FUKUSHIMA, Mar 12 (News On Japan) - Fifteen years after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, daily life has gradually returned to areas where evacuation orders have been lifted, but in zones still aiming for their removal and in designated difficult-to-return areas, human activity has yet to resume.
Amid these circumstances, residents continue to grapple with how to live their lives 15 years on. Some have returned to the towns where their homes once stood, some cannot return, and others continue to struggle with the decision. Three such choices reveal the lingering impact of the disaster.
The area around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant includes Futaba Town in Fukushima Prefecture.
Reporter (March 2, Futaba, Fukushima): "A radiation monitoring post has come into view. It shows a reading of 0.564 microsieverts."
On March 11, 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was struck by a massive tsunami reaching up to 15 meters in height, triggering hydrogen explosions.
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (March 2011): "Headquarters, headquarters, this is serious, this is serious. Unit 3—probably steam—the explosion has just occurred."
Large amounts of radioactive material were released, rendering the town uninhabitable.
Shinichi Kokubun, 75, who lives in Futaba, said: "All the houses in front of us are gone. It feels lonely because all the memories disappear. Everything becomes empty land."
Although evacuation orders for the area where Kokubun’s home stood were lifted four years ago, the property had deteriorated after years of abandonment and damage from animals. With regret, he decided to demolish the house.
Still, Kokubun says he wants to continue living in the town where he spent decades with his wife. He now lives in public housing operated by the town.
Kokubun spent 30 years in Futaba with his wife.
Kokubun: "We used to take the children to the beach there. It’s where we lived our lives together. My wife would take part in sewing clubs and tea gatherings. Sometimes we hear that someone has come back, and we talk about things like that."
When asked whether hearing about others returning makes him happy, Kokubun replied: "Yes, it does."
Futaba once had more than 7,000 residents. Today, the population has fallen to around 200. Kokubun is among the few who have returned.
Even now, about 85 percent of the town remains designated as a difficult-to-return zone.
Some residents are still waiting for the day they can return to their homes.
Tokuko Shiga, 78, now lives in neighboring Namie Town.
Shiga recalls struggling to comprehend what had happened to her hometown.
Shiga said: "I saw smoke rising on television. I couldn’t understand what it meant that we couldn’t go back. I evacuated with a vague feeling that we had no choice."
Some evacuees also faced discrimination in the places where they relocated.
Shiga: "People would say things like, 'You came from Futaba, didn’t you?' There was prejudice, as if we had brought radiation with us. Children were also discriminated against. Some people said, 'You’re getting money and running away.'"
The area where Shiga’s home stands is currently being prepared for the lifting of evacuation orders by March 2027. Regulations were eased in November 2025, allowing residents to enter freely without a permit for the first time.
Shiga said: "I was born there, and I may be able to start living there again. That’s something to look forward to. Now that I can go freely, I visit more often. My attachment to the house has grown stronger."
She now visits her home more frequently.
Shiga: "This is what it means when time stops."
Inside the house, everything remains as it was on the day of the disaster. Even in its deteriorated condition, returning brings a sense of relief.
Shiga said: "It still feels comforting, like I’ve come back home. If we clean it up and renovate it a bit, maybe it could be livable again."
For 15 years she was unable to freely enter her own home, and the passage of time brings a sense of frustration.
Shiga said: "My house is right there. I can see it."
Asked how she felt looking at her home from beyond barricades, Shiga replied: "Of course it’s frustrating. There are persimmons and figs growing along the road—that’s my hometown. No one imagined evacuation would last 15 years. We thought we’d be back in two or three days. I just want life returned to the way it was."
Meanwhile, another challenge continues to complicate the prospect of rebuilding the region.
Reporter (March 2): "Areas where removed soil has been piled up like mountains stretch across the landscape."
The site visited by reporters is the Interim Storage Facility, a vast area spanning both Okuma and Futaba towns.
Soil collected during decontamination efforts has accumulated to the equivalent of about 11 Tokyo Domes in volume. Although the final disposal deadline outside Fukushima Prefecture is set roughly 20 years from now, where the soil will ultimately be taken remains undecided.
Reporter: "Community centers, shrines, and other places that once formed the heart of local life still remain here."
These are traces of people’s lives, but residents cannot return to them.
Some evacuees, meanwhile, marked the 15th anniversary of the disaster far from Futaba.
Akemi Obata, 59, is one of them. She still cannot return to the area where her home stands. For the past 15 years, she has lived in Kazo City in Saitama Prefecture, where she evacuated after the accident.
Following the nuclear disaster, the entire town of Futaba relocated together to Kazo.
Obata arrived there with her husband and their six-year-old son, and the family took shelter inside a high school building that became a temporary refuge for the displaced residents.
Source: TBS
