Iitate, Fukushima

• Fukushima Prefecture
  • Date
  • Sōma
  • Minamisōma
  • Namie
  • Kawamata

Iitate suffered from moderate damage from the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, and was located outside the nominal 30 kilometres (19 miles) radiation exclusion zone of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. However, as a result of wind patterns following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, on 30 March 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency stated that its operational criteria for evacuation were exceeded in Iitate, despite the village being outside the existing radiation exclusion zone around the plant.[5] As a result, the entire population of the village was evacuated by government order on 22 April 2011.[6] Some displaced children from the village were shunned after relocating for fear of contamination.[7][8] In early June about 1,500 residents remained.[6] By August, only about 120 residents, mostly elderly, remained.[9]

In 2012, local government obtained responses from a survey from some 1,743 former residents began experiencing growing frustration and instability due to the nuclear crisis and an inability to return to the lives they were living before the disaster. Sixty percent of respondents stated that their health and the health of their families had deteriorated after evacuating.[10]

Summarizing all responses to questions related to evacuees' current family status, one-third of all surveyed families live apart from their children, while 50.1 percent live away from other family members (including elderly parents) with whom they lived before the disaster. The survey also showed that 34.7 percent of the evacuees have suffered reductions in income of 50 percent or more since the outbreak of the nuclear disaster. A total of 36.8 percent reported a lack of sleep, while 17.9 percent reported smoking or drinking more than before they evacuated.[10]

In March 2012, the village was divided into three zones: in the first, people were free to go in and out but not allowed to stay overnight; in the second, access was limited to short visits; and in the third area, all entry was forbidden because of elevated radiation levels that were not expected to go down within five years after the accident. All restrictions were to be lifted for a small area of northern Iitate, but the majority of the village was cleared only for the daylight return of residents. The majority of the village was to remain totally closed until at least 2016.[11] However, in March 2014, the government postponed lifting of the restrictions on return for a year due to remaining high levels of radiation.[12][13]

The evacuation order was lifted on April 1, 2017, with the exception of a small area in southern Iitate bordering on the neighbouring town of Namiie, which remains a no-entry zone. However, only a third of the former residents expressed an intention of returning.[14]

• Iitate does not have any passenger train services.

• National Route 399