With the launch of the popular Pokémon Go in Japan, it has been discovered that at least one of the game’s characters can be found on the Fukushima power station site. In 2011, a tsunami that followed the Tōhoku earthquake caused a serious nuclear energy accident at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. There are no clear plans for decommissioning the plant, and it could take up to 40 years to render the area safe.
Due to safety concerns, the Japanese government are keen for people to avoid the area. It came as something of a shock to discover the Pokémon Go game could actually ‘encourage’ less sensible gamers to wander into the exclusion zone, where the risk of radiation poisoning remains high.
According to The Guardian, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) has called upon Pokémon Go developer Niantic to prevent Pokémon characters appearing in, or close to, regions affected by the nuclear reactor meltdown. Tepco has also banned any employee from playing Pokémon Go within the Fukushima area.
Breaking911 (@Breaking911) “TEPCO To Pokémon Go Players: Stop Going to the Fukushima Nuclear Site.”
While most people may be thinking why would any person choose to go near the nuclear plant, in the U.S. three teenagers recently broke into a nuclear power plant in Ohio.
Mo Dalton (@stockysocks) “The people wandering into Fukushima to collect Pokemon should be left there until their solitary braincell mutates into many.”
Alexandra Fisher (@akfisher) “Tokyo Electric Power wants Pokémon out of Fukushima nuclear exclusion zone. But I heard that’s where #ditto is!!!”
Furthermore, the Fukushima issue is not Japan’s only complain about the animated game. The city council at Nagasaki has asked that Niantic remove Pokémon from Nagasaki Peace Park, seeing the inclusion of the park as disrespectful.
Although Japan witnessed the birth of Pokémon, the country was one of the last to receive the addictive game. A delay was created over a deal to commercialize the product with McDonald’s.
