1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

Fukushima five years on

March 12, 2016

5 years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the exclusion zone is to be made habitable again.

Japan Fukushima Wohngebiet Sperrzone
Image: Getty Images/C.Furlong

Fukushima five years on

12:07

This browser does not support the video element.

Until the Fukushima disaster, Toru Anzai lived near the nuclear power plant, but on March 11, 2011, an earthquake and tsunami triggered a core meltdown. Four of the Japanese power plant's six reactor blocks were damaged. Large amounts of radioactive material were released. As a result, 170,000 people had to be evacuated. Anzai was one of them, because his house and land were contaminated. Now the Japanese government wants the evacuees to return. Work on decontaminating the evacuation zone is in full swing. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government wants to gradually lift a series of evacuation orders by March 2017. But because of the radioactive contamination that still exists, many people are unwilling to return. Anzai also has his doubts. He sets off to visit his house. What will he decide to do?

Skip next section DW's Top Story

DW's Top Story

Skip next section More stories from DW