Japan PM visits Fukushima

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Saturday visited the prefecture at the centre of a nuclear crisis sparked by the March quake and tsunami, amid reports his government may reduce the evacuation zone. Kan, in his fifth visit to Fukushima prefecture since the disaster, held talks with governors from 12 villages and towns from the region, Jiji Press news agency said. "I will take measures by listening carefully to your opinions," Kan was quoted as saying at the start of the meeting at a hotel in Koriyama, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Earlier Kan, wearing blue work clothes, visited a sports training facility that is now used as a base for workers battling the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986. "We are making gradual progress toward settling the accident thanks to you," he reportedly told dozens of assembled emergency workers. Kan's visit came as Japan is expected to announce early next week that it is broadly on track in its "roadmap" to stabilise the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. Operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. has met several major goals for mid-July, including building a water decontamination and reactor cooling system and taking steps to avoid further explosions. The government is now looking at resettling people in evacuated areas outside the plant's 20-kilometre (12-mile) no-go zone, although it has declined to give a specific timeframe. The mass-circulation Asahi Shimbun on Saturday said the situation has improved enough for the government to consider narrowing an emergency evacuation zone, imposed between 20 and 30 kilometres from the plant, in August. Residents within the zone have been on alert to either stay indoors or evacuate rapidly in case of an emergency. Children and those who need nursing care have already been advised to leave the zone and many others have also evacuated. There is no review in sight for the 20-kilometre no-go zone. The March 11 earthquake and tsunami left some 21,000 people dead or missing, devastating the northeastern coast and crippling the Fukushima plant. The government estimates it will need at least 10 trillion yen ($126 billion) over the next five years for reconstruction, excluding compensation to people hit by the nuclear disaster, the Asahi reported Saturday.