Decontamination Of Homes Less Than 20% Complete

Why does that headline surprise me? It shouldn't, but it does.

According to a report from NHK news in Japan, over 80 per cent of the homes in Japan that have been described as requiring radioactive decontamination following the Fukushima-ken Dai-ichi nuclear accident in 2011 still have not been completed.

Eighty bloody percent. That's disgusting.

There are 58 towns, villages and cities in a total of seven prefectures in and around Fukushima-ken that were looked at by the Environmental Ministry of Japan this past August, with the government stating that: 

• decontamination work at 69 per cent of the schools and childcare centers had been completed; 
• 51 per cent of the road decontamination had been completed;
• 38 per cent of parks and sports facilities had been decontaminated.

But, according to the Ministry, of the nearly 100,000 homes slated for removal of radioactive substances, only about 17,000 had been completed. That's 17 per cent.

Oh my Buddha! What's going on Japanese government?! People first! What's the point of fixing up schools and daycares and sporting facilities and parks if there is no one in the areas who can enjoy them?

People are being forced to live in places NOT their homes!

Meanwhile, you spend resources and donate funds to keep a bunch of useless islands no one has ever been to.

Why don't you sell the islands to China? Or those other ones to Russia... of course, you have to prove you own this land, first.

Screw it. Stop wasting money and do something to actually help people who need some help... people whose only crime was that they happen to live in an area where nuclear fallout could happen after the second-most powerful global earthquake on record causes one of the worst tsunami disasters ever.

Certainly 100,000 homes requiring decontamination work is a difficult job, and surely companies from all over Japan and the world are being contracted to do the job - but dammit! It's not enough. It's not fast enough.

Being disenfranchised is not a happy proposition for anyone. It's been nearly 19 months (March 11, 2011) since the twin disasters help spawn the radioactive concerns of this article.

Stop pussy-footing around! Give the homeless people a timeline and bloody stick to it, or… let them move in with you until the job is done.

Cheers
Andrew Joseph