The government will step up efforts to urge firms and industry groups to actively deal in products made in Fukushima Prefecture, home to the crippled No. 1 nuclear power plant, informed sources said Saturday.
The government will make the request under new guidelines aimed at preventing rumors about agricultural and marine products from the prefecture and nearby areas arising from concern over radiation.
The guidelines will be officially approved at a working group meeting of related agencies to take place at the Reconstruction Agency on Monday, the sources said.
More than three years after the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami struck the Tohoku region on March 11, 2011, rumors continue to have a serious impact on the farm and tourism sectors of the disaster-hit areas, especially Fukushima, which bore the brunt of the ensuing nuclear crisis at the No. 1 plant.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed post-disaster reconstruction minister Takumi Nemoto in May to reinforce measures to dispel such rumors.
As part of an effort to support industries in disaster-hit areas, the new guidelines will request companies to host events for direct sales of specialties from the region and use products from Fukushima at staff restaurants.
After the number of school trips to Fukushima dropped to about one-third of levels before the 3/11 and nuclear disasters, the guidelines will call for promoting trips to the prefecture with cooperation from travel agencies.
Nemoto is set to ask Sadayuki Sakakibara, chairman of Keidanren, for more use of products from Fukushima by member companies of the federation, the nation’s largest business lobby.
Also under the guidelines, the Environment Ministry and the Consumer Affairs Agency will release radiation-related information on their websites, such as the results of checks on foods and health impact, easier to understand by reducing the use of technical jargon.
The government aims to make it widely known that agricultural products from disaster areas meet national inspection criteria, which are strict by international standards, the sources said.
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