Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida plans to make a six-day trip from Thursday to Ukraine and Hungary, including a visit to Chernobyl, site of the 1986 nuclear accident, in a bid to apply post-disaster work there to recovery efforts at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, a government source said Thursday.
Japan and Ukraine signed an agreement in April last year to cooperate in making use of the knowledge and experience gained from the Chernobyl disaster at the Tokyo Electric Power Co. plant in Fukushima Prefecture. The accord took effect the following month.
Ukraine has worked to deal with the health damage and soil pollution from the deadly accident at Chernobyl. The health effects include damage from exposure to low-dose radiation.