Emperor, empress visit village in Fukushima
FUKUSHIMA —
Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko on Saturday visited the village of Kawauchi in Fukushima Prefecture to offer words of encouragement to residents who have returned there.
The emperor and empress took a special shinkansen train from Tokyo Station to Koriyama Station in Fukushima Prefecture. TV media showed them receiving a big welcome at Koriyama, after which they were driven to Kawauchi. The imperial couple chatted with residents and asked them how they were doing. They also observed ongoing decontamination work on houses.
Kawauchi straddles the exclusion zone around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. In late January, the village told more than 2,500 residents that returning to the town areas outside the no-go zone was safe, following extensive decontamination of radiation fallout. About 90% of residents whose homes were outside the exclusion zone chose to leave when the Kawauchi town hall moved to Koriyama City, about 40 kilometers away.
In April, offices, schools and other public facilities restarted—the first of nine townships whose administrative functions shifted elsewhere to return.
About one-third of Kawauchi village lies within the 20-kilometer exclusion zone and remains off-limits.
The emperor and empress will return to Tokyo on Saturday night.
Japan Today/AFP
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6 Comments
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0
annemarie08
It
s sort of quaint that they took the train. Id expect an entourage of cars and security vehicles though they were probably surrounded by security on the train anyway.It`s only right that they went of course and show their support.
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caffeinebuzz
Koriyama got off lucky and Kawauchi is a basically a row of thatched omiyage shops over the other side of the prefecture from the affected coast...Hardly the people to ask how they're doing when there's people in fukushima who are definitely worse off
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kurisupisu
It must be pretty daunting to watch 'decontamination' work going on?
Imagine all that radioactive dust swirling around -chilling!
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Open Minded
They should offer part of the imperial huge private park to build a nuke refugee township. This would be a bold action.
4
Yubaru
The Emperor is one heck of a dude! While he may only be a figurehead leader of Japan he deserves kudos from one and all for all the times that he has gone and showed his love and concern for the victims of the tsunami, earthquake, and nuclear disaster.
At his age, and his rather frail health, one can only respect and admire him!
0
caffeinebuzz
Got my geography wrong, apologies!
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