Contamination has spread to neighbouring prefectures, with Ibaraki told to suspend shipments of milk and parsley.

The US, meanwhile, has become the first country to ban milk and food imports from Fukushima and three neighbouring prefectures.

Property prices in Tokyo and its neighbouring prefectures fell 6.5 percent, after a 14.7 percent rise the previous year.

A lot of the new arrivals in Sendai are people who have quit the small towns in the neighbouring prefectures of Iwate and Fukushima.