Socially Constructed Awareness of Radioactive Risks: A Case Study of Iitate Village

This study was based on a case study of Iitate Village. A forced evacuation order issued by the Japanese Government, due to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant accident triggered by Northeastern Great Earthquake Disaster occurred on March 11th, 2011, has been released for the most part of the village since April 1, 2017. I interviewed 4 types of evacuees: a) who returned to the village after he had resumed farming outside the village; b) who did not return to the village after he had resumed farming outside the village; c) who returned to the village after he had stopped farming; and d) who did not return to the village after he had stopped farming, and documented the process to reach the present situations, especially regarding with the awareness of radioactive risks. Before the Nuclear Power Plant accident, there were approximately 960 farms in Iitate Village. After the forced evacuation, approximately 20 farmers resumed farming outside the village using diverse farming styles. The main findings of this study were: 1) type a and b farmers both shared a strong will “to engage in farming again'' by obtaining farmlands in newly-settled places using public funds because the compensation for the damage paid by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) was insufficient although it played an important role in several cases; 2) type a and c farmers decided to return to the village because of their assurance that the radioactivity declined to the safe level although most of them were over 60 years old; 3) the awareness of the radioactive risks was quite different from one another because of not only the radioactive dose but also an individual situation; and 4) the individual situation was influenced by social conflicts among village people, and vice versa.