About 40 percent of the first batch of public housing for people displaced by the Fukushima nuclear disaster will not be ready by the end of fiscal 2015, forcing those who evacuated to wait longer for permanent abodes.

At a Reconstruction Promotion Council meeting Aug. 4 in Fukushima, the prefectural government revealed that 1,600 housing units, or about 40 percent of the first 3,700 planned in the prefecture, will likely face delays of up to nine months.

Residents who evacuated from the area after the March 2011 core meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 power plant were scheduled to move into the units by March 2016. But construction delays have forced the prefecture to talk with the central government about extending the deadline, officials said.