FUKUSHIMA TODAY: SEVEN YEARS SINCE THE GREAT EAST JAPAN EARTHQUAKE
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 20/01/2021

Full title: FUKUSHIMA TODAY: SEVEN YEARS SINCE THE GREAT EAST JAPAN EARTHQUAKE AND THE FUKUSHIMA DIICHI NUCLEAR POWER PLANT ACCIDENT

The earthquake and the nuclear accident that occurred on March 2011 seriously damaged the archaeology and cultural heritage in Fukushima Prefecture. In the evacuated zone along the coastal areas, a great many natural heritage sites, along with cultural artifacts at museums and elsewhere had to be left immediately; their rescue and preservation began afterwards. Now, those critical activities have almost concluded, but other problems have developed, namely: how should we preserve the local heritage and return artifacts to the former places? The Japanese government has gradually been allowing access to damaged areas since 2014, and the evacuated zone currently stands at about one third of what it was in 2011, but few inhabitants have returned to the hometowns. In the meantime, some local governments within the formerly evacuated zones have organized a new body to preserve heritage that have not been well-known, in addition to enacting new local regulations to preserve all heritage. Their actions have begun to affect people in their localities and researchers in the Japanese academic world. Government excavations were carried out in coastal areas until around 2016 in the course of restoring public infrastructure. More recently, private sector developments, mainly involving the construction of solar power plants and other facilities are on the rise, and staff of local governments have had many the excavation work. In the near future, further excavations in preparation for storing contaminated earth will occur next to the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant. As stated above, activities involving the archaeology and preservation of heritage in areas affected by the earthquake and the nuclear accident will continue in new and different forms, and we cannot necessarily predict how the situation will be altered in the near future. I’ll introduce recent excavation- and heritage-related activities, talk about residents’  situations, problems and perspectives.


Kikuchi, Yoshio (Fukushima University)