By SHOKO RIKIMARU/ Staff Writer
March 7, 2024 at 19:01 JST
A customer drops a letter in a mailbox outside a post office that reopens in Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, on March 7, 13 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake. (Shoko Rikimaru)
FUTABA, Fukushima Prefecture--Thirteen years after the Fukushima nuclear accident, a local post office here finally reopened in a symbolic step toward normalcy.
Local residents are gradually returning to the area that became a ghost town following the triple meltdowns at the nearby Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Local officials and residents held a ceremony on March 7 to celebrate the reopening, four days before the 13th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, which claimed more than 22,000 lives.
“We want to contribute to the town’s revival and development,” said postmaster Norio Sasaki.
“I’ve been waiting for this day, it’s another small step forward to make life here better,” said Miyuki Ishii, 86, who visited the post office to mail a parcel to a friend. “Now I can receive my pension here, too.”
The reopened post office offers the same range of services as before the disaster, including banking and life insurance alongside postal services.
The nuclear accident forced the evacuation of all 7,000 residents from the town. As decontamination efforts progressed, evacuation orders were lifted in stages in the town center by August 2022.
However, 85 percent of the town remains under evacuation orders.
Currently, 102 people are living in the town, mainly in the municipal housing complex west of Futaba Station, according to the municipality. Notably, 60 percent of them are not originally from the town.
The town hall reopened in 2022, followed by the town's first post-disaster convenience store in the following year. However, the community still lacks essential amenities such as schools and supermarkets.
A total of 159 post offices were damaged in the three prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, according to Japan Post Co.’s Tohoku region branch.
Across the seven municipalities of Fukushima, 16 post offices remain closed, mainly smaller franchised outlets located in evacuation zones.
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