Fukushima tourism set to resume

Japan's Fukushima Prefecture is set to welcome the first group of Chinese mainland tourists organized by a travel agency since last March's quake and tsunami, as Japan's travel business strives to recover from the disasters.

Fukushima, a quake-stricken prefecture in northeastern Japan, became a household name for its Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which was crippled by the disasters.

Global fears about the radiation have overshadowed the country, especially Fukushima, Iwate and Miyagi, the three prefectures that suffered most from the catastrophe.

"After the quake last March, all tours that were previously booked were canceled," Kenji Kokubun, chief representative of Fukushima Prefecture Government's Shanghai office, said on Friday.

Few tourists from the Chinese mainland chose to visit Fukushima before the first batch of individual travelers arrived there last December, Kokubun said.

A Chinese travel agency promoted a group tour to Fukushima with the office, and the first group tour from Shanghai is planned to start in mid-April.

But officials in the quake-stricken prefectures said that the pace of recovery of Japan's tourism industry remains slow.

A lone tree stands in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture. There were more than 70,000 pine trees before a powerful tsunami swept the city on March 11, 2011, but only one survived the disaster. Cui Meng / China Daily