Last March, Tatsuya Yamaguchi of the idol group Tokio told the media that he was determined to someday reopen Dash Village, the farm that he and his bandmates built from scratch as an ongoing project on their long-running Nippon TV series "The Tetsuwan Dash." The farm is in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, which was contaminated by radiation following the nuclear disaster of March 2011. The entire area was evacuated, and Tokio had to abandon the land they had so painstakingly transformed using traditional farming methods.
Yamaguchi's dream may never come true. Last week, "Tetsuwan Dash" launched a new project called Dash Island, which will see the quintet turn an uninhabited outcropping into something livable. For the last year, the Dash Village idea was kept on life support with segments called Dash Village Excursions, in which Tokio traveled to farms in other prefectures to learn different cultivation methods. But given the amount of time and money required to make an island habitable, it's doubtful they can devote any more to Dash Village, even if the area is declared safe and reopened, which is not likely to happen any time soon.
So the group has decided to give something back to the prefecture that became its second home. Since July Tokio has been appearing in TV commercials and transportation ads for Fukushima produce. At first, it shilled for peaches. Soon it will be boosting rice. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, the prefectural government has set aside ¥242 million for media campaigns to convince the rest of Japan that Fukushima produce is safe. So far it seems to have worked. The price of Fukushima peaches has "recovered" to about 80 percent of its pre-nuclear-crisis level. At one point last year, the price had dropped to half its 2010 peak.