Fukushima Prefecture reportedly decided to terminate free housing for voluntary evacuees by March 2017 and already began holding talks with relevant municipalities. However, there are still more than 120,000 evacuees today, with the number of voluntary evacuees estimated to exceed 30,000. Unfortunately, this number is likely to increase because the Japanese government has been scaling back official evacuation zones and forcing former official evacuees to continue their evacuation voluntarily – many of their homes are located in areas with still high levels of radioactivity, equal to or greater than those in the reduced official evacuation zones. The majority of these voluntary evacuees are mothers and children.
Housing is a lifeline for voluntary evacuees. We shall not ignore their plight. Please join us and sign the petition to help them. Our friends all over the world, we need your support!
Please SIGN NOW ! > Change.org site: https://goo.gl/itWwq0
---------------------------------
Petition deadline: 30 June 2015
To: Fukushima Governor Masao Uchibori and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Fukushima Prefecture reportedly decided to terminate free housing for voluntary evacuees of the nuclear disaster by March 2017 and already began holding talks with relevant municipalities (https://www.asahi.com/articles/DA3S11758231.html). Housing is a lifeline for evacuees. Please do not terminate the housing subsidies!
Many of the voluntary evacuees wish to continue evacuation. Given that their homes are located in areas with still high levels of radioactivity, they are unable to return out of concern for their small children. They are deeply concerned about health effects of radioactivity, and their concern is well founded: Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey has so far found 117 children either diagnosed or suspected of thyroid cancers, including eight children who had shown no abnormality during the first round of examination. Fukushima Medical University insists that no causal relationship exists between the nuclear disaster and the pediatric thyroid cancer, but the jury is still out. So please listen to what evacuees have to say.
Governor Uchibori, please act as an advocate for the prefecture that has gone through the unprecedented nuclear disaster, and request the national government to establish comprehensive housing subsidies for evacuees. Prime Minister Abe, please extend the provision of free housing for evacuees from a humanitarian perspective.
Sincerely,
(translated by Hiro SAITO)
Contact:
Friends of the Earth Japan (FoE Japan)
1-21-9 Komone, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, 173-0037
Tel：+81-3-6909-5983 Fax：+81-3-6909-5986
E-mail: info@foejapan.org
www.foejapan.org