Shopping Center Opens in Nuke Disaster-Hit Fukushima Town

July 1, 2018

Naraha, Fukushima Pref.- A ceremony to celebrate the opening of a public shopping complex took place Saturday in the town of Naraha, Fukushima Prefecture, which has been struggling to recover from the March 2011 nuclear disaster.

The public facility, dubbed "Kokonara Shotengai," houses 10 shops including a supermarket, eateries and a hardware store. It started operation on Tuesday.

"I hope (the facility) will generate a lot of smiles and attract a crowd of people," Masayoshi Yoshino, postdisaster reconstruction minister, said at the ceremony.

In September 2015, the government lifted an evacuation advisory it issued to all residents in the northeastern Japan town in the wake of the triple meltdown at the nearby Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. <9501>.

Some 47 pct of the residents had returned to the town as of the end of May.

Before the opening of Kokonara Shotengai, there was a makeshift shopping mall comprising a supermarket and two eateries. But many people tended to go out of the town to shop at large-scale stores with ample goods, a Naraha official said.

The temporary mall was shuttered on June 10, and the superstore and the eateries are now doing business in the new facility with bigger floor space.

"Although our outlet may not be profitable, we want to contribute to the town," said Tatsuya Nemoto, the 29-year-old manager of the superstore.

"I'm really glad for the convenience," Naraha resident Yoshino Nemoto, 82, said with a smile. Jiji Press