More than Mushrooms: Local Food Culture and Place-making After “Fukushima”

The Great East Japan Earthquake led to the displacement of over 470,000 people, many of whom came from Fukushima Prefecture owing to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster. Focusing on local food culture, this chapter explores how the nuclear disaster affected place-making activities among evacuees from Fukushima Prefecture, particularly in Namie Town and Iitate Village. Although national and local governments tried to promote the consumption of products from the Tohoku region as well as the (re)invention of local specialties (meibutsu) as a means to support recovery, opposing opinions and expert advice regarding food safety and health hazards in Fukushima Prefecture created deep rifts among community members. These divisions are also related to traditional gender roles, such as expectations for women to purchase and prepare food to nurture families or the community. Drawing on ethnographic field research conducted between 2013 and 2020, as well as qualitative interviews, this research explores how those evacuated from the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster use food-related activities, such as the preparation and harvesting of foodstuffs, commensality, or the simple consumption of local products, as a means of home- or place-making in their new places of residence or former homes, while simultaneously expressing political opinions which may unite or divide people in the community. As food culture is a critical element in sustaining displaced communities, a better understanding of the effects of disasters on cultural and social activities related to food provides insight which facilitates social recovery.