was a
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
located in
Tamura District,
Fukushima Prefecture
Fukushima Prefecture (; ja, 福島県, Fukushima-ken, ) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Fukushima Prefecture has a population of 1,810,286 () and has a geographic area of . Fukushima Prefecture borders Miya ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
.
On March 1, 2005, Miyakoji, along with the towns of
Funehiki,
Ōgoe,
Takine and
Tokiwa Tokiwa, usually written , , or , may refer to:
Places
*Tokiwa, Fukushima, a town in the north of Japan's main island
*Tokiwa, Aomori, a village in the far north of Japan's main island
Colleges and universities
*Tokiwa Junior College, Mito, Ibaraki ...
(all from
Tamura District), was merged to create the city of
Tamura Tamura (usually written 田村), a Japanese placename and family name, may refer to:
In places:
*Tamura, Fukushima, a city in Japan
*Tamura District, Fukushima, in Japan
* Tamura Station, in Nagahama, Japan
People with the surname Tamura:
* Tamura ...
.
The area covered by the former village has been reclassified as a
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
(町 "-machi" is often translated "town," but the word "borough," like 町 "-machi," can mean either a division of a city or a town independent of any larger city: see
the article on "Borough" for comparable usages) within the City of Tamura.
As of 2003, the village had an estimated
population
Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...
of 3,175 and a
density
Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' can also be used. Mathematical ...
of 25.33 persons per km². The borough's total area is 125.37 km².
Landmarks
Ohtakadoyayama Transmitter is an LF-time signal transmitter in Miyakoji-machi (都路町 is incorrectly called "Miyakoji-cho" in the external link). It is used for transmitting the time signal
JJY
JJY is the call sign of a low frequency time signal radio station located in Japan.
The station broadcasts from two sites, one on Otakadoyayama Transmitter, Mount Otakadoya, near Fukushima, Fukushima, Fukushima, and the other on Haganeyama Transmi ...
on 40 kHz. It uses as transmission antenna a 250 metre tall guyed mast with an umbrella antenna, which is insulated against ground.
Evacuation orders lifted Mid August 2013
On 23 June 2013 during a meeting with evacuees from the Miyakoji district of Tamura, Fukushima Prefecture and central government officials, the announcement was made that the residents would be allowed to return to their homes mid August 2013, although the radiation levels in residential areas still ranged between 0.32 and 0.54 microsievert per hour, much higher than the government's goal of 0.23 microsievert per hour. But the decontamination works in the Miyakoji district were declared completed. When asked, the officials refused to prolong the decontamination efforts, they argued that radiation exposures would differ for every person. The 0.23 microsievert per hour limit would lead to an accumulated radiation exposure exceeding 1 millisievert for people that would stay outdoors for eight hours a day. Instead the officials offered the evacuees a new-type dosimeter because they wanted the people to check their own radiation exposures, and in this way to take responsibility for their own safety.
Although billions of yen were spent in an effort to decontaminate some areas around the troubled nuclear plant. The effort was described as futile, and radioactive waste was not collected properly and disposed of, and sometimes dumped into rivers.
Tomohiko Hideta, an official of the Reconstruction Agency, said that it would be impossible to reach the official targets, and confirmed the offer of the dosimeters. However, spokesmen of the Japan Environment Ministry denied all, even when they were confronted with the existence of audio recordings of the meeting, that proved otherwise.
[The Asahi Shimbun (29 June 2013]
Government offers dosimeters--not decontamination--for Fukushima evacuees
External links
Official website of Tamurain Japanese
References
{{Authority control
Dissolved municipalities of Fukushima Prefecture
Tamura, Fukushima