Domestic violence higher in Japan tsunami zone

Radiation from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant could be to blame Domestic violence in Japan’s tsunami and atomic disaster zone has risen dramatically, a report released on Friday  International Women’s Day  said. AFP reports that increased stress caused by coping with the aftermath of the tsunami of  March 2011, or the fear of radiation from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant,  could be to blame, said the report from news agency Jiji Press.
In Fukushima, where the towering tsunami sparked reactor meltdowns and  radiation leaks, 840 cases of domestic violence were reported to police in  2012, 64 percent higher than a year earlier, Jiji Press reported.
In Miyagi prefecture, which was badly hit when waves devoured coastal  communities, 1,856 cases were reported, up a third on the previous year, the  agency said.
No definition of domestic violence was given in the report, which cited  local social workers saying that “men tend to stay home after the disaster  because many of them have lost jobs”, thereby increasing tensions in the family.
The tsunami killed almost 19,000 when it struck two years ago on Monday.
In the Fukushima region alone, tens of thousands of people are still  displaced from their homes because of high radiation levels and the devastation  wrought by the disaster.
It remains uncertain whether they will ever be able to return, with experts  saying it could be decades before the area is deemed safe.
Many families from Fukushima have been split apart, with men forced to stay  behind because they are unable to find work near to the temporary homes to  which their wives and children have fled.
A local support group cited by Jiji said this could lead to frustrations  that may also increase violence in the home.