Black bags containing soil removed during decontamination work are stacked in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)
Monitors like innkeeper Tomoko Kobayashi share radiation data to revitalize towns people left after the Fukushima earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.
This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
Tomoko Kobayashi measures radiation with a radiation monitor during an interview in Odaka, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)Tomoko Kobayashi shows a radiation monitor reading after measuring radiation during an interview in Odaka, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)A fence blocks access to a restricted area designated as a ‘difficult-to-return-zone’ following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in the coastal area of Fukushima prefecture, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)Yukio Shirahige reads the results after measuring a sample at a residents’ radiation monitoring lab in Odaka, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)A classroom at Ukedo elementary school, damaged by the 2011 tsunami, is seen in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)Artificial flowers lie among debris outside an abandoned pachinko parlor in Tomioka, Fukushima prefecture, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)An employee stands next to the Radioactive Waste Treatment Building at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)Workers walk through the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)A tsunami seawall stands along the coast in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)A hallway wall at Ukedo elementary school, damaged by the 2011 tsunami, is seen in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)Kusano shrine, destroyed by the 2011 tsunami and later rebuilt, stands in fields in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)Tomoko Kobayashi holds a photograph taken by her late husband showing her with relatives outside their inn in the summer of 2011, when they briefly returned after evacuating following the March 11, 2011 disaster, in Odaka, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)Tomoko Kobayashi looks at a color-coded map of radiation levels created by local residents during an interview near a radiation monitoring lab in Odaka, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)Tomoko Kobayashi’s Futabaya Ryokan at dawn in Odaka, Fukushima Prefecture, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)Tomoko Kobayashi serves miso soup during breakfast service at Futabaya Ryokan in Odaka, Fukushima Prefecture, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)A worker walks past the Unit 4 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)
The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. More than half the world’s population sees AP journalism every day.
