J-village will be relocated

January 2, 2014

Fukushima soccer training site may reopen in '18

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140102_12.html

Tokyo Electric Power Company plans to advance restoration work at a national soccer training center in Fukushima Prefecture so it can be reopened in 2018. The utility has used the site as a base to clean up its crippled nuclear plant.

Officials say the utility is planning to re-sod and decontaminate the J-Village compound, about 20 kilometers south of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

About 1 million people used J-Village each year before the March 2011 disaster. It also served as a training camp site of Japan's national soccer team.

After the nuclear accident, the compound was turned into a base for workers trying to contain the crisis. Its grounds are still being used as parking lots and storage space for equipment for clean-up work.

In its 10-year business plan released last month, TEPCO says it will relocate its Fukushima rebuilding headquarters from J-Village to a new location in the prefecture.

The utility has already moved clean-up base functions to a new facility near the plant's main gate.

Officials say the utility hopes to make the compound ready to host training camps of soccer teams from abroad before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

They say the reopening of the facility will appeal the reconstruction of the disaster-hit region to the world.

J-Village is jointly owned by the utility, the Japan Football Association and local governments, among others.