15 years after Fukushima disaster, Japan struggles with rising maintenance costs

Japan on Wednesday marked 15 years since a devastating earthquake and tsunami struck the country’s northeastern areas, triggering the world’s worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl crisis. The triple disasters of the magnitude-9.0 earthquake, resulting tsunami and meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex led to the loss of more than 22,000 lives. The plant’s operator is still struggling to dismantle the damaged facilities by 2051. The central government stopped hosting memorial services in Tokyo in 2022, but Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is set to attend a ceremony hosted by Fukushima prefecture. The latest figures from the National Police Agency put the death toll from the disasters at 15,901 people, while 2,519 were still missing as of the end of February, mostly from Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate prefectures. However, while the police and other groups have worked to search for and identify the remains of the victims, changes to the terrain and the passage of time have further hindered efforts that were already complicated by damage to the bodies. The remains of many victims who were found in distant locations could not be identified, and some family members who had been searching for their loved ones also fell victim to the disasters. Deaths related to the disasters, such as from illness or stress-induced suicide, stood at 3,810 as of December 31, according to the Reconstruction Agency. Around 26,000 people also remained displaced from the region as of February 1, it said. However, since evacuation orders were lifted for some municipalities in Fukushima prefecture, a record 3,799 people from 2,700 families have moved there, as the prefecture tries to boost its appeal despite a housing shortage. Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has faced challenges in its efforts to decommission the crippled nuclear plant by 2051, pushing back plans for a full-scale retrieval of melted fuel debris from the early 2030s to fiscal 2037 or later. Tepco has retrieved small samples of fuel debris from the No 2 reactor, totalling less than 1 gram (0.4oz) in weight. The company plans to use a robot arm for its third retrieval on a trial basis this autumn. It is estimated that 880 tonnes (970 tons) of debris remain in Nos 1 to 3 reactors that suffered core meltdowns during the nuclear crisis. Increased costs Maintenance costs in the 2024 financial year for infrastructure in affected areas were 1.51 times higher than before the disaster, according to a recent study by Kyodo News. The costs of maintaining and managing public housing for disaster victims and sea walls, among other facilities, by the three prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima and 41 municipalities in those prefectures totalled at least 146 billion yen (US$923.7 million), data compiled by Tuesday showed. While massive public funds were used for reconstruction, the cost of maintaining it is borne by the central and prefectural governments as well as municipalities. “There were some infrastructure projects pushed in the name of reconstruction that were beyond the means of the municipality. Maintenance fees have become a massive issue as they overlap with the need to address the deterioration of buildings from before the disasters,” a local administration expert said. From December last year through to February, Kyodo compared the infrastructure maintenance costs across seven categories – from public housing, roads, to healthcare facilities – from the 2010 and 2024 financial years in three prefectures and 42 municipalities. One city in Fukushima did not have data from 2010 for all the items. Fees for 2024 in Iwate and 12 municipalities within the prefecture totalled around 21.6 billion yen, up 1.51 times from 15 years prior, while those in Miyagi and 15 municipalities rose by 1.67 times to around 64.9 billion yen. Those for Fukushima and 14 municipalities stood at about 59.4 billion yen, up 1.37 times. Just two towns – Hirono in Iwate and Onagawa in Miyagi – reported a reduction. Increases in maintenance costs were especially high for floodgates and sea walls, which more than tripled to 1.2 billion yen in 2024 in the three prefectures. The barriers were automated after people who went to manually close them were killed in the disaster, leading to additional personnel and electricity costs for security checks. Public housing maintenance fees were up 2.94-fold to around 13.3 billion yen, while those for government buildings and community centres rose 1.51-fold to about 23.9 billion yen.

15 years after Fukushima disaster, Japan struggles with rising maintenance costs

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The costs of maintaining public housing for disaster victims and sea walls in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima total over US$923.7 million

The costs of maintaining public housing for disaster victims and sea walls in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima total over US$923.7 million