The Reconstruction Agency is using an educational game to help dispel rumors about the tragic accident that happened at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture.
The agency has uploaded to its website a quiz game styled on Snakes and Ladders through which users learn about radiation, Fukushima Prefecture and the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The game is free and can be played on computers and smartphones.
The game is based on sugoroku, a type of Japanese game similar to Snakes and Ladders, and was inspired by an idea by Yuka Nagao, a university student living in Fukuoka Prefecture who is studying to become a radiology therapist. Nagao came up with the idea as a way for users to learn about radiation while having fun.
The game is called "Fukushima tabi sugo," which means Fukushima journey snakes and ladders.
Players roll a die and travel around the game board, moving throughout the prefecture using avatars. Some stops have questions that are about radiation, local products and noted places in all 59 municipalities in the prefecture.
Players who have answered a certain number of questions correctly get costumes for their avatars to wear that are based on Nintendo's popular "Animal Crossing: New Horizon" game. There are more than 20 kinds of costumes, including one featuring an akabeko doll, a red cow that bobs its head playfully and is associated with Fukushima Prefecture.
Nagao dreamed up the idea in 2019 while she was a student at Junshin Gakuen University in Fukuoka after a professor encouraged her to submit it to a contest for radiation-related teaching materials. She won a prize in the contest.
Nagao's idea was based on her experiences playing The Game of Life with disabled children while working part-time at a welfare facility.
Winners of the game are decided by the amount of radiation participants' avatars are exposed to in daily life and at work as well as by their scores in the quiz about radiation. The game aims for users to acquire knowledge about radiation naturally.
The contest was supported by the Reconstruction Agency, and Nagao's idea caught the attention of agency officials, who then arranged it around a journey through Fukushima Prefecture.
"Radiation is all around us and absorbed by our bodies," Nagao said. "I want people to not just be afraid of it, but also have a better understanding of it."
"We want people to learn about the current conditions in Fukushima while taking a virtual trip through the prefecture," a Reconstruction Agency official said.
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