Japan Lifts Fukushima Evacuation Order On Town Hit By Nuclear Radiation

The Japanese government on Saturday lifted an evacuation order on Naraha, that was hit by nuclear radiation during the Fukashima disaster for four-and-a-half years, after the entire town was relocated after the incident.

However, few of the 7,400 residents of this small town near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant have indicated that they want to return.

This town is the first among seven disaster-hit municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture that was officially cleaned of harmful radiations and has been given the permission to get people to repopulate it, reported JIJI Press.

In 2011, after a massive earthquake and tsunami caused the triple meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, the residents of all the seven municipalities were asked to evacuate.

"The clock has just started ticking again for our town with the lifting of the evacuation order after many months. We will accelerate efforts to achieve full recovery of the town," Naraha Mayor Yukiei Matsumoto said on Saturday, according to The Asahi Shimbun.

After the government lifted the evacuation order, the residents are beginning to trickle back. But a number of people have recorded that they will not return for safety reasons. Just one hundred households came back during the trial period since April, according to hngn.

"The town doesn't even look the same, but this is still my hometown and it really feels good to be back," Naraha resident Toshiko Yokota said. "I still feel uneasy about some things, like radiation levels and no medical facility. But I have to keep up my hope."

A landscape gardener, 68-year-old Fusao Sakamoto, also refused to come. "Looking back, I feel my four-and-half-years as an evacuee was agonizingly long," he said.