The Japanese government on Monday lifted an evacuation order for parts of a village near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, meaning entry restrictions are no longer in place in any designated reconstruction base across six municipalities in the area.

The restrictions were removed for the village of Iitate after the lifting of similar orders in five other municipalities that began in June 2022. The restrictions have been in place since the March 2011 nuclear disaster left the areas inhabitable due to high radiation levels.

Gates to a previously restricted section of Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, are opened after an evacuation order was lifted on May 1, 2023. (Kyodo)

The five other municipalities where restrictions have been lifted earlier are Futaba, Namie, Tomioka, Okuma and Katsurao.

In the wake of the nuclear disaster, the government imposed a "difficult-to-return" zone across a 337-square-kilometer area of Fukushima straddling seven municipalities. The zone is, in principle, inaccessible due to high levels of radiation.

Within that zone, around 27 square kilometers of land in six of the municipalities were listed as "reconstruction and revitalization" bases, where state-funded decontamination work and infrastructure projects have been carried out to facilitate the return of residents.

The latest change covers a 1.86 sq. km section of Iitate that was designated as one of the bases.

The evacuation order for the village was also lifted for an area outside the base. It was a first for such an order to be lifted for somewhere outside the base.

Iitate is located between 30 and 50 kilometers northwest of the Fukushima Daiichi power station, which suffered a multiple-reactor meltdown in the wake of the massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

Residents and others take a photo in front of a newly completed community center in a designated reconstruction base area in the village of Iitate in Fukushima Prefecture on May 1, 2023. (Kyodo)

The entire village was put under an evacuation order which in March 2017 was lifted for 95 percent of its area. But a southern district of the village remained a "difficult-to-return" zone.

Of this zone, 17 percent was designated as a "reconstruction and revitalization" base. As of April 1, 62 households with 197 people were registered as residents there.

But despite the village's target for a population of around 180 people in five years, just three households made up of seven total people have applied for overnight stays that began in September intended as preparation for their full-scale return.


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