The department in the north-east of the archipelago is banking on winter sports to attract tourists to the prefecture devastated by the 2011 nuclear accident.
Famous for the nuclear accident that occurred there, Fukushima is less famous for its ski slopes. And yet, a few months after the reopening of the archipelago to travellers, the authorities and tourism professionals in northeastern Japan are promoting winter sports to attract holidaymakers. The emerging ski sector in Fukushima had suffered badly after the nuclear accident of March 11, 2011 caused by a gigantic tsunami. Then Japan closed itself to foreign visitors during the Covid-19 pandemic for more than two years. The Japanese archipelago has completely reopened to international tourism since last October and Fukushima is once again carrying out an intense promotional campaign to promote its attractions, particularly targeting Australia.
A strategy that seems to work: the Tuffys, an Australian family, spend their winter holidays in Japan, like other foreign tourists attracted by the quality of Japanese snow. But instead of going to one of the most famous resorts in the country, they chose Bandai Ski Resort in Fukushima. The family was particularly reassured by the fact that this estate is located in the mountains, about a hundred kilometers inland and therefore far from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and the risk of tsunamis on the coast. “We are aware of what happened in 2011, Benjamin Tuffy, 40, told AFP. But we are not worried. The important thing was to understand the situation“.
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A still confidential destination
The cores of three Fukushima Daiichi reactors went into meltdown in 2011 due to the tsunami. Areas within a radius of 20 kilometers around the plant were evacuated, but most of the department was never affected by radiation. And after intense decontamination work, only 2.4% of the surface area of the department remains today prohibited from access. Despite this, “Fukushima’s popularity among foreign tourists remains low“. It ranks 43rd out of the 47 Japanese departments, said Go Morimoto, Bandai’s domain manager.
In 2019, before the appearance of Covid-19, nearly half of foreign tourists in Japan visited Tokyo, 30% went to Kyoto and 8% to Hokkaido, the large northern island of the archipelago, which notably hosts the famous resort. Niseko Ski Resort. Barely 0.3% of foreign visitors ventured into the Fukushima prefecture, yet only 90 minutes from Tokyo by train. The former owner of the Bandai ski resort, an American investment fund, sold it in 2015, convinced that he was “impossible for tourism to start againin this place, recalls Go Morimoto, who praises the “potentialof powder snow from Fukushima to rival Japan’s top winter sports destinations.
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A “romantic” train is reborn
Besides winter sports, other tourist attractions in Fukushima are undergoing a revival. This is particularly the case of the small Tadami railway line, which seemed doomed after 2011, became less frequented and damaged by torrential floods after the nuclear disaster. Local authorities struggled to save this line opened in 1928 and crossing picturesque landscapes and towns. Since its full reopening last October, its trains have been filled with tourists eager to take photos for their Instagram accounts, said Tetsuya Sato, an official at a local tourist office. “As soon as traffic on the line resumed, the carriages were full of passengers, even on weekdays.“And to add:”We never anticipated such a trend, but we are so happy“.
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