40 Pct of Fukushima Evacuees to Niigata Have No Plans to Return

March 12, 2018

Niigata- Nearly 40 pct of evacuees from nuclear accident-hit Fukushima Prefecture to Niigata Prefecture have no plans to return to Fukushima, a Niigata government survey has shown.

According to the survey, 39.7 pct of respondents, including those who initially came to Niigata but moved out of the central Japan prefecture later, do not plan to return to Fukushima, home to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s <9501> crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Including respondents unable to decide as yet whether or not to return, the proportion of evacuees who are not eager to go back home reached some 70 pct.

As reasons, worries about residual radiation's health effects were cited by 60.6 pct, followed by concerns about children's future and difficulties in finding jobs.

The survey results illustrate how it is difficult to rebuild people's lives in nuclear disaster-hit areas, pundits said.

The Niigata prefectural government conducted the survey jointly with a private research firm in October-November last year on members of 1,174 families fleeing from the northeastern prefecture in the wake of the triple meltdown at the nuclear plant, which occurred after the plant was hit severely by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami on March 11, 2011. Valid responses were provided by about 40 pct of them.

The research was part of Niigata's own efforts to learn why the nuclear accident happened and how people's lives were affected by the accident before making a decision on whether to allow TEPCO to restart reactors at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in the prefecture.

According to Niigata Governor Ryuichi Yoneyama, the review is expected to take some three years. Jiji Press