Can They Go Back?

It is fair to say that the most important decision by the national government for evacuee of the accident in the First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is when they can go back home. Most parties do not answer that question in the campaign of the election of the House of Councillors. As far as about 310 thousand people have still not found appropriate place to live, to settle them must be the first priority of every party. It shows poor politics on human rights, which guarantee safe and comfortable life.

Liberal Democratic and New Komeito have to be responsible for elaborating how they promote cleaning the contaminated land, rebuilding infrastructure for local life and tell the people when they will be able to return home. But they do not tell about when the evacuees can go back in party’s campaign promises. They are only saying they will do their best, avoiding clear words for implementation.

Other parties are also unclear on this issue. People’s Life Party, in their campaign promise, proposes that the reconstruction policy needs to be shifted from returning back to migration, while how to keep the land for evacuees and how they find the budget for it are unclear. Green Wind, based on no returning, asserts that contaminated land should be bought by the national government. Your Party indicated the necessity of determining whether they can go back, or not, to the highly contaminated area. But, attitudes of rest of opposite parties are not clear.

According to the survey by Asahi Shimbun, four parties look to returning back for all evacuees, while five are shifting to no returning. Democratic Party of Japan, as the party that led the emergency measures at the time of the accident occurred, does not abandon the principle for getting-all-back. After the disaster, the government led by DPJ sought to clean all the land up for residents to come back by decontamination efforts. However, the efforts proved to be extremely difficult, mainly because radioactive materials can go nowhere. Even how they wash the roof, wall, road, ditch and everything in the towns, there is no place for the water, cloth or debris to go.

LDP answered that it needs further consideration, because there are opinions of evacuees both wanting to go back and thinking return unlikely. Although LDP’s attitude is irresponsible as the leading party, the answer is based on the truth of sufferers. Regardless who is responsible for the contaminated land, the fact is the reactors are still not stable, decontamination effort is showing its limitation, and there are not many who definitely go back their home town. Parties should not take this issue as reconstruction or energy strategy, but as human rights of the people in Japan.