FUKUSHIMA: The Japanese government is in the final stage of talks on deciding to lift its evacuation orders for nuclear disaster-hit Fukushima Prefecture areas without decontamination work if radiation levels are low enough there, it was learned Wednesday.

There still are difficult-to-return zones in seven municipalities in the northeastern Japan prefecture, following the severe accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station, which was damaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The village of Iitate, one of the seven, has asked the government to fully remove the evacuation order in the spring of 2023, in not only an area designated as a special reconstruction district where preparations are underway to allow residents to resume their lives again but also other areas.

The current requirements for the lifting of the order are annual airborne radiation levels of 20 millisieverts or less and the implementation of decontamination work and infrastructure development.

In response to Iitate's request, the government plans to create a new option of removing the order without the implementation of decontamination work for areas where radiation levels have dropped below the threshold naturally over time on condition that people will not live there even after the lifting, sources said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference on Wednesday that the government will consider steps, including reviewing the conditions for canceling the evacuation orders, while listening to opinions of local people.

JIJI Press