The Japanese government formulated the Nuclear Emergency Response Guidelines in response to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident (FDNPP accident) caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011. Under these guidelines, Japan has established its current nuclear disaster response system. This manuscript outlines the transition of Japan's nuclear disaster response system before and after the FDNPP accident and also shows the results of a questionnaire survey on the level of preparation the prefecture currently has for the evacuation of residents at the time of a nuclear disaster. About 70% of the prefectures where nuclear facilities are located or adjacent have completed or are in the process of completing evacuation plans, and all except one indicated they have the equipment needed to perform radiation contamination inspections of residents. These results suggest that activities are taking place throughout Japan to build a new disaster response system. It will be important to verify whether the evacuation manuals prepared by prefectural governments are effective through large-scale training and to develop human resources for performing radiation contamination inspections of evacuating residents.

In Japan, the Nuclear Emergency Response Guidelines were announced in 2015 after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, and each local government is currently formulating a plan for the evacuation of its residents and a subsequent radioactive contamination inspection. However, there are no reports about the state of preparation of the local governments. Therefore, in this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey regarding the preparation status of each local government responsible for the evacuation of its residents and contamination inspections in Japan and the education training status of staff and summarized the results. Results indicated that 17 of 21 local governments, which answered our questionnaire, have been conducting large-scale evacuation drills at least once a year since 2015 in Japan, demonstrating a high awareness of nuclear emergency response. Conversely, results revealed that the number of local government officials familiar with the evacuation plan and/or contamination inspection flow was small, and issues about education for local government officials were discovered. Statistical analysis suggested that the frequency of training might be related to the high educational needs for risk communication.