EXCLUSIVE: Fukushima Govt Mulls Action against Netflix Radiation Video

September 2, 2018

Fukushima- The Fukushima prefectural government and the Reconstruction Agency are considering taking action against a video of the Dark Tourist series of U.S. online video streaming giant Netflix Inc., informed sources told Jiji Press on Saturday.

The video shows a tour organized for foreigners of areas affected by the March 2011 nuclear accident in the northeastern Japan prefecture. During the tour, a New Zealand journalist, the host of the video series, suspected radioactive contamination of a meal served at a restaurant in the Fukushima town of Namie.

The prefecture and the agency are concerned that the video could help fuel unreasonable fears over the March 2011 accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s tsunami-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, according to the sources.

Also in the video, the journalist entered the no-go zone around the crippled nuclear plant without permission and reported from an abandoned game arcade there.

Furthermore, the video shows tour participants being upset to see rising radiation figures while in a bus, although where the bus was traveling is not specified.

The video of the Fukushima tour attracted attention initially online and has been introduced in the overseas media.

Alarmed by the situation, the Fukushima government has decided to cooperate with the Reconstruction Agency in responding to the matter, the sources said. "We're examining the video content," a senior prefectural official said.

Netflix offers unlimited access to online movies and television dramas at flat rates. It has a total of some 130 million subscribers in 190 countries.

In its Dark Tourist series, the New Zealand journalist travels to places associated with negative historical events around the world, also including a former nuclear test site in Kazakhstan. Jiji Press