So...is it safe to visit Japan?

Dear foreigners in Japan and tourists who plan to visit Japan,

JAPAN IS SAFE TO VISIT as long as you don’t go near Topco’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant or drink water from drain pipes. Yes, you can bring your kids. This conclusion is based on daily readings of accumulated sources, from official to personal. For example, take this.

BEFORE you post your questions on this blog or on 'Tokyo Radiation Levels' community page on Facebook, scroll down this post—accumulated FAQs from TRL page. Questions are in bold. NEXT, do a quick google search. Look up your destination on the map of Japan. I guarantee you’ll be glad you’ve located your destination on the map, especially if you’ll be going off to Osaka/Kyoto/Nagoya/Okinawa/Hokkaido/etc.

Yes, it’s safe to visit Niigata, although it is just east of Fukushima prefecture. Winds have been blowing to the west. Yes, it’s safe to climb the Japanese Alps in Nagano. Yes, it’s safe to visit the beautiful countryside of Tochigi prefecture, where Nikko is. Anywhere beside the disaster zone and FNPP is safe.

Here’s what TRL site science commentator Frank Sanns said on April 14:

“I have been saying that the radiation in Tokyo is a non issue and it is a non issue but I do need to add that if I were living in Japan, I would not eat the food that was grown in the areas that are in color around the reactor site. Eating one or two items would not be a significant health risk but I would not eat those products daily. Just trying to anchor my advice with all aspects of life in Tokyo. http://blog.energy.gov/content/situation-japan

Furthermore, Japan is the safest city of all developed countries in the world, of crimes.  Although it doesn’t mean it’s free of petty crimes like thefts, the following is what you’ll experience:

“I've been chased by people who want to return a dropped coin. I've left my cell phone in a park, come back the next morning, and found it on the bench where I'd set it down (LA Times).”

Below: “Is it safe to visit Japan?” questions accumulated from TRL page

May 16  Gary
Work wants me to go to Tokyo from June to November. My family is freaked out about my exposure and how I can minimize ingestion of contaminated food and water. Do I tell work to forget it? How do I avoid exposure in Tokyo? Sorry if this is a very uninformed post.

Tokyo Radiation Levels There's nothing dangerous about Tokyo. You can drink bottled water and food in the super market has legal requirements to show what region the food is from. I imagine no dangerously contaminated food is making it to the shops because of the all the stringent testing of food. You decide if you want to come or not.

Gary Thanks, much appreciated!!

Charles (Err…deleted by mistake and I’m toro lazy to scroll down all the way to find it) …at there is not any English, and it is a crap shoot as to what to buy and what not to buy. Hence Costco...

Tokyo Radiation Levels Or you could learn the Kanji for Fukushima and simply avoid that: 福島

Jill Gary, Gary, Gary. MILK IT, man. Milk it! Heck, my friend's son is getting married in Vegas, and the photographer said she'd waive her $800 fee because she found out his parents live in Tochigi. Also, since you'll be here, bring me Good 'n Plenties.

Chris It helps if you can read Japanese, because the supermarkets I shop at there is not any English, and it is a crap shoot as to what to buy and what not to buy. Hence Costco...

As TRL said, if you don't know any Japanese, just learn kanji specific to things you want to avoid.

Charles @Chris, unfortunately that approach hasn't worked well for me. And I don't have copious amounts of time to try and decipher Kanji characters that me be written in different fonts, blurring the definition (I've tried...) Also, every stor...See more

James @Jill you made me laugh out loud during a meeting with the good n plenty comment!

Charles So it is a bit disingenuous to over simplify the process of shopping for food if you aren't a Japanese speaker.

Patrick I'd rather ingest 500Bq of cesium per each Kg of food I eat than shop at Costco.

Charles ‎@Patrick, LOL, go for it.

Daniel Most of the food only tells you which factory it was processed at. You really have to source your food if you're concerned. We've been using a home delivery company for a while now and that had an issue where food from a contaminated area was sent to people's houses because either the supplier or the company failed to disclose where it was from.

May 16 (again)  Gabriel

I have been unable to check the TRL readings for last week or so, and I don't think I am fully understanding the new developments.. can someone explain to me whats going on? I am planning on visiting Tokyo area in a few days.

Chris Still no real danger in Tokyo. That is all you need to know.

Jill Gabriel: Here are the new developments. THERE ACTUALLY AREN'T ANY. There is only new information about things that happened a long time ago.

Gabriel That makes much more sense now!

May 12: I'm totally confused by all the sayings around.. is it really safe to go Japan now? I'm planning for a trip to the alpine mountains and a few more places in coming June. Is there anyone out here who can give me some advises??

Lichen The same here. I am likely to plan a trip to Tokyo this June. Beside all the figures in this page which looks great, I am really concerned with whether the level will do a serious harm to human bodies.

Jill I'm exasperated with these question enough to say to you don't come.

Tokyo Radiation Levels It's safe to come to Japan, just don't go to the contaminated areas in Fukushima. It's even safe to go to other areas of Fukushima.

Jill I mean, really we don't need people coming here and having hysterics over imaginary problems instead of looking at the maps to find out where the problems actually are.

Me:  We should have a second name for this community site. "Travelers, take a minute to locate the coast of Fukushima pref. and your destination on the map of Japan."

Jill It probably wouldn't be enough. This always takes me back to the first week after the quake.

Charles Maybe add a "Header" to this site - "It is safe to live-in and visit Japan"

Jill Then you will still have to add "But stay away from the areas relative to Daiichi Nuclear Plant!" Then someone will say "I was going to visit Okinawa, but is it safe because of the radiation?" Then I might pop up with, You should visit Hong Kong."

Me: Then I might just say, "Educate yourselves."

May 11  Ian

According to Safecast, Kashiwa (Where I live) is reading 0.61 microsieverts. That's more than 4 times nearly every where else in the Tokyo area. Can that figure be right? If so, what does it mean for my 7 year-old daughter?

Safecast  www.safecast.org

Safecast is a website that aggregates radioactivity data from throughout the world in order to provide real-time hyper-local information about the status of the Japanese nuclear crisis.

Ohyo There is an enclave of high radioactive concentration in northwestern Chiba and southeastern Saitama, including Kashiwa, Matsudo, Nagareyama and Misato.

The latest radioactive material diffusion map:
Note that there is an enclave of high radioactive concentration in northwestern Chiba and southeastern Saitama, including Kashiwa, Matsudo, Nagareyama and Misato, just next to the eastern border of Tokyo.  http://ow.ly/i/aAT2/original

Andrew It seems bizarre as all the other places are consistently between 0.6 to 1.6 microsieverts. Going up the coast to Hitachi it's still around the same figures. All over Tokyo is around the 1.0 mark. Only due west of Fukushima are some places ...See more

Antonio There's also a guy with a video stream of his geiger counter: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/放射線レベル On the rooftop of a 4 floor building (0.29-0.30 microsievert/h)

Andrew As of right now...07:30am on May 11th, the geiger counter mentioned above in Kashiwa is showing 0.24....high-ish, but not 0.61.

Charles ‎@Antonio - You are good at finding these ustream channels, is there a similar channel for Yokohama radiation readings? Thanks,

Antonio ‎@ Uryo. The guy has a lot of cool maps http://ow.ly/user/hugujo I just realized that the map was created three weeks ago but the readings he used were a bit older. He predicted quite well the results of the MEXT / US DOE joint project for Fukushima, though, which is impressive.

Alessandra Seriously now, do you guys think we're in danger by living in this yellow area? I don't mean immediate danger of course, but more about long term effects...

Tokyo Radiation Levels Let's say there actually is background of 0.5 uSv/h. Since the total cancer risk (all types) is about 1715 per 10,000 per Sievert, that equates to a cancer risk of 1 in 2,283,105. The normal cancer rate (all types) of the population is 1 in 4.  http://euradcom.org/2011/ecrr2010.pdf (table from page 73).

Me That small yellow place around Misato and Kashiwa maybe a "Hotspot." Count as a fact: It's a place where particles drop due to wind/geographical reasons, and it explains why there was another heavily affected city outside Chernobyl.

Ian That doesn't sound promising for my 25-year mortgage...

Ohyo ‎@Me. Yes, I agree with you. I also believe that area's a hotspot where radioactive materials drop incidentally. The same phenomenon was also observed in the Chernobyl accident. Very good analysis indeed.

Alessandra ‎...........no it doesn't sound promising at all...

Jill Yeah. You should leave Japan for some place where there is pretty much no radiation.

May 10  Phillip

TRL, again great work you're doing, really appreciated. Do you have any readings from the area around Tokyo Disneyland? Obviously a lot of people would like to visit, but they're worried about children being exposed to radiation. I'm sure your measurements could allay those fears. Also, is it possible to get a sample of water from Disneyland tested?

Jc Interested to know the radiation level at Disney too... Going there 20 May

Tokyo Radiation Levels There's probably no need honestly. The water quality is reported here (http://mextrad.blob.core.windows.net/page/12_Chiba.html) and the radiation is almost completely uniform around Tokyo. I cannot imagine that Disneyland would not have already checked it's park to make sure it's safe since it's got such international recognition. There is no dangerous areas in Tokyo as far as radiation.

Phillip Great, really good to have the facts. Thanks again

Jc Sorry for asking noob question, what is the normal radiation level and radiation level in Tokyo now? Will it harm if pregnant lady go Tokyo? Is the level within the safe range?

Tokyo Radiation Levels It's not harmful to pregnant women or babies in Tokyo.

Giuseppina  I’m planning a bussiness trip to Sendai in the next two weeks.  Do you think it will be safe?

Tokyo Radiation Levels Radiation in Sendai is not high. It's the same as Tokyo (0.18 uSv/h) and not dangerous. Sendai is however a badly damaged city without much electricity and I don't think they have running water fully restored yet either. Just this morning NHK was saying that anomalous crustal activity is suggesting there could be another big aftershock soon in the Tohoku area.

It's a disaster area basically. Do I think it's safe? No.

Marco

Hi, me and my girlfriend are considering travelling to Tokyo and then onwards to southern japan in about 6 weeks (15th June). We have been planning for the past 6 months to travel to Japan for 2 months but felt obliged to change our plans after the Fukushima disaster. We have been looking into other places in Asia to go as we had our hearts set on Asia but we both really REALLY want to go to Japan as opposed to other places in Asia. If you could message me giving any advice and information it would be greatly appreciated and if its positive I might buy you a beer when we get to Japan!

Jill A beer is not bribe enough. *smile* Look, you want to go to Tokyo and then south. In other words, you're not going anywhere the least bit dangerous from radiation. You don't need any special advice from here.

Tokyo Radiation Levels Marco: As Jill said, Tokyo and southern Japan are nothing to worry about. It's perfectly fine in Tokyo and the south is unaffected. Tokyo is having some power restriction though.

Daniel I have travelled to several prefectures since the earthquake and the only place where people were slightly worried was Yamanashi because of its close proximity to Tokyo and the fact that it's right on the Tokai plate. Everywhere else was like a dream. I was especially envious of the people living in Okayama. What a beautiful city that is.

David  just arrived in Tokyo for a week of work..thanks for keeping watch on things.

Konata Hi, and how do you see the situation?

David Business as usual! Can't say I've seen anything different. I'm just going about things as normal. We ate at a resturaunt for lunch just the same.

April 18:  Marina

What are you thinking. I booked a flight for October before it all happened. Shall I fly to Tokyo/ Japan or shall I cancel it??

Daniel I think it would be difficult for anyone to say what someone else should do.

Chris Tokyo is completely safe....

Tokyo Radiation Levels Except for Earthquake. I cannot say that the situation at the Fukushima will not suddenly get worse, but it's being brought under and the results so far are positive. If I were coming to Tokyo for a holiday I would do it because there are less tourists now which I would consider a good thing. Smaller lines, etc.

Konata Hi, I’m in the same position like you, I booked for October too!

Mary i had the same problem. my trip is for May and after thinking about it for weeks and doing a lot of research (this site helped a lot) i decided to still go. I have friends stationed at Yokota AB and they say it's business as usual so i am keeping my travel plans. :)

Marinai Thanks very much. It helps me a lot...

Jill Yeah, I know a couple at Yokota, too. It's true.

Anna Come on to Japan, you will be fine.

April 11:  Sophia

Sorry if this post is unrelated, but am I the only one who wants to know about the situation in Osaka or other cities? We're reading about radiation reaching foreign countries, yet nobody seems to be concerned about the other cities of Japan. I highly doubt they are safe. Anyway, thanks a lot for this page, I'm reading it every day.

James nothing has been detected in Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto in the air, water or ground as of yet. All the links are below

Sophia I just find it overly suspicious that radiation has been detected in so many places and foreign countries, but not in any other Japanese prefecture apart from Kanto, etc I will try to find the links..

Keith Personally I find it suspicious that people claim to find radiation from Japan in New England and other places equally far away.

Alice The wind blows mainly out over the pacific. If you look at the weather patterns you will see that the only place affected in Japan is the Kanto area. Other countries have detected radioactive particles in really really really small trace amounts.Just there are a lot of ignorant people who don't know what they are talking about but like scaring people anyway.

Jill Every thing around us radiates. Osaka is very, very far away.

Me People in Tokyo wouldn't have ran away to Osaka if Kansai area is in danger. (People did evacuate to western and southern Japan in March. Some foreign embassies even moved their headquaters to Osaka, Kobe, Naogya, etc. for a while.) It would make sense to me if people are moving west for the fear of 21st-century version of the great Kanto earthquake though. (I'm going to shut my mouth here on that b/c this group is about radiation levels in Tokyo.) Just fyi, natural background radiation level in Kansai is slightly higher than Kanto since the soil in the west contain granite.

Sophia Well I have not studied anything similar to physics or related sciences, so I'm completely ignorant about the subject. I'm studying on the net as much as possible, but lots of information are bad, so I don't know what to believe in the end. I see. I live in Tokyo normally. I was thinking of moving to Osaka, because I have some thyroid gland related issues that could turn bad, should I get exposed to higher than usual amounts of radiation. I really don't know what to do. I read that Singapore banned veg imports from Ehime though...which is next to Osaka. Kyodo news. Thank you all for your help :)

Carlo @Sophia, well , if you have "some thyroid gland related issues that could turn bad, should you get exposed to higher than usual amounts of radiation" I will say then the greater the distance between you and the plant, the better. If you can afford to relocate and have no necessary reason to stay then you should know what to do. Do not think we will get a warning if anything went wrong suddenly because we wont, we did not get one the first time on the 15th March. If you decided to stay in Tokyo, I will advise you, but that is just my opinion, that if we have another so called TEPCO's" Hydrogen explosion with no immediate threat for human health", to get cover indoor for 1 day and check if level are spiking or not, too much precaution cannot hurt ;)

Sophia Thanks a lot Carlo, this is what my logic tells me as well. I just relocated from Osaka to Tokyo two months ago, but I'm afraid I will have to move back to Osaka again...It's a fact that they will not warn us, at least not appropriately...I love the expression "no immediate threat". What about later? *sigh*. I'm in my home country atm, thinking about what to do. I know that food and water are much more dangerous than exposure to air etc tho. Agreed, better safe than sorry.

Tokyo Radiation Levels Sophia: Get a doctor's advice before you uproot your whole life over something that may or may not affect you.

I-131 concentrates in the thyroid and raises the 10 year risk of cancer. What we are seeing in Tokyo is minute though. The predicted cancers from the levels in Tokyo are around 1 in 5,000,000. Depending on your thyroid condition, your body may not be absorbing iodine. Alternatively if you have hyperthyroidism your body could be using too much, too quickly and I-131 doesn't stick around in the thyroid very long. In fact doctors use I-131 to test hyperthyroidism.

What I'm saying is don't panic, get advice from a doctor.

April 10:  T.S.

If I am interpreting the info on this page correctly, then it appears Tokyo has the same average levels as other cities? I have been asked to go to Tokyo for work but I am not being forced to go. I want to go because I have never been but my mother is nervous & does not want me to go. I am searching now for information to make an informed decision. Thank you TRL for your page.

Nori Hi there! Hope this helps: An Unprecedented Time at the Tokyo American Club: Lecture on Radiation | lucid communication
www.lucidcommunication.com

Lucian Tonya my son is in Tokyo already a week as he got a scholarship and we are monitoring the situation carefully as you can imagine- you have to know that this site is a very useful and truethful source -as far as i understood from this site and many others in fact there is no a really radiation danger in Tokyo but water for instance you better drink from bottles -of course there is a worry in the back of our head and also my son is alert but this is the wayhow things are now -i wish you a good decision and success

Lynn My son lives in Tokyo and does not seem concerned about the situation .He sends frequent updates of situation via the internet.

Lucian and how are you Lynn?

Brian Tokyo is safe and very far away from Fukushima. Current radiation levels less than Colorado. But you will get a nice dose on the flight over. Just avoid eating Ibaraki unagi and you will be ok.

April 5:  Billy
I'm supposed to spend a semester in Tokyo this summer, (from may to july) my question is should I still go? All of my family and friends are urging me not to, they think I'll get cancer one day if I do. But I've put all of my eggs in one basket here, I have no back up plan, it's been tokyo or bust for years now and just when I'm finally almost there... you know. Will I be safe?

David Safe (like risk) is inevitably a relative term and subjective too. I'd say do as much research as you can and then make your call. If planes are willing to fly in. and no authorities are saying don't - it suggests it's at least officially "safe"

Kurt Billy - depending on where you live, you may be safer in Tokyo than other places in the world relative to radiation exposure, if you define less radiation as safer (which is debateable whether radiation matters below a certain threshold as ...See more

Tokyo Radiation Levels

Billy: It's currently safe. The situation could get worse though. Not necessarily in terms of radiation leaks, but of life and situations arising as a result of the radiation leaks (like scams, scandals, restricted access to certain goods). And we don't yet know the effects of the radioactive water leak into the ocean. My personal opinion is that it's safe in Tokyo and will probably still be safe as time goes on. Keep an eye on things closer to the date you plan to come.

Carlo I think also that this should be your own decision as nobody can predict how the plant will be in 1 month from now. look also for your embassy in Tokyo travel advise. Not 100% fact but the situation will rather evolve quickly in the worse direction if it has to.. we know also it will take a long time to go back to "normality" (edano said) so just stay informed about the latest news.

Alfons

Life is risk. If you want to see the great things in this world, you have assume that risk. For example, the same thing applies if you want to travel to, let's say, Israel. You can keep worrying yourself all day about safety in Japan while being exposed to cigarrettes, car accidents, bad alimentation, air pollution or modern medicine in your country. And yes, I work in an hospital... and I can assure you that modern medicine is mostly about radiation. We do CT Scans for the most nonsensic things you can imagine, just for avoiding a lawsuit. And it's 12,5 mSv. Most people actually demands for a CT. To put it in perspective, and assuming that TEPCO data is true, you would get 0,6 mSv for eating and driking stuff nearby the plant during a *year* considering only the low-radiation water discharge. I won't even bother with this doses... There's actually a debate in modern radiology wether radiation doses in "therapeutical range" have any significant impact on health. We have a lot of experience in our hospital with thousands of patients having received more than 20 CT-Scans (even 30...I think the absolute mark records is a guy who got 38) with no significant measured cancer development. Ok, this data is tricky but honestly, I wouldn't care about radiation doses in Tokyo just now...

Billy Oh goodness, thank you all for your data and reassurance :)