Due to the accident at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, evacuation orders for prefectural roads and cemeteries that remained in the difficult-to-return area of Tomioka Town, Fukushima Prefecture, where evacuation orders have been issued for 12 years, will be lifted on the 30th of this month.
Due to the nuclear power plant accident, evacuation orders were temporarily issued for the entire area of Tomioka Town, and even 12 years after the accident, 4.6 square kilometers of the Koragahama and Fukaya districts in the northeast have been designated as a difficult-to-return zone where access is strictly restricted.
Last month, a committee of experts submitted a report to the town stating that "it was confirmed that radiation doses had been reduced" for the mass graves, meeting places, and prefectural roads where evacuation orders remained in the "Designated Reconstruction and Revitalization Base Areas," where the national government has taken the lead in decontamination.
In response to this, the national government, the prefecture, and the town held consultations on the 6th, and agreed to lift the evacuation order at 30 a.m. on the 9th of this month.
As a result, evacuation orders will be lifted in all of the "Designated Reconstruction and Revitalization Base Zones" established in six towns and villages in the difficult-to-return zones caused by the nuclear accident.
Ikuo Yamamoto, the mayor of Tomioka Town, said, "We will continue to work with the national and prefectural governments to realize the earnest wishes of residents who wish to return to Japan, with this lifting of restrictions as a breakthrough in reconstruction and revitalization."