Original Japanese written by staffer
The English below translated from the original Japanese by Heeday
The English translation edited by Rev. Dr. Henry French, ELCA

(Sources: articles of August 3^rd, 2015 edition of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper and of August 12^th, 2015 edition of the Fukushima Minpo newspaper)

▼Click each image to enlarge it and read the caption.

On August 11^th, 2015, Kyushu Electric Power restarted Unit 1 of its Sendai Nuclear Power Plant (located in Satsumasendai City, Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu). Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet is set to restart all of the nuclear power plants (NPPs) in Japan that pass examinations to be conducted by the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA).

With respect to the nation’s NPP restarts, however, accountability has yet to be clearly defined. The only thing that is clear is that we have a lack of clarity with respect to accountability.
Mr. Shun’ichi Tanaka (from Fukushima City), chairperson of the NRA, said, “We have examined whether the Sendai NPP meets the applicable standards. We are in no position to say whether it is safe or not to restart it.” No wonder this remark has caused wild repercussions among many.
Mr. Yoshihide Kan, Chief Cabinet Secretary, claimed that “the NRA should be held accountable to confirm whether a NPP is safe to restart or not.” Turning our eyes to the municipality which hosts the Sendai NPP, Satsumasendai City, Mayor Hideo Iwakiri said, “The NPP has passed the examination compliant with the standards set up by the national government. So, I believe it is safe to restart.” As you can see, the parties involved are shifting accountability onto each other. This vicious cycle of irresponsibility has yet to be resolved. Now, if a major accident hits the Sendai NPP, who is to be held accountable?
Yet another problem is exactly who are the “locals hosting a NPP.” Their consent is required to restart a reactor, and yet there is no clear definition as to which municipalities are such “locals.” I have to say the NPP businesses and authorities have yet to learn any lessons from the Fukushima Daiichi disaster.
In its essence, nuclear policy is established by the national government. If so, in the case of Japan, the Prime Minister should be the one to make the final decisions, and he should be held accountable for all relevant issues.

The tragedy of Fukushima continues today. Nobody knows how soon the tragedy will end – if it ever does. A NPP restart that ignores both an ongoing tragedy and all the suffering of its victims should not be allowed.

The government, as well as every single citizen, should learn more about the agonies and grief suffered by the victims of the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown. In the face of their suffering, we have to build a society powered by new, safer and cleaner energies.

Original Japanese written by staffer
The English below translated from the original Japanese by Heeday
The English translation edited by Rev. Dr. Henry French, ELCA

(Sources: articles of April 27^th and August 12^th, 2015 editions of the Fukushima Minpo newspaper and of July 10^th and 11^th editions of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper)
▼Click each image to enlarge it and read the caption.

“A luxury apartment without a lavatory.” That is the phrase often used in Japan to refer to nuclear power plants (NPPs) whose high-level radioactive waste, generated from the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel, have nowhere to “rest in peace.” The nation has been unable to secure a site for such waste – we are indeed “without a lavatory.”
Currently, therefore, having nowhere to store it, used nuclear fuel is simply resting in water pools inside NPPs all over Japan. Ever since the meltdown began, used fuel inside Fukushima Daiichi has been posing a serious danger.

Today, all in all, Japan’s NPPs are accommodating some 14,000t (15,435 short ton) of used fuel. This means the sum capacity of the temporary storage pools within all the NPPs of Japan is 70% occupied. The end is near. Thus, though the recently restarted Sendai NPP is estimated to have enough pool capacity to last another 10.7 years, more than a half of the other NPPs are expected to reach the limit of their storage pools within a decade should they too be restarted. The NPP closest to its storage limits is the Chubu Electric Power’s Hamaoka Plant, located in Shizuoka Prefecture. Should this plant be restarted, it will reach its storage pools’ limit in just a few years.
Even if most of the existing NPPs remain dormant for ever, it is still an urgent task to control and dispose of the used nuclear fuel already in their storage pools. It is a question of safety, environmental protection, etc.

The Japanese government, in May 2015, gave up on the traditional way of searching for a final disposal site – asking municipal governments to stand up voluntarily. The national government is now taking the initiative. Though the national government claims that it is searching, based on scientific analyses, for a place where used nuclear waste can be buried deep underground, one municipality after another is voicing their worries that the national government might force such a disposal site on them.

Now that Kyushu Electric Power has already restarted its Sendai NPP, we will have more nuclear waste in the years to come. This means we simply cannot afford to believe in a “later” solution to the problem of nuclear waste.
In Fukushima, they are having serious problems over where to bury the waste resulting from the meltdown of the NPP. Disposal of high-level radioactive waste is an urgent issue for the NPP industry to solve. As the voice of reason insists, without such a solution no NPP should be allowed to restart.

Original Japanese written by  staffer
The English below translated from the original Japanese by Heeday
The English translation edited by Rev. Dr. Henry French, ELCA

(Source: article of August 12^th, 2015 edition of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper)

On August 11^th, 2015, Kyushu Electric Power restarted its Sendai Nuclear Power Plant. Volcanology experts, however, are questioning the power company’s planned countermeasures against volcanic eruptions. And those concerns are not limited to parties in Japan. Many outside media are voicing their concerns as well.

Within 160km (100 miles) of the nuclear power plant lie 39 volcanos, including Sakurajima and Mt. Aso, which are quite active. A geological survey found that, in the past, some pyroclastic flows from major eruptions reached the vicinity of the Sendai Plant. A pyroclastic flow is one of those disasters that no nuclear power plant’s planning can prevent or counteract.

Kyushu Electric Power claims that the possibility is very small of a major eruption occurring during the lifetime of the Sendai Plant. Also, says the power company, if it perceives signs of a major eruption, it will stop the reactor and carry out the nuclear fuel. Most volcanologists say, however, that a major eruption hits Japan once in ten thousand years or so, which means that science has yet to learn what the signs of a coming major eruption are. Yet another serious problem is where the nuclear fuels will go if removed from the plant.

Moreover, in the vicinity of the Sendai Plant there are at least five major craters, which shows that there have been large-scale volcanic eruptions in the past. Especially notable is the one called Aira, which is the closest to the plant among all five – only 50km (31.3 miles) away. If this one erupts again, many volcanologists warn, it could result in sheer devastation.

Says Professor Ryusuke Imura, a volcanologist at Kagoshima University:

“In case an eruption causes a nuclear plant disaster, some radioactive substance will adhere to volcanic ashes and be carried around by the wind, until they fall on much of the Japanese archipelago. Also, in case of an ultra plinian eruption of a caldera [crater], the total volume of such descending ashes can be equivalent to the whole volume of Mt. Fuji, the greatest volcano of the archipelago. That gigantic volume of volcanic ashes, carrying radioactive substances, can fall down all over Japan. This is a possibility we cannot afford to ignore.”

If this should happen, it would certainly be the end of Japan.

In March 2011, TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was devastated by the greatest tsunami in recorded history. We, residents in Japan, should have learned through our experiences of the earthquake-tsunami tragedy that a natural disaster can go far beyond our predictions.

I (the author) have learned through Fukushima tragedy that our ability to predict the scope of natural and human-made disasters is limited. Actual disasters can easily go well beyond our wildest imagination.

Today, many volcanoes are gently asleep. Yet they might “awake” and go active at any time. We cannot afford to allow the restart of nuclear power plants under the banner of “money first.”

We cannot depend on “good luck” if we are to enjoy peace and safety tomorrow. Rather, I am convinced that we need to build tomorrow’s peace and safety on a solid foundation by making the correct choices today.

Original Japanese written by  staffer
The English below translated from the original Japanese by Heeday
The English translation edited by Rev. Dr. Henry French, ELCA

(Source: article of July 9^th, 2015 edition of the Fukushima Minpo newspaper)

On August 11^th, 2015, after almost two “nuke-free” years, a Japanese nuclear power plant was restarted, without the majority of the people consenting.

Prior to the restart of Unit 1, Sendai Nuclear Power Plant of Kyushu Electric Power, many citizens of Japan were worried about the nuclear plants’ safety. The Japan Association for Public Opinion Research conducted a public opinion poll in June 2015, which found that 63% of the respondents were opposed to the restart, a much larger number than the 31% who were in favor of it. Thus, the Japanese Government kept claiming that “the restart was a business decision of the power company,” while facilitating the restart below the surface.

Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation) conducted another public opinion poll. In response to the question “Are you in favor of the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant’s restart or opposed to it?” 32% were in favor of it, with 57% of the respondents opposed.

The survey asked another question: “In response to the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, Japan has set up a new nuclear plant safety standard. Do you think a plant satisfying this new standard can, some day, be hit by an accident that necessitates evacuation of the residents in its vicinity? Or do you think such an accident will not take place?” 81% of the respondents said “yes,” with only 10% saying “no.”

Yet another question went: “The relevant municipalities are making evacuation plans to follow in case of a nuclear power plant accident. The national government says, while it will provide assistance to such planning, it has no need to examine the plans. What is your opinion on this attitude of our national government?” To this, 8% replied “Just giving assistance is good enough,” while 82% said “Just providing assistance is not good enough. I believe the national government should examine evacuation plans prepared by municipalities.”

Thus, all in all, the majority of the people are opposed to the restart. Facing this opposition, the national government says the Cabinet is in no position to affect the final decision of whether or not to restart a particular nuclear power plant. The decision is left to the plant’s operators.

(Source: article of August 25^th, 2015 edition of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper)

A nationwide phone survey by the Asahi Shimbun (a nationwide newspaper), conducted shortly after the Sendai Plant’s restart, found that 49% of the respondents said the restart was “no good,” outnumbering the 30% who said it was “good.” To the question what we should do with nuclear power, 16% responded “Eliminate it soon,” while 58% said we should “Eliminate it in the near future,” and only 22% responded “Retain it.”

Japan’s current Cabinet has refused to respond sincerely to the people’s opinions and approved the restart without sufficient consideration, consultations, etc. And now, many other power companies are trying to follow this example. When nuclear power plants are restarted against the will of the majority of the people, whom do they serve? I wish that everyone would learn about the agonies suffered by those affected by the Fukushima Daiichi tragedy. Then, I am convinced, no one would be pro-nuke.

Original Japanese written by  staffer
The English below translated from the original Japanese by Heeday
The English translation edited by Rev. Dr. Henry French, ELCA

(Sources: articles of May 5^th, 2015 edition of the Chunichi Shimbun and August 3^rd, 2015 edition of the Asahi Shimbun newspapers)

▼Click each image to enlarge it and read the caption.

In Satsumasendai City, Kagoshima Prefecture, on the southern edge of the island of Kyushu, the Kyushu Electric Power Co., Inc. restarted Unit 1 of its Sendai Nuclear Power Plant, on August 11^th, 2015. This is the first nuclear power plant restart approved by the Nuclear Regulation Authority, which investigates and judges the safety of Japan’s nuclear power plants.

Following the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, this Authority was made independent of any of the existing Ministries and Agencies, which are mostly promoting nuclear power.
This restart marks the end of almost two years of a “nuke-free” Japan.

Shortly after the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown began, we had one case after another of a hospitalized patient or an elderly person passing away amid the confusion that accompanied their evacuation. At Futaba Hospital and its nursing care facilities, just 4.6km (2.9 miles) away from Fukushima Daiichi, some 230 hospitalized patients and nursing care residents were left behind in the evacuation process, and 19 of them passed away in the transportation mess.

Responding to this, in 2012, the Japanese Government expanded the Priority Disaster Area from 8 to 10km (5 to 6.3 miles) of a nuclear power plant to 30km (18.8 miles). In compliance with Japan’s Disaster Countermeasure Basic Act, the Government issued a guideline targeted at municipal governments which demands each medical and welfare facility, including special elderly nursing homes, to prepare an evacuation plan which covers where to evacuate to, the evacuation routes, the means of transportation, and so on.

Of the 85 medical facilities within 30km of the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant, only two have such an evacuation plan. Of the 159 welfare facilities, only 15. Within 10km of the power plant, all the relevant facilities have such a plan in place now. In March 2015, Governor Yuichiro Ito of Kagoshima Prefecture limited, on his own decision, the area of such planning to within 10km of the plant, saying “10km is good enough. Covering up to 30km is impossible.” The Governor decided that, for those facilities located 10km or more away from the nuclear power plant, the Kagoshima Prefectural Government should coordinate where to evacuate to, depending upon wind directions and other factors. The Prefecture’s Nuclear Safety Measures Section said, “We have reached this decision with the national government’s approval.”

The Nuclear Regulation Authority, meanwhile, said it was “in no position to evaluate [evacuation plans].” (Chairperson Shun’ichi Tanaka)  Thus, the Authority does not consider relevant evacuation plans as it gives the go-ahead to the restart of a nuclear power plant. Also, although the relevant law requires consent to a restart from certain municipalities, it is actually the Prefecture and the municipality hosting the nuclear plant whose consent matters. The other neighboring municipalities, while required to make evacuation plans, are legally in no position to exercise any influence over a restart decision.

In the case of the Fukushima Daiichi tragedy, the evacuation area exceeded the distance of 30km from the nuclear power plant. While much mutually contradicting information has been circulated, the fact is that numerous residents on the run were exhausted, both mentally and physically. Today, many of them are still suffering from the trauma of their agonizing experiences.

Shortly after the meltdown began, as invisible radiation spread closer to them, everyone within the vicinity of Fukushima Daiichi was simply at a loss. With the Japanese Government making only unreliable responses, every resident was overwhelmed by anxiety. Each and every one was forced to make a serious choice – to flee, or to stay. Yet the transportation system was paralyzed, with gasoline in serious shortage. There was discrimination between those who were able to escape and those who were not able to. As we witnessed with our own eyes, those in the more vulnerable positions of society, women, children, patients, etc., faced tougher hardships.

Today, some experts say that what affects health is the radiation dosage one is exposed to shortly after the meltdown began. Some in the hard-hit areas, therefore, blame themselves that they did not flee. On the other hand, some of those who made it away from such areas feel guilty that they abandoned their hometowns and villages. Everyone, in and out of the affected areas, are still living with an inner conflict, unsure as to whether they made the right decision or not.

In spite of the fact that so many evacuees have been left abandoned, the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant has been restarted. I must say that those who promoted the restart have no intention of learning from the Fukushima Daiichi tragedy. In Japan, we have a saying; “A disaster hits when we have forgotten about disasters of the past.” The Fukushima Daiichi disaster is something we have to keep in mind for ages to come.

Original Japanese written by  staffer
The English below translated from the original Japanese by Heeday
The English translation edited by Rev. Dr. Henry French, ELCA

In the parking area next to our Project’s office, a maple tree and a morning glory grow. Ever since the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant began melting down, both have been showing abnormalities. After the disaster began, the maple was trimmed to the bare trunk, as part of the decontamination work.

The morning glory was sown two years ago, and has been left unattended since. Still, every early summer it shoots out buds. It is overgrown with many leaves of different sizes and shapes, but it has borne almost no flowers in the last two years.
The soil around the maple’s root has not been “decontaminated.” We measured the radioactivity there and found 1.03mSv/h, on August 12^th, 2015.

On the same day, we took a leaf from both the morning glory and the maple, and took them for radioactivity measurement at the Health Control Section, Koriyama Public Health Center. The documents shown right describe their measurements.
The person who took the measurements gave the following explanation:

“The radioactive isotopes, Cs134 and Cs137, are both artificial and do not exist naturally. Cs134 has a half-life of around 2 years, and Cs137 some 30 years.

In case Cs134 is detected, it is mostly ascribable to the Fukushima meltdown, not the Chernobyl disaster or any nuclear tests, since this isotope’s half-life is very short. Also, due to their half-lives, the two isotopes, 134 and 137, exist at the ratio of 3 to 10. In the morning glory leaf, we measured 12.2 Becquerel per kg of Cs137. Applying the existence ratio to this measurement, it should contain around 4 Becquerel of Cs134 per kg. This is below the minimum quantity detectable, so our equipment was unable to detect 134.

Since the morning glory and maple leaves measured this time were not cleansed after they were taken off, it is uncertain whether the radioactivity measured is from some substance on the leaf or from some soil mixed in.

Also, an air dosimeter, when placed close to a subject of measurement, does not respond unless its radioactivity is 8,000 Becquerel or above. So, with this morning glory leaf’s radiation dose, an air dosimeter will not respond.”

Now, last summer, we witnessed similar abnormalities with the plants.

▲Some gigantic leaves of different shapes from the same morning glory. They are around 16cm (6.3”) in full length. (Photographed on September 8^th, 2014)
[Right] A regular-sized maple leaf

[Left] A leaf from the maple that has grown into a giant
(Photographed on August 11^th, 2014)

Here in Fukushima, every day TV and radio news programs and newspapers report air radiation doses at many different places in the Prefecture. They also report monitoring of radioactivity in the sea water near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Sea water monitoring results often say “ND” (Not Detected) with respect to Cs134 and 137. Such a report does NOT mean the sea water inspected was found to contain no radioactivity. It actually means that the radioactivity was below the minimum measurable limit of the measuring instrument used. Thus, a ND report does not guarantee “safety.” Please be careful.

Also, the municipal government of Koriyama City reported, in July 2015, that the average air dose of radiation across the city was 0.10 to 0.20mSv/h. Still, when our Project’s staffers tried measuring doses with a Geiger counter, they found some places exceeding 1mSv/h. Thus, too much trust in publicly announced air doses can be dangerous.

Different people have different notions about radioactivity, which is invisible. If one is exposed to “take-it-easy” reports day in and day out, they can be tempted to ignore unusual things that they find in their environment. However, such small, unusual things might be signs of some greater issues.

Thus, we, the Project, intend to examine and publish in this website little abnormalities that we notice in our everyday life, without discounting them as “simply subjective,” in the years to come.

Original Japanese written by  staffer
The English below translated from the original Japanese by Heeday
The English translation edited by Rev. Dr. Henry French, ELCA

(Sources: articles of August 21^st and 23^rd, 2015 editions of the Fukushima Minpo newspaper)

Click each image to enlarge it and read the caption.

Today, we are witnessing the emergence of many new and complex issues with the processing of the radioactive waste collected during the “decontamination” work following TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant’s meltdown.

Since the relevant municipalities plan to complete the “decontamination” work by the end of FY2016, Japan’s Ministry of the Environment is demanding an expanded budget of some 450 billion yen for FY2016, an increase from this year’s 415.3 billion yen. Acquisition of land for intermediate storage of such waste is lagging behind schedule. Therefore, the Ministry intends to expand the budget for land acquisition considerably, from this year’s 75.8 billion yen to 130 billion yen next fiscal year, and they are assigning more officials than today to take care of negotiations with landowners.

Since the existing temporary storage sites for radioactive waste are already full, much of the collected waste has no place to go. Some of it is simply buried under gardens, some is kept under house eaves or somewhere else within the premises. Known as “collection site storages,” more than 100,000 of such “storages” currently exist in Fukushima Prefecture.

Things are no different here in Koriyama City, where our Project’s office is. The decontamination work is progressing very slowly. When a citizen, at long last, welcomes in decontamination workers, the radioactive soil they collect is either buried in the citizen’s own yard or kept somewhere else within the premises – possibly under the eaves. He/she simply cannot have any peace of mind.

A decontamination subcontractor does the collection work, and then digs a large, deep hole in the yard and buries the collected radioactive soil which has been wrapped up in big vinyl sheets. An unsuspecting child often plays in the same yard, above the underground radioactive soil, while his/her parents anxiously watch.

We can see heaps of vinyl-packed radioactive soil here and there as we walk around. We measured the radioactivity at one such heap under the eaves of an apartment house in the neighborhood of our Project’s office. The counter showed 2mSv/h. The dose can exceed that amount following a rainfall or on a windy day. We find weeds, growing out of the contaminated soil and sticking out of the vinyl bags. No one thinks such bags containing radioactive soil are strong enough to withstand aging for years to come.

Click each image to enlarge it and read the caption.

Furthermore, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is to be decommissioned, and more radioactive waste will result from the decommissioning of the plant. No one knows what to do with this new waste, at least at this moment. Although the Japanese Government has said concerning radioactive waste, “It should be buried within the nuclear plant’s premises, as is done in many other countries,” in reality, Fukushima Daiichi’s premises are already occupied with numerous tanks containing radioactive water. Those tanks are growing larger and larger in number every day. The plant’s premises have no space to accommodate more waste. Also, the tanks themselves will become radioactive waste someday. In a regular decommissioning, it is hard to win consent of the neighboring municipalities. In the case of Fukushima Daiichi, this consent should be even harder to win, since Fukushima’s citizens are victims of the meltdown.

I (the author) have a feeling that all of this ever-expanding radioactive waste will eventually be “pushed” off onto Fukushima’s citizens. If we go on seeking for wealth and ignoring the negative results that come from such wealth, in the long run, what kind of a world are we going to build?

Here in Koriyama City, we see the piles of collected radioactive soil growing larger and larger every day. Many children, with their futures before them, walk beside these heaps of contaminated soil. And that has become part of the ordinary cityscape here.

Original Japanese written by  staffer
The English below translated from the original Japanese by Heeday
The English translation edited by Rev. Dr. Henry French, ELCA

(Source: article of August 29^th, 2015 edition of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper)

Japan’s National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS) conducted an examination of some populations of fir trees naturally growing in areas contaminated heavily by the meltdown of TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The trees are located in areas within the “no-go” zones with especially high air dose rates of radioactivity. The Institute’s analysis of the examination results found that, compared to those tree populations within areas with lower radioactivity, the heavily contaminated trees showed a remarkably greater rate of morphological changes. Also, the NIRS found that this rate increased in proportion to the air dose rate of radiation.

In the hardest-hit town, Okuma (33.9mSv/h), more than 90% of the fir trees surveyed showed some morphological changes, while in two places within neighboring Namie Town (19.6mSv/h and 6.85mSv/h, respectively) the abnormality rate was more than 40% and slightly less than 30%, respectively. Though this might seem to suggest a quick decline in the radiation effect with distance, actually around 10% of the trees surveyed in Kitaibaraki City (some 90km [55 miles] south of the nuclear plant) showed similar abnormalities.

Generally, coniferous trees are sensitive to radiation. This was proven by radiation exposure experiments with trees conducted in outdoor radiation exposure facilities (gamma fields) of the US and Japan, as well as by what was found around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, after its meltdown in 1986. We have reports showing that, in the vicinity of the Chernobyl disaster, two domestic species of coniferous trees, namely Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and Norway spruce (Picea abies), carried some obvious biological abnormalities.

The morphological changes found by the NIRS survey, though they provide precious data, have yet to prove that those fir trees are suffering from the effects of radioactivity, since some other factors, such as insect damage, diseases not caused by radioactivity, cold weather, etc., might have played a part. Thus, according to the Institute, the examiners now need to expose some fir trees to radiation in a lab to see what changes arise.

In Fukushima Prefecture, many are voicing their worries over those plants showing abnormalities following the nuclear plant meltdown.

Someone who visited a forest in Tomioka Town, to the south of Fukushima Daiichi, told me (the author) that the forest is now crowded with numerous overgrown trees. I have always felt something is wrong with the plants here. Living in Koriyama City, Fukushima, I see countless overgrown roadside plants.

Judging from experiences following the Chernobyl tragedy, it will be years before scientists discover the causes of these abnormalities in plants. Here in Fukushima, while no expert has yet to make an official announcement admitting the effects of radiation, many, including myself, spend every day feeling anxious over what radiation might do to us humans. The changes with plants are so obvious no one can deny them.

Original Japanese written by  staffer
The English below translated from the original Japanese by Heeday
The English translation edited by Rev. Dr. Henry French, ELCA

(Sources: articles of September 1^st, 2015 editions of the Asahi Shimbun and Fukushima Minpo newspapers)

A full thyroid checkup, carried out between the beginning of April and the end of June this year, to investigate the effects on human health of the meltdown of TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, found another child with a diagnosis of thyroid cancer. This means we now have 104 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of thyroid cancer, among the some 385,000 residents of the prefecture who were 18 years in age or younger when the meltdown began. These people were also examined during the preliminary thyroid checkup. Said Fukushima Prefecture’s Citizen Medical Examination Committee, “At this point, it is hard to consider these cancer cases are ascribable to radiation.”

“Fukushima Minpo,” the local paper of Fukushima Prefecture with the greatest circulation, had extensive coverage of these checkup results on Page 3 of the paper, while “The Asahi Shimbun,” one of the major nationwide papers of Japan, printed only a small article about it, on its “Society” pages. (In the convention of most Japanese newspapers, the “society” pages come last, following pages about “politics,” “foreign affairs,” etc.)

Now, following the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant blast, which took place on April 26^th, 1986, there were many reports of thyroid cancer in children living in the vicinity of the nuclear plant, especially among girls. Generally, experts say that thyroid cancer is usually found in one to three out of a million children. A few years after the Chernobyl tragedy, the thyroid cancer rate among children in the nuclear plant’s vicinity showed a sharp rise. Also, the rate’s peak time differed, depending on how old children were when they were exposed to radiation. Among those who were infants or very young when they were exposed (0 to 10 years in age), the rate peaked seven years after the accident. Then it slowly diminished until 1997, and later it came down to the pre-disaster level. Among those who were in adolescence at the time of the accident (10 to 19 years in age), the rate peaked 10 years after their exposure to radiation. Then it took a sharp drop in and after 2002, though it has never dropped enough to reach the pre-disaster level.

Still, some say that the rather small number of thyroid cancer cases found after the Chernobyl disaster were ascribable to some problems with the thyroid checkups conducted. Though the relevant authorities currently deny a cause-effect relationship between Fukushima’s thyroid cancer cases and the nuclear disaster there, as more patients are diagnosed, they might have to admit this relationship.

(Source: September 1^st, 2015 editions of Fukushima Minpo newspapers)

So far, we have only seen the results from the thyroid checkups that were conducted. No future estimate of potential cases has been given, and no detailed analysis has been made. However, the Fukushima Prefecture’s Citizen Medical Examination Committee and the parents of children demanded, over and over again, that the effects from radiation must be made clear. The Fukushima Prefectural Government, therefore, has decided to conduct objective analyses of the thyroid checkups and study radiation-thyroid cancer correlations in each district. The government intends to predict the numbers of future patients of thyroid cancer in order to help its people take better care of their health.

Fukushima’s mothers are seriously worried over their own children’s health and future, yet they see no way to help their kids. Also, many have fled the prefecture following the nuclear disaster. Those remaining in the prefecture frequently ask themselves whether they are right in remaining there or not. Also, in their situations, they can bring up topics for discussion only if is really necessary to do so—there might be some people employed by the nuclear plant or related employers around them. Citizens are divided over their opinions about the effects of radiation. There is a complex web of interests. Furthermore, many children of Fukushima are not allowed to play outdoors, to minimize their exposure to radiation. Some are worried this might lead to a lack of physical strength in such children.

I sincerely hope that the planned new study of the thyroid examinations will answer questions from children and their parents and therefore wipe out their fears.