The number of evacuees from Fukushima Prefecture due to the accident at the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (F1) is currently said to be nearly 30,000. However, this does not include evacuees from neighboring prefectures, whose number is unknown.<\/p>\n
Kwansei Gakuin University Institute of Disaster Area Revitalization, Regrowth and Governance was established on January 17, 2005, 10 years after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. Based on the philosophy of \u201chuman recovery,\u201d the institute conducts research focusing on the humanities and social sciences. The term \u201chuman recovery\u201d was used by Fukuda Tokuzo as a contrast to Goto Shinpei, who advocated the reconstruction of the imperial capital after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, to emphasize that the recovery should be a \u201chuman recovery\u201d focusing on the \u201creconstruction of disaster victims\u201d and \u201cindividual reconstruction.\u201d Has \u201chuman recovery\u201d been achieved in the 10 years following the Great East Japan Earthquake?<\/p>\n
The Study Group on Evacuation, led by the Institute of Disaster Area Revitalization, Regrowth and Governance, conducted a \u201cNationwide Survey of Evacuees from the Nuclear Accident\u201d in summer 2020 to grasp the situation of long-term evacuees over the past 10 years. This paper is based on an interim report released in November, but as the analysis of the results is still underway. The final report will be published on the institute\u2019s website at some point in the future, and we encourage you to refer to the report when it is published.<\/p>\n
About the questionnaire survey<\/strong><\/p>\n The \u201cNationwide Survey of Evacuees from the Nuclear Accident\u201d was distributed in July 2020 with the cooperation of a number of life reconstruction support bases. In addition, many individual inquiries were received, as it was also sent out from the institute\u2019s social media account. Other evacuees who had not been counted in the past, such as evacuees from prefectures other than Fukushima Prefecture and evacuees who were not registered in the National Evacuee Information System, also expressed their desire to cooperate. As a result, 694 responses (a 14% retrieval rate) were received. 75% of the respondents were evacuees from Fukushima Prefecture, and 18% were from the Kanto region.<\/p>\n \u00a0Of these respondents, 100 (14%) had lived before the earthquake disaster in what are now difficult-to-return zones, 140 (20%) had lived in areas where evacuation orders have been rescinded, and 417 (60%) lived in areas where no evacuation orders were issued (referred to in this article as evacuees from outside designated evacuation zones). Thus it is clear that many respondents were evacuees from outside designated evacuation zones.<\/p>\n Characteristics of Evacuees from Difficult-to-Return Zones and Zones where Evacuation Orders have been Rescinded<\/strong><\/p>\n Respondents were asked about satisfaction with their \u201cjob,\u201d \u201cplace of employment,\u201d \u201cincome,\u201d \u201cleisure time,\u201d \u201chousing,\u201d \u201clocal environment,\u201d \u201ceducational environment,\u201d \u201cnatural environment,\u201d \u201cpublic facilities in the city,\u201d \u201cplaces for cultural activities,\u201d \u201cplaces for sports activities,\u201d \u201cshopping convenience,\u201d \u201cconvenience of medical facilities,\u201d \u201ctransport convenience,\u201d and \u201clife in general\u201d before and after the earthquake. As a result, \u201csatisfied\u201d and \u201cslightly satisfied\u201d showed a marginal increase for \u201cshopping convenience\u201d and \u201ctransport convenience,\u201d but at the same time, \u201cdissatisfied\u201d and \u201cslightly dissatisfied\u201d also increased. In all other items, \u201cdissatisfied\u201d and \u201cslightly dissatisfied\u201d with the current situation increased. The results indicate that many evacuees felt their situation had been better before the earthquake disaster. In addition, and similarly, the degree of attachment to the area of residence also declined. In particular, many evacuees from difficult-to-return zones and zones where evacuation orders have been rescinded believed they were evacuating from their homes only \u201ctemporarily.\u201d The average number of years of residence in the pre-disaster residence is also large. As most of the respondents from the difficult-to-return zones and zones where evacuation orders have been rescinded were in their 60s and 70s, it was clear that it was no easy matter for these elderly people to move to a new residence due to the sudden nuclear accident and become attached to the new area. Figure 2 shows the results of the degree of attachment to the area of residence of evacuees from the difficult-to-return zones, the zones where evacuation orders have been rescinded, and from outside designated evacuation zones before and after the earthquake disaster. 38% of respondents from difficult-to-return zones felt a strong attachment to the area where they had previously lived, with 42% feeling a certain degree of attachment, while a mere 7% now feel a strong attachment, with 31% feeling a certain degree of attachment; a significant decrease. On the other hand, evacuees who felt or feel little attachment to their areas increased from 15% before to 48% after the earthquake disaster.<\/p>\n It was also found that many evacuees from difficult-to-return zones and zones where evacuation orders have been rescinded have maintained their original homes as their registered address (Figure 3). 87% of evacuees who had lived in difficult-to-return areas maintained their original addresses, while 85.1% of evacuees from outside designated evacuation zones had moved their registration to their current address; a substantial difference.<\/p>\n \u00a0In reality, however, as shown in Figure 4, 63% of the former residences in the difficult-to-return zone have been left as they were after the disaster, and 14% have become vacant lots. 40% of the former residences of evacuees from zones where evacuation orders have been rescinded have become vacant lots, and 14% have been left as they were after the disaster. The evacuees have maintained their registrations at their former homes due to the Act on Special Measures for Evacuees from Nuclear Power Plants, but the reality expressed by the respondents was that \u201cI want to go home, but can\u2019t.\u201d This leads to the conclusion that 65% of people who have evacuated from Fukushima have no intention of returning home.<\/p>\n Allow me to quote from one of the free prose responses of those who evacuated from the difficult-to-return zones. \u201cI want people never to forget the first nuclear power plant accident in Japan for the rest of their lives. I want them to know how hard it is to lose everything from the places they were born and raised and to go and live in another prefecture. It\u2019s not just about money.\u201d<\/p>\n Characteristics of Evacuees from Outside Designated Evacuation Zones<\/strong><\/p>\n This section concerns the characteristics of evacuees outside the designated evacuation zones. While many evacuees from evacuation zones who temporarily evacuated in accordance with government instructions evacuated to neighboring prefectures such as Ibaraki or Miyagi, a large number of evacuees from outside designated evacuation zones responded from Nagoya or areas further west or from Hokkaido. It was found that individuals and their families who had little option but to evacuate at their own discretion evacuated to locations far from the nuclear plant.<\/p>\n It was also revealed that the splintering of households was intensified by the evacuation. When asked about co-habitants, 4.3% of the respondents selected \u201cUnmarried children only\u201d before the disaster, while that figure is currently 16.4%, a 3.8-fold increase. On the other hand, those who chose \u201cmy parents or spouse\u2019s parents\u201d decreased from 7.1% before the earthquake to 2.9% at present, and those who were living as three-generation households also decreased from 10.8% before the earthquake to 4.5% after.<\/p>\n Furthermore, looking at the types of residences at evacuation destinations (Figure 5), it can be seen that the proportion of evacuees who had lived outside designated evacuation zones renting housing (the total of public sector, public, Urban Development Corporation and private rented houses) is close to 60%.<\/p>\n Concerning whether or not evacuees from outside the designated evacuation zones have received housing subsidies, 60% responded that they have not. It is presumed that, amid the confusion at the time of the earthquake, staff at the municipal office contact points either did not understand the situation or simply did not receive information about evacuees.<\/p>\n Additionally, evacuation has resulted in changes in occupations, and changes in income associated with occupational change. As shown in Figure 6, people with an annual income of less than 1 million yen increased by 3.1 times after the earthquake compared with before, and those with an income between 1 and 2 million yen doubled from 7% to 14.1%. For many evacuees, the evacuation thus resulted in a shift toward lower incomes.<\/p>\n The Covid-19 pandemic also greatly affected the situation of evacuees from outside designated evacuation zones (Figure 7). The lower the income, the more evacuees were affected by Covid-19, 58.8% of evacuees from outside designated evacuation zones responding that they were either \u201cvery seriously affected\u201d or \u201csomewhat affected.\u201d 20% of the respondents replied that the impact on their monthly income exceeded 100,000 yen.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Fig-1.png\")
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