A dozen years after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake — which triggered a tsunami that caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster — the Fukushima Prefectural Government has released a new video that highlights the area’s current status. The video features disaster recovery progress and successes since the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, and focuses on the prefecture’s transformation from a disaster stricken region to a “region of hope.”
Since the earthquake and the death and destruction that followed in its wake, Fukushima Prefecture has been striving steadily toward reconstruction with support and encouragement from home and abroad.
Featuring evacuees returning to their homes, carbon neutrality goals, the introduction of a new variety of strawberry, and economic development and infrastructure programs, the “Fukushima Now” video introduces the prefecture 12 years after the triple disaster.
Highlights of the video include:
- The number of households relocating to settle in Fukushima in fiscal 2021 more than doubled from 2020.
- The number of residents who evacuated within or outside the region dropped below 30,000 in 2022.
- Seiko Gakuin High School advanced to the best four teams in the summer national high school baseball tournament, the first time for the school.
- With efforts including fuel cell buses and a mega solar park, the region is aiming for a carbon-free society under the “Fukushima 2050 Carbon Neutrality” declaration.
- As part of the “Fukushima Innovation Coast Framework” project, the government is working to restore six industries in the Hamadori region that were impacted by the earthquake and nuclear accident: Decommissioning; robots and drones; energy, environment and recycling; agriculture, forestry and fisheries; healthcare; and aerospace.
- The harvest season for the “Akatsuki” peach variety begins in late July. Exports of Fukushima farm products reached a new all-time annual high in fiscal 2021.