The "Tibet of Fukushima"

Before construction of the plant, the coastal area was a barren, little-populated highland dubbed the "Tibet of Fukushima." At the time, most local residents eked out a living in agriculture, and needed to go out of town as seasonal migrant workers during winter.

But the plant brought stable jobs, tax revenues and other big money projects to the local economy.

"I couldn't feel happier because I was able to receive a monthly salary and didn't need to go away from home to work," Naganuma said, adding he had "never expected (such a disaster) would occur."

See full story at The Japan Times.

Source:
Reiji Yoshida, Takahiro Fukada "Fukushima plant site originally was a hill safe from tsunami," The Japan Times, Online Edition, 2011/7/12, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110712x2.html (accessed 2011/7/12)

[Fukushima History] Fukushima's Nuclear Coast - Japan's version of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

Fewer than ten pages into his 364-page history of Fukushima Prefecture, Kaichiro Oishi states two features of Fukushima's history that are relevant to how Fukushima got into its current nuclear position and to how Fukushima will proceed into it future.

First, with the exception of the Aizu district in western Fukushima in the late 19th century, Fukushima has almost never endeavored towards regional development independent of the central national government and central national sources of capital.

Second, the development of Fukushima's nuclear coast was Japan's version of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in the United States with one major difference. While TVA embraced grass roots populism, Japan's plan for Fukushima contained none. It was only a means of supplying electricity to the center of economic recovery, the Tokyo-Yokohama area.

Source:

福島県の百年 (県民100年史)

Oishi, Kaichiro, Fukushimaken no Hyakunen (Fukushima Prefecture's One Hundred Years, Yamakawa Insatsu, Tokyo, 1992

[Fukushima History] 1873: Asaka Irrigation Project - an early Meiji national project

After the Meiji Restoration, the new government transformed Japan's warlord clans into the current prefectures in several steps. First, in 1871, the clans were converted to prefectures. Then over a period of a few years, these prefectures were consolidated. Today's Fukushima resulted from the consolidation of 10 clans and 10 sub-clan areas.