15 Years On: Fukushima Promotion Lights Up Streets in South Korea

Seoul, March 11 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Reconstruction Agency on Monday started screening a promotional video in South Korea highlighting food and tourist sites in Fukushima, a prefecture in northeastern Japan hit by a nuclear accident following a massive earthquake and tsunami 15 years ago. The 30-second video is being shown through Sunday on 12 giant screens in busy districts of Seoul and the southern port city of Busan, an effort aimed at boosting visits from South Korea. The number of visitors from South Korea who stayed overnight in Fukushima last year stood at about 4,300, one-10th the level before the disaster. Seoul maintains a ban on imports of fisheries products from Fukushima and seven other Japanese prefectures, a measure that has been in place since the triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The video tells passersby that now is the time to visit Fukushima, presenting local sake, “wagyu” Japanese beef and tourist spots such as Tsurugajo Castle and a hot spring inn that may have inspired scenes in the popular anime series “Demon Slayer.” Among other efforts to revive tourism, charter flights linking Fukushima Airport and Cheongju in central South Korea are scheduled for July and October. “We hope many people from South Korea will visit and see Fukushima’s attractions and progress in reconstruction,” an official at the Japanese agency said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]