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Agence France-Presse

To reduce radiation across Japan’s northern Fukushima region after the 2011 nuclear disaster, authorities scraped a layer of contaminated soil from swathes of land.
Now, as young farmers seek to bring life back to the region once known for its delicious fruit, authorities are deliberating what to do with the mass of removed soil – enough to fill more than 10 baseball stadiums.
On March 11, 2011, Japan’s strongest earthquake on record triggered a huge tsunami that hit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, causing a devastating meltdown.
Topsoil was collected as part of large-scale decontamination efforts that also included blasting buildings and roads with high-pressure jets of water.
Almost all areas of Fukushima have gradually been declared safe, but many evacuees have been reluctant to return because they remain worried about radiation, or have fully resettled elsewhere.
Fukushima has, however, welcomed new residents such as 25-year-old kiwi farmer Takuya Haraguchi.

“I want people to become interested in and learn about what Fukushima is really like these days,” he said.
A vast quantity of soil – 14 million cubic metres – is being stored at interim storage facilities near the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
The government has promised residents of Fukushima region that it will find permanent storage for the soil elsewhere in the country by 2045.
For now, the huge mounds are kept inside guarded grounds, protected by layers of clean soil and a man-made sheet to prevent run-off into the environment.
The government wants to use the soil for building road and railway embankments among other projects.
It has vowed to do this outside Fukushima to avoid further burdening the region, where the crippled nuclear plant generated electricity not for local residents, but for Tokyo and its surrounding urban areas.
So far few takers have been found in other parts of Japan, and some local officials suggest that realistically, a portion of the soil may need to stay in Fukushima.
The prime minister’s office recently said it would symbolically recycle some of the soil to show it is safe, with reports saying it will be used in flower beds.
Around 75 per cent of the stored soil has a radioactivity level equivalent to or less than one X-ray per year for people who directly stand on or work with it, according to the environment ministry.


Asphalt, farm soil or layers of other materials should be used to seal in the radioactivity, said Akira Asakawa, a ministry official working on the Fukushima soil project.
In a test, the government has constructed roads and fields in Fukushima by using the contaminated soil as filling material.
Those locations did not show elevated levels of radioactivity, and there was no run-off of radioactive material to surrounding areas, Asakawa said.
In 2022, local communities reacted angrily to plans floated by the national government to bring the Fukushima soil to a popular park in Tokyo and other areas near the capital.
That plan has not moved forward, and other locations have not yet been secured, despite public sympathy for the people of Fukushima.
The environment ministry says it will step up efforts to explain the safety of its plan to the public from this year.


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Can Japan find a new home for contaminated Fukushima soil?

Workers adding clean top soil to a rice field, part of a government pilot project to add fresh earth to recycled and removed soil taken from areas affected by the 2011 nuclear disaster. Photo: AFP

Takuya Haraguchi is hoping to revitalise agriculture in the area by growing kiwi. Photo: AFP

Japan’s iconic summer festivals shift to cooler seasons as heatwaves become new normal

Spectators throw buckets of water onto a portable shrine during the Fukagawa summer festival in Tokyo on August 15, 1999, a ritual meant to purify and cool participants amid the summer heat. Photo: AFP

Performers dance during the Otsuka Awa Odori summer festival in Tokyo on August 5, 2018. Photo: Shutterstock

Japan to spread radioactive Fukushima soil outside PM’s office to show it’s safe

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Photo: EPA-EFE

A tree stands behind thousands of black plastic bags containing radioactive soil and debris from decontamination work at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Photo: EPA-EFE

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba pictured at his office in Tokyo earlier this year. Photo: EPA-EFE

Japan’s Nagoya city deploys ‘Stop and Stand Squad’ in bid to reduce accidents on escalators

A member of the “Stop and Stand Squad” in Japan’s Nagoya city wears a huge yellow hand as a backpack, emblazoned with a phrase that translates as “Please stop tranquilly”, to stop people from walking up escalators. Photo: ANN News

People ride one of the outdoor escalators at the 2025 Osaka Expo on May 21. Escalator etiquette in Japan requires users to stand on one side to allow others in a hurry to walk up the free side of the escalator. Photo: AFP

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The Japanese government has promised Fukushima residents that it will find permanent storage for the soil elsewhere in the country by 2045


The Japanese government has promised Fukushima residents that it will find permanent storage for the soil elsewhere in the country by 2045.
