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March 25, 2011

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Rationing for Tokyo shoppers

SHOPS across Tokyo began rationing goods - milk, toilet paper, rice and water - as a run on bottled water coupled with delivery disruptions left shelves bare yesterday nearly two weeks after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The unusual sights of scarcity in one of the world's most modern capitals came a day after city officials reported that the radioactive iodine in Tokyo's tap water was more than twice the level considered safe for babies.

Radiation has been leaking from a nuclear plant 220 kilometers northeast of Tokyo since it was slammed by the March 11 quake and engulfed by the ensuing tsunami. Efforts to get the plant's cooling system back in operation have been beset by explosions, fires and radiation scares.

Yesterday, two workers at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant were being treated in hospital after stepping into contaminated water while laying electrical cables.

Radiation has seeped into raw milk, seawater and vegetables grown in areas around the plant.

In Tokyo, government spokesman Yukio Edano appealed for calm. Officials urged residents to avoid panic buying, sending workers to distribute 240,000 bottles - enough for three small bottles of water for each of the 80,000 babies under one year old registered with the city.

That didn't stop Reiko Matsumoto, mother of five-year-old Reina, from rushing to a nearby store to stock up.

"The first thought was that I need to buy bottles of water," the Tokyo real estate agent said.

"I also don't know whether I can let her take a bath."

New readings showed Tokyo tap water was back to safe levels yesterday but the relief was tempered by elevated levels of the cancer-linked isotope in two neighboring prefectures: Chiba and Saitama. A city in a third prefecture, just south of the nuclear plant, also showed high levels of radioactive iodine in tap water.

Japan is still facing massive challenges after the magnitude-9.0 quake off Sendai triggered a massive tsunami.

The National Police Agency said the overall number of bodies collected so far stood at 9,811, while 17,541 have been listed as missing.

In the frigid, tsunami-struck northeast, some 660,000 households still do not have water. Electricity has not been restored to some 209,000 homes.

Amid the suffering, though, there was a sense that Japan was turning the corner.

"Things are getting much better," said 57-year-old Tsutomu Hirayama at an evacuation center in Ofunato.

"For the first two or three days, we had only one rice ball and water for each meal. I thought, how long is this going to go on? Now we get lots of food, it's almost like luxury."

In other cheering news, a baby dolphin was rescued in a rice field after the tsunami dumped it there. Locals wrapped it in wet towels before taking it back to the sea.





 

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