is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

located in

Fukushima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Fukushima Prefecture has a population of 1,771,100 () and has a geographic area of . Fukushima Prefecture borders Miyagi Prefecture and Yamagata Prefecture ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. , the village had an official registered

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 1,861, and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of 9.5 persons per km². The total area of Kawauchi is . The village was evacuated as a result of the 2011

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster The Fukushima nuclear accident was a major nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan, which began on 11 March 2011. The cause of the accident was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which r ...

, but in 2014, all restrictions were lifted. It is located in Futaba district

Geography

Kawauchi is located in the Abukuma Plateau of central Fukushima with a mean altitude of between 400 and 500 meters. North of Kawauchi, there is at a substation of Kita–Iwaki powerline, a 500 kV-line already designed for future 1100 kV operation.

Surrounding municipalities

*Fukushima Prefecture ** Iwaki ** Naraha ** Ōkuma ** Tamura ** Tomioka

Climate

Kawauchi has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by mild summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Kawauchi is 10.3 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1431 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 22.5 °C, and lowest in January, at around -0.7 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Kawauchi has declined steadily over the past 60 years and is now less than half what it was a century ago.

History

The area of present-day Kawauchi was part of Mutsu Province. After the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, on April 1, 1889, the village of Kawauchi was created within Futaba District, Fukushima with the establishment of the modern municipalities system.

2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

Kawauchi suffered moderate damage from the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...

. However, the eastern portion of the village is located within the nominal 20-kilometer exclusion zone of the

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant The is a disabled nuclear power plant located on a site in the towns of Ōkuma, Fukushima, Ōkuma and Futaba, Fukushima, Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The plant Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, suffered major damage from the 201 ...

, and as a result of wind patterns following the

, the entire population of the village was evacuated by government order by May 2011. A portion of the village was re-opened in March 2012. In August 2014, the government divided the remaining portion of the village into two zones, and projected a lifting of the evacuation order for 275 residents in one of the zones in October. The ambient

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'' consisting of photons, such as radio waves, microwaves, infr ...

dose was lower than that of the surrounding municipalities, and as of 2012, the average exposure dose among residents was reported to be below 1

millisievert The sievert (symbol: SvPlease note there are two non-SI units that use the same Sv abbreviation: the sverdrup and svedberg.) is a derived unit in the International System of Units (SI) intended to represent the stochastic health risk of ionizing ...

per year. By 2017, more than 80% of the villagers had returned, but many were older and the younger generation had a lower return rate than the whole. It was reported that lifestyle-related diseases after the earthquake were increasing with the aging of the population. More than 100 Bq/kg of radioactive cesium has been detected in 76% of wild

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing Sporocarp (fungi), fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the n ...

s collected between 2016 and 2019.

Economy

The economy of Kawauchi was formerly heavily dependent on agriculture.

Education

Kawauchi had two high schools (one public, one private), one junior high school, two elementary schools, and a kindergarten in March 2011. After the evacuation and re-opening of the town both high schools were closed. The junior high school, 1 elementary school, and kindergarten remain open.

Geography

Surrounding municipalities

Climate

Demographics

History

2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

Economy

Education

Transportation

Railway

Bus

Highway

References

External links