More than 100,000 Fukushima Prefecture residents are still not able to return to their municipalities due to the ongoing nuclear disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, a Mainichi survey has found.

As of the end of August, a total of 101,931 residents from 12 cities, towns and villages in Fukushima Prefecture that are subject to a range of evacuation measures were forced to live outside their municipalities. Some locations near the crippled nuclear power plant are estimated to be contaminated with accumulated radiation doses of more than 500 millisieverts a year, diminishing residents’ hopes of a homecoming anytime soon.

Even areas away from the plant are still suffering from a sharp decline in the number of tourists and sluggish financial conditions, underscoring the impact of the nuclear crisis that is plaguing Fukushima Prefecture six months on from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that started it.

The Mainichi Shimbun asked 12 municipalities in the no-go zones, planned evacuation zones, and emergency evacuation preparation zone how many of their residents had been evacuated to other municipalities as of Aug. 31. The city of Minamisoma had the most evacuees, at 25,184, followed by the town of Namie at 20,115.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology estimates that annual radiation doses will top 20 millisieverts at 35 locations within the no-go zones. Decontamination is also a major issue faced by affected municipalities in the emergency evacuation preparation zones. As of Sept. 8, a total of 16 elementary and junior high schools in such zones remained closed.

The estimated population of Fukushima Prefecture has also dipped below 2 million for the first time in 33 years, standing at 1,997,400 as of July 1. While the prefecture’s population had already been on the decline since before the nuclear crisis, the number of residents who moved out of the prefecture rose to 32,471 between March and June — 1.7 times higher than the figure a year earlier. Including those who had not shifted their residence certificates from Fukushima to where they live now, 55,793 residents had evacuated out of the prefecture as of Aug. 25.

The nuclear disaster has also cast a shadow on Fukushima’s economy and employment. The industrial output index dropped to 86.1 in June from the 2005 level of 100. Although the figure has recovered from the 79.9 recorded in May, it still fell shy of the level of 95.8 marked in February before the nuclear disaster broke out.

The number of employment insurance beneficiaries came to 23,862 in July, up 1.9 times from the same month last year, while 8,881 people were seeking work as of Aug. 21 after they lost their jobs due to the disaster.

The city of Aizuwakamatsu — a popular destination for school trips — saw a steep decline in the number of visitors on school trips, with only 2,506 students from 31 schools coming between April and August. During the same period last year, 43,785 students from 545 schools had visited the city.

Mainichi Shimbun