Japan nuclear crisis: 102-year-old man in Fukushima fall-out zone kills himself
- Man lived 25 miles from Fukushima plant but exclusion zone was extended
- Prime minister Naoto Kan faces calls to step down over handling of crisis
- Police search wasteland for up to 1,000 bodies of people still missing
A 102-year-old Japanese man killed himself because he did not want to leave his home in the extended radiation zone.
The centenarian lived in the village of Iitate, which until earlier this week was declared safe from radiation leaking from the crippled nuclear plant at Fukushima.
Government officials earlier insisted that anyone living within a 19-mile radius of the plant must move and either stay with relatives or take shelter in an evacuation centre outside the zone.
Deserted: The 102-year-old man lived in the village of Litate, Fukushima (pictured) which is 25 miles from the stricken nuclear plant. He killed himself when faced with being evacuated from his home
The elderly man was happy to learn that no one in his village, 25 miles from the plant, would have to move.
But then the government widened the exclusion zone to include Iitate - and he was devastated.
Threat: The reading on a radiation meter in Litate shows dangerously high levels of nuclear activity
'I'm not leaving,' he told his family. 'I'd rather die than leave my home.'
The old man's name and details of his self-inflicted death have not been revealed.
Municipal officials said the man was upset as he discussed evacuation plans with his family and told them that he saw little point in leaving his home at this stage of his long life.
Under the new orders, the government insisted that residents should move out because of concerns over the effect of long-term exposure to radiation from the leaking nuclear plant.
The health of people living near the plant when it began spilling radiation into the atmosphere will have to be monitored for at least 20 years, medical officials said.
Thousands of people have already been evacuated from a 12-mile radius around the plant, which began spewing toxic radiation after its cooling systems were disabled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
The new order to move people living up to 25 miles from the plant has left thousands homeless.
An official from Iitate village confirmed that a 102-year-old man living in the area had died, but said the circumstances of his death were still being investigated.
News of the death of comes as the Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan faces calls to quit over his handling of the country's natural calamities and a nuclear crisis.
Kan, whose public support stands at about 30 per cent, had sought a grand coalition to help the country recover from its worst-ever natural disaster and enact bills to pay for the country's biggest reconstruction project since the Second World War.
Pressure: The leader of Japan's opposition Liberal Democrat Party, Sadakazu Tanigaki, left, has called for prime minister Naoto Kan to step down over his handling of the crisis
Kan's Democratic Party controls parliament's lower house but needs opposition help to pass bills because it lacks a majority in the upper chamber, which can block legislation.
But the head of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party - who last week ruled out joining hands - on Thursday pressured Kan to go.
'The time has come for (the prime minister) to decide whether he stays or goes,' Sadakazu Tanigaki said.
Tanigaki's comment reflects the view of many in his conservative party that Kan must step down as a precondition for any coalition as well as a hope that criticism of Kan within his own Democratic Party will gather steam after party power-broker Ichiro Ozawa blasted the premier over his crisis management.
Stricken: Engineers were this week sill battling to cool the six crippled reactors at the power plant which has has leaked radiation into the atmosphere
At the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in the northeast of the country, engineers were struggling to find a new way to cool one of the six crippled reactors as a large amount of radioactive water kept workers from reaching an internal cooling system knocked out by the tsunami on March 11.
Meanwhile, hundreds of police in white protective suits searched for the first time within a six-mile (10km) radius around the radiation-leaking complex for up to 1,000 bodies of missing people.
Police said that falling radiation levels have allowed them to search within a narrower radius around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant than before. But they are working very carefully to avoid tearing their protective gear.
But the political pressure on the prime minister to go increased as opposition leaders publicly raised doubts around his future.
Upper House speaker Takeo Nishioka, a well-known Kan critic from the Democrats, also urged him to resign, Kyodo said.
Kan, however, who took office as Japan's fifth leader since 2006 last June, is not likely to step down easily, while opposition parties could come under fire if they try to take disaster budgets hostage in a political battle, analysts said.
'Kan will probably ignore this,' said Koichi Nakano, a Sophia University professor. 'If they thought of the national interests, would they (Kan's critics) do this now?'
Search: Japanese Police in protective suits carry a tsunami victim into a van. They were today continuing the search for up to 1,000 more bodies missing in the Fukushima exclusion zone
Danger: Police workers, their radios covered in protective cellophane, hold staffs and they stand guard around the Fukushima exclusion zone
Overall on the north-eastern coast, at least 13,400 people were killed and more than 14,800 are listed as missing and there has been no sign of a resolution of the atomic crisis.
The nuclear safety agency said a new plan for cooling one of six reactors at the plant, which is 150 miles northeast of Tokyo, may be needed due to the large volume of highly radioactive water on site, and tests would be done to determine if damaged spent fuel rods were emitting radiation.
'It may be difficult to completely remove the contaminated water and so allow work to proceed (in restoring power to the cooling pumps). We may need to think of other options,' said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a deputy director-general of Japan's Nuclear Industry and Safety Authority.
Nishiyama said there was 20,000 tonnes of contaminated water in the basement and a tunnel under reactor No. 2.
'We will transfer the water next to the central radiation disposal building. We do not have a plan beyond that,' he said.
Engineers are also concerned that some spent fuel rods were damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and could be emitting high levels of radiation.
Japan's nuclear crisis has been rated on par with the world's worst nuclear crisis at Chernobyl in 1986, although the total amount of radiation released is only a fraction of that when the nuclear plant in Ukraine exploded.
No radiation-linked deaths have been reported and only 21 plant workers have been affected by minor radiation sickness.
A series of strong aftershocks this week has rattled eastern Japan, slowing the recovery effort at the plant due to temporary evacuations of workers and power outages.
The total cost of the damage has been estimated at $300billion, making it the world's most costly natural disaster.
Business confidence plunged to a record low in April, according to a Reuters survey, and the International Monetary Fund has warned the risk to the world's third-largest economy is firmly on the downside.
The IMF cut Japan's economic growth forecast to 1.4 per cent this year from 1.6 per cent, projected three months ago, and the Bank of Japan is expected to cut its January growth forecast of 1.6 per cent when it issues its twice-yearly outlook on April 28.
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