Japan marks 12 years since quake-tsunami that led to Fukushima crisis
- The disaster claimed the lives of 16,000 people and triggered nuclear devastation that will take decades to clean up – 31,000 people remained displaced
- PM Fumio Kishida attends a ceremony as his administration plans controversial changes to nuclear energy including allowing reactors to operate beyond 60 years
Japan on Saturday marked 12 years since a massive earthquake and tsunami struck the country’s northeastern areas, claiming the lives of more than 15,000 people and triggering a nuclear disaster that will take decades to clean up.
Recovery from the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and resultant tsunami that devastated the region has progressed in the ensuing years, but some 31,000 people remain displaced as of November 2022. Clean-up plans at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex are also stoking controversy.
More than a decade on from the disaster, the national government no longer hosts a memorial service, with municipalities in affected areas holding events at a reduced scale.
The latest figures from the National Police Agency released on Thursday put the death toll from the disaster at 15,900 people, while 2,523 people are still missing – the first time in 12 years that the numbers have not risen.
The vast majority of deaths and missing person cases are in the prefectures of Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate.
According to the Reconstruction Agency, as of March 31 last year, deaths related to the disaster, such as from illness or stress-induced suicide, stood at 3,789.
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‘It’s not over’: 12 years after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster
Controversy persists over the clean-up in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster, including over plans from spring or summer this year to begin discharging treated water stored at the crippled Fukushima plant into the sea.
Water contaminated after being pumped into the reactor to cool the melted fuel at the plant has accumulated at the facility, and its volume is also increasing due to rainwater and groundwater at the site flowing in.
Construction began in 2022 of the around 1-kilometre tunnel that will funnel into the ocean the more than 1.3 million tons of treated water amassed on the clean-up site as of February 16. Already 96 per cent of available water tanks have been filled, with their capacity expected to be reached by summer or fall this year.
Opposition has come from several sources, including locals and fishing businesses in the area, who fear that releasing the water into the Pacific will cause reputational damage to communities. Neighbouring countries, including South Korea and China, have also expressed concerns.
A no-go zone continues to be in place near the Fukushima plant itself, however, and decommissioning work is scheduled to continue until sometime between 2041 and 2051.
Partial re-openings have also progressed in some of the last areas to remain inaccessible since the nuclear disaster.
Last year between June and August, the municipalities of Katsurao as well as Okuma and Futaba saw evacuation orders lifted in some areas.
But few registered residents are returning to their communities after years away have seen them build lives elsewhere, and survey found that just 1 per cent of former residents in the reopened parts of the three municipalities had moved back as of February.
Three other towns in Fukushima will be the next to see some evacuation orders lifted in spring this year.
