disaster.
Futaba officials placed a signboard at their new town office after a checkpoint gate was opened at midnight
on Tuesday.
The town’s mayor, Shiro Izawa, told reporters: “I’m overwhelmed with emotion as we finally bring part of
our town operations back to our home town. I pledge to steadily push forward our recovery and
reconstruction.”
Yuji Onuma, an evacuee from Futaba, walks
next to a collapsed shop (Reuters)Town officials said they hoped former residents of Futaba would return, but persistent worries around
radiation may stop them from doing so.
According to The Japan Times, only 10 per cent of former residents say they plan to return, with many
having forged new lives elsewhere after the evacuation.
The disaster at the Daiichi nuclear power plant prompted the Japanese government to declare a 20km-
radius evacuation zone around the plant when it released massive amounts of radiation into the atmosphere.
The evacuation order in the town of Okuma was also due to be lifted today, and another is scheduled to be
lifted in Tomioka on 10 March. All three towns were located in the seven municipalities where the
government set out “difficult-to-return” zones following the accident.
Japanese officials met in January to discuss the reopening of the towns. The prime minister, Shinzo Abe,
said he hoped that restoration in the prefecture would be accelerated in anticipation of an influx of visitors
for the Olympics.