![]() ![]() All these issues demonstrate the seriousness of radioactive contamination in the living environment. There are many reports of corruption and irregularities in the decontamination work, and although officially installed monitoring posts show a decrease in radiation doses, when residents use their own dosimeters to measure the same areas, they have found many hot spots. While decontamination of houses and surrounding areas has been carried out, vast areas of forest and mountains remain untouched. Even so, the high annual level of 20mSv is itself problematic, and the decontamination target of 1mSv per year in areas where the contamination level is less than 20mSv has hardly been achieved. The Japanese government claims that all decontamination work was completed by March 2018, with the exception of the "difficult-to-return areas" with particularly high levels of contamination, and that it is therefore now possible for people to return to their homes. The COVID-19 pandemic since 2020 has exacerbated economic inequality and poverty across Japan, as it has around the world. ![]() The problems many of them face are intertwined with so-called 'normal' poverty and social problems. These people are now not officially identified as evacuees, but are integrated into the communities they have moved to, just as any other people relocating. ![]() Housing support for these voluntary evacuees was discontinued in March 2017, despite a nationwide citizens' movement calling for its continuation. In many cases, mothers and children were evacuated while fathers and grandparents remained in Fukushima, resulting in the breakdown of families. As a result, many people from areas not officially covered by the evacuation order "voluntarily" evacuated due to fears of the effects of radiation. Immediately after the disaster at the nuclear power plant, the Japanese government set the evacuation zone based on an additional annual radiation exposure dose of 20 mSv, significantly higher than the international standard and the Chernobyl standard of 5 mSv for relocation. While this may be a lower number in comparison to over 200,000 in the past, this is also a result of the exclusion of "voluntary evacuees" from the statistics. This loss (or deprivation) of "home" is a striking feature of the damage suffered by the people of Fukushima, and this suffering continues to affect the lives, minds and bodies of many people.Īs of January this year, the official government figure for the number of evacuees was just over 40,000, scattered across Japan including the major cities of Tokyo and Osaka, as well as the Tohoku region, where Fukushima is located. In this way, their livelihoods have been destroyed, their social ties severed and their communities torn apart. Many evacuees have moved from one place to another. Victims of the nuclear accident have chosen, or been forced to choose, from several different paths – evacuation, remaining, or returning home following a period of evacuation. Of these deaths, approximately 2,300, or more than 60%, were in Fukushima Prefecture. In addition, more than 3,700 people have since died from what are categorised as disaster-related causes, such as ill health caused by evacuation. The earthquake and tsunami of Makilled nearly 16,000 people and left more than 2,500 people missing. This article outlines the current situation of the people impacted by this unprecedented nuclear disaster, the prospects (or lack thereof) for the decommissioning of the plant that caused the disaster, and the possibility of using this experience as an opportunity to phase out nuclear power in Japan. Ten years have passed since the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck eastern Japan on March 11, 2011, and the subsequent disaster at the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. ![]()
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