Radioprotection 2025, 60( 4), 337 – 343 © M. Murakami et al., Published by EDP Sciences, 2025 https:// doi. org / 10.1051 / radiopro / 2025024
Available online at: www. radioprotection. org
ARTICLE
Report on the first Osaka workshop on social sciences and humanities in the management of the recovery process after the Fukushima accident
M. Murakami 1, 2,*, T. Schneider 3, 4, J. Lochard 4 and R. Ando 5 1 Center for Infectious Disease Education and Research, The University of Osaka, Suita, Japan. 2 EIPM Center, The University of Osaka, Suita, Japan. 3 Nuclear Protection Evaluation Centre( CEPN), Fontenay-aux-Roses, France. 4 Atomic Bomb Disease Institute, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan.
5 NPO Fukushima Dialogue, Iwaki, Japan. Received: 6 March 2025 / Accepted: 7 August 2025
Abstract – The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in March 2011 has left the people of the region with the task of rebuilding the lives of their families and communities, ensuring public health, and securing economic and social sustainability. The insights of the social sciences and humanities( SSH) have an important role to play in the recovery of individuals and communities affected by the accident. Sharing lessons and perspectives from the accident is essential for the recovery in Fukushima and for global future disaster preparedness. An online preparatory meeting was held on 25 May 2024 and the workshop was held on 26 – 27 October 2024 in a hybrid form to discuss the role of SSH in the recovery process after the Fukushima accident. After a brief presentation of the discussions held at the preparatory meeting, this article presents the main conclusions of the workshop as well as its possible future developments.
Keywords: Co-expertise process / nuclear accident / recovery / risk communication / societal impacts
1 Introduction
The recovery of people and communities affected by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident in March 2011 raised a series of questions and challenges that prompted experts in environmental science, medicine, nursing and other relevant fields to integrate reflections that fall within the Social Sciences and Humanities( SSH) domain.
The presence of radioactivity has disrupted the well-being of individuals and led to restrictions in daily life, modifying lifestyles and working conditions, and a change in the demographics of communities due to large numbers of people emigrating. This has been characterised by a breakdown in trust in experts and authorities and a feeling of lack of control in daily life( Ando, 2018; Tsujikawa et al., 2016). There have also been profound changes in the agricultural and fishing sectors and several constraints on maintaining economic activities( Schneider et al., 2021). These changes have put a global strain on well-being and mental health, with people feeling helpless, anxious, discouraged and frustrated( Abeysinghe et al., 2022; Murakami et al., 2020). Concern
* Corresponding author: michio @ cider. osaka-u. ac. jp about potential harm to children’ s health has remained particularly high( Mashiko et al., 2017; Sawano et al., 2019).
Drawing the lessons from the management of the consequences of the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents, ICRP clearly emphasizes that the consequences of an accident go far beyond radiation-induced health effects due to radiological exposures( ICRP, 2021). It stresses that an accident has“ large and long-lasting societal, environmental, and economic consequences”( ICRP, 2020). In this perspective, it is acknowledged that“ the objectives of radiological protection is to mitigate radiological consequences for people and the environment whilst, at the same time, ensuring sustainable living conditions for affected people, suitable working conditions for the responders, and maintaining the quality of the environment”( ICRP, 2020).
To develop actions concerning the radiological protection of the population and the restoration of decent living conditions in the affected areas, several local initiatives have been carried out in municipalities of Fukushima Prefecture, in which residents and experts have worked together( Igarashi, 2022; Lochard, 2022; Lochard et al., 2020; Schneider et al., 2019; Takamura et al., 2018; Yasutaka et al., 2020). These initiatives were not necessarily implemented to explicitly achieve the radiation protection objectives considered by the
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