On March 11th, 2011, a M9 earthquake and tsunami struck East Japan and triggered an accident at the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant #1. The radioactive contamination resulting from this accident... [ view full abstract ]
On March 11th, 2011, a M9 earthquake and tsunami struck East Japan and triggered an accident at the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant #1. The radioactive contamination resulting from this accident continues to have severe negative effects on child development and education. Evacuation orders and loss/damage of residential houses has fractured the local community life and made it difficult for educational facilities continue operations.
As a result, many facilities have been forced to shut down or temporarily suspend operations.
Even after the kindergarten doors were re-opened, high levels of radioactivity caused great concern regarding outdoor activities and contact with outdoor nature. This situation continues to this day and has led to children being afraid of bugs and not knowing how to play with mud. Our research team has coined this “Nature Deprivation Syndrome.”
At the time of the accident, fear of radioactivity caused childcare workers and parents prohibited children from any outdoor activity and exposure to nature.
However, this fear of the invisible radiation was undue and eventually calmed when radiation levels were actually measured by staff. Kindergarten staff shared the data with parents and explained where, when, and why certain parts of the kindergarten posed a danger to children. As both parents and staff learned that not all areas of the playground were equally compromised, the staff were now able to be less nervous about parental reactions and more enthusiastic and creative in outdoor activity planning.
The sharing of the data improved the relationship between the parents and the staff. Eventually, this led to an increase in pupils and better business. The damage to children’s health caused by the radiation is not clear at this point in time, but it can be inferred that the post-earthquake obesity trend is due to the decrease in outside activity.
