Four Years After Fukushima, Just One Man Lives In The Exclusion Zone – To Look After The Animals

Known as “guardian of Fukushima’s animals”, 55-year-old Matsumura is the only person still living in the exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which suffered a meltdown after the major earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011.

He got the name “guardian of Fukushima’s animals” because of the work he does to feed the animals left behind by people in their rush to evacuate the government’s 12.5-mile exclusion zone. He is aware of the radiation he is subject to on a daily basis, but says that he “refuses to worry about it.” He does take steps, however, by only eating food imported into the zone.

Macchan takes care of scores of pets and livestock left behind when their owners fled, including cats, dogs, ducks, pigs, cows, a pony and even ostriches.

Naoto Matsumura is the only human brave enough to live in Fukushima’s 12.5-mile exclusion zone

He fled at first but returned to take care of the animals that were left behind

He returned for his own animals at first, but realized that so many more needed his help, too

Matsumura, who is 55 years old, knows that the radiation is harmful, but he “refuses to worry about it”

“They also told me that I wouldn’t get sick for 30 or 40 years. I’ll most likely be dead by then anyway, so I couldn’t care less”

Matsumura discovered that thousands of cows had died locked in barns

He also freed many animals that had been left chained up by their owners