TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan still maintains the highest-level travel alert for Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture, meaning that any travel to the potentially radiation-affected area should be avoided, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday.
Three years after the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster took place on March 11, 2011, MOFA has still not lifted the red travel alert for the whole of Fukushima Prefecture, especially the area within 30 kilometers of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, a MOFA official told local media yesterday.
Under MOFA’s color coded travel advisory system, a red alert is the highest level of warning. MOFA urged Taiwanese travelers not to visit the area for the time being due to safety concerns, the official said.
The official made the comments in response to reporters’ questions on a possible visit by first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青) to the prefecture during her trip to Japan next month.
Local media reported earlier this week that MOFA is arranging for Chow to visit Japan to attend an exhibition of treasured Chinese artifacts belonging to Taiwan’s National Palace Museum next month.
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◇According to this report, “The reason the Presidential Office is planning the visit by Chow to Fukushima is to highlight the government’s commitment to ensuring the safety of the nation’s nuclear power plants at a time when the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) has been plagued by widespread doubts over its safety.”
