Okuma and Futaba, the two towns that host Tokyo Electric Power Company’s ruined Fukushima reactors, have already given their all for nuclear power. They are highly radioactive and their former residents will probably never live there again. So it is understandable that these citizens might balk at allowing radioactive waste from the disaster to be stored on their land. They rightly fear the “intermediate storage facilities,” which will hold the equivalent of 23 Tokyo Domes, will become permanent fixtures in their backyards. So the government of Shinzo Abe is reaching back to the ancient wisdom of Juvenal and offering to buy or rent properties at inflated real estate values–calculated on the assumption that the land and buildings will some day be available for use again after radiation levels have fallen far enough for evacuation orders to be lifted–plus covering the costs to relocate the grave sites of relatives. Such a deal.
At least it would be in the U.S.A., where land is abundant and ownership is relatively transient. In Japan, by contrast, many landowners are part of families that have maintained their property for centuries. If ancestors are buried on it, the sites are sacred. In other words, it is priceless. In this context, Abe’s offer is a cynical insult on top of the betrayals they have already suffered since March 11, 2011.
Update 6/23/14: So sorry for the insult.
Update 8/9/14: But how does double sound?
Update 8/23/14: Local government covers the difference. Now it’s up to more than 2000 landowners.
