About Fukushima disaster
Dear potential attendees
We wish to express our deepest sympathy to all those who have been affected by the earthquake and tsunami which struck the Pacific coast of the northeastern region of Japan on March 11. As many of you sent us the sorrow on the disaster in Japan, you may be worried about the situation here. The center of the earthquake was at North-east part of Honshu island, and thus especially Tohoku area is suffering from big damages.
Since the incident of nuclear power plant at the east coast, the people living inside 30km- radius in Fukushima prefecture are forced to escape, because of diffusion of radioactive substances.
It is true that significant dose by radioactive substances such as Cs-137 is a big issue there and in neighbor prefectures. Even in Tokyo area and its suburbs, small amount of those nuclear species are detected. You can check the web site of monitoring data of radiation by various institutes and reliable scientists.
The radiation level in Tokyo (<0.1uSv/h) is slightly higher than the previous natural level before, but it is even lower than the values in many cities in some other countries. We can say that the visit to Tokyo would not bring you any health problem.
The Kansai/Osaka area including Kyoto is 500km separated from Tokyo and thus the radiation level is no different from the natural level, ~0.05uSv/h or less.
If you take a flight to the Osaka/Kansai airport for the best access to Kyoto, you will be very far from the north-east area. http://www.pre12.org/access.html
We hope you will not hesitate to visit Japan because of inaccurate rumors. We expect your willingness to enjoy PRE'12 and stay in Kyoto.
Best regards,
Setsu Tanabe
Local Chair