The 13 million square meters of removed soil generated after the accident of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is being delivered to interim storage facilities. While progress is being made in reducing the volume and recycling the removed soil, the final disposal of the soil has only been decided to be outside of Fukushima Prefecture by 2045, and no consensus building process or final disposal site location has been decided. In this paper, the issues for the final disposal of removed soil outside of Fukushima Prefecture are re-examined from a legal perspective and from a risk study perspective.

An enormous amount of removed soils were produced by the decontaminated works derived from the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. Public understanding and dialogues are required to realize the final disposal of the removed soils. This study contemplated the plural principles of common goods surrounding the removed soils. A group discussion experiment was conducted, setting three arguing points. Before the experiment, the Discourse Quality Index (DQI) was developed to visualize the discussion qualities by plural evaluators, which was confirmed the validity showing sufficient matching rates between the evaluators. Results of the experiment by the analysis of DQI score showed that statements from the points of Utilitarianism were observed the most, while the statements from maximin were fewer. However, many decisions of the groups gave priority to the inequity alleviation and the maximin principles.

There is concern about harmful rumors associated with the discharge of treated water from the Advanced Liquid Processing System from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station into the ocean, scheduled for the spring of 2023. This letter briefly introduces the mechanism of harmful rumors about foods after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident, and discusses perspectives for measures for production, processing, distribution, and consumption, as well as fostering public and international understanding of treated water. The letter highlights that it is important to ensure the effectiveness of thorough measures at each stage of production, processing, distribution, and consumption measures, and in particular, the sufficiency of communication among these sectors. In addition, we mentioned the necessity of information disclosure through explanations, monitoring, and collaboration with various international organizations regarding radionuclides other than tritium, as well as the appeal of foods from production sectors, in terms of fostering public and international understanding of the issue.

Recently attention is focused on the disposal of treated radioactively polluted water to the ocean from collapsed Fukushima nuclear power plant. Japanese government claiming safety of the treated water, is trying to mitigate “reputational damages” of Fukushima fishery people. However, there are real risks with the damaged plant, such as lowering of water level in the reactor vessel by a big earthquake early 2021. After the plant accident, Japanese government forced the Fukushima residents to leave their home towns by setting difficult-to-return zones, etc. Besides, Japanese government set new strict rules on radioactive pollution of foods. These regulations have caused difficult situations in living conditions of Fukushima people through long time evacuation and superfluous testing of many foods etc. Consequently, based on these critical governmental regulations, not only “reputational damages”, but real serious damages, are brought about to many people. Rules must be based on basic safe sciences and be reasonable in minimizing possible risks to people and the society. This paper is dedicated to the Ukrainian who suffer from unjustifiable war crime.

Response of the Japanese to COVID-19 and its vaccine was investigated with time-series questionnaire surveys conducted on December 2020 [N=2,500], February 2021 [N=1,500], June 2021 [N=2,500], and October 2021 [N=1,500]. The results showed that on December 2020 less than half of the respondents wanted to receive COVID-19 vaccination and about one fifth of them refused it. High anxiety led intension of the vaccination. On October 2021 three fourth of people in Japan had received the vaccination, and the most of respondents perceived COVID-19 vaccine very safe and beneficial. However, about 10% of respondents seemed to stick refusing the vaccination through all the surveys, and COVID-19 brought diversity of life-styles. Suitable and sufficient risk communication would be needed.

Aiming at solving a social challenge for compatibility of infection risk mitigation with better QOL to prevent viral contact infection via hands, an effect of ethanol (EtOH) combined with benzalkonium chloride (BC) on inactivation of Influenza virus A (IVA) and SARS-CoV-2 was investigated under conditions of exposure time, 30 sec. Although either just 20–30 vol% EtOH or just 0.05w/v% BC were weak for the inactivation, the combination showed the synergic effects. It was also demonstrated that a commercial hand sanitizer containing both 44 vol% EtOH and 0.05w/v% BC is effective to highly inactivate IVA and SARS-CoV-2. The consideration on the practical usage of hand sanitizers suggests that 20–50 vol% EtOH combined with 0.05 w/v% BC would be effective and beneficial. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the emerging importance of community infection control which is different from a long-term challenge on hospital infection management, and a new hand sanitizing-system using lower EtOH combined with BC is expected to be a measure of community infection control.

The 23rd Fukushima Dialogue, a stakeholder meeting to discuss treated water from TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, was held in Naraha-machi, Futaba-gun, Fukushima Prefecture, in November 2021. Stakeholders from local communities and experts participated in the dialogue, as well as participants from overseas via an online connection. What emerged from the discussions were the issues regarding the decision-making process. This report provides a summary of the Fukushima Dialogue.