IWATE PREFECTURE, Japan — Kyusuke Sasaki, 63-year-old shiitake mushroom farmer in Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, nearly quit after his business was severely affected by the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster.
But picture letters from local junior high school students wishing to see the resurgence of shiitake farming in the prefecture encouraged him to press on, resulting in the restart of shiitake shipments this spring for the first time in six years.
Sasaki, who inherited from his father a shiitake business in Ichinoseki, 150 kilometers north of the disaster-struck Fukushima Daiichi plant, is determined to help revive Iwate as a major mushroom producer, even though his shiitake production capacity has dropped to less than a 10th its pre-disaster peak.
After the government banned shiitake shipments from affected areas in April 2012 due to high radiation levels, Sasaki created a farming method to meet the safety standards using trees grown outside the prefecture.
Together with local students, he planted mushroom fungi on about 2,000 shiitake tree trunks two years ago. Each log measures about 1 meter in length.
This past February, Sasaki and around a dozen other farmers finally obtained approval to begin marketing their mushrooms.
“Every single (shiitake mushroom) is filled with the heart of every supporter,” Sasaki said.
Wild edible plants and mushrooms grown on natural trees are vulnerable to radioactive contamination as they easily take the harmful substances into themselves.
The nuclear disaster forced Sasaki to stop harvesting mushrooms and to abandon about 20,000 shiitake tree trunks. Fellow mushroom growers gave up the farming one after another after receiving compensation by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., the operator of the Fukushima plant.
While it was unforeseen when the shipment restrictions would be lifted, Sasaki prepared to resume his farming, cutting undergrowth for decontamination work.
He was about to throw in the towel on shiitake farming in the spring of 2015 when the picture letters which he received via his acquaintance changed his mind. The pieces drawn in classrooms bore pictures of shiitake and messages such as “Shiitake is powerful” and “Never give up.”
Sasaki is not sure whether his mushroom will be welcomed by consumers, but he aims to continue farming and to move onto the next stage — resuming the use of local shiitake tree trunks.
“It would have been wiser to call it quits, but growing yummy shiitake would be tantamount to returning the favor to everyone (who has supported me),” Sasaki said.
According to the health ministry, shipment restrictions imposed on food products are still applied to municipalities in 14 prefectures as of late April. The 14 include Aomori and Shizuoka prefectures, more than 350 km north and 300 km southwest of the Fukushima plant, respectively.
==Kyodo
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