Yauemon Sato is the owner of a 226-year-old sake brewery in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. In 2013, he launched a local power company hoping to revive a region suffering in the wake of the 2011 disaster and nuclear accident. People who know Yauemon call him “a dump truck with broken brakes”. He’s quick to put his ideas into action. He’s now working on a project to generate renewable energy in a village that was evacuated following the meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Yauemon has teamed up with farmer Minoru Kobayashi to realize his dream. But they soon had to face reality: the radioactive decontamination effort is far from over and former residents are reluctant to return. Fukushima Reborn recounts Yauemon’s passionate campaign to save the region he loves so much. The documentary looks at life in present-day Fukushima, a beautiful part of Japan struggling to get out from under a dark cloud.
NHK 12th March 2016 read more »
The need to invest in clean energy sources was highlighted by the Bedford Green Party as it marked the fifth anniversary of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster. The group met at the Bedford Against Nuclear Dumping (BAND) monument near the former Elstow Storage Depot, which the Government chose as a possible site to bury nuclear waste in the early 1980s. Following BAND’s campaign the plans were dropped. Bedford Green Party spokeswoman Lucy Bywater said with the uncertainty and economic controversy over the UK’s Hinckley Point nuclear power station, it is “pertinent to consider how we’d like our energy future to look”. She said: “Although accidents at nuclear power plants are rare, the consequences are so devastating and far reaching that it’s surely time to turn our back on this industry.
Bedford Today 16th March 2016 read more »