The March 21 Kyodo article, "No. 1 (reactor) long way from being out of the woods," states: "Outside the plant's premises, work to reduce the contamination level of land detected to have an annual exposure dose of 1 millisievert or more, excluding from natural sources, is scheduled to accelerate in eight prefectures in the Tohoku region." The quote makes it sound as if all eight prefectures in Tohoku are contaminated.
This type of reporting is a recurring problem with the mass media in and outside of Japan. Please take care to be specific and accurate. Is land in all eight prefectures contaminated with more than 1 millisievert of radiation?
There have been no reports of this in Yamagata. The last thing my region of Tohoku needs is to be painted with such a large brush of "contamination" by our own media.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.