2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement - Japan's Fukushima IDPs

In March 2011, a devastating magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami struck Japan's Tohoku region, triggering the meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and major radiation leaks. The disaster displaced around 470,000 people.

Five years later, tens of thousands of people whose homes and villages were destroyed across three prefectures have yet to re-establish their lives in new or former homes and communities. Plans to rebuild destroyed homes and relocate displaced communities to higher ground or other areas have been reduced by 30 per cent over the past three years and in some cases abandoned, the result mainly of soaring construction costs and the time local authorities have taken to overcome land issues and prepare plots on new sites.

Those able to afford it, most often younger families, have rebuilt their lives elsewhere, but others have been unable to afford reconstruction and have moved into rental accommodation provided by the government.^[71]

In Fukushima prefecture, 99,000 of the 160,000- plus people evacuated from contaminated areas around the crippled nuclear plant are still living in displacement.^[72] They face a difficult decision in whether to return home or not to areas where government evacuation orders have been lifted, but where radiation risk remains a concern, particularly for younger generations. Those affected also worry about the lack of basic infrastructure such as schools and hospitals in their former home areas, and about becoming isolated given that few of their family members, former neighbours and friends plan to return.^[73]

A lack of trust in official information and poor consultation with affected communities have also delayed solutions for IDPs unable or unwilling to return, and social tensions with host communities have left social and psychological scars. A 2015 survey of evacuees revealed that many were suffering from anxiety, loneliness and depression.^[74] In Fukushima, the number of people who have killed themselves or succumbed to health problems related to the disaster exceeds the death toll from its direct impacts.

71 Asahi Shimbun, Housing relocation plans slashed in Tohoku disaster areas as costs skyrocket, 16 February 2016, available at http://goo.gl/2yef8N

72 Japan Reconstruction Agency, Current Status of Reconstruction and Challenges, March 2016, available at http://goo.gl/g6rUI5

73 IDMC, Five years on for Fukushima's IDPs: Life with radiological risk and without a community safety net, 11 March 2016, available at http://goo.gl/AUX5hW

74 Fukushima prefecture, Overview of Fukushima evacuee survey results, 27 April 2015, available at https://goo.gl/SHKC3l (Japanese)