Chinese tourists are drawn to nuclear disaster-hit Fukushima despite radiation fears

Tourists – mainly from China – are flocking to Futaba, the town which is home to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, undeterred by lingering radiation threats from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

On Tuesday, Japan marked the 14th anniversary of the disaster, and even after more than a decade, over 80 per cent of Futaba remains uninhabitable due to radiation contamination.

However, tourists cannot resist the thrill of treading where few have gone before.

Last year, around 4,000 foreigners visited a memorial museum dedicated to the nuclear crisis, which opened in the Fukushima Prefecture town in 2020, Japan Today reported.

In one corner of the museum is a signboard where tourists can leave their mark by placing a sticker representing their home country. As of January, 43 nations were represented, with China accounting for roughly a third of some 180 stickers.

A message in Chinese, left by a visitor at the entrance, read: “May the wounds left by the disaster in Fukushima soon heal.”