On August 20, 2013, Japan-based company Seven-Eleven said that it will be opening a temporary daytime-only convenience store on August 26, 2013 at Fukushima Prefecture town of Naraha, portion of which was deemed off-limits after the beginning of the nuclear disaster. The unit of Seven & I Holdings will be the first convenience store in a former exclusion zone.
The operations of Seven-Eleven were suspended in the exclusion zone after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the nuclear plant disaster. However, in August 2012 it was noticed that the town was preparing itself to lift the evacuation order.
The company said that residents who are currently preparing to return and workers who are involved in decontamination efforts close to Tokyo Electric Power Co’s crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant have asked for a place where they can shop. The recent move by the company was made in response to requests from the Reconstruction Agency and the municipal government of Naraha.
The new outlet of the company will open on the spot of a former Seven-Eleven convenience store. The town had to be completely evacuated due to the major nuclear disaster which was triggered in March 2011 and pushed reactors of the nuclear plant into a meltdown.
Photo Credits: CS Monitor
