Kawabusa is a small village. It is located 15km northwest of Fukushima Daiichi NPP. Twenty kilometer radius of the Daiichi was completely shut for one year after the accident. Living restriction was cancelled in July 2016. Before the nuclear accident, Kawabusa had 73 families but now it has 12 families. Most of 20 returnees are over 60 years old. Other former villagers have already established their new life outside of the nuclear disaster area and would not return.

Returnee

Seimei Sasaki is one of the 20 returnees. The 93 years old man lived with his first son’s family before the accident. Now the younger family members resumed their flower shop near Tokyo and will not return. He was covered by the Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/10/fukushima-eight-years-on-evacuees-come-home

Contaminated soil bags occupy the village

Ministry of Environment cut the top soil of the village and stored it on rice fields in the village. The temporary soil storage has been occupying the farmland since 2014. The bags will be transported into the soil storage area near Fukushima Daiichi probably in a couple of years.

Solar power to rebuild the village

The villagers introduced a big solar park for raising fund to rebuild the village in 2014. They establish a committee with 5 villagers to maintain the farmland and living environment using the money from the solar park.

Rebuilding the village

Now the price of rice from Fukushima is 20% rower than the average in the market. Resuming rice field is not practical. The committee plans to reuse the rice field for grass farming for cows or flower park. The committee will maintain the village clean by cutting weed and cleaning up the irrigation channels.