This is Japan Desk Scotland’s 13th Fukushima documentary, based on interviews carried out in Fukushima in July 2024.
Fukushima nuclear power plant accident of March 2011 released a significant amount of radionuclides into the environment. Since then some scientists at Fukushima University have chased the movement of radionuclides in the environment, especially radio caesium 137 with half-life of 30 years. Their primary aim is to assess the impacts of radio caesium on various elements of the environment, such as river water, river fish, flowers, honeybees, mushrooms, or trees. Their work also provides insights into how each eco system works. For example, a certain kind of mushroom/fungi forms a symbiotic relationship with a certain kind of a tree. The fungi collects minerals in soil and pass them on to the tree’s roots, enabling the tree leaves to achieve photosynthesis. In return, the fungi receives organic matters produced by photosynthesis.
Following the release of radionuclides into land and sea, a large number of residents near the troubled nuclear power plant were evacuated. The government wanted to return them as soon as possible. To achieve this aim, contamination work has been carried out by removing top layers of soil, where radio caesium remains. The work started from less contaminated areas towards more contaminated ones, but it hasn’t touch upon forests. Decontaminating forests isn’t economically feasible, and if the aboveground biomass is removed, forests may die. Forests will remain as the reservoir of radio caesium in the foreseeable future. Radio caesium is circulating in forests, where rivers start to flow. How does radio caesium transfer from forests to river water and river fish?
Tomioka Town is located within 20km radius of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and all its residents (about 16,000) were evacuated after the accident. Ever since the Town has seen extensive decontamination work. Its primary objective was to return the evacuees. Now the Town has about 2,000 residents, but more than half of them are those who didn’t reside in the Town at the time the accident. This may not be the situation the Town expected to see, but it may be a blessing for the Town. Why do these new comers decide to come to Tomioka? What have they found while living in Tomioka?
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Camera: Fumi Nakabachi
Directed and edited by: Yushin Toda
Produced by Fumi Nakabachi and Yushin Toda, Japan Desk Scotland
75 minutes
In Japanese with English subtitles
© Japan Desk Scotland 2025
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This documentary has been shown
(1) on Sunday 22 June 2025 at Kelvin West Church, Glasgow, Scotland; and
(2) on Wednesday 26 November 2025 at Moving Image Archive, National Library of Scotland at Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, Scotland, as part of ‘The Lotus Club: documentary series’.