Volunteers decontaminate the soil in a home garden in Fukushima Prefecture. Author: Pennsylvania

On Wednesday, the Japanese government announced that it was canceling the evacuation order for residents of the cities of Namie and Tomioka, Fukushima, who suffered for 12 years from the largest nuclear disaster in the country.

The measure will come into force on March 31 and April 1 in areas where decontamination work was previously carried out, which today were considered “hard to return”.

In this regard, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Yasutoshi Nishimura, said at a press conference that the lifting of restrictions will be a new beginning of reconstruction.

In addition, he indicated that he appreciates the opportunity to visit the reactivated areas, if circumstances permit.

For his part, Cabinet Secretary General Hirokazu Matsuno said that the opening ceremony of the Fukushima International Research and Education Organization will take place on April 1.

This new instance will focus its research on areas such as robotics, radiation sciences and nuclear disasters over the next seven years starting in 2024, for which it will have a budget of around 100 billion yen (nearly $753 million).

Between June and August 2022, the Japanese authorities also lifted the ban on parts of the cities of Katsurao, Okuma and Futaba, where decontamination and infrastructure development work has progressed markedly.

The evacuation order following the 2011 nuclear accident affected 11 municipalities in Fukushima prefecture due to high levels of radioactivity reported. Thousands of people are still displaced.

Source: Juventud Rebelde