Ready to move to Japan! Just one (BIG) concern...

[Genki_Lulu]

My name is Lulu. I'm from the US. I'm married and have a little one on the way (expected to arrive on September 13th, 2012). We have an opportunity to move to Japan in November this year (my husband has a job offer in Sendai), and are still trying to decide if the move would be right for us or not. I am in love with the Japanese culture and can't wait to move, however... Before we can jump on it there are a few concerns I want to address, specifically the radiation issue. That is the ONLY thing that could throw a wrench into our plans. Anyone here living in Sendai? Is it safe? With a baby on the way, I can't ignore this. I'm looking forward to meeting you and sharing your experiences!

Thanks in advance

[orangecat]

Hi Lulu, first of all, congratulations on your husband getting a job offer in Sendai and your baby coming soon!

I'll comment here because I'm in touch with my family back in Sendai and I've been researching the same topic as my husband and I are planning a move back to Tokyo from Australia. No babies yet, but family planning is definitely an important topic during our intended time in Japan.

The general situation as far as I'm informed is that there are babies and concerned mothers all over the place in Japan. They are each sourcing information and acting on it on their own ways. There are number of researchers and academics taking polar positions; some say that the radiation dispersion is at a low level and we don't need to worry about it and some find information and publitize against it. The former group says that there are major cities in the world that naturally have higher level of radiation to start out with - Most of Japan is not at the level of concern compared to those places.

This link here shows that New York City has twice as much radiation than in Sendai.

News - Radiation Levels at Major Cities in Japan (Updated JUNE 26, 2012) - Official Tourism Guide for Japan Travel

You should google on this topic because you'll find other major cities with higher radiation level.

To see how much radiation you are exposed to by area in Japan,

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Above is a link that shows you the radiation level by area/city in Miyagi prefecture. It's in Japanese, but its a good website as they update daily, so just giving you the link for reference.

Most of my friends who have kids in Tokyo are consciously choosing to buy food from safe sources. Grocery stores in Japan are pretty informative in showing where produce/meats/fish come from, (some by regulation I think, but and mostly for commercial/promotional reasons, they voluntarily show) so I think you can easily learn to do the same.

So that's what I understand from my findings, and it doesn't stop me from moving back there. I honestly don't think you'll get more than opinions from anyone including any specialists on this topic, so decision is yours. I hope you enjoy Sendai to the fullest if you decide to move, though!

[lorgnette]

Lulu, your family will be fine.

The Japanese food safety standards are high. There is no products arriving to supermarkets from high radiation areas, and you can be sure that handlers and agencies will avoid trucking and selling such products for economic and low demand outcomes.

A friend was 8 m pregnant in March 11. She was not worried as she drank water directly from taps and she had diary products and fresh produce from Saitama groceries. She gave birth in April, and both mother and baby are in great condition. This is only one example but I am sure there are others.

Enjoy all parts of Japan and Sendai-it will be a memorable experience.

[pilot1]

Originally Posted by Genki_Lulu

My name is Lulu. I'm from the US. I'm married and have a little one on the way (expected to arrive on September 13th, 2012). We have an opportunity to move to Japan in November this year (my husband has a job offer in Sendai), and are still trying to decide if the move would be right for us or not. I am in love with the Japanese culture and can't wait to move, however... Before we can jump on it there are a few concerns I want to address, specifically the radiation issue. That is the ONLY thing that could throw a wrench into our plans. Anyone here living in Sendai? Is it safe? With a baby on the way, I can't ignore this. I'm looking forward to meeting you and sharing your experiences!

Thanks in advance

Hi Lulu.

I am a Pilot from the U.S. that might be interested in a job offer in Sendai. I too am trying to gather as much information as possible about radiation and the radiation levels.

Have you found any websites that have current video and/or viewpoints on Sendai and the surrounding area? I can't seem to find any site and it would be more helpful on making a decision if there were more people to see and contact who actually live there.

Thanks for posting and for any and all help.

Best Regards

Cary-

[Streetglide]

I lived in Japan for 20 years, returning to California in 2008 to finish off my pension time. The Japanese wll overlook many things but radiation is not one of them. Because of the scars of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese take all things atomic very seriously despite the incompetence of TEPCO. You will be rewarded with living in a terrific country with wonderful people.

[larabell]

I'm currently living in Japan (Tokyo) and have been for most of the last two decades, I have two school-age children, and I've been keeping a close watch on the news and doing a lot of my own research since 3/11. In my opinion, the previous post by stawberrycoconut is a bit overblown.

There are certainly areas around Fukushima-daiichi, especially to the Northwest of the plant, that still show radiation levels in excess of the pre-quake average. There is a map at Safecast that has been compiled from readings taken by various people in their own areas or as they drive around.

The Miyagi-ken prefectural government also published a page dated last September:
Miyagi Prefecture/International Affairs Division/English/Information of accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

which shows that, at the time, radiation levels had pretty much dropped back to pre-quake background levels. Anti-nuclear folks will tell you that anything above zero is dangerous but the truth is that there is noplace in the world that doesn't have some level of background radiation on a continual basis -- and that was the case even before 3/11. The question is whether the current level is higher than average or not. For those living anywhere near or to the Northwest of Fukushima Dai-ichi, the answer is yes but worrisome levels are mostly only found near the plant itself. For Sendai and Tokyo (120 and 200 km away, respectively), the numbers have long since retreated to normal pre-quake levels.

It is definitely not true that the soil in Tokyo is akin to nuclear waste. There has only been one confirmed "hotspot" that can be tied to the nuclear plant that was of high enough levels to raise concern and that's been cleaned up. There was one more reported that turned out to be due to some retired glow-in-the-dark watch painter stashing a few extra bottles of radium under his floorboards and they had probably been there for a couple of decades. Most of the others were of such low levels that they were reported by the media and forgotten by the next day (one rooftop in Yokohama showed levels of Cesium that would have passed inspection as a *food import* into the US by pre-quake standards). It's hard to sort out the hazardous from the ridiculous when most reporters can't even get the units right, much less understand them.

One of the reasons I'm confident in the numbers I'm seeing is that there are many agencies and private citizens snooping around with Geiger counters these days, hoping for their 15 minutes of fame so it simply doesn't make sense that there would be contamination lying about that we haven't found yet. If you google around, you can also find sites that publish real-time radiation data online -- one is at Tsukuba University, another at Yokosuka (apparently installed to check if there was any radiation leakage from the nuclear-powered ships coming in and out of the Navy base), and a number of sites run by private citizens or research groups.

As for earthquakes... Japan has always has more than it's share. The ones that happen "every day" mostly go unnoticed. I subscribe to an email service that sends me information about every 5.0+ event that happens and the frequency of earthquakes is no higher now than it was before 3/11. There are "experts" on both sides of the issue. Some say 3/11 increased the chances of another major quake in the next decade and some say it relieved the pressure and bought us some time. Some even try to predict when the next one will hit but, so far, they haven't been very successful. All one can say is that a huge earthquake will probably hit somewhere in Japan at some point in the future. That's always been true. If you're from Kansas and would freak out at the very idea of the Earth moving under your feet, Japan probably isn't the best place to live -- but that has little to do with radiation.

The disaster at Fukushima isn't over yet, by any means. There's still a lot of work to be done to clean up the site and parts of Fukushima may not be habitable for several decades. But that doesn't mean Japan, as a whole, is any more dangerous these days than any other place in the world. You probably want to be vigilant when shopping for groceries, if you're not already. But, if anything, the disaster has put radiation in the forefront of everyone's minds and a lot more testing is being done now than at any point before 3/11. If I thought for a minute that the risk of living here was significant, I'd be out of here by now and so would a lot of other people. One thing you can say for sure is that there are a lot of heated opinions on both sides of the debate and there are a lot of anti-nuclear folks taking advantage of people's fear and uncertainty -- but I do strongly agree with Streetglide that the Japanese citizens and the Japanese media are *not* simply ignoring this issue. In fact, right after the disaster the media were falling all over themselves trying to be the first to report on the latest "hotspot" rumors. The reason you're not seeing those kinds of sensational stories any more is because the facts simply didn't pan out.

Everyone has to make their own choice here. You don't want to live somewhere where you're constantly stressed out looking over your shoulder for that stray Cesium particle. But if you do a bit of independent research, I'm sure you'll find that Japan isn't a black hole full of people just waiting to keel over from cancer. And there are so many things you *can* keel over from in other parts of the world that simply don't exist here. If it were me, I'd make the move.

[Note: I'm not a nuclear expert but I did take classes on the subject when I went to college so I at least know what the terms and units of measurement mean.]

[larabell]

Posting the same thing multiple times doesn't make it any more true. If you want to add something that wasn't in your original post, feel free. Your opinion is welcome here. But if you're just going to post the same thing over and over in different places on the forum, that constitutes spam and the duplicates will be deleted.