Fukushima has been frozen in time for more than a decade since a powerful earthquake triggered a tsunami, causing one of the worst nuclear disasters in history.
When the 9.0-magnitude quake struck on March 11, 2011, waves of more than 33ft (10 metres) overcame insufficient sea defences, destroying backup generators and triggering meltdowns in three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
It released hydrogen and radioactive materials and some 160,000 residents were evacuated from the surrounding area, many of whom have never been able to return home, abandoning their homes, businesses and belongings.
Entry to some of the zones, which continue to have relatively high radiation levels, remains strictly limited, with ‘difficult-to-return’ areas only accessible with permission.
Now, a British urban explorer has lifted the lid on the untouched world of the Japanese prefecture’s ‘red zone’ – sneaking into abandoned buildings including the nuclear control room itself, and sharing eerie pictures of what he has discovered.
Urban explorer Lukka Ventures is seen standing in front of an abandoned Sega World, a popular amusement arcade chain in Japan
Businesses in the abandoned area remain shuttered 13 years on from the devastating nuclear accident
Classrooms sit empty, with school bags seen on children’s desks exactly where they left them
Lukka snooped round abandoned hospitals, malls and apartments which he said were untouched by time
An empty launderette is seen with pamphlets scattered across the floor after people left in haste
Wrecked cars are seen in an overgrown lot. Some 160,000 residents were evacuated in 2011
Lukka is seen pretending to hold a phone as he sits at what appears to be a control panel
Lukka Ventures, 27, has been exploring abandoned buildings in the UK for four years, and decided to explore the ‘red zones’ after watching a documentary on the Fukushima disaster.
He snooped round abandoned hospitals, malls and apartments which he said were untouched by time.
Lukka, who is from Manchester, described his visit as ‘a very surreal experience.’
‘Everything had been left, there were calendars on the wall were fixed on the same date of the disaster,’ he said.
‘You will walk into a building and there is stuff all over the floor.
‘Animals have got in and tried to get food, you can see that the earthquake shook everything onto the floor.’
Lukka, spent four days in the Fukushima red zones in February 2024, sharing his findings on his YouTube channel.
He carried a Geiger counter – an electronic instrument used for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation – to make sure he wasn’t exposing himself.
He said: ‘We were sneaking through rivers and fences. We had to be really careful of how radiated some of the areas were.
Images from inside what appears to be a child’s bedroom showing posters on the wall, soft toys and clothes strewn about
Go Karts are seen at an abandoned race track in the affected area, which now appears to be overgrown
Lukka and friends are seen at a gaming arcade, sitting at consoles and pretending to play
Supermarket shelves still have food on them more than a decade on, with products also seen scattered around the floor
Lukka said: ‘Animals have got in and tried to get food, you can see that the earthquake shook everything onto the floor’. Pictured: An abandoned diner
‘It was so so surreal. You would go into shopping centres and they would have food on the shelf.
‘Everything has been left. Every building we went into was really weird.’
Lukka also found a nuclear bunker in what he suggested was a training centre.
He said: ‘We entered a big glass building which had a model of the reactor in the lobby. We were close to the power plant that exploded.
An empty office with rubbish spread across the floor and a doll seen in the corner
A boot, linen and chairs are seen in what appears to be a hospital corridor
A school gymnasium remains as it was when it was left by staff and students for the final time
Books and papers have fallen from shelves, lying in piles on the ground for years
‘We walked around the building and there were rooms that had nuclear controllers in there.’
The YouTuber shared pictures of himself pretending to be on the phone in front of what appeared to be a control panel.
Another picture shows him and friends at a gaming arcade, sitting at consoles and pretending to play.
Waves overwhelm a levee, swallowing a seaside village, after the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan
Vehicles driving south out of Fukushima Prefecture on March 15, 2011, four days after a powerful earthquake-triggered tsunami hit the country’s east coast
Chilling photos show abandoned homes, with images from inside what appears to be a child’s bedroom showing posters on the wall, soft toys and clothes strewn about.
Classrooms also sit empty, with school bags seen on children’s desks exactly where they left them.
Lukka said he found walking around the hospital a ‘scary experience’, and shared footage showing unmade beds and medical supplies and papers scattered across the floor.
The display above one shop has fallen down and plants grow out of control around the building
The explorer outside one of the thousands of abandoned buildings in Fukushima, Japan
An empty office, frozen in time after it was left by workers following the 2011 nuclear accident
An empty Subaru branch still has a model in its window. Businesses had to be shuttered as people fled
Stock has been thrown around a dilapidated shop, with signs falling from the ceiling
He said: ‘I have never explored an area and been scared but the hospital was really scary.
‘Seeing all the stuff, like bags, coats and other belongings gets you upset.
‘I am not the type of guy to get upset but I did feel very sad walking around. The whole experience will stay with me forever.’
Lukkas revelations come after new drone footage released last month showed the extent of the damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant for the first time.
The plant’s operators, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, or TEPCO, released 12 photos from inside the site.
They are the first ever images from inside the main structural support called the pedestal in the hardest-hit reactor’s primary containment vessel, an area directly under the reactor’s core.
Mattresses and scrunched-up blankets are seen spread across the floor of one abandoned building
An empty reception area. Lukka said: ‘I have never explored an area and been scared but the hospital was really scary’
Hospital beds and patient’s belongings remain exactly where they left them. A patch of damp is seen in the ceiling
Eerie pictures show wrecked rooms in the abandoned prefecture after it was evacuated in 2011
Officials had long hoped to reach the area to examine the core and melted nuclear fuel which dripped there when the plant’s cooling systems were damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
The high-definition color images captured by the drones show brown objects with various shapes and sizes dangling from various locations in the pedestal.
Parts of the control-rod drive mechanism, which controls the nuclear chain reaction, and other equipment attached to the core were dislodged by the drones.
The Fukushima disaster was one of the world’s most devastating nuclear mishaps
The plant’s operators, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, or TEPCO, released 12 photos from inside the site
Officials had long hoped to reach the area to examine the core and melted nuclear fuel which dripped there
JAPAN’S 2011 FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR DISASTER
In 2011, a 33ft (10m)-high tsunami that killed nearly 19,000 people crashed into Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant.
This led to several meltdowns, allowing harmful radioactive fuel rods and debris to escape from contained areas.
Approaching a decade after the disaster, researchers are still struggling to clean up fuel in the waters of the wasting reactors.
It’s estimated that plant officials have only located 10 per cent of the waste fuel left behind after the nuclear meltdowns.
And the damaged plant is believed to be leaking small amounts of the radioactive waste into the Pacific Ocean, which could be travelling as far as the west coast of the United States.
Researchers are now pinning their hopes on remote-controlled swimming robots to locate the lost fuel in order to work out the safest way to remove it.
The government has lifted evacuation orders for much of the region affected by the meltdown, except for some no-go zones with high radiation levels.
While authorities are encouraging evacuees to return, but the population in the Fukushima prefecture has more than halved from some two million in the pre-disaster period.
Tsunami waves crashing over the sea walls towards TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma
Smoke billows from wrecked unit 3 at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant following the earthquake and tsunami
The aerial view shows public housing construction on-going at Okawara district, where the government lifted a mandatory evacuation order in 2019