Fukushima Victim Resurrects Sake Brewery

Iwaki city, one of the most damaged areas in Fukushima.<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fuuasumma/5720939326/">fuuasumma</a>/Flickr

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


This story first appeared on the Guardian website.

It’s little wonder that Chieko Sasaki is gripping two bottles of sake like her life depends on it.

For weeks after the meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant last March, Sasaki believed her brewing business had met the same fate as her hometown, Iitate.

The farming village lies just outside the 20km (12-mile) evacuation zone surrounding the plant, but was evacuated two months after the accident after independent monitors discovered dangerously high levels of radiation there.

Sasaki, along with 7,000 Iitate residents, left the home she shared with her husband, son and grandson, and said a quiet farewell to her brewery, restaurant and the fields where she once grew organic rice and vegetables.

“When I think about my old house, I get a headache and can’t sleep,” she said. “I took out millions of yen in loans to build my old brewery and restaurant, and I was on the verge of paying them off when the accident happened.

“Then I had to borrow more money to open this place. Tokyo Electric Power [the operator of the plant] has paid me some compensation, but it’s a drop in the ocean.”

Almost a year and half later, Iitate’s residents, now scattered around the region in temporary shelters and private accommodation, still don’t know when they will be able to make a permanent return, although many are now permitted to visit during daylight hours.

The uncertainty, and boredom with life as a nuclear evacuee, drove Sasaki, 66, to resurrect her business making unrefined doburoku sake at her new premises just outside Fukushima city.

Standing in her way was a web of red tape. Japan’s brewing laws are weighted in favour of large-scale producers, and Sasaki had only been given permission to brew the doburoku, which requires a special license, after Iitate was granted special economic status in 2006.

As soon as she was evacuated, she effectively lost her right to work. Under pressure from the Iitate council, the authorities compromised, and Sasaki began brewing again with the last batch of the village’s rice harvest from 2010.

Last year’s crop was never harvested due to fears over radiation, but what little was left of the previous year’s supply went towards the production of six large barrels of sake, with the final product going on sale in May. From this year, she will use rice grown by relatives living in another part of Fukushima prefecture.

“I made far less than I used to,” she said. “I used to sell huge amounts for New Year’s celebrations, summer festivals and social events. But now my old neighbours are scattered all over the place.”

Sasaki has returned to her old routine of visiting her brewery three times a day to monitor the sake’s temperature. But her enthusiasm is tempered with resentment at the hand the nuclear accident has dealt her and her family.

She visited her former home last winter to find that the bath, sink and toilet had cracked irreparably, and layers of ice on the floor where water had leaked through the roof. There were signs that wild animals had invaded the property.

“I can’t think about the future at all,” she said when asked about official promises that parts of Iitate could be inhabitable within two years.

But after word spread about her sake venture, Sasaki quickly found herself running out of stock as old neighbours and new customers indulged their love of her cloudy, slightly fizzy tipple.

“If this can help lift people’s spirits even just a little, then I’m happy to do whatever I can to help.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate