This is a story that I heard in the city of Minamisoma of Fukushima Prefecture.
If you hand a blank map of Japan to someone in Tohoku region and ask them to draw, with a colored pencil, the area they feel is contaminated with radiation from the ailing nuclear power plant, they will shade over Fukushima prefecture only.
If you ask someone in Tokyo to do the same, they will probably shade over the entire Tohoku region. Someone in Hokkaido? Tohoku and Kanto. In Kansai? Tohoku , Kanto, and Hokkaido.
As for people outside of Japan, they will probably draw over all Japan`s islands.
What we find then, is that no one includes their own local area as a place of contamination. We cannot put this down to egoism because it is only natural for people to want to believe that they live in a safe place. What we do need to note however, is that a frontier has been unknowingly drawn between safe and dangerous.
The city of Shimada, Shizuoka Prefecture has decided to accept disaster debris from the towns of Otsuchi and Yamada in Iwate Prefecture. I think this brave decision can be called a trial to go beyond these perceived borders.
The national government’s safety standards on radioactive debris are ambitious. This is making it difficult for local governments to make positive steps towards working together because of resident’s pressure for fear of cross border contamination.
Shimada has taken a brave first step, and for this they should be commended.
