Local News

According to the Reconstruction Agency, the number of persons who have evacuated to Kyushu from the areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake rose by 51 to 2,429 (as of Feb. 7). On the second anniversary of the disaster, Kyushu continues to attract evacuees from Tohoku amid lingering concerns about recovery and decontamination efforts, even though refugees in other regions have started to return home. About 31,500 people evacuated the Tohoku region in 2011, but this number fell to 28,000 last year. Despite this, the number of evacuees has increased in both Kyushu and Shikoku. While Nagasaki, Saga, Oita and Kagoshima saw evacuee numbers fall slightly, evacuees increased by 747 in Fukuoka, 84 in Kumamoto and four in Miyazaki. About half of the evacuees, or 1,132 persons, are from Fukushima prefecture, with the remainder hailing from Miyagi, Iwate and “other areas”. ACT Kumamoto, an evacuee support group, attributes the increase in evacuees to “the kindness of Kyushu people, the abundance of safe produce and the large number of support groups”. In the wake of the disaster, Kyushu has also forged new ties with Tohoku. Over the past two years, 204 civil servants (excluding police officers and firefighters) have been sent to the affected regions to provide support in areas such as civil engineering and agriculture. Source: Nishinippon Shimbun, Mar. 11

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