Downtown
Internal Radioactive Exposure (Exposition à la radioactivité interne)
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There is an interesting old shinto shrine in the suburb of Tokyo, since it claims that the shrine was originally the leading or the highest-ranked shrine in an ancient country or region Musashi in which Tokyo of today is situated.
In older days, shrines in each region of Japan were ranked according to their origin and history or closeness to the imperial court. Though the imperial capital of Japan has moved from the Nara (Yamato) region to Kyoto and finally to Tokyo in the late 19th century, the leading or the highest-ranked shrine in an ancient country or region Musashi in which Tokyo of today is situated was changed from this shrine to another around the 14th century.
However, this area is at the end of a fault running for 33 km which can be a great threat to Tokyo. It can cause a strong local earthquake which might claim thousands of lives. It is called the Tachikawa Fault.
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In addition, there is a very bad administrative rule in Japan in terms of restriction on agriculture for radioactive contamination.
In the case of Chernobyl, a farming lot indicating 493 Becquerels of radiation is not allowed to be used for agriculture. But, in Japan now, this upper limit of ground radiation for agriculture is set at 5000 Becquerels, which is 10 times larger than Chernobyl's limit for radioactive ground pollution. Put candidly, this is a big problem, though agricultural products are faithfully monitored by authorities in Japan so that no dangerously contaminated foods are brought to market.
Anyway, the Fukushima Prefecture government has decided to check all the residents, namely two million Fukushima citizens, and examine their sate of internal radioactive exposure, starting in August or so.