– Residents continuing to flee Fukushima one year after disasters: ministry (Japan Times/Jiji, June 28, 2012):
Fukushima saw a net outflow of 9,779 residents between March and May this year, indicating the prefecture is continuing to lose residents more than 12 months after the nuclear crisis started, according to data compiled by the internal affairs ministry.
However, the findings also showed that around 45 percent fewer residents departed compared to the mass exodus of 17,524 in the same period last year, following the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant sparked by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Communities in Fukushima suffered some of the worst losses and damages from the tsunami, which swept deep inland. In the other two worst-hit prefectures, Iwate saw a net outflow of 3,225 people from March to May, down from 4,040 the previous year.
In contrast, Miyagi had a net inflow of 1,249, compared to the 10,188 who fled last year following the natural and nuclear disasters.
Meanwhile, the number of people who moved from the Tokyo metropolitan area to urban areas in and around Osaka and Nagoya between March and May this year increased 9.1 percent from 2010, while the number of new arrivals fell 5 percent.