Pianist Performs in Former No-Go Zone in Fukushima

Jiji Press

19:30 JST, October 22, 2023

NAMIE, Fukushima (Jiji Press) — Japanese pianist Yukie Nishimura held a performance Saturday in an area that had been designated as a no-go zone after the March 2011 nuclear accident in Fukushima Prefecture.

The event took place in the Tsushima district in Namie, a town in the prefecture, after the government’s evacuation order that was issued for the area in the wake of the triple meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s tsunami-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant was lifted in March this year.

A piano that had been left at former Tsushima elementary school in the district since the nuclear accident was used in the performance after it was recovered in August this year following the lifting of the evacuation order.

Before being used at the concert, the piano was repaired, and local elementary school children drew colorful pictures on it to remake it into “a piano of hope.”

Nishimura, 56, played “Gake no Ue no Ponyo” (Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea) and “Cosmos” on the piano. Graduates of former Tsushima elementary school sang the school song as Nishimura played it on the piano.

“I felt the town’s vitality and potential from the sound of the piano,” Nishimura said after the performance.

Hiroshi Endo, a 64-year-old tuner, who repaired the piano, was among the audience.

“I restored the piano so that it can produce powerful and bright sounds,” Endo, a resident of Fukushima, said, adding, “I want the piano to move forward with the town.”

Endo has restored pianos that were damaged in disasters around the country.

The piano used in Saturday’s event will be placed at the Namie town government’s branch in the Tsushima district so that anyone can play it.