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© KYODOFukushima residents look for Olympic PR boost
By Jim Allen SUKAGAWA, Fukushima©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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© KYODO
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Ganbare Japan!
Good for Japan. The Reconstruction Olympics will show the world that, well and truly, "Japan is back". I hope that the disaster-hit areas receive a huge economic boost. And that the terrible rumors are finished when the massive influx of foreign visitors comes to Tohoku and witness the recovery.
nedotjp
Happy to see this. However, Abe touted Fukushima as the major recipient of the benefits from the 2020 Olympics to the world and in his campaign drive and his support for the end of an ERROR Tokyo Governor Isihara. Despite this article, that promise of financial benifit seems to be getting lost in the hype to promote Tokyo. See BBC pay for news, never alludes to Fukushima or the graft, bribery and labor issues, Reality not getting invited to the party.
Dango bong
you will not get a boost unless you own a hotel, eatery or train line.... keep dreaming
Cricky
The only benifit for Fukushima residents is they might get a short term job in Tokyo during the 2 week event and a T-shirt. Otherwise Fukushima is rightly or wrongly a no go zone linked to a nuclear disaster, that's never going to change no matter how many athletes prance around Tokyo.
kohakuebisu
Good luck to them. Japan's demographics mean that the number of people under 65 falls by a million a year. This is a huge challenge for domestic tourism. They have to attract a higher percentage of fewer people.
Wallace Fred
So...have the effects of radiation mysteriously disappeared now?
Utrack
No matter how Japan Government slice it, the elephant in the room is Fukushima Daiichi NPP. It should have been entombed by the Government of Japan if they wanted good press or a positive public attitude toward Fukushima. The Government of Japan holds all the cards and they are ultimately to blame for Public Sentiment.
Cricky
As a tourist don't think visiting a Nuclear Disaster area is high on my list maybe if I had terminal cancer and an Olympic Tourch.....still not high on my list of places to see.
Samit Basu
Teams forced to play at Fukushima are bringing their own food and water, and plan to stay away from Fukushima and bus in for the game day.
Utrack
@Samit Basu the players need to bring their own oxygen too, But that is not practical. No, the Government wants a pat on the back for the job they did for Fukushima.
kohakuebisu
My image of Fukushima is of people who still need help. Farmers struggling to sell produce labelled Fukushima and people still stuck living in little prefabs. If Fukushima is vibrant like this man says, with his happy smiley baseball game as evidence, should I care about those people any more? It doesn't sound like he does.
ThonTaddeo
The entire Olympic Games should have been held in Tohoku. Sendai has plenty of facilities and it wouldn't have been any more expensive than Tokyo.
8T
Will do absolutely nothing for Fukushima. Athletes are still afraid to compete in Tokyo let alone taking a day trip to Fukushima.
Strangerland
Except that it's not.
Heckleberry
Is Fukushima all of a sudden safe from radiation exposure?
Dr Helen Caldicott, paediatrican, nuclear medicine expert and former Harvard professor of paediatrics, says it is insane that Tokyo is hosting the Olympics. Skip to 3:05 for her interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0hgfBkIBDM
Heckleberry
@Zichi - I don't think anyone believes the entire Fukushima prefecture is heavily contaminated with radiation. But is there any harm in being careful? Why would a visitor go anywhere near Fukushima?
The Japanese government and TEPCO are always denying and downplaying the extent of the problem, and they are now pushing to serve Fukushima farm produce to visiting athletes. Would you willingly eat produce/meat from Fukushima? Perhaps (I wouldn't). Would you devise your entire meal at home with Fukushima produce for a year? Probably not (you couldn't pay me to).
Even here is Australia I've stopped going to ramen restaurants after glancing at the kitchen and noticing Japanese labelled bags of rice and tins of corn.
Japan is banking on convincing the rest of the world that Fukushima's nuclear disaster is now all under control and is completely safe from the dangers of radiation outside the small exclusion zone, but they're not fooling anyone.
Cricky
I'm sure Chenoval is a specific place and is just a small part of land, Fukashima is a prefecture and as such will forever be linked to radiation, that's just how it is. Can't just brush a nuclear disaster (ongoing) under the carpet.
Heckleberry
@zichi - I must say that was news to me. I had to read up on it. Wonder why it wasn't covered extensively in the news?
Sources I've read are conflicting, but a crucial piece of information is the half life of the radioactive material, about a year for the material found in Russia (Ru-106), vs 30 years for Fukushima (Cs-137). So saying that the 2017 Russian radiation leak is 100 times worse than Fukushima is misleading.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/21/russian-radiation-leak-everything-you-need-to-know
Source: https://www.livescience.com/43631-fukushima-radiation-ocean-arrives-west-coast.html
Cricky
Zichi your point is valid as is mine Fukashima is forever linked to disaster of a nuclear kind. Rightly or wrongly if anyone says Fukashima the first thought isn't butterflies.
No one cares how big it is as a prefecture it's Fucashima thus poisoned for all time.
thankyou TEPCO.
Heckleberry
@Zichi - so it is perfecly safe to visit Fukushima, as long as it is outside the exclusion zone? And the nuclear disaster is very much under control? And farm/sea produce from Fukushima is safe? Gee where have I heard that before I wonder...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/10395434/Japanese-PM-eats-seafood-caught-off-Fukushima.html
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201906110001.html
Heckleberry
@Cricky - When I think of Fukushima/Fukashima the first thing I think of is the nuclear disaster. Second thing that comes to mind is the lovable 'Fukuppy' mascot.
The Fukushima apologists in this thread won't like it but Fukushima is the 21st century Chernobyl, in the minds of 99.9% of people.
Cricky
Zichi I'm not trying to denigrate a whole region but forever Fukashima will be linked to nuclear disaster. Chenoval what ever way you spell it. It's also a disaster.
And I will never buy anything that has a Fucashima brand ever or Chenoval ( spelling aside) For that prefecture it's over.
Would you like this juicy strawberry from Fukashima mmmmmm......no thanks
funny thing is I say no thanks then smoke. So probably not the best advocate.
Wallace Fred
I'll definitely not have what he's smoking. Blind unwavering love aside, shouldn't common sense prevail in cases such as these? How can you honestly believe this?
Utrack
All the current Nuclear radiation exposure map links of Japan that I could find.
https://safecast.org/tilemap/
https://jciv.iidj.net/map/
Pacific Ocean Map
http://ourradioactiveocean.org/results