ABSTRACT
12This chapter summarizes and analyzes the developments and achievements of the recovery and revitalization policies during the 10 years after the Fukushima nuclear accident until 2020. Although policies aimed to promote the return of evacuees to their home towns by lifting evacuation orders after decontamination and infrastructure restoration have been implemented since the Fukushima nuclear accident, such returns have not adequately progressed and the affected municipalities face a crisis of survival. Therefore, policies to promote the migration of new residents were implemented in 2021. However, the concept of “recovery and revitalization” is considered to consist in, above all, rebuilding the lives of disaster-affected people. In conclusion, this chapter points out that it is necessary to closely examine the status of the rehabilitation of disaster-affected people’s livelihoods and to establish a legal system that guarantees long-term support for the recovery and revitalization of their lives, as well as of the affected areas.
