IWAKI, Fukushima -- Twenty-nine young natives of Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, were reunited on Friday at a coming-of-age ceremony held in the nearby city of Iwaki, nearly nine years after their hometown was hit by an accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
The town government of Futaba, whose almost entire administrative areas are designated as difficult-to-return zones, organized the ceremony to celebrate the youths' reaching the legal age of adulthood -- 20 years old -- ahead of the Coming-of-Age Day national holiday that falls on Jan. 13 this year.
The participants were among the town's 53 natives who were fifth-graders at the time of the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. They were forced to flee to other parts of Fukushima Prefecture or elsewhere after the subsequent tsunami triggered the accident at the plant, part of which stands in the town.
The town government has agreed with the central and prefectural governments to lift the evacuation order for JR Futaba Station and its neighborhood in March, with a target having been set for the spring of 2022 for the start of the return of residents to the town.
"We need young human resources to rebuild our town," said Mayor Shiro Izawa during his congratulatory remark to the attendants. "I hope you will play a big role."
One of the attendants, Atsushi Maeda, is now attending a school in Sendai to become a physiotherapist. "I hope I will go back to our town someday to work for its reconstruction," the 20-year-old said.
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