In mid-December, dry winter winds swept across rice paddies stretching over a corner of the Kanto Plain in Kazo, Saitama Prefecture. It was here that Kazuhiro Shibuya, who had evacuated from Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, devoted himself to rice farming.
Shibuya, 78, is among the Futaba residents who were ordered to leave their hometown immediately after the March 2011 meltdown accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings¡¯ Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. After the residents took refuge in temporary shelters, the city of Kazo accommodated the mass evacuation and assumed the functions of the Futaba town hall.
Shibuya sought farmland in Kazo in 2012 and resumed farming. Though he struggled at first with differences in climate and soil, he worked desperately to get his business back on track. Today, he grows rice on about 8 hectares of land, some of it borrowed from acquaintances.
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