FUKUSHIMA – Newly appointed reconstruction minister Wataru Takeshita visited Fukushima Prefecture on Thursday, as evacuees from the triple core meltdown in 2011 raised concerns about his selection for the post.
[…]Residents in areas hit hard by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, however, have raised concerns about the prime minister’s new Cabinet members, including the reconstruction minister and the central government’s stance toward local recovery efforts.“A lawmaker from one of the Tohoku prefectures of Fukushima, Iwate or Miyagi was not appointed, and it strikes me that we are not being taken seriously,” said Masaatsu Amano, a 76-year-old resident living in temporary housing in the city of Koriyama.
Amano, who is originally from Futaba, one of the towns co-hosting the heavily damaged Fukushima No. 1 power plant, evacuated with the other residents to escape the radiation ejected by the crippled plant.
“I wonder if the government’s attention is too focused on national security issues and the (2020) Tokyo Olympics, and if the disaster-hit areas will be left behind,” he said.
[…]
“Nothing has been reconstructed. Whoever takes the post, it won’t make any difference,” said a 62-year-old female evacuee.
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