Youshouldvisit Japan. Youshouldcheck out Fukushima. Youshouldn’tventure too far into Futaba Town in Fukushima, Japan. Not even for a special-editionPokemon HomeMedal, which is precisely what you’ll get - alongside a potential dollop of exposure to radioactive material - if you visit one of the over 300 Poke Lids strewn throughout the island nation.
At least, that’s what folks are saying online today. I’m here to set the record straight. But it is admittedly a bit alarming that the Chansey-themed Poke Lid in Fukushima isn’t far from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, which happened to suffer a massive meltdown event in 2011 when the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami damaged its equipment.
False Alarm
There are 26 Chansey-themed Poke Lids in Fukushima, if my research is to be believed.Fukushima Travelreports that Chansey is the prefecture’s “official support Pokemon”, you see. So, if I’m following along properly here, there are 25 other Poke Lids that’ll net you the Chansey-themed medal in Pokemon Home, should you happen to make the trip.
The one that’s causing all the hubbub -including on Reddit- points out that the Futaba Town Poke Lid is fairly close to the nuclear reactor. Which is true. What’s less true is that it’s straight-up deadly to get that close to the reactor.As pointed out by Redditor sun-casterina linkto the same Fukushima Travel blog I mentioned earlier, the radiation levels in the vicinity aren’t too bad these days, and you may freely travel throughout most of the original disaster area.
If there’s a constant on the internet, it’s the quick and fiery spread of misinformation. While I don’t blame anybody for sticking with one of the other lids for your medal (I really hope they don’t all have their own individual medals… do they?), I also want to help set the record straight. There is not, by any measure thatI’veascertained, at least, an “ongoing evacuation order” with an 18-mile safety radius. If I’ve gotten anything wrong here, do let me know.
But I’m 99.9% positive you won’t die for a Chansey. (A good journalist always leaves a tiny bit of room open, just in case.)
