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International audience

International audience

International audience

International audience

International audience; Large volumes of radionuclides were deposited on the soils in Northeastern Japan after the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) in March 2011. The village of Iitate, with a population of 6544 inhabitants in early 2011, was located in the main radioactive plume. Its population was evacuated between 2011 and 2017, when the town reopened after decontamination was completed in some cultivated and residential areas. This situation is unprecedented in history. Even around Chernobyl, access to the most contaminated area has remained forbidden until today. This manuscript compiles measurements of radiation dose rates and sediment radioactive contamination, socioeconomic statistics, and reports the results of interviews conducted among refugees since 2011. Despite this reopening, which was presented as desirable by the authorities, less than ten percent of the original population-almost all of them over 70 years oldhad returned to live in the village by January 2022. An analysis of the evolution of the population shows that it is now declining again. When the village was evacuated in 2011, most of the families that used to live with three generations under the same roof were often separated. The majority of the inhabitants took refuge in neighbouring municipalities, and many lived in temporary housing sites with a strong feeling of promiscuity. This study shows the difficulty for the majority of villagers who had never heard of Becquerels before the accident in 2011 to return to a very different environment with forests remaining contaminated and major landscape transformations having occurred after several years of abandonment and through the remediation process itself. Before 2011, forests and cropland were the main land uses in the village, and the local authorities promoted a model of eco-village. While decontamination has been effective in limiting the dispersion of radionuclides across the landscape, it did not affect the large stock of radionuclides stored in forests that cover ∼80% of the surface area. Moreover, the lack of facilities and public services remains problematic for an elderly population that has a limited mobility to travel to nearby towns to find the necessities of everyday life. This study provides a benchmark for comparison with the evolution of the seven other municipalities located nearby FDNPP that are being reopened to settlement. This research, which shows the situation after a remediation tentative, will provide a unique reference in post-accident management.

If social housing estates have stigmatized entire territories in France, it does not seem to be the same everywhere, the Japanese, for their part, maintain an image of countryside of these same territories. Since Japan has experienced similar economic cycles as France, we wondered about a possible discrepancy between the formal reality of mass production of housing for a population of workers that had to be located close to the production sites, and the image of the same place that is collectively retained and conveyed. In this way, it will be a question of demonstrating that the image that one can have of a territory is linked less to the territory itself, to the urban form, than to the practices that take place in this territory, constituting the culture of the place. The economic policies chosen after the war played a part in this process, in the enhancement of the images of an idealize imaginary space in order to produce and make residents accept spaces whose planning is motivated solely by the economic profitability of the person who produces them. The resulting urban planning multiplies rules and prohibitions, enclosing inhabited spaces under a discourse of security, leading to the destruction of community functioning. The Japanese State, having failed to meet its objectives, decided to cease its involvement in the housing sector and withdrew financially from 2005. The triple disaster that Japan experienced on 11 March 2011 could have generated a new commitment by the State, one of whose roles is to protect its population. But the current situation seems to confirm an abandonment of the welfare state to the private sector., Si les cités de logements sociaux ont stigmatisé des territoires entiers en France, il ne semble pas en être de même partout, les Japonais, quant à eux, entretiennent une image agreste de ces mêmes territoires. Le Japon ayant connu les mêmes cycles économiques que la France, nous nous sommes interrogée quant à un décalage possible entre la réalité formelle afférente, soit la production en masse de logements pour une population d'ouvriers qu'il fallait fixer près des lieux de production, et l'image retenue et véhiculée collectivement d'un même lieu. Par ce biais, il s'agira de démontrer que l'image que l'on peut avoir d'un territoire est moins liée au territoire lui-même, à la forme urbaine, qu'aux pratiques qui ont cours dans ce territoire, constituant la culture du lieu. Les politiques économiques choisies après guerre ont su jouer de ce processus, de la valorisation des images d'un espace imaginaire idéalisé afin de produire et de faire accepter aux résidents, des espaces dont la planification n'a pour seule motivation la rentabilité économique de celui qui le produit. La planification urbaine engendrée multiplie règles et interdits, clos les espaces habités sous un discours sécuritaire, engendrant une destruction du fonctionnement communautaire. L'État japonais, faute d'avoir su répondre à ses objectifs, décide de cesser son implication dans le secteur du logement et se désengage financièrement à partir de 2005. La triple catastrophe qu'a connu le Japon le 11 mars 2011 aurait pu générer un nouvel engagement de l'État dont l'un des rôles est la protection de sa population. Mais la situation actuelle semble confirmer un abandon de l'État-Providence au secteur privé.

Intégrer la nature à l’urbain, cela paraît incontournable à l’échelle de la capitale japonaise avec ses 39 millions d’habitants, qui doit par ailleurs lutter contre les îlots de chaleur. Si l’on semble loin d’arriver à cet équilibre, quelques opérations, entre écoquartier et colline verte, tentent de proposer des modèles plus verts pour une nouvelle urbanité. Et les toits de parkings publics peuvent aussi faire l’affaire dans un processus de revégétalisation.