Reports have emerged that Chinese tourists are flocking to Futaba, a town in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, where a nuclear power plant explosion occurred during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The reason Futaba is popular among Chinese tourists is that this site, recorded as the worst nuclear accident, has gained attention as a "dark tourism" destination.
According to Kyodo News, Futaba recorded the third-highest growth rate of foreign tourists among cities and towns across Japan from January to August 2023 (compared to 2019). The "Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Memorial Center," which opened in Fukushima Prefecture in 2020, saw approximately 4,000 foreign tourists visit last year. Reports estimate that about one-third of them were Chinese tourists. With the surge in tourists, it is reported that the town's tourist information center has deployed Chinese and English tour guides.
Consequently, the town is cooperating with police to ensure that tourists do not intrude on residents' private properties or public facilities. According to Kyodo News, a video of a foreign tourist breaking into an elementary school building in Futaba went viral last year, causing controversy.
The popularity of Futaba is attributed to interest in the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident and is analyzed as a form of dark tourism. Dark tourism refers to travel to sites where tragic historical events such as wars, disasters, and massacres occurred, with Poland's Auschwitz concentration camp and the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine being notable examples. Reports suggest that some tourists have attempted to enter restricted areas within Futaba or have demanded measurements of radiation levels to directly observe the effects of the nuclear accident.
Once home to about 7,000 residents, this town experienced a reactor collapse due to the earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan in 2011. As a result, a large amount of radioactive material was released, and the Japanese government designated the area as a no-access return difficult area, evacuating all residents. After nine years, in 2020, the government first lifted the evacuation order, and in 2022, residents were allowed to return to certain areas. However, about 80% of the town remains uninhabitable due to radioactive contamination.
Meanwhile, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Japan has been increasing recently. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, tourist arrivals from China reached a total of 6.98 million in 2024, three times that of 2023. The expenditure reached 1.73 trillion yen (approximately 1.7 trillion won). During this year’s Lunar New Year holiday period, Japan was the most popular travel destination for Chinese tourists, with the number of tourists estimated to be about double that of the same period last year, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
This is interpreted as the effect of the ongoing depreciation of the yen, along with improving relations between the two countries. According to foreign media, in November last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba held a bilateral meeting during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima, Peru. Subsequently, China resumed visa waivers for short-term stays for Japanese nationals starting November 22 of the same month, marking the first time in over four years since the visa-free policy was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, the Japanese government also relaxed the visa issuance requirements for Chinese tourists.