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As an Aussie living in Japan for almost 19 yrs, we get very little official information from public news or from the govt naturally. I live in Tokyo with my wife and 2 boys. She thrives on rumours and unofficial news that she picks up on Japanese blogs, etc. I don’t read Japanese so I depend on her (which I do take with a grain of salt).
Years back after the earthquake (I went up to help with volunteer work to help clean up Ishinomaki 6 weeks after the big event - boy, what a mess!!), there was less concern of air than there is about water & top soil. It was stated (Rumoured?? Confirmed??) that the top layer of contaminated soil was spread all around Japan.
There’s less concern for us adults as the contamination isn’t massive enough (in Tokyo), to worry about short term effects....long term effects, well....if we live till we’re 80s, we’re happy. But for our 2 boys, that’s a little more concerning. We buy our food/water sourced from down south (Kyushu area) just to be safe. But everyone else does that therefore sellers capitalise by charging higher prices. It’s hard for me to do grocery shopping too since I can’t read enough Kanji to determine which prefecture the food/vege are from - will Google Translate helps but it takes me ages to shop, so my wife does the most of it.
We don’t take holidays in Fukushima naturally, nor nearby prefectures. The last time I did volunteer work in 2011 was the last time I went up north in Honshu. I’m barred from doing astronomy with my friends in Ibaraki, so we have to do this in Chiba (or west in Fuji). Mind you this isn’t even stay trip - I’m talking about just going overnight with my friends. My wife is concerned about the dust/soil stuck on my astronomy gear that I bring home (yes, again for the kids).
I agree that she is being overly cautious and if I were single, I’d probably wouldn’t give a damn and continue snowboarding/astronomy up north - but, as the saying goes....happy wife, happy life.
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