More people are willing to buy fresh food produced in areas endangered by the Fukushima nuclear crisis, an online survey by a government-owned lender said Monday.
The survey was conducted by Japan Finance Corp., a policy-based lender owned by the Japanese government.
According to JFC’s website, its Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Food Business Unit had ¥2.63 trillion in loans outstanding to such businesses as of March 31, 2012.
JFC’s finding was based on a difference of 0.2 in the ratio of respondents who don’t buy at-risk food (31.8 percent) and those who say they do or aren’t concerned about the impact of radiation on food (32 percent), the survey shows. No margin of error was given.
It is the first time since the Fukushima crisis began that the former figure, logged in January 2012, has been eclipsed, the survey said.
The portion of those who buy such food or don’t care about the impact of radiation rose 2.0 points compared with the previous survey, while the portion of those who avoid such food fell 6.0 points, the survey said.
“Two years after the disaster, wariness about safety is receding gradually,” a Japan Finance official said.
Of those respondents willing to buy at-risk food, 38.3 percent said there were no safety problems, up 6.4 points from the previous survey.
Those who hope to support disaster-hit areas came to 27.8 percent, up 5.8 points.
The survey, conducted in January, logged 2,000 valid responses.
JFC employs more than 7,460 people, its website says.