Japan's nuclear evacuees still fighting to return

Without leaving her car, Masumi Kowata pointed through the trees at the home that she and her family have not been able to live in since Japan's worst nuclear accident five years ago,

Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, northern Japan.

"That's our house," the diminutive woman said through her face mask, sounding resigned, as she drove around the abandoned town, 3km inland from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in north-eastern Japan.

Nobody has lived in Okuma since it was evacuated in 2011 following the triple meltdown at the plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power. "That's where we used to grow rice," Kowata said, looking to the other side of the street.


The mother of three grown-up children said her family had worked in the fields before the disaster. After the earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11 2011, they had to give up that life.

"We will get a house in Aizu," she said flatly, referring to Aizuwakamatsu city, about 80km west of the plant, where she has been living in temporary housing with her husband.

About 100 000 residents like Kowata have had their lives put on hold since the accident, despite the government's efforts to decontaminate affected areas.

Reports have said the prolonged evacuation has taken a toll on their health, with fatalities indirectly linked to the nuclear disaster rising 11% from a year earlier to 1 368 in 2015, according to a survey conducted by the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper and published on Sunday.

Kowata said she has always told fellow Okuma residents they would not be able to return.