The Japanese government has said it will allow landowners to keep their property rights for the land where it will build temporary storage facilities for radioactive debris in Fukushima Prefecture. It had originally planned to buy the land for the facilities, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara and Reconstruction Minister Takumi Nemoto met Fukushima Prefecture Governor Yuhei Sato and the mayors of Futaba and Okuma in Tokyo on Monday. The two towns host the crippled nuclear power plant.
The government had planned to buy land from landowners in the towns to build the intermediate storage facilities for radioactive soil and waste from the nuclear power plant. But some landowners had refused to sell.
The ministers said the central government will offer those landowners the right to retain their land. The government says it will obtain the right to use the land for up to 30 years.
They also said the government will provide rough compensation figures for the land after local governments and residents accept the construction plans.