead to re-contamination as woodlands will act as radiation reservoirs, with pollutants washed out by rain.
In a report on decontamination in Iitate, a heavily forested area northwest of the plant, the environmental group Greenpeace says these selective efforts will effectively confine returnees to a relatively small area of their old hometowns.
“The Japanese government plans, if implemented, will create an open-air prison of confinement to ‘cleaned’ houses and roads … and the vast untouched radioactive forests continue to pose a significant risk of recontamination of these ‘decontaminated’ areas to even higher levels,” declares the report, published Tuesday.
Some 39 other municipalities that were not evacuated after the meltdowns, and which have radiation levels deemed safe for humans, are also being decontaminated by local authorities.
Source: Japan Times
Japanese Government – aided by the IAEA – puts nuclear victims at risk with forced resettlement scheme
The worst nuclear disaster in a generation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant – which began in March 2011 – is still very much an ongoing crisis that will not be solved for the foreseeable future. Most of the massive radioactive releases were carried out to the Pacific Ocean by the prevailing winds at that time of year. But, on the nights of March 15th and 16th, the winds turned carrying an enormous amount of radiation inland. Land, especially to the northwest of the crippled reactor site, was heavily contaminated.
Greenpeace investigations into areas where the Japanese government is intensively decontaminating with the intention of lifting evacuation orders by March 2017 have made a shocking discovery: in Iitate – one of the priority targets of the Abe Government’s plan – radiation dose levels are comparable to those in the 30km exclusion zone around Chernobyl. Even more surprising, this was true even around homes that had already been supposedly “decontaminated.”
What on earth would motivate the Japanese Government to do such a thing to the tens of thousands of nuclear victims and decontamination workers?
To answer that question, it is first important to understand a bit of background on Iitate: the region – referred to as Iitate Village – is actually a 200 km2 area of heavily forested hills, mountains, and lakes, interspersed with farm fields, and homes. It lies 28 – 47 km to the northwest of the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, in the direct path of the heaviest on-land radioactive fallout.
Although the Abe Government has stated on its website that it is “decontaminating” Iitate – even going so far as to say on the Ministry of Environment website that 100% of the forest has already decontaminated – you have to dig through several different pages to discover that they are only referring to about a ¼ of the land area of Iitate.
In other words, of the 200 km2 of Iitate Village only 56 km2 are targeted for decontamination. Of that tiny fraction, the percentage comprised of the 10-20m into the forests along the roads and around people’s houses has been supposedly completed.
Except even that small amount of the forest isn’t finished. Decontamination efforts in these small bits of forests were still ongoing in July 2015.
And what strikes you when you see it is not just the swarms of people raking away at the woodland floor and trimming blades of grasses by hand in these first 10-20m of forest along the roads, but the enormity of the vast mountains upon mountains of dense, lush forest stretching out behind them as far as the eye can see.
You feel sorry for them. You also admire their intensive effort, meticulous work, and commitment. They are working in sweltering heat, in full radiation suits, boots, gloves and masks; not even their eyes are visible. And they are doing intense physical labor for almost no impact. Many of these workers are the residents of other impacted areas, like Minamisoma, who lost their jobs in farming, forestry, fishing or services due to the nuclear disaster. So they are working in the only growing industry in the region: radioactive decontamination.
It’s surreal. And it’s heartbreaking.
On 27 March, 2011, Greenpeace radiation investigations in Iitate had revealed extremely high levels of contamination, which led our organisation to urgently recommend to the Japanese government the immediate evacuation of the more than 6000 residents. Until that point, the residents of Iitate had been told that evacuation was not required. Evacuation did not begin until 22 April. And still, eight weeks after the start of the accident, in early June, over 1200 people remained in Iitate. As a result, the people of Iitate were the most exposed to radiation of all citizens of Fukushima prefecture.
Iitate has since become an iconic area within the story of Fukushima: a constant reminder to the Japanese public and the international community that a major nuclear disaster is not confined to a small “emergency planning” zone around the reactor site. The impacts are far reaching, destroy entire regions and communities, rip people from the fabric of their lives, and cannot be repaired.
Over four years after the triple reactor core meltdowns and exploded containment buildings at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the majority of the Japanese public has remained opposed to any nuclear restart. The country has been completely nuclear-free for nearly two years, thanks in large part to significant public opposition, in spite of the massive pressure from nuclear utilities and the Abe government on local city governments.
However, these utilities are massively powerful and the Abe government is wholly in bed with them.
In an effort to reduce public opposition, Abe has been pushing the pro-nuclear agenda to normalize the Fukushima nuclear disaster. If the public can be convinced that mere years after the worst nuclear disaster in a generation, citizens can go home and return to life the way it was before the disaster – with no additional health risks – then that is a powerful argument against those opposed to nuclear restarts.
The effort to minimize the impact of the disaster on the nuclear industry has been aided by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an agency charged with the promotion of nuclear energy in its charter. The IAEA has sought to downplay the radiological risks to the population since the early days in 2011. In fact, it produced two documents that can be said to have laid the primary foundation for Abe’s current policy of forced resettlement.
The reality is this myth making requires that the people of Fukushima prefecture – especially the people of Iitate – be the sacrificial lambs for the nuclear industry. This is not only wholly unjust, but is a violation of their human rights.
They have already been exposed to more radiation than any other population in the region. To deliberately force them back to areas where dose rates reach up to 20 millisieverts per year puts them at significant, unacceptable, and unnecessary risk.
After all, this is not the confusion that ensues after a nuclear disaster. This is a thought-out plan of forcing people back into their heavily contaminated former homes, no matter what the cost – both in wasteful, ineffective decontamination of these areas and in human health risks.
Compounding the gross injustice of the Abe Government’s forced resettlement policy, by focusing on creating a myth of a return to normalcy – and therefore investing vast amounts in expensive and futile decontamination – it is therefore utterly neglecting the contaminated areas that were never evacuated. Rather than addressing this urgent need to reduce the radiation risks to these populations, whom are currently living in contaminated areas, the government is more interested in deceiving the public in Japan and globally by creating illusions in places like Iitate.
What is clear is that the damage done to the people of Fukushima prefecture, and especially Iitate, is irreversible and irreparable. Their entire communities and way of life were destroyed by the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, with no prospect for a safe return in the foreseeable future.
At minimum, we as Greenpeace, demand: 1) no lifting of the evacuation order in Iitate; 2) Exemptions and Government support for those determined to return after having full and accurate information regarding the risks; and, 3) full compensation for their loss of livelihood, property, community, mental distress, and health risks incurred, so that they may fully support themselves to move forward to pursue whatever life they so choose.
To keep the victims of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in limbo, many crammed into tiny temporary housing cubicles, for nearly five years is inhumane. To force these citizens back into such heavily contaminated areas via the economic leverage the Government holds over them is a gross iniquity. And for the International Atomic Energy Agency to assist the Japanese Government in the propaganda war being waged on Fukushima victims not only undermines whatever credibility it may have, but amounts to it being an accomplice in a crime against the people of Japan.
Kendra Ulrich is Senior Global Energy Campaigner for Greenpeace Japan.
Source: Greenpeace
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/nuclear-reaction/Fukushima-nuclear-victims-forced-resettlement-Iitate/blog/53584/
2015/07/21 Press Release: Greenpeace investigation exposes failure of Fukushima decontamination program
Abe’s forced return policy condemns residents to radiation risk
“Prime Minister Abe would like the people of Japan to believe that they are decontaminating vast areas of Fukushima to levels safe enough for people to live in. The reality is that this is a policy doomed to failure. The forests of Iitate are a vast stock of radioactivity that will remain both a direct hazard and source of potential recontamination for hundreds of years. It’s impossible to decontaminate,” said Jan Vande Putte, radiation specialist with Greenpeace Belgium.
“The Japanese government has condemned the people of Iitate to live in an environment that poses an unacceptable risk to their health. Stripping nuclear victims of their already inadequate compensation, which may force them to have to return to unsafe, highly radioactive areas for financial reasons, amounts to economic coercion. Let’s be clear: this is a political decision by the Abe Government, not one based on science, data, or public health,” he said.
Greenpeace conducted a radiation survey and sampling program in Iitate, including in its forests. One principle finding from the investigation is that the vast majority of Iitate will never be decontaminated, with most radioactivity deposited in the vast forested hills and mountains in the district. The enormous scale of the forests was revealed by UAV footage from the investigation. And even in the limited areas that have been decontaminated around people’s homes and land, and along roads, levels of radiation are still at unacceptable levels. The results show that current decontamination programs are failing to significantly reduce radiation levels, which remain high and unsafe for people to live.
Even after decontamination, radiation dose rates were measured higher than 2uSv/h on decontaminated fields, the equivalent of an annual dose higher than 10mSv/year or ten times the maximum allowed dose to the general public. In the untouched and heavily contaminated forests, radiation dose rates are typically in the range of 1-3uSv/h—high levels that will remain for many years to come. The only forest decontamination underway in Iitate is along public roads, where thousands of workers are removing contaminated soil and plants along a 10-20 meter strip. The Japanese government plans to lift restrictions in all of Area 2(2), including Iitate, where people could receive radiation doses of up to 20mSV each year and in subsequent years.
International radiation protection standards recommend public exposure should be 1mSv/year or less in non-post accident situations. The radiation limit that excluded people from living in the 30km zone around the Chernobyl nuclear plant exclusion zone was set at 5mSV/year, five years after the nuclear accident. Over 100.000 people were evacuated from within the zone and will never return.
Supporting the Japanese government in its policy of forced return to a radioactive environment is the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has promoted the early return of Fukushima citizens to evacuated areas. Not only is the IAEA’s radiation risk assessments based on flawed science, where they are deliberately understating the risks from radioactivity, they also have misrepresented the scale and effectiveness of the limited decontamination program including in Iitate.(3)
“Even after nearly thirty years, the 30km area around Chernobyl remains an exclusion zone. It’s a shocking indictment of both the IAEA and the Abe government, which reveals how desperate they are to create the illusion that returning to ‘normal’ is possible after a severe nuclear accident. Their position is indefensible and plans for a de facto forced return must be stopped,” said Mamoru Sekiguchi, energy campaigner at Greenpeace Japan.
The district of Iitate, which covers more than 200 square kilometers, located between 28-47km northwest of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, was one of the most contaminated areas following the March 2011 catastrophe. Since 2014, tens of thousands of workers have been attempting to reduce radiation levels in some parts of Fukushima prefecture, including in Iitate, with little impact.
In early June 3.400 citizens of Iitate (more than half the population) called on the mayor of their community to reject the government’s plans. At the same time, they are currently within the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process, where they hope to secure reasonable compensation for the losses they have suffered.
“The gap between the amount of high and low compensation payments is widening drastically, and the Iitate village people will have to keep living a sad life in bitterness, separated from each other and away from their home. The Iitate people’s fate is another of numerous cases in the past where Japan abandoned its people, as with the Ashio mining pollution and Minamata disease. We can not allow this to happen again,” said Yasushi Tadano, the lawyer defending the people of Iitate.
Notes to Editor:
1 – The Prime Minister in Action: Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters, Friday, June 12, 2015 http://japan.kantei.go.jp/97_abe/actions/201506/12article1.html
2 – Areas in which the residents are not permitted to live (according to the Japanese government designation)
3 – “The IAEA Fukushima Daiichi Accident Summary Report: A preliminary analysis”, Jan Vande Putte, Kendra Ulrich, Shaun Burnie, Greenpeace Japan, May 28 2015, see http://www.greenpeace.org/japan/Global/japan/pdf/IAEA%20analysis%20by%20GP%2020150528.pdf. The IAEA assessment of health consequences and risks from the Fukushima Daiichi accident are based on the conclusions of the 2013 UNSCEAR report, which has been condemned by a former World Health Organisation radiation expert – Keith Baverstock – http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201412010036, accessed January 30th 2015.
Greenpeace documentation briefing link:
Video available at http://photo.greenpeace.org/Archive/27MZIFJ6SZGAZ.html
Photos available at http://photo.greenpeace.org/shoot/27MZIFJ6SXEBN
Data sheet at http://www.greenpeace.org/japan/Global/japan/pdf/20150721_Iitate_datasheet_ENG.pdf and http://www.greenpeace.org/japan/Global/japan/pdf/20150721_Iitate_soil_datasheet_BL.pdf
Source: Greenpeace Japan
Tokyo under fire for plans to speed return of Fukushima evacuees
As Japan aims to lift evacuation orders for many people forced from their homes by the Fukushima disaster, environmentalists say many areas still show highly-elevated levels of contamination and are unfit for habitation.
In a bid seen by critics as aiming to speed up reconstruction, the Japanese government is preparing to declare sections of the evacuation zone around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant a safe place to live. The ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe intends to revoke many evacuation orders by March 2017, if decontamination progresses as hoped, meaning that up to 55,000 evacuees could return to the homes they abandoned more than four years ago.
Moreover, Tokyo recently announced that the 7,000 residents of Nahara, a town in one of the seven Fukushima municipalities completely evacuated following the nuclear crisis, will be able to return home permanently from September 5. How many residents of the settlement, which lies just 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the plant, will return, however, remains unclear as many still have mixed feelings, according to a recent poll.
On March 11, 2011, a magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan, causing massive devastation and ultimately sending three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into meltdown. It was the worst atomic accident in a generation. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee amid fears of rising radiation, with more than 72,500 people – who used to live within a 20-kilometer radius of the plant – still living in temporary housing units.
Massive clean-up operation
In the meantime, government-run decontamination efforts are underway in 11 cities, with at least 20,000 people involved in the clean-up, according to the environment ministry. In the mammoth task, workers try to remove tons of contaminated surface soil, plants and leaves, placing them in bags or in one of the nearly 800 temporary outdoor storage facilities that have been set up across the disaster zone.
The operation also includes parts of the district of Iitate, which covers more than 200 square kilometers, and was one of the most contaminated areas following the March 2011 disaster. Since 2014, tens of thousands of workers have been attempting to reduce radiation levels in some parts of Fukushima prefecture, including in Iitate.
Mounting concerns
But while organizations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) say such efforts have contributed to reducing radiation levels, many problems remain, especially when one considers the disposal of contaminated water in the plant and the fact that anyone living in the surrounding areas would be exposed to radiation levels of more than 20 millisieverts (mSv) a year.
The globally-accepted limit for radiation absorption is 1mSv per year, although the IAEA says anything up to 20mSv per year poses no immediate danger to human health. However, various studies have shown health impacts from exposure to lower levels. Moreover, critics argue that only residential areas are being cleaned in the short-term, and the worst-hit parts of the countryside are being omitted or are impossible to be decontaminated, like dense forests and mountains.
This development has raised concerns among environmentalist groups such as Greenpeace, who fear that radioactive contamination in Iitate district is so widespread and at such a high level that it will be “impossible for people to safely return to their homes.”
‘A vast stock of radioactivity’
“Prime Minister Abe would like the people of Japan to believe that they are decontaminating vast areas of Fukushima to levels safe enough for people to live in. The reality is that this is a policy doomed to failure. The forests of Iitate are a vast stock of radioactivity that will remain both a direct hazard and source of potential recontamination for hundreds of years. It is impossible to decontaminate,” said Jan Vande Putte, a radiation specialist with Greenpeace Belgium.
Based on its own investigation, Greenpeace claims that even after decontamination, radiation dose rates were measured higher than 2 micro Sv/h on decontaminated fields, the equivalent of an annual dose higher than 10mSv/year or ten times the maximum allowed dose to the general public.
“In the untouched and heavily contaminated forests, radiation dose rates are typically in the range of 1-3uSv/h – high levels that will remain for many years to come, said Greenpeace, adding that the only forest decontamination underway in Iitate is along public roads, where thousands of workers are removing contaminated soil and plants along a 10-20 meter strip.
Mamoru Sekiguchi, the group’s energy campaigner at Greenpeace Japan, put the situation into a broader perspective, arguing that even after nearly thirty years, the 30-kilometer area around he crippled Chernobyl plant in Ukraine remains an exclusion zone.
“It’s a shocking indictment of both the IAEA and the Abe government, which reveals how desperate they are to create the illusion that returning to ‘normal’ is possible after a severe nuclear accident. Their position is indefensible and plans for a de facto forced return must be stopped,” Sekiguchi said.
‘Helplessly inefficient’
Mycle Schneider, a Paris-based independent international energy and nuclear policy consultant, told DW that if the remaining dose levels were indeed between 1 and 3mSv per hour on average this would exceed the 1mSv limit applied in most of the countries. “As there is no threshold, meaning there is no safe level of exposure, the health risk to people would be significantly increased.”
The nuclear expert also slammed much of Japan’s decontamination activities, referring to them as “helplessly inefficient.” To explain his view, he said that while high pressure water would be applied to cleaning surfaces like parking lots, for instance, the used water wouldn’t be recovered, thus pushing contamination from one spot to the next.
In addition, Schneider pointed out that contamination levels were not static. “The mountains and forests that cannot even be vaguely decontaminated, will serve as a permanent source of new contamination, each rainfall washing out radiation and bringing it down from the mountains to the flat lands.”
No compensation?
Campaigners also claim the government’s plans mean that some people will have no choice but to go back to their abandoned homes given that they will trigger the ending of some compensation payments. “Stripping nuclear victims of their already inadequate compensation, which may force them to have to return to unsafe, highly radioactive areas for financial reasons, amounts to economic coercion,” said Vande Putte.
A similar view is shared by Schneider: “The decontamination program and the government plan to ‘allow’ for the return of inhabitants do have a very simple goal: reduce the amount of compensation being paid out to victims,” said the expert.
Tokyo Electric has paid some $40 billion (36.78 billion euros) in compensation to residents and expects to pay billions more to decontaminate the area and decommission the wrecked power station, a project that could take an estimated three decades, according to Reuters news agency.
Under the existing compensation scheme, the utility pays each evacuee about $1,000 (921 euros) a month for emotional distress. The assistance is to be cut off a year after the government lifts an evacuation order, said Reuters, citing a Japanese government draft.
Source: DW Akademie
http://www.dw.com/en/tokyo-under-fire-for-plans-to-speed-return-of-fukushima-evacuees/a-18597707
Latest Report on Radiation Levels in Fukushima 7/21/15
Vande Putte, Sekiguchi & Tadano: “Latest report on Radiation levels in Fukushima” Jan Vande Putte: Greenpeace Belgium Energy Campaigner, Radiation Protection Advisor
Mamoru Sekiguchi: Greenpeace Japan Energy Campaigner
Yasushi Tadano: Lawyer for Fukushima evacuees
~~~
Japan “decontaminates” areas slowly to allow 54,800 people to return home to previously evacuated area. Itate – most exposed area 230 square KM with 6,000 people. Miyakoji uSv/hr at one meter above ground. At around 8:00 – what about the Ground Water?
Lifting evacuation orders for 54,000 people. Scanning roads vs offroads. Impossible to decontaminate forrest, sodium iodide test, 11,500+ points tested ~ 96% higher than government standards.
30% of points above 1mS/hr contamination.
Choice of returning home or not,
Dam water used for agriculture. Ganbe dam sediment sampling of silt from July 2015.
Forest will Never be decontaminated. The rainwater flows down the side of the hills and collects below – near houses, etc. So you have Contamination – then they “decontaminate” just to be recontaminated.
Underestimating risk of living indoor vs. outdoor exposure.
The forests are considered “decontaminated”when they simply “decontaminate” 20 meters to the side of the forest. Nothing can be done in the forests themselves.
Wsate piling up.
3 million bags of contaminated soil (etc) have already piled up. They expect 20-30 million cubic meters of waste to accumulate “temporarily” – and the bags are ripping open. No permanent storage place selected yet. “temporary storage” defined as THIRTY YEARS.
Low level exposure discussions. Extremes not practical. ICRP vs. ECRR risk model (internal vs. external contamination). Lifetime exposure adds up.
Absolutely unacceptable levels of exposure.
Cesium-137 with a 30 year HALF LIFE is primarily in top 5 cm of soil.
Insects helping with decomposition decreasing.
Wild fires in chernobyl reliberating radioactive elements –
recreating imminent risks.
Plant mutations, cicada bugs sounds declined – depopulation.
Burning radioactive waste at a new plant – using a “filter”. Incinerators.
Plant mutations questions.
Compensation for displaced people to cease if they move back to their contaminated (decontaminated) homes. 100,000 yen/month “compensation” – not enough to restart in a new location – leading more people to require welfare.
Citizens told to smile, be happy and don’t complain while they attempt to restart Sendai Nuclear Power plant (TEPCO) in an earthquake zone and very close to an active Volcano that just blew.
All the contamination – but what about the compounded social disaster that follows?
Government abandons people. “Normalization” strategy – ignore it and everything will be fine. Smile and shut up.
Disrupting people’s lives – Sendai NPP restart.
https://youtu.be/-3uFC4S3h2c Vande Putte, Sekiguchi & Tadano: “Latest report on Radiation levels in Fukushima”
Japan Accused of Coercing Fukushima Refugees to Return to Unsafe Homes
Greenpeace charges that pro-nuclear Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cares more about politics than public health
As the Japanese government moves to accelerate the return of Fukushima refugees to their homes, environmental advocacy organization Greenpeace warned Tuesday that radioactive contamination remains “so widespread and at such a high level that” that it will be impossible for people to safely go back.
Four years after an earthquake and tsunami touched off the nuclear meltdown, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pressing to lift evacuation orders by March 2017 and cut off compensation to victims of the disaster by 2018. The move would allow—and some say force—tens of thousands of refugees to go back to their homes.
The pro-nuclear prime minister says that the move, proposed in June, is aimed at speeding up Fukushima’s “reconstruction.”
Greenpeace, however, warns that such a development would be reckless and dangerous. The organization evaluated radiation contamination in Iitate, a forested 75-square-mile district in the Fukushima prefecture, and found that even after “decontamination,” the radiation level remains at 2uSv/h—or ten times the maximum deemed safe for the public.
“Prime Minister Abe would like the people of Japan to believe that they are decontaminating vast areas of Fukushima to levels safe enough for people to live in,” said Jan Vande Putte, radiation specialist with Greenpeace Belgium, in a press statement. “The reality is that this is a policy doomed to failure. The forests of Iitate are a vast stock of radioactivity that will remain both a direct hazard and source of potential recontamination for hundreds of years. It’s impossible to decontaminate.”
According to Greenpeace, the elimination of compensation would effectively force people back into an environment that is dangerous for their health.
“Stripping nuclear victims of their already inadequate compensation, which may force them to have to return to unsafe, highly radioactive areas for financial reasons, amounts to economic coercion,” said Putte. “Let’s be clear: this is a political decision by the Abe Government, not one based on science, data, or public health.”
Meanwhile, nuclear refugees from Iitate are fighting for adequate compensation through an Alternative Dispute Resolution process. Their lawyer, Yasushi Tadano, said: “The Iitate people’s fate is another of numerous cases in the past where Japan abandoned its people, as with the Ashio mining pollution and Minamata disease. We can not allow this to happen again.”
Residents across Japan have staged protests and filed lawsuits to block nuclear restarts, and polls show that, in the aftermath of the 2011 disaster, a clear majority of the Japanese public opposes nuclear power. In addition, surveys reveal low public confidence in the Japanese government and the Tokyo Electric Power Co.—the company behind the Fukushima Daiichi plant that continues to release radiation into the ecosystem.
Despite public opposition, Abe is aggressively pursuing a return to nuclear power. Earlier this month, Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party revealed that it aims to have 20 percent of the country’s electricity supplied by nuclear power by 2030.
Source: Common Deams
EDITORIAL: Support must continue to help Fukushima evacuees rebuild their lives
The government has decided to lift evacuation orders for wide areas around the disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and end blanket compensation payments to people in Fukushima Prefecture who are still suffering from the aftermath of the reactor meltdowns.
More than four years since the nuclear disaster, the uncertain future of the affected local communities and their members is causing further negative effects.
Setting clear dates for lifting evacuation orders will make it easier for evacuees to plan their futures. The move is also meaningful in terms of clarifying the government’s responsibilities to improve the environment for the evacuees’ return home through such measures as decontamination and rebuilding infrastructure related to their daily lives.
But the conditions are not the same for each disaster victim. The move to lift evacuation orders and end compensation payments should not be a simple termination of policy support. It is essential for the government to start fresh support based on careful consideration of the circumstances of individual sufferers.
POSSIBLE BOOST TO RECONSTRUCTION EFFORTS
The government has set clear dates for lifting the evacuation orders for two of the three categories of restricted areas—“areas to which evacuation orders are ready to be lifted” and “areas in which the residents are not permitted to live.” The levels of radiation in these areas are relatively low, and entry into these areas is permitted in the daytime.
The evacuation orders for these areas will be removed by March 2017 at the latest after accelerated decontamination efforts.
The people of Naraha, a town that has been entirely designated as “an area to which the evacuation order is ready to be lifted,” will be allowed to return home on Sept. 5.
The town will be the first among seven municipalities to have an evacuation order for all residents lifted since the meltdowns at the plant in March 2011.
For the residents to be able to start living in the town again, however, it is vital to repair or rebuild damaged houses and secure jobs for the returnees.
Major homebuilders have been reluctant to work in evacuation areas, saying they can’t carry out operations until the evacuation orders are lifted.
Since it was stuck by the disaster, Naraha has persuaded 11 companies to locate their plants in the town. All but one of these companies, however, have been waiting for the removal of the evacuation order to start building the plants.
The scheduled end of the evacuation will bolster efforts to rebuild the community. In a survey of evacuated Naraha residents conducted last autumn, 45.7 percent of the respondents said they would return to their homes in the town either “immediately” or “when necessary conditions are met” after the evacuation order ends. The figure represents an increase of 5.5 percentage points from the previous survey.
But it will be difficult to completely restore the status quo. Many evacuee families have members who are already working at places where they currently live or children who have grown accustomed to their new schools.
NO RETURN TO PRE-DISASTER LIFE
Evacuation orders for parts of Tamura and Kawauchi have already been lifted, but only about half of the residents of these areas have returned.
If the population of an area doesn’t recover sufficiently, it will be difficult to operate such public facilities as medical institutions and schools in the area. This further discourages residents from returning.
Farmers and self-employed people in such areas also face a tough time trying to restart their businesses.
Concerns about radioactive contamination of food grown in disaster areas will remain even though test growing of certain crops has started in some areas. Part of local farmland has been used for provisional storage of soil and plant debris from the decontamination work. Heaps of large bags filled with contaminated materials remain at many sites.
A survey by the Fukushima Federation of Societies of Commerce and Industry of members in evacuation areas found that 56.4 percent of the respondents had restarted their businesses either in or outside the prefecture by June this year.
But most of them are construction or manufacturing businesses, while only a few of the affected retailers and service providers have started doing business again. That’s because their trade areas have disappeared.
After the evacuation order for the Miyakoji district of Tamura was lifted in April last year, a temporary store to sell foodstuffs and daily necessities was opened under the government’s leadership. A convenience store was then opened along a national highway under the initiative of the government. Sales at the store have plunged to a quarter of their peak level partly because of route sales of another convenience store.
In Naraha, a local supermarket is struggling to rebuild. It is concerned about a possible blow to its operations from a new store of retail giant Aeon Co. that is expected to open within a commercial complex built by the neighboring town of Hirono along a national highway.
Amid these circumstances, compensation payments to disaster victims by the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima No. 1 plant, will be discontinued.
Compensation for mental health damage (or consolation money of 100,000 yen per month per person) will end after the payments for March 2018. Compensation for damage to businesses paid to small and midsize companies and self-employed people that remain out of business will be terminated after the payments for March 2017.
Critics have been pointing out problems with the way such compensation has been paid to people and businesses damaged by the disaster. They say the compensation programs widen the economic disparity between the recipients and those who don’t receive the money, divide communities and hinder victims’ efforts to regain economic independence.
PAY ATTENTION TO DIFFERENT CONDITIONS OF INDIVIDUALS
But rebuilding shattered lives entails formidable challenges. Consolation money is often used to cover living expenses.
If evacuees can’t find a way to earn a living in their towns, they will be unable to make ends meet when they return to their homes after the evacuation order is lifted.
The government plans to set up a new public-private organization to help self-employed people and farmers restart their businesses in the next two years. The new body will start its work by visiting 8,000 such people for counseling by the end of the year.
But there is still no plan for specific steps to be taken. It will take considerable time just to grasp what kind of situation they are in.
Fuminori Tanba, an associate professor at Fukushima University who has been involved in the development of reconstruction plans for many disaster-hit areas, points out some key factors for successful support to such businesses.
It is crucial to draw up a detailed prescription for each business to sort out the challenges it faces, he says. It is also important to take measures to coordinate the trade areas of similar businesses and retrain those who are seeking to change their businesses.
Tanba also stresses the need to pay attention to problems these people face after restarting their businesses to ensure that they will get on track.
In short, policy support should be provided through the entire process of business reconstruction.
In addition to such support, the government should consider creating a public framework to provide financial aid to cover living expenses for people struggling to rebuild their livelihoods.
These people are suffering from a disaster that happened at a nuclear power plant built under the government’s policy of promoting nuclear power generation. The government should not end financial aid to individual residents of the affected areas.
Four years since the harrowing accident, the conditions of individual residents of areas around the crippled plant remain complicated.
It is necessary for the government to make flexible responses to their needs from their own viewpoints. Now is the critical moment for work to rebuild the lives of people in Fukushima that were destroyed by the disaster.
Source; Asahi Shimbun
Fukushima town residents protest official’s comment about radiation safety
Nuclear evacuees from the Fukushima Prefecture town of Naraha have protested over a government official’s comment that he thinks the safety of the town’s drinking water is “a psychological issue.”
The whole town was designated as a no-entry zone after the Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plant disaster, but is set to have its evacuation order lifted on Sept. 5, as announced by Vice-Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yosuke Takagi on July 6 when he visited the town. After the announcement, he held a press conference where, in response to a reporter’s question he pointed out that radioactive cesium amounts in Naraha tap water are below the detectable level, and said, “People differ in how they think about radiation. I think whether you think (the water source is) safe or not is a psychological issue.”
There is deep-rooted concern among town residents after sampling in July last year by the Ministry of the Environment found up to 18,700 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram of soil at the bottom of the reservoir at the Kido Dam. That reservoir is the source of tap water for the town.
After Takagi’s comment, a Naraha resident in his 60s who has already finished reconstructing his house in preparation for returning to the town said, “That comment makes me lose my desire to go back. Does he intend to say it’s people’s own fault (that they feel unsafe)?”
Another resident in her 50s said, “If he (vice-economy minister Takagi) could understand the feeling of wanting to return to one’s hometown, he would not have said such a thing.”
Naraha will be the third no-go zone to have its evacuation order rescinded, after the withdrawal of one for the Miyakoji district of the city of Tamura in April last year, followed by the eastern part of the village of Kawamura in October. It will be the first of the seven municipalities in the prefecture where all residents had been ordered to evacuate to have the order lifted.
At first, the government was aiming to have Naraha’s order lifted in early August, but after criticism that there were not enough measures in place to help residents live there, the government delayed the lifting of the evacuation order by around a month to prepare additional measures such as increasing the number of free buses.
“We are reminded once again that the government can’t be trusted,” said Naraha resident Noboru Endo, 43, who is living in the western Tokyo suburb of Musashino as an evacuee with his 9-year-old son Shota. He feels that the national government is not listening to the voices of those calling for the safety and ease of mind of Naraha residents.
Endo’s wife Katsuko, 40, stayed behind in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture for her job, but Endo, who worked as a cook in Naraha, decided to evacuate with Shota, a kindergartener at the time of the disaster, for the sake of his son’s health.
These days, Shota is enjoying school in Musashino. He has made many friends there and says he doesn’t want to leave. With over four years having passed since the nuclear disaster, life as evacuees is changing into the norm for this family.
Every day, however, Endo wants more to return to his hometown and live there with his family. There was a briefing in late June held in Tokyo by the national government for Naraha residents ahead of the scheduled lifting of the evacuation order. Endo brought Shota with him to let him know about the current situation in Naraha and so he wouldn’t forget about going back to their hometown.
However, Endo is dissatisfied with the national government not showing any concrete measures for what it will do about the high levels of radioactive cesium at the bottom of the reservoir.
“Even if the government tells us our tap water is safe, how can we relax? If my generation, who have children, do not return, my hometown will not recover. That’s why I want to return, and I want the government to do everything it can to prepare a safe living environment there,” Endo says.
Source: Mainichi
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150707p2a00m0na019000c.html
Evacuation of Fukushima town of Naraha to be lifted Sept. 5
The Japanese government has decided to lift in early September its evacuation order for the deserted town of Naraha near the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Economy and industry state minister Yosuke Takagi informed Naraha Mayor Yukiei Matsumoto of the decision on Monday. Takagi serves as head of the government’s local task force on the nuclear disaster.
Takagi said lifting the evacuation order on September 5th would meet the expectations of residents who wish to return home. He said it would also help post-disaster rebuilding efforts.
Mayor Matsumoto accepted the government’s decision.
The central government had earlier planned to lift the evacuation order by mid-August. But the plan was postponed because residents expressed concerns over radiation and shortages of medical clinics and other infrastructure.
All of the town’s approximately 7,400 residents were forced to relocate because of the nuclear accident.
The town is the first municipality totally emptied after the disaster to have its evacuation order lifted.
Some residents of the town of Naraha near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant believe the September 5th expiration of the government-ordered evacuation is too early.
All of the town’s residents were forced to relocate because of the nuclear accident. On Monday, some of them living in temporary housing in the city of Iwaki in Fukushima Prefecture voiced their concerns.
An 81-year-old man said many houses in the town have not yet been repaired, and the government is irresponsible for making the decision to lift the evacuation order. He said the town has no doctors or shops where residents can buy goods.
A 73-year-old woman said she does not understand why the government is lifting the order as soon as September 5th. She said public housing has not yet been built for people who lost their homes in the March 11th disaster.
A 39-year-old mother of a 9-year-old girl said she is concerned about radiation and the safety of water. She says senior residents without vehicles may have difficulty visiting hospitals.
A man aged 68 says it is hard for him to judge whether the decision is proper, but even if the order is lifted, nothing would change. He says that even after decontamination efforts, there are still some spots with high levels of radiation.
A 75-year-old man said he went to Naraha on Monday and couldn’t imagine when reconstruction would be finished. He says he wants to return as soon as the government creates an environment residents can return to without worries.
Residents who have been temporarily staying at their homes in Naraha expressed mixed reactions to the government’s lifting of the evacuation order in September.
All residents of the town near the troubled Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant were evacuated after the 2011 disaster. They are allowed to visit their homes or stay there temporarily.
An 82-year-old resident visiting her home said she welcomes the lifting of the evacuation order. She said the decision about whether to return should be left to each resident.
Another woman who had been staying at her Naraha home for 4 days said that hospitals, stores and other facilities are still not open. She said it is too early to lift the evacuation order. She also said it is scary at night as no one lives in the houses in her neighborhood.
Haruo Suzuki and his wife returned home in April when the government allowed residents to temporarily stay. The couple said that if the evacuation order is lifted, they can return to a quiet life at home.
Suzuki’s wife still buys bottled water for preparing meals and tea because she is concerned about radioactive materials in local water. The couple said they go to a supermarket in Iwaki City once or twice a week to buy meat, vegetables, fish and more. They said shopping is their biggest problem and that they want the issue to be resolved soon.
Sources: NHK
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150706_25.html
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150707_04.html
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150707_05.html
Fukushima Evacuees Harder Access To Housing
Back in 2011 PM Kan told Fukushima evacuees they could go home very soon. This was probably not what he meant.
The current Japanese government has been in the process of a push to force evacuees to return to the evacuation zone through a number of measures. Compensation payments would be cut and efforts to reopen some services in the disaster area were implemented. While this would leave many with no further aid, a new effort will make it even harder to not return to the evacuation zone.
In 2013 the Reconstruction Agency told local municipalities to not exempt evacuees from tough requirements to obtain public housing when their compensated housing expires. The Reconstruction Agency admitted that the plan is to force people to return home, they made this statement in that meeting “basically the policy is for a return to Fukushima”.
So not only will they cut off people’s compensation funding and aid, they will do whatever possible to make it harder for them to leave on their own or stay evacuated.
For more information about how Japan’s public housing system works, the Yen for Living blog at Japan Times has some helpful information.
Central gov’t wanted voluntary Fukushima evacuees to enter draws for public housing
The central government told prefectural governments in October 2013 to not exempt Fukushima nuclear disaster voluntary evacuees from having to enter draws for access to public housing after the free rent period for their current residences ends, it has been learned.
Voluntary evacuees are living in regular residences recognized as temporary homes, for which they pay no rent until the end of March 2017. The central government’s instruction came in regards to a policy called “Smoothing of (evacuees’) entrance into public housing,” which is based on an evacuee support law passed in June 2012 under the Democratic Party of Japan administration. The policy is supposed to loosen tough requirements defined by the Act on Public Housing for entrance into local government-run homes, such as income caps, and was included in fundamental policies of the support law that were approved by the Cabinet on Oct. 11, 2013.
The day before the Cabinet decision, the Reconstruction Agency and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism summoned representatives from the governments of municipalities with many Fukushima evacuees, like those of Tokyo and Saitama and Niigata prefectures, for a meeting. The Mainichi Shimbun obtained minutes of the meeting recorded by multiple municipal governments.
According to the minutes, a representative from the Reconstruction Agency explained that “basically the policy is for a return to Fukushima” and then gave details about the support law and the policy, and responded to questions from municipal government representatives.
When representatives from prefectures including Saitama asked about how to handle voluntary evacuees who want to move into public housing after their free rent period for their current residences ends, a ministry representative said the ministry wanted them to not give those evacuees any exemption from having to enter draws for entrance into the housing.
If voluntary evacuees have to enter draws for access to public housing, they might not succeed, and will be stuck without cheap public housing when free rent at their evacuation home runs out.
When a representative asked about the demand among evacuees for the “Smoothing of (evacuees’) entrance into public housing” policy, a government representative said, “The amount of demand is unknown,” suggesting that the policy was made without being based on studies of evacuees’ desires.
Many municipalities are restricting application for public housing to evacuees who did not originally live in those areas. A question regarding whether these restrictions needed to be changed came up at the meeting, but a central government representative said, “We don’t want changes (to the restrictions),” and asked municipal governments to operate regulations regarding public housing application according to their interpretation.
In June 2014, the land ministry distributed to municipal governments a collection of questions and answers about the policy, indicating strict requirements for allowing voluntary evacuees entrance into public housing without having to enter draws. The questions and answers were not released to the public. The Mainichi Shimbun made an information disclosure request and found that publically released documents on the policy make no mention at all of entering public housing without entering draws.
The policy went into effect in October 2014. According to the Reconstruction Agency, 40 prefectural and major city governments are accepting applications for public housing, but due to factors including lack of publicity on the policy, they have only given out 50 applications.
A land ministry representative says, “We cannot treat voluntary evacuees the same as forced evacuees, who are allowed entrance into public housing without entering draws. In the end, the methods taken are the decision of municipal governments.”
On June 15, the Fukushima Prefectural Government announced it would consider its own support measures to accompany the end of free rent period for the around 25,000 estimated voluntary evacuees using apartments and the like as temporary evacuation residences.
Source: Mainichi
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150624p2a00m0na009000c.html
TEPCO told to pay 27 million yen to family of Fukushima evacuee who killed himself
FUKUSHIMA–Tokyo Electric Power Co. has been ordered to pay 27 million yen ($219,500) in compensation to the bereaved family of a male evacuee who committed suicide after being displaced due to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Presiding Judge Naoyuki Shiomi of the Fukushima District Court ruled on June 30 that the main reason Kiichi Isozaki, 67, from Namie, near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, killed himself was “stress related to the nuclear accident.”
It was the second time a court in Japan has deemed that the Fukushima accident was responsible for an evacuee’s suicide.
Shiomi ruled that Isozaki lost the “foundation of his life” when he had to evacuate from his hometown, where he had spent most of his life and enjoyed fishing and home gardening after retirement.
The judge concluded that the prolonged evacuation and economic insecurity about his future added to his anxiety and triggered depression.
Isozaki’s 66-year-old wife, Eiko, and two other family members sued the utility, demanding 87 million yen in compensation.
Isozaki and his family fled from their home on March 12, 2011, the day after the nuclear crisis unfolded at the plant following the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, according to a court statement.
They took refuge in a shelter set up at a high school gym in Koriyama, also in Fukushima Prefecture, about 60 kilometers from their home, on March 13.
Isozaki complained about being unable to sleep there and also lost his appetite.
About a month later, the family moved to an apartment in Nihonmatsu in the same prefecture.
Isozaki’s health began deteriorating again around the middle of June, and he often expressed a desire to return home.
His body was discovered in a river in Iitate, a village in the prefecture, in July. Police believe that he jumped from a nearby bridge.
The central issue of the lawsuit was whether his suicide was related to the nuclear accident.
“Isozaki committed suicide after developing depression while evacuating from the area of the nuclear accident,” one of the family members testified in court.
But TEPCO claimed, “Isozaki was already suffering anxiety and stress since he had diabetes.”
In the first compensation judgment, the utility was ordered to pay about 49 million yen to the family of an evacuee from Kawamata who killed herself in July 2011. The ruling was made by the same court last August.
The evacuee, 58, had set herself ablaze while on a visit back to her home.
On that occasion the utility decided not to appeal the ruling, and senior TEPCO officials apologized to the family of the deceased.
Source : Asahi Shimbun
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201506300079
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