Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2012 August 22 - 28 [WOMEN]

Japan Mothers’ Congress resolves to protect children from nuclear accident

At the 58th Japan Mothers’ Congress in Niigata City, participants exchanged their experiences and lessons gained from involvement in the movements to break away from nuclear power and protect children’s health from the possible exposure to radioactive substances.

The annual congress was held on August 25 and 26, attended by 13,200 people from all over the country.

Niigata Prefecture, located next to Fukushima Prefecture, hosts the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant and has accepted a lot of evacuees from Fukushima after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.

During the congress, over 400 citizens took part in a workshop titled “Let’s protect children’s health from nuclear accidents and radioactive contamination”. In the workshop meeting, Matsumoto City Mayor of Nagano Prefecture Sugenoya Akira, who is a medical doctor, reported on the long-term effects of external and internal exposure to radiation and the self-management of radiation protection.

A mother participating from Fukushima’s Koriyama City said she is always worried about radioactive contamination, asking her friends every day if she can air her family’s bedding and clothes outdoors. “I learned a lot through the meeting. I want to live without anxiety about radioactivity as soon as possible,” she said.

At the plenary session on the second day, a mother raising 3 children took the platform, representing 400 participants from Fukushima. She said that 51 out of 59 municipal assemblies in the prefecture adopted resolutions seeking to decommission all nuclear reactors in Fukushima.

The mother also talked about the problems she has to face in everyday life caused by the nuclear accident. She said, “The nuclear disaster has not come to an end. I want to tell Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko and those who are still clinging to nuclear power that we are suffering from the aftermath of the accident even now.”