Like many other men, Shinya Yamada was glad of the work at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Because he toiled close to its wrecked reactors, his hours were limited and the money was okay. Above all, the on-site camaraderie made him feel he was on an important mission. Today, he is angry about the leukaemia he blames on his job. Yamada, who was employed as a welder at the plant from October to December , is the first and so far only Fukushima worker awarded workplace compensation.
Tokyo Electric Power Co Tepco , operator of Daiichi, called into battle a reserve army of workers and subcontractors after the March triple meltdown. In the five years since, about 46, people have worked at the plant. Tens of thousands more are spread out across Fukushima detoxifying the countryside from the impact of the fallout that fell in the days after the meltdown began. Disposable workers Hiroyuki Watanabe Iwaki Watanabe says Iwaki has to bear the consequences: many former Fukushima employees in his constituency are on welfare.
Sex workers have arrived to cater to the large transient workforce. Drunken fights and petty crimes keep the police busy at weekends. Companies often fail to pass on the money, says Takeshi Katsura , an Iwaki-based union leader: Yakuza gangsters are heavily involved in the clean-up. Fukushima ghost town struggles back to life Watanabe accepts that working conditions have been improving. Radiation levels in some areas of the plant have fallen to a point where masks and protective clothing are no longer needed, though engineers near the badly damaged reactors 1, 2 and 3 wear tungsten vests to protect their internal organs from exposure.
Rest places, diners and a new convenience store have been set up onsite. The workforce is getting younger, he says. Former employees, however, say tedium, exhaustion and heat are the biggest problems. Kazuto Tatsuta, a former Daiichi worker who had drawn a series of bestselling manga comic books about his experiences, says he wanted to describe the mundane grind of life onsite, and the men who keep the decades-long decommissioning humming.
He worries little about radiation. Health ministry officials say there is no proven link between cancer and radiation exposure below millisieverts a year. Yamada, however, was exposed to just My DNA tests did not show any signs of genetic abnormalities that might have led to leukaemia. He says he is one of just 14 people awarded workplace compensation for radiation-induced illnesses in Japan since Watanabe is more sanguine. Many men, especially the low skilled are happy to work in Fukushima, he says.
