is a
town
A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city.
The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
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 town has a population of 1,238 in 794 households, although the official registered population was 17,114 in 6853 households. The total area of the town is .
The town was evacuated as a result of the
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 ...
—being directly downwind from the
power plant
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...
—and was within the
exclusion zone
An exclusion zone is a geographic area in which specific activities are prohibited by an authority. The United States Department of Defense defines an exclusion zone is a territory where an authority prohibits specific activities in a specific g ...
set up in response to the disaster. Following ongoing clean-up efforts, Namie's business district and town hall have reopened, but access to more heavily contaminated western parts of the town remains restricted as decontamination continues to be carried out.
Geography
Namie is located on the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
coastline of central Fukushima.
Surrounding municipalities
* Fukushima Prefecture
**
Futaba
**
Iitate
**
Katsurao
**
Kawamata
**
Minamisōma
**
Nihonmatsu
**
Ōkuma
**
Tamura
Climate
Namie has a
humid climate (
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
''Cfa''). The average annual temperature in Namie is . The average annual rainfall is with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around .
Demographics
Per Japanese census data, the population of Namie was relatively constant over the past 40 years until the nuclear disaster.
History
The area of present-day Namie was part of
Mutsu Province. The remains of
Kofun period
The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is ...
burial mounds have been found in the area. During the
Nara period
The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...
, it was the center of ancient Futaba District within
Iwaki Province During the
Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
, it was part of
Sōma Domain, which was ruled by the
Sōma clan until 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 Namie was created within Naraha District, Fukushima with the establishment of the modern municipalities system. Naraha District became Futaba District in April 1896. Namie was raised to town status on March 1, 1900. The town expanded on May 1, 1956 by annexing the neighboring villages of Obori, Karino and Tsushima.
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami

Namie was severely affected by the
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 ...
, and the
Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. Besides sustaining considerable damage from the earthquake, and the
tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...
(which devastated the coastal area), the entire population of the town was evacuated en masse on the morning of March 12 as it is located well within the exclusion radius around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. It was not searched for bodies until more than one month after the tsunami.
During the evacuation, many town residents took refuge at a community center in western Namie in the belief that seasonal winds would blow radiation from the plant in a different direction. However, a change in wind direction blew the plant's plume directly at them, heavily contaminating that part of the town. It was revealed months later that the national and prefectural governments had known about the direction of the plume due to forecasts by the
System for Prediction of Environment Emergency Dose Information (SPEEDI) computer system, but had decided not to tell evacuees in order to prevent a panic. Tamotsu Baba, Namie's mayor at the time, said the decision to withhold information from his town was akin to "murder."
On 15 April 2012, the town of Namie asked the Japanese government for free health-care for its residents. To monitor the long-term health, the city would provide to all inhabitants health handbooks in order to keep a thorough record of all health checks and thyroid examinations. These handbooks were similar to ones used to monitor the health of the survivors of the
Atomic bombings of
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...
and
Nagasaki
, officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...
. These "
hibakusha
' ( or ; or ; or ) is a word of Japanese origin generally designating the people affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States at the end of World War II.
Definition
The word is Japanese, originally written i ...
" health books were free from medical fees, and Namie asked the government to set up a similar program for the people in Namie. Of the seven other cities around the nuclear plant, Futaba town was also willing to take part in this program.
In April 2012, the government of the evacuated town of Namie purchased a whole-body dosimeter. The device was installed in a temporary housing in
Nihonmatsu, Fukushima
is a Cities of Japan, city in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 54,013 in 20,179 households, and a population density of 160 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . The Adachi neighborhood of Nihon ...
, in order to monitor the internal radiation exposure and the health of the citizens of Namie. Some 50 people a day could be examined, a complete screening would take two minutes per person. Initial screenings of the whole population was planned to be finished at the end of the fiscal year 2012. In this way the town government wanted to offer a long-term monitoring program to the population. Another reason for this was the excessive exposure to radiation during the first days directly after the nuclear disaster in March 2011, when predictions from SPEEDI were ignored by the Fukushima Prefectural government.
On April 1, 2013, the nuclear evacuation zone in Namie was revised. Japanese authorities set three different zones according to different levels of radiation: in the first, people were free to go in and out, but not allowed to stay overnight; in the second, access was limited to short visits; and in the third area, all entry was forbidden because of elevated radiation levels that were not expected to go down within five years after the accident.
On October 27, 2016, a brand new shopping mall, Machi Nami Marche, was opened in the town, with the intention that it would aid the return of people to the area in the event that the evacuation orders were lifted. This construction project was completed around the same time as a similar project in the nearby town of
Tomioka, also within the evacuation zone.
On April 1, 2017, restrictions were lifted on the first and second zones, allowing residents to return to those areas, although a poll indicated over half did not intend to do so. The areas are in the coastal portion of Namie, which holds the town centre. The majority of the town's hinterland remains in zone 3, with access completely prohibited due to high residual radiation. On December 22, 2017, the area was listed by the national government as one of several special zones for reconstruction and revitalisation, alongside several neighbouring towns and cities in the vicinity.
Further decontamination work began in May 2018 as part of a plan to decontaminate 660 hectares by March 2023. This is 3.7% of the area where entry is prohibited.
On October 3, 2020, it was announced that Ukedo Elementary School, one of the town's six elementary schools, was to be preserved as a museum and memorial to the events of the earthquake and tsunami. Though the building was in the direct path of the surging waters, prompt action by the school's faculty ensured that there were no casualties, with all 96 students and staff inside the school at the time of the disaster successfully escaping to higher ground.
2016 earthquake
A 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Namie in the early morning hours of November 22, 2016.
A tsunami warning was issued indicating waves of up to three meters.
Economy
The economy of Namie was dependent on
commercial fishing
Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for Commerce, commercial Profit (economics), profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice ...
, agriculture and food processing.
On 7 March 2020, the
Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field (FH2R), a 10MW-class hydrogen production unit, was inaugurated in Namie. The site occupies 180,000 square meters of land, much of which is occupied by a
solar array; but power from the grid is also used to conduct
electrolysis of water
Electrolysis of water is using electricity to Water splitting, split water into oxygen () and hydrogen () gas by electrolysis. Hydrogen gas released in this way can be used as hydrogen fuel, but must be kept apart from the oxygen as the mixture ...
to produce
hydrogen fuel.
Education
Namie had six public elementary schools and three public junior high schools operated by the town government, and two public high schools operated by the Fukushima Prefectural Board of Education. All schools were closed after the nuclear disaster. As of 2019, six pupils were enrolled at a new elementary school.
Transportation
Railway
East Japan Railway Company
The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in ...
(JR East) -
Jōban Line
The is a railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The line officially begins at Nippori Station in Arakawa, Tokyo before the line officially ends at Iwanuma Station in Iwanuma, Miyagi. However, following ...
*
Highway
* - Namie Interchange
*
*
*
*
Local attractions
*
Sōma ware ceramics
Sister cities
*
Xinghua, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China,
*
Dipolog
Dipolog (), officially the City of Dipolog (; Subanen languages, Subanen: ''Gembagel G'benwa Dipuleg/Bagbenwa Dipuleg''; ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, component city and capital of the Provinces of the Philippines, prov ...
,
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
*
Dapitan,
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
* Polanco,
Zamboanga del Norte
Zamboanga del Norte (Cebuano language, Cebuano: ''Amihanang Zamboanga''; Subanon language, Subanon: ''Utara Sembwangan''; ), officially the Province of Zamboanga del Norte, is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines situated w ...
,
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
*
Lancaster, California
Lancaster is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, in the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert in Southern California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the popul ...
, United States
References
External links
Official Website
{{2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
Towns in Fukushima Prefecture
Populated coastal places in Japan
Environmental disaster ghost towns