
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Richard Johnson reports from Japan on the impact of the Fukushima disaster on food. How has the threat of contamination changed attitudes to the nation's prized food culture?
A year ago, Japan was hit by the catastrophic Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. In the days that followed, reactors 1, 2 and 3 at the Fukushima nuclear power station experienced full meltdown. The fears of catastrophic radioactivite contamination led to a 20 km-radius evacuation around the plant, while engineers risked their lives to stabilise the reactors.
It was the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, but that wasn't the end of the story. A longer-term food story started to emerge.
A testing regime was introduced to monitor radiation levels in the food supply chain. The World Health Organisation is also carrying out its own tests to ensure that absorption of caesium through food, over decades to come, doesn't become a major threat to public health.
But as Richard Johnson discovers, confusion and lack of information in the early weeks of the crisis has led to suspicion and mistrust among large sections of the Japanese population. For this reason, the disaster is likely to not just change Japan's relationship with its politicians, but also its food culture.
Producer: Dan Saladino.
By BBC Radio 44.6
241241 ratings
Richard Johnson reports from Japan on the impact of the Fukushima disaster on food. How has the threat of contamination changed attitudes to the nation's prized food culture?
A year ago, Japan was hit by the catastrophic Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. In the days that followed, reactors 1, 2 and 3 at the Fukushima nuclear power station experienced full meltdown. The fears of catastrophic radioactivite contamination led to a 20 km-radius evacuation around the plant, while engineers risked their lives to stabilise the reactors.
It was the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, but that wasn't the end of the story. A longer-term food story started to emerge.
A testing regime was introduced to monitor radiation levels in the food supply chain. The World Health Organisation is also carrying out its own tests to ensure that absorption of caesium through food, over decades to come, doesn't become a major threat to public health.
But as Richard Johnson discovers, confusion and lack of information in the early weeks of the crisis has led to suspicion and mistrust among large sections of the Japanese population. For this reason, the disaster is likely to not just change Japan's relationship with its politicians, but also its food culture.
Producer: Dan Saladino.

7,761 Listeners

369 Listeners

527 Listeners

888 Listeners

1,058 Listeners

398 Listeners

300 Listeners

5,516 Listeners

2,117 Listeners

2,096 Listeners

281 Listeners

350 Listeners

161 Listeners

97 Listeners

238 Listeners

62 Listeners

342 Listeners

234 Listeners

164 Listeners

332 Listeners

43 Listeners

3,213 Listeners

202 Listeners

73 Listeners

129 Listeners

683 Listeners

578 Listeners

626 Listeners

372 Listeners

243 Listeners

57 Listeners

79 Listeners

118 Listeners

112 Listeners