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Remediation of 137Cs-contaminated soil caused by Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident is still challenging since cesium is strongly bound in the clay particle of soil. The application of soil washing is frequently considered in the soil remediation project due to its easy operation. However, the use of suitable washing agent for removing 137Cs is still needed to be explored. This study compared performance of benzyldimethyldodecylammonium bromide (BDAB) and hydrochloric acid (HCl) as washing agents in removing 137Cs from contaminated paddy soil of Fukushima Prefecture. 1llite was also used as model clay for investigation of cesium removal process by considering the typical clay of Fukushima soil. The research was conducted with simple soil washing method without any chemical treatment prior to the experiment of contaminant removal. To examine 137Cs removal, soil with grain size<75 µm was mixed with 9 and 50 mmol/L of washing agents. Experimental results showed that BDAB 9 mmol/L did not efficiently remove 137Cs from soil. After BDAB 50 mmol/L was used, removal efficiency was achieved by 12.09 ± 6.31%. Meanwhile, HCl was not effective washing agent in this study. These behaviors can arise from more complexity of the actual soil component than illite, in which cesium is relatively removable although using lower initial concentration. Afterward, our results may be used for further investigations of parameters affecting BDAB as a washing agent for radiocesium removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]