The Japanese government ordered the operator of a tsunami-damaged nuclear plant yesterday to pay about US$12,000 to each household forced to evacuate because of leaking radiation, but some of the displaced slammed the handout as too little.
Tens of thousands of residents unable to return to their homes near the nuclear plant are bereft of their livelihoods and possessions, unsure of when, if ever, they will be able to return home. Some have traveled hundreds of kilometers to Tokyo Electric Power Co’s (TEPCO) headquarters in Tokyo to press their demands for compensation.
TEPCO will start paying -compensation on April 28, with families forced to evacuate getting ¥1 million (US$12,030) and individuals getting ¥750,000, Japanese trade ministry spokesman Hiroaki Wada said.
“There are around 150 evacuation centers alone. It will take some time until everyone gets money, but we want the company to quickly do this to support people’s lives,” Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Banri Kaieda said at a news conference.
The arrangement is a provisional one, with more compensation expected, Wada said. About 48,000 households living within about 30km of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant would be eligible for the payments.
“I’m not satisfied,” said Kazuko Suzuki, a 49-year-old single mother of two teenagers from the town of Futuba, adjacent to the plant.
She has lived at a shelter at a high school north of Tokyo for the last month.
Her family has had to buy clothes, food, shampoo and other basics because they fled the area on government orders without taking time to pack. She has lost her job as a welfare worker and a job prospect for her 18-year-old fell through because of the effects of the disaster.
“We’ve had to spend money on so many extra things and we don’t know how long this could go on,” she said.
Akemi Osumi, a 48-year-old mother of three also from Futuba, said the money was a “small step,” but that it didn’t fairly compensate larger families. Her family is living at the same shelter, but also must rent an apartment for her eldest son to go to a vocational school.
“¥1 million doesn’t go very far,” she said. “I’m not convinced at just ¥1 million per family. If it was dependent on the size of the family I’d understand, but it’s not.”
TEPCO’s president Masataka Shimizu formally announced the plan, saying he wanted the payments to be made “fairly and quickly.”
TEPCO expects to pay ¥50 billion in government-ordered compensation, but Shimizu said that ¥2 trillion was needed to resolve the continuing problems with the plant and to restart conventional power stations to make up for power shortages.
The company is still struggling to stabilize the nuclear plant, which saw its cooling systems fail after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake on March 11 triggered a massive tsunami that wrecked emergency backup systems as well as much of the plant’s regular equipment.
Radiation leaks from the crisis have contaminated crops and left fishermen in the region unable to sell their catches, a huge blow to an area heavily dependent on fishing and farming.
Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato has vigorously criticized both TEPCO and the central government for their handling of the disaster, demanding faster action.
“This is just a beginning. The accident has not ended. We will continue to ask the government and TEPCO to fully compensate evacuees.”
About 140,000 people are still living in shelters after losing their homes or being advised to evacuate because of concerns about radiation.
Seeking to console evacuees, Japan’s emperor visited the country’s disaster zone for the first time on Thursday.
In Asahi, where 13 people were killed and about 3,000 homes damaged, Emperor Akihito, 77, and Empress Michiko got their first look at the devastation, somberly gazing at a plot of land where a home once stood and also commiserating with evacuees at two shelters.
The royal couple kneeled on mats to speak quietly with the survivors, who bowed in gratitude and wiped away tears.
One evacuee with Down syndrome who has trouble speaking wrote, “I will keep striving” in a small notebook he showed to the emperor and empress.
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