Increasing number of Japanese workers are now suffering from depression and anxiety about the future loss of motivation. The Japanese workers are risking their health to shut down the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The doctors who regularly visit the workers said that their psychological problems are driven less by the fears of developing cancer from the radiation exposure and are worried about something more immediate and personal. Jun Shigemura, who head a volunteer team of about ten psychiatrists said that the workers fear of discrimination from the community they tried to protect.
The workers told the therapists that they have been threatened with signs on their doors telling them to leave. Moreover, many of the children of the workers have been taunted at schools and the prospective landlords have also turned them away.
Shigemura said, “They have become targets of people’s anger”. Most of the TEPCO workers who can be identified with their blue uniforms were once considered as among the elite in the rural areas. But after the March 11, 2011 incident, the residents see them as perpetrators. Many of the TEPCO families even hide their links to the company for the fear of criticism. Many of the workers who were approached, declined to be interviewed.
