Photo/Illutration A staff member opens a gate that blocked the entry of people and vehicles into Katsurao, Fukushima Prefecture, on June 12. (Shigetaka Kodama)

KATSURAO, Fukushima Prefecture--More than 11 years after the Fukushima nuclear accident forced them to flee their homes, evacuees were finally allowed to come home in part of the most heavily contaminated areas here on June 12. 

However, only a fraction have chosen to do so, in a bittersweet return as some restrictions remain as well as concerns of high radiation levels. 

“Roughly 11 years after the accident, we have finally reached the starting line for reconstruction,” Hiroshi Shinoki, mayor of Katsurao village, said on June 12.

It marked the first time an evacuation order has been lifted for a residential area in the government-designated “difficult-to-return” zone in Fukushima Prefecture since the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Residents who fled from the Noyuki district of the village were allowed to restart their lives there on June 12, but only around 10 percent of them are expected to return home for the time being.

The district is located about 20 kilometers west of the crippled nuclear plant and part of the difficult-to-return zone.

At 8 a.m. on June 12, staff from the government’s local nuclear emergency response headquarters began removing barricades erected to prevent people and vehicles from entering Noyuki.

Eighty-two people from 30 households are currently registered as residents of the district, according to the village.

Of these, eight people of four households, including four people of two households who returned there immediately after the lifting of the evacuation order, are planning to restart their lives in Noyuki.

Among them is Fujio Hanzawa, 69, who built a new home in the district six months ago to prepare for the lifting of the evacuation order. The house has a control panel installed at the front door by a security firm that monitors his home while he is away.

“I’ll probably return here only for about six months of the year, so I signed a contract with a security firm for the first time,” he said. “I think that’s rare among villagers.”

Hanzawa decided to return to Noyuki but will continue living with his family 40 km away in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture.

He said he is not ready to return home permanently because of restrictions on food. Before the nuclear disaster, he rarely bought vegetables at stores but grew them in the fields or shared his harvests with his neighbors and vice versa.

The evacuation order was lifted for Noyuki, but restrictions will likely remain in place for the time being on consuming edible wild plants and mushrooms whose radiation levels are still high.

“I’m still wary of eating locally grown vegetables even if their safety is confirmed in testing,” said Hanzawa.

“Life in the city I evacuated to is convenient,” he said. “But I feel comfortable living in a regional area where I spent more than 50 years of my life feeling the breeze in each season.”

Radiation levels in Noyuki dropped below the threshold for lifting the evacuation order after the Environment Ministry carried out decontamination work, mainly in the residential area.

But many residents are reluctant to return home because readings are still four to five times higher than pre-disaster levels, according to the village.

Following the triple meltdown at the plant in March 2011, the central government issued evacuation orders for areas where annual radiation doses were estimated to reach 20 millisieverts, including all of Katsurao.

The government also designated areas with readings of 50 millisieverts a year as a difficult-to-return zone, which covered seven municipalities, including most of Katsurao.

In 2016, Katsurao villagers whose homes were located in areas with readings of under 50 millisieverts a year were allowed to return, but less than 30 percent have done so, according to the village.

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