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The Sun Child sculpture in Fukushima by artist Kenji Yanobe will be removed as soon as possible. Photo: AFP

Controversial Fukushima statue of child in radiation suit to be removed

Mayor confirms statue will be taken down after criticism that it misleads public into thinking protective gear is necessary in the area

The city of Fukushima in Japan will remove a statue of a child clad in a protective suit over criticism that it misleads the public into believing that local people, hit by a nuclear crisis in 2011, need to wear such gear, according to its mayor.

“We set up the statue as a symbol of people striving for reconstruction but have come to judge that the statue is not accepted by many citizens,” mayor Hiroshi Kohata said on Tuesday.

The city, which erected the 6.2-metre statue dubbed Sun Child near Fukushima Station on August 3, will stop displaying it as soon as possible and consider what to do with the work of art, the mayor added.

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The statue of a child in a yellow protective suit, looking up with an adhesive bandage on the cheek, was produced by contemporary artist Kenji Yanobe to express his wish for a world free of nuclear disasters.

(The removal) is truly regrettable, but I thought we shouldn’t provoke a confrontation any more
Artist Kenji Yanobe
Yanobe said he was hoping to cheer people up following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the Fukushima nuclear crisis, as the statue depicts a child braving a difficult situation.

The statue indicates the surrounding air is “clean” as the child is holding and not wearing a helmet and a radiation counter on the chest reads “000”.

“[The removal] is truly regrettable, but I thought we shouldn’t provoke a confrontation any more among people inside and outside the city,” said Yanobe on his website on Tuesday.

A questionnaire survey conducted by the city, which had received responses from 110 people as of Monday, showed most were negative about the statue, with 75 respondents demanding either its relocation or removal.

Foreign journalists receive information about decommissioning works at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in July 2018. Photo: AFP

Some of them questioned the zero displayed on the radiation counter as even in areas unaffected by nuclear disasters the level is never zero due to background radiation.

Only 22 people were positive, with one person saying, “Something with an impact is needed in Fukushima”, according to the city.

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In one of the world’s worst nuclear crises, three of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the prefecture suffered meltdowns, spewing radioactive materials into the surrounding environment.

Decontamination and other efforts are under way to enable people who lived near the disaster-stricken plant to return to their hometowns.

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