Newspaper: Japanese evacuating country because of radiation — “Passport issuance growing sharply” — “Increase is attracting attention”

Newspaper: Japanese evacuating country because of radiation — “Passport issuance growing sharply” — “Increase is attracting attention”

New figures reveal the number of Japanese leaving their homeland for a life abroad has more than tripled in the wake of last year’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident. [...]

Next year the number is likely to climb further, as travel industry research indicates passport issuance is growing sharply.

Worries about radiation, predictions of another devastating quake and diminishing opportunities in Japan’s economically depressed and rapidly ageing society are driving young families and singles and wealthy retirees abroad.

In insular and conservative Japan, this increase is attracting attention. [...]

Foreigners tended to assume Japan had bounced back from the triple disaster, and in some areas that was true. But many Japanese now had, for the first time, a deep distrust of their government. [...]