The Olympic torch relay that begins in Japan this month will start from Fukushima, highlighting what the government dubs the "Recovery Olympics", but not everyone in the region will be cheering.

The area devastated by the 2011 tsunami and ensuing nuclear disaster remains deeply affected by the crisis, with tens of thousands still living in exile from their homes.

"Fukushima has other things to worry about than the Tokyo Games," read a banner at a demonstration organised last month outside the J-Village in Fukushima, where the Olympic torch relay begins March 26.

"In ordinary times, we'd be delighted for the Fukushima region to be in the international spotlight because of the Olympic flame," said Hiromu Murata, head of the Hidanren association, which assists evacuees from the region.

"But we're still suffering," added Murata, himself an evacuee.

When the tsunami that left 18,500 people dead or missing overwhelmed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in 2011, it unleashed the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

People were evacuated from large areas, and despite an extensive decontamination programme involving the removal of topsoil, at least 41,000 have not returned, according to official figures. Activists say the number is higher.

Evacuation orders have been lifted progressively, including recently in a small part of the town of Futaba, which jointly hosts the crippled nuclear plant.

With just a few months to go ahead of the opening ceremony, preparations have been hit by the outbreak of the new coronavirus around the world, with sporting events cancelled and some even questioning if the Games can go ahead.

The flame lands on March 20 in Miyagi prefecture, which was ravaged by the tsunami unleashed by an undersea quake on March 11, 2011.

Celebrations have been toned down because of the virus, with plans scrapped to involve 200 children in the welcoming ceremony, and organisers warning spectators may be limited during the torch relay.

In February, Olympic organisers announced Futaba would be added to the route at the request of the prefecture's governor.

But there is no expectation that residents will return to the town before at least 2022, with basic infrastructure including running water still not available.

- 'Humiliating to us' -

Ruiko Muto, 66, an anti-nuclear activist from Fukushima, finds the Olympic focus misplaced and is angry to see the J-Village used for the relay.

"The torch relay starting from here is humiliating to us," she told AFP.

"To us, people in Fukushima, using this place and having the Olympic torch relay start from here seems to be an attempt by the government to cover up the nuclear accident," she added.

"We are not in a situation to host the Olympics," she said, citing ongoing displacement and issues including accumulated contaminated soil and water.

"I don't think there are many people who can truly enjoy the Games."

Those views aren't shared by everyone, with Fukushima governor Masao Uchibori telling journalists that he sees the J-Village as a symbol of reconstruction efforts.

The sports complex became a staging ground for responding to the nuclear accident, and only reopened officially last year.

- Evacuees losing subsidies -

Miyako Kumamoto, another member of the Hidanren NGO, doesn't agree, pointing to the plight of evacuees who are seeing their housing assistance cut as the government lifts evacuation orders.

Activists argue the government wants to declare the crisis over even while many are unwilling to return to areas they feel are potentially contaminated.

Kumamoto said some of those who initially received public housing for free have found themselves forced to pay rent that has gradually increased, and then finally been asked to leave.

An official with Fukushima prefecture in charge of housing denied that was a widespread problem.

"There are only five households left in that situation. We are helping them find housing, but it is hard to communicate with them," he said.

But Kumamoto questions why the government is cutting subsidies to people while the Games is costing over $12 billion.

"Some of the people who lived in an area recently declared habitable are reticent to return but the state and the local government are cutting their subsidies to live elsewhere," she said.

"Fukushima is not in a place to celebrate the Olympic Games."

Fukushima hotspots make headlines before Olympics, but what's the risk?
Tokyo (AFP) March 9, 2020 - Warnings of radiation hotspots in parts of Fukushima that will host the Olympic torch relay and several sporting events have made headlines, but what is the risk for athletes and spectators?

Since the 2011 tsunami that triggered the Fukushima nuclear accident, Japan has carried out extensive decontamination in affected areas and lifted evacuation orders.

It hopes the Games will showcase recovery in areas devastated by the tsunami that left over 18,500 people dead and missing, and unleashed the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

But activists, including local NGOs and Greenpeace, have been vocally critical of government efforts and made a splash with the discovery last year of multiple radioactive hotspots near the start of the Olympic torch relay route.

Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Kazue Suzuki argues the Japanese government is "deceiving people" by underplaying what the NGO calls ongoing health risks.

"You don't have to be scared all the time, but you have to be aware of the risk," Suzuki told AFP.

At issue are patches of ground where Greenpeace said they detected radiation levels of 1.7 microsieverts per hour at one metre (one yard) above the surface.

That compares with the nationally allowed safety standard of 0.23 microsieverts per hour and a normal reading in Tokyo of around 0.04 microsieverts per hour.

The hotspots showed a reading of 71 microsieverts per hour at the surface level, Greenpeace said.

"That's the tip of the iceberg, we think. There must be other hotspots," said Suzuki.

"We request broader monitoring."

Greenpeace argues the hotspots pose a threat less from radiation, but more if contaminated soil is inhaled in the form of dust.

"Chances (of adverse health effects) are very, very low, but you cannot deny the risk... you shouldn't just say there's no problem, especially with that high contamination," Suzuki said.

- Government defends measures -

After the hotspots were detected, Tokyo Electric (TEPCO), the plant's operator, removed the contaminated topsoil, and government officials say the area is safe.

"Every time we consider the possibility of lifting an evacuation order, first of all decontamination takes place and thereafter stringent monitoring is conducted," Fukushima governor Masao Uchibori told journalists in February.

"In deciding the route for the torch relay, we conducted another round of monitoring in order to ensure the complete safety of the runners and spectators," he added.

And experts on radiation and the Fukushima accident say the risks posed by the hotspots are often misunderstood.

"I would not say that radiation is harmless, but it depends on the exposure dose," said Koichi Tanigawa, director of the Futaba Medical Centre Hospital in Fukushima.

While the hotspot readings are high, they pose no risk of "any radiation injuries or health effects," said Tanigawa, an expert on radiation emergencies who has worked in the region since the 2011 accident.

Tanigawa lives five miles from the nuclear plant and said his personal exposure has remained "lower than the annual exposure doses of the public in other countries".

"From a medical point of view, I do not think that there would be any adverse health effects to runners or spectators in Fukushima," he added.

- 'Risk is vanishingly small' -

Malcolm Sperrin, a professor of radiation medicine at Oxford University Hospitals, also argues the risk posed by the hotspots is minimal.

"There is no doubt that everyone wishes that the radiation had not been released," he told AFP.

"But if you clean up properly and restrict access to the affected areas, then the actual risk is vanishingly small."

Data on cancer in the affected area is not conclusive, said Tanigawa, but overall incidence and organ-specific rates are mostly lower than national levels.

Thyroid cancer levels are higher, but this may be the result of dedicated screening programmes which detected small cancers that might otherwise have gone unnoticed, he added.

Radiation readings should be understood in context, said Geraldine Thomas, director of the Chernobyl Tissue Bank and chair of molecular pathology at Imperial College London.

"Are these readings a surprise? No they are not. Is this a significant health concern? Absolutely not," she told AFP.

She said neither radiation nor inhalation of dirt from hotspots should be a concern for people.

"The doses that they would realistically be exposed to are minuscule compared with a return flight to Japan," said Thomas, an expert on radiation and thyroid cancer who has studied the Fukushima accident.

"You would be mad to turn down the chance of representing your country at the Olympics," she said.

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Japan lifts evacuation order for part of disaster-hit Fukushima town
Tokyo (AFP) March 4, 2020
Japan on Wednesday lifted an evacuation order for parts of Futaba, one of two towns where the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is located, ahead of an Olympic torch relay in the region. The whole of Futaba, formerly home to some 7,000 people, was designated a mandatory evacuation zone after a massive quake-triggered tsunami in 2011 hit the Fukushima Daiichi plant, damaging the power supply and cooling system and eventually causing a meltdown. With the lifting of the mandatory evacuation order in ... read more