‘No Fukushima Olympic concerns’

TOKYO: There are no concerns about playing in Fukushima related to the prefecture’s past nuclear accident, and whether to hold Olympic games there will come down to facilities and scheduling, the president of the World Baseball Softball Confederation said.

Riccardo Fraccari said on Friday he would inspect potential playing venues in Fukushima, which the confederation is already familiar with, because it held the under-15 Baseball World Cup there this summer.

“I know the importance of baseball and softball in Japan, and know how it can facilitate the recovery of the disaster area,” he said after meeting with Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori.

“So if fields in Fukushima have the requirements, then we can take it into consideration,” he said, adding nothing had been decided yet, and other factors had to be weighed, including distance from Tokyo (90 minutes by bullet train) and scheduling.

Parts of the prefecture were devastated by the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe, and organisers are keen to play a part in helping the region get back on its feet.

Fukushima City, Koriyama and Iwaki are the prefecture’s candidates to host baseball and softball, which are returning to the Olympics for the first time since Beijing 2008.

The 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics will come nine years after a massive earthquake struck north-eastern Japan and unleashed a tsunami that triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Some areas of an exclusion zone around the plant will remain uninhabitable for years, but elsewhere in the prefecture radiation is at safe levels. – Reuters